As such, my first run very quickly careened towards disaster. Tutorials do a fairly decent job and spoon-feeding the player all the relevant information needed, but it’s a hell of a lot to take in, even for those somewhat savvier to the underlying formula. This level of engagement is as good an example as any for the often bewildering complexity of Phoenix Point. Your actions impact your reputation with the factions and the game is flexible enough to allow them to be allies or enemies who can offer new soldiers, trade, information or in the case of being foes, raided for goods. There’s a significant amount of written dialogue and choices within them. There’s more of an RPG element to Phoenix Point than I expected, and it’s a nice surprise. It might be a conversation with the local weirdo that holds some potentially useful information, it might be the base for a faction, or it could be an encounter with the mutated creatures that dominate the Earth. Until you reach and investigate them, you rarely know what predicament it’s going to bring with it.

In that space, you can choose to explore any of the selectable points of interest in any order you wish. You start with a small chunk of the map you can see and interact with, building a wider viewpoint as you explore and establish new bases. It’s a 3D map of the Earth that helps you plot out points of exploration, and interact with the various factions at their home bases. A Tactical RPGĪt the centre of Phoenix Point is the globe. Translating its nuances from PC to PS4 can’t have been easy, but a pretty strong effort has been made to at least try and make it a comfortable transition. On almost every level, Phoenix Point is deeper, and more intimidating than XCOM which is as thrilling as it is dispiriting. Earth is already scarred from the emergence of mutations years before, and this resurgence threatens to wipe out what’s left of humanity. Phoenix Point is the name of the fighting force under the player’s control, out to combat the return of a deadly monstrous threat and walk a political tightrope between warring factions at the same time.

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