napocapo69 5

After advancing further in the campaign I'm forced to tone down my previous evaluation of the game (see below). The balance is absolutely After advancing further in the campaign I'm forced to tone down my previous evaluation of the game (see below). The balance is absolutely broken.

For the readers I'll give you an example:

In one mission (Pandora attacking one of my bases) I had 7 (quite skilled unit) against the enemy team composed of 3 Antron and 2 Sirens.

The Antron is in theory a md level unit with:

Defense

- health points slightly superior to your average unit

- armour 2 or 3 times the amount of armour of your average unit

- shield to limit the visibility on the vulnerable parts

Attack

- rifle/railgun in one arm

- grenade launcher in the other arm

- melee attack with poison

Along with that this "mid level" unit returns fire (if the shield is not deployed) when attacked



The Siren has:

Defense

- health points significantly superior to your average unit

- armour 3 or 4 times the amount of armour of your average unit

Attack

- can take possession (for the duration of 2 turns) up to 2 of the enemy units per turn (depending on the will power)

- melee attack with poison

Along with that this unit can recover a significant amount of will power.



To make a long story short I started the mission with 7 friendly units vs 5 enemy units.

After 3 turns the game was 5 vs 6; 5 remaining friendly units (of which one without weapons because the rifle was disabled) against 4 enemies (I managed to kill one Antron, but the 2 sirens were still in good shape given the insame amount of armour/health) plus two of my units siding with the enemy.

The following turn it was 3 (2 + 1 useless unit) vs 8 enemies (4 pandora units + 4 "traitors").



You can guess the outcome.



With this balance the game is unplayable at veteran level.



------ Previous evaluation-----



Compared to Xcom2 it shows the lack of production quality (lack of cut-scenes, poor customization options, no modding support). It is also true that it costs 50% less than the price of Xcom2 full price when it came out. There are some bugs, not many, but overall it is more polished than Xcom2 initial release. I spent over 1500 hours on Xcom2 (I played everything) and I remember the bad performance which lasted for over 1 year; but still I loved that game. In this regard Phoenix Point is quite polished and with much better performances than Xcom2, let's be fair.

Technically is not a masterpiece but it is good; maps are fine, textures (in gameplay) are good as well the sounds, and animations are decent.



World map is a mess and it is hard to find you own bases, but actually, the main flaw of this game so far is the balance. That must be fixed; some enemies (SHILLA for instance, with overkill skills , 1300 health points and over 400 of armour) are a way too powerful.



So far the bad and the not so good. Let's talk about the good.



The game mechanics are great with much more depth than Xcom2. Compared to the Xcom2 base game, you can customize the soldier loadout with much more options, there are many more classes, more weapons, more technology trees. But the main great feature of this game is the shooting mechanics that allow you to shoot a specific part of the enemy's body; you can slow down the enemy by shooting at the legs, make it vulnerable removing its armour, rip-off his arms or weapons to diminish the threat, and so on. Simply great idea and overall well executed. And there is much more.



In conclusion this is a good game. If you haven't played Xcom2, play that. But, if you have played Xcom2, you should consider this game, it's fun.



Considering the price, it is a 7 out of 10. Could be 8 if they fix the insane balance. … Expand