KickStarter Phoenix Point - the new game from X-COM creator Julian Gollop

[Zboj Lamignat]

Kinda, the big difference being that actual talent and effort were often involved as well.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Got my code, but I'm going to finish my Troubleshooter playthrough before going in.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Anyone from a post-communist European country probably knows that feel of a Russian game from somewhere between 2000 and 2010. They had this very peculiar aura when it comes to production values and the atmosphere they instilled, very difficult to mistake with something else. So, I'm running PP, the first loading screen with the ridiculously lame soldier in football armor appears and I'm instantly hit with 101% EXACTLY that feeling for the first time in like a decade. Hey, it's 2008 and I'm running 1C game for shits and giggles

Then, the game starts with pseudo-EULA screen about how they sell your data, you don't own shit and were generally really dumb to buy this. If you click "I disagree", the game gives you a quick and legit CTD

And thus, after buying exactly 653 games on steam, many of them impulse/expendable income/pity buys, it became the first one I ever refunded, and almost instantly at that. Congrats, Phoenix Point

 

[Alienman]

Has the geoscape been made to be more casual or something? I keep finding Phoenix Point bases, and I don't seem to need any more radar or sonar equipment anymore to discover interesting points? And wasn't there a fuel cost for aircrafts before? Just seems geoscape is a lot less engaging since last time I platyed on gamepass. Already cleared a whole continent.

 

[Mazisky]

Anyone from a post-communist European country probably knows that feel of a Russian game from somewhere between 2000 and 2010. They had this very peculiar aura when it comes to production values and the atmosphere they instilled, very difficult to mistake with something else. So, I'm running PP, the first loading screen with the ridiculously lame soldier in football armor appears and I'm instantly hit with 101% EXACTLY that feeling for the first time in like a decade. Hey, it's 2008 and I'm running 1C game for shits and giggles

Then, the game starts with pseudo-EULA screen about how they sell your data, you don't own shit and were generally really dumb to buy this. If you click "I disagree", the game gives you a quick and legit CTD

And thus, after buying exactly 653 games on steam, many of them impulse/expendable income/pity buys, it became the first one I ever refunded, and almost instantly at that. Congrats, Phoenix Point

Man, Silent Storm was great.

 

[PanteraNera]

Has the geoscape been made to be more casual or something? I keep finding Phoenix Point bases, and I don't seem to need any more radar or sonar equipment anymore to discover interesting points? And wasn't there a fuel cost for aircrafts before? Just seems geoscape is a lot less engaging since last time I platyed on gamepass. Already cleared a whole continent.

Fuel cost had been scrapped in the Backer Builds (between BB3 and 4 if I remember correctly).

 

[geno]

How is the mod scene right now? Any mod I should have installed?

Has the geoscape been made to be more casual or something? I keep finding Phoenix Point bases, and I don't seem to need any more radar or sonar equipment anymore to discover interesting points? And wasn't there a fuel cost for aircrafts before? Just seems geoscape is a lot less engaging since last time I platyed on gamepass. Already cleared a whole continent.

Fuel cost had been scrapped in the Backer Builds (between BB3 and 4 if I remember correctly).

I think they didn't know what to do with that feature (and I can't imagine how to integrate it well enough in the game)

 

[PanteraNera]

How is the mod scene right now? Any mod I should have installed?

Has the geoscape been made to be more casual or something? I keep finding Phoenix Point bases, and I don't seem to need any more radar or sonar equipment anymore to discover interesting points? And wasn't there a fuel cost for aircrafts before? Just seems geoscape is a lot less engaging since last time I platyed on gamepass. Already cleared a whole continent.

Fuel cost had been scrapped in the Backer Builds (between BB3 and 4 if I remember correctly).

I think they didn't know what to do with that feature (and I can't imagine how to integrate it well enough in the game)

It was already in the game and much much better than what we have now.

See every aircraft had limited fuel, you had to go back to base to refuel, or build a refueling point. There was also an emergency refuel if you fucked up.
You could only build refueling points on haven's that had neutral or better relations with you.
If Pandora attacked a haven with a refueling point and succeeded you might have lost a flight line to another continent.
It was a really nice and good mechanic.
But it got streamlined in the end

 

[cvv]

So now that the butthurt from the Epic exkoosive release and reneged promises subsided, is the game itself actually any good? I'm reading it has already 3 DLCs and it's only 25 bucks. Hivemind, do my bidding.

 

[ArchAngel]

Has the geoscape been made to be more casual or something? I keep finding Phoenix Point bases, and I don't seem to need any more radar or sonar equipment anymore to discover interesting points? And wasn't there a fuel cost for aircrafts before? Just seems geoscape is a lot less engaging since last time I platyed on gamepass. Already cleared a whole continent.

Bases have scanners that look for POI and Pandoran bases in their radius. You have to activate new bases strategically and then build scanner in them.
Also when you find a Haven it gives you a few more near by locations to go and explore.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Hivemind, do my bidding.

You could just tag him here, if you want to know.

 

[Mazisky]

PanteraNera do you own the game? Can you give your feedback on the actual version?

 

[jac8awol]

This incomplete game stuff (early access) does my head in because usually I want to give a product the benefit of the doubt until it's done. I mean I'm not gonna write a steam review until I've played the final version. And I suspect that this is what a lot of developers these days are banking on, keeping products in EA as long as possible so potential customers don't get scared off by legit reviews.

I sent the PP team a lot of feedback about the geoscape exploration stuff, that was my biggest gripe. I can only hope they improved it the right way, but from these comments it looks like it's gone full retard instead.

 

[PanteraNera]

PanteraNera do you own the game? Can you give your feedback on the actual version?

I haven't touched the game since the release of the first DLC. I wanted to wait for the Year One edition as they had originally planned to release all five DLC's in 2020. Surprise, they haven't.
To me the game got repetitive and boring very quickly, you kept fighting on the same few maps, enemy variety was lacking, the "evolution system" was less than I expected.
They always said that they were holding so much content back from the Backer Builds, to keep surprises. Well there was not much new to experience besides "story".

To me PP played like a cheap nuXCOM clone, with a lot of potential wasted, mainly by streamlining that feels more like cutting because they run out of budget and time.
Gollop once announced that the game had become so much bigger since Fig, but the opposite happened.

But I am the biased guy that is still angry that they just gave their fan base the middle finger (repeatedly) mainly changing the setting from a post-apocalyptic world, with Thing-like aliens that were also influenced by Lovecraft, to something more nuXCOM. So take this with a grain of salt.

 

[Alienman]

Revealing the aliens in the new style of briefings is a major decline. Now you don't get surprised a la X-com, you know what kind of troops the enemy will be having at each time.

 

[ArchAngel]

Revealing the aliens in the new style of briefings is a major decline. Now you don't get surprised a la X-com, you know what kind of troops the enemy will be having at each time.

I think it is cool and you are first that commented about it in a negative way.

 

[ArchAngel]

Let me explain that. Briefings are done in a cool way and you don't know what awaits you in the mission, you just know what all kind of variation of enemies exist in the pool and can possibly appear in next mission

 

[gurugeorge]

I was rather put off this game by Beaglerush's disdain as he was giving it a tryout. Has it settled down to be a good game after all or is it irredeemable shit? Was it some sort of cash-grab using Gollop's name, or is it a serious game?

After enjoying the hell out of Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children, I've got the XCOM-ish combat itch and wouldn't mind playing another game in roughly the same vein.

 

[ArchAngel]

I was rather put off this game by Beaglerush's disdain as he was giving it a tryout. Has it settled down to be a good game after all or is it irredeemable shit? Was it some sort of cash-grab using Gollop's name, or is it a serious game?

After enjoying the hell out of Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children, I've got the XCOM-ish combat itch and wouldn't mind playing another game in roughly the same vein.

Beaglerush is a retard that didn't even play old UFO games and jerks off to Firaxis Xcom shit.
His rant vs PP at release was so retarded I don't know how the guy manages to put clothes on himself in the morning.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

If game has soldier customization, then why there isn't any preview of voices that can be chosen?

 

[ArchAngel]

If game has soldier customization, then why there isn't any preview of voices that can be chosen?

There is. When you change voices, they give one line so you can hear it.

 

[Alienman]

Revealing the aliens in the new style of briefings is a major decline. Now you don't get surprised a la X-com, you know what kind of troops the enemy will be having at each time.

I think it is cool and you are first that commented about it in a negative way.

Really, nobody else brought this up? If the briefings was after you encounter them would be one thing, but they come before. It kinda ruins the mutation surprise, at least for me.

His rant vs PP at release was so retarded I don't know how the guy manages to put clothes on himself in the morning.

Is there a video link? Don't exactly like the guy either

 

[PanteraNera]

I was rather put off this game by Beaglerush's disdain as he was giving it a tryout. Has it settled down to be a good game after all or is it irredeemable shit? Was it some sort of cash-grab using Gollop's name, or is it a serious game?

After enjoying the hell out of Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children, I've got the XCOM-ish combat itch and wouldn't mind playing another game in roughly the same vein.

Beaglerush is a retard that didn't even play old UFO games and jerks off to Firaxis Xcom shit.
His rant vs PP at release was so retarded I don't know how the guy manages to put clothes on himself in the morning.

I just answer with a quote of myself from a year ago:

To clarify I only posted this with the source (video) because I thought the same.


Also here is his conclusion:

This is a game that makes you appreciate OG X-COM

How comes he says that if he hasn't played the original?

 

[gurugeorge]

I was rather put off this game by Beaglerush's disdain as he was giving it a tryout. Has it settled down to be a good game after all or is it irredeemable shit? Was it some sort of cash-grab using Gollop's name, or is it a serious game?

After enjoying the hell out of Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children, I've got the XCOM-ish combat itch and wouldn't mind playing another game in roughly the same vein.

Beaglerush is a retard that didn't even play old UFO games and jerks off to Firaxis Xcom shit.
His rant vs PP at release was so retarded I don't know how the guy manages to put clothes on himself in the morning.

He's not totally a sucker for nu-XCOM, he didn't like XCOM 2 very much. His jam was the first XCOM+expansion, and XCOM+Long War, and he was very, very good at it.

But while I respect his opinion to a degree, I felt even at the time of watching his takedown of PP that he doesn't have much of a feel for simulation (at least not in his XCOM), which it seems like PP is trying for, more so than the XCOM games. What he liked about XCOM (I think) is the hard binary (chess-like) nature of the first XCOM game - a mechanic that was preserved through the Long War mod, even though it was ostensibly more simulationist. If PP is in fact more simulationist (as is Troubleshooter) then I'd be happy to give it a go.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

If game has soldier customization, then why there isn't any preview of voices that can be chosen?

There is. When you change voices, they give one line so you can hear it.

I didn't get that always.
But it seems to work before I changed name of every single one of my troopers to Sheryll.