XCOM!, man...what else can you call it. lol.
Phoenix Point is a turn based videogame that is very very very similar to XCOM. but enough about the comparison. it's time to talk about Phoenix Point.
the settings of Phoenix Point is about the Phoenix Project, a secret organization made to combat threats from the unknown or at the very least make sure humanity survives.
And then a certain extraterrestrial virus called Pandoravirus started appearing and any living thing that got in contact with it mutated into tentacle monsters and so starts humanity's extinction.
Fast forward our story starts with a group of Phoenix Project soldiers, or at least remnants of it and its struggle to fulfill its mission in saving humanity.
The game's tutorial starts with two Phoenix Project Operatives looking for a vehicle.
Now this is a turn-based game, but this is a sub-type of it where one whole team do actions then the other team do actions.
Each unit has four action points which they can spend to move, shoot, use an item or use abilities. This meant I can shoot twice since firing a weapon costs two action points.
Moving is a bit different, you can move as long as you have action points to spend, and moving doesn't drain the whole bar but drains in small segments.
Combat is a bit different compared to other turn-based games of this style, it doesn't have the simple RNG of 'Chance to Hit'. What it does have is having your units aim down on the target, and then goes RNG on where the bullets will land. 100% of your shots lands inside the big circle, 50% of it lands in the center.
Yeah, it felt...weird, but it's gameplay so we have to accept it.
Shooting the head, the alien called Arthron had 19 HP left, and as we destroyed the head, the penalties shown above, namely bleeding damage, reduced willpower and reduced max health has been applied.
After we spending all the action points of our team, we end your turn for the the other team(s) to take action.
And the surviving Arthron attacked my operative twice with melee, but good thing it was not enough to disable body parts and put my unit to bleed.
After we killed the alien we then find the vehicle our operatives are looking for but before we proceed I would like to point out the User Interface on the bottom right.
It writes ARES AR-1, the assault rifle, it shoots 8 bullets of 30 damage, it also shreds 1 armor for each bullet, it also shows how many bullets are left in the magazine and how many magazines are left in the character's inventory.
Yes! Items in this game have durability and number of uses.
Armor is a flat reduction to an attack. if our unit has 20 armor and is attacked by 70 damage, it takes 50 damage. but as I pointed out earlier there are armor shredding mechanics and other damage types such as piercing that completely bypasses armor.
After that I let our operatives enter the back of the vehicle and mission complete.
The next part of the tutorial is about rescuing another Phoenix Project Operative somewhere around here.
Now this is interesting, you can use vehicles in-game.
The game then explains 'High Cover', it explains how your unit can side step to shoot and then go back into cover without spending action points. Take note that nowhere did it mention any statistical defensive bonuses.
After spotting an enemy I ordered the vehicle to move in front of it, with the hope of diverting the enemy's attention.
It did not work, well that's depressing. we then proceeded to terminate the enemy.
this here is the ability called overwatch. basically, if an enemy units move in the designated area marked with the red cone, they will be shot and violated by the overwatching unit.
After a few turns we found Omar Ashour, a heavy class unit.
I also went ahead and use the enemy as a target dummy for a demonstration of the Scarab's missile turret.
The game then states that Omar has no weapon and he has to get it from that box atop that tower. This showcase two things, first is that you can go up and down buildings, and the second is that Omar has a jetpack.
Inventory System... nice. take note that it takes 1 action point to take something from a container.
Reinforcement Zones... the first thing I thought was infinite enemies. I hope not.
As the mission objectives requires me to kill all enemies, I made my two operatives camp on the second floor and made Omar hide behind the tower.
Ordering one of my operatives on the second floor to attack a far away target, look at that reticle. it's so big. there's also an effective range to take into consideration.
Well at least Omar is having fun.
Once all the enemies eliminated, the level is complete.
Our next mission is to reclaim a Phoenix Point--a Phoenix Project base.
Inside we find the sniper, Irina Sokolova, soon to be assaulted by worms.
one of the worms and explodes and caused Irina to take 'Poison' debuff.
We are introduced to a medkit, which heals and removes poison and bleeding debuffs.
We heard gunshots from another room and slowly we descend to inspect it.
Moments later and this thing threw itself and latched into Irina's head.
Good thing Omar was beside her to whack it off, the deed damaged his autocannon though.
That's the one that latched into Irina's head, a mindfragger.
Then we find this guy with a mindfragger on his head and look there's an aircraft.
Omar to the rescue as he jumped down and whacked the mindfragger off Takeshi Sato.
All that's left is to clear out the remaining enemies.
and with that ends the combat tutorial.
That yellow icon in the middle is our current location or base. this game feels like it's going to be massive.
I decided to stop here as I think the game still has a lot to talk about and I will just end up with a very long article which is totally not me, I like shitposting.
That said, I am really excited about playing this game because I love these kind of stories and genre.
Thank you for reading my crap.
Cheers~