Phoenix Point: Behemoth Edition Review

Out Xcom-ing Xcom
By Jon Harvey
Reviewed on Xbox Series X
Released on October 1st, 2021
​Also available on PC and Playstation
Developer: Saber Minsk Publisher: Snapshot Games Inc

Okay let's make this easy...

Are you a big fan of the XCOM series?

If the answer is yes, then you probably don't need to read any further. Just go try the game. The base experience is currently available on Gamepass or you can pick up the one I'm reviewing, the Behemoth Edition, which includes all 4 DLC released so far (plus a couple of extras too) for a good price. It's a little more complex than XCOM, more options to consider, more things to keep an eye on and it has more replayabilty with its multiple endings. Both games are the brainchildren of Julian Gollop, original creator of the XCOM series in the 90s, so there's major similarities shared between the two franchises. Phoenix Point was created as the "spiritual successor" to the famous alien invasion series and, as such, if you enjoyed XCOM you'll probably find much to enjoy in this release.
 
For those on the fence though, let's see if I can convince you to try what's probably the best turn-based strategy I've played since Gears Tactics.
 
Story wise, Phoenix Point takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth recently decimated by a mysterious and highly infectious virus known as the "PandoraVirus". This disease mutates every living thing it touches, both humans and animals, creating powerful and violent biological monstrosities with many strange adaptations. They constantly evolve, with new appendages and abilities appearing as they do, and have only one purpose; the defeat of humanity and the entire conversion of the planet.
And, as you'd expect, it's your job to stop them. You take control of the titular Phoenix Point, a secret organisation beholden to no one country or people, and tasked only with keeping humanity safe in any and all circumstances.

Unfortunately though, political maneuvering behind the scenes had already weakened the organisation considerably when the Pandoravirus showed up. They were easy prey and reduced to a fraction of their former capabilities. Down to only a handful of recruits, with only minimal resources left and only one barely functional base under its control, it's up to you to begin the process of rebuilding. You must explore the broken world, scavenge supplies, recruit soldiers and negotiate with other factions, all while researching and manufacturing new tech to loosen the grip the virus has on the planet, and ultimately to save humanity itself.
 
So no small feat then...
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Earlier in the review I mentioned that this is a game made by the same man behind the original Xcom franchise, and how this was made as a spiritual successor, but I really want to stress how similar it is to the popular series. It looks, plays and feels very much like XCOM but has small differences and additions that, although minor, when added together give a different overall experience.

A very good and well done tutorial, with cut-scenes and story, eases you into the game and slowly while explaining the mechanics and gameplay. It does a great good of explaining the nuances and on-screen indicators so I thoroughly recommend doing the tutorial, even if you're a veteran of the genre.

Gameplay breaks down into two different sections that each play very differently and have a different focus. First up is the "Missions" segment of the game, where combat plays out and you control your squad in turn-based battles, as you try to carry out the objective. Secondly is the "Geoscape", here you manage your bases and squads, do research, manufacture equipment, send out exploratory teams, collect resources, negotiate with other factions and a whole host of other things.
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Combat is the more action orientated section and it plays out as you'd expect. It's a familiar system and you'll recognise it not only from XCOM but from Gears Tactics and a whole host of others too. You control a squad of agents, from 3 different classes, plus vehicles, as they're dropped into a random map filled with buildings, rubble and ruins spread around for cover. It's grid based movement, with both sides taking turns alternatively. There’s a few different victory conditions, sometimes you'll simply be killing everything on the map but other times you'll be gathering resources, wiping out enemy bases, protecting vulnerable buildings or taking out specific targets. Each soldier’s actions are governed by action points (AP) with behaviour like walking, shooting, picking up things and using skills all costing varying amounts to use. You can also do any action in any order, meaning taking a shot doesn't end your turn, giving you more options in combat than many other games give you. It's the typical system, one I feel like I describe a lot as I review turn-based strategy games regularly, but what Phoenix Point does differently is what makes it stand out. For one, it does an excellent job of using onscreen indicators and overlays to provide information about the battlefield. For example when moving around, the grid will glow blue if you have enough AP to fire after traveling that distance, or will go orange if you don't. Another cool feature is if you come across a hidden enemy when moving, the game will halt your action instantly, stopping you travelling any further and saving your unspent points, then allowing you to change tactics for the new situation. It allows you to seek out cover, or to take a shot, rather than your character continuing to walk further into trouble. Enemies also have a line that will point to them if they are in your line of sight and again its colour coded. Blue means you'll have points to shoot it, orange means you won't. These on-screen overlays are so useful, helping you keep track of exactly what you'll be able to do with the points still available to you and really helps plan your moves. This gets useful later on when enemies mutate to become more powerful and can save some horrible mistakes from happening.
 
So far though, it probably sounds to you like a well done version of a very familiar system, and for the most part it is, but there are some small changes that I think are improvements. Or are at least different enough to feel refreshing. Most obvious of these to me was the way firing at enemies is handled.
 
Now I'm sure we're all familiar with the "percentage chance to hit" system that many of these games use. You'll aim at the enemy, see an indicator saying "99% chance to hit", and then end up missing anyways as the RNG god's laugh in your face...

Via 4eyedblok on youtube

Well Phoenix Point doesn't use that mechanic.
 
Instead when you go to take a shot you'll see your enemy on screen with a reticule overlayed on top. This represents your chance to hit and is made up of two circles, one larger outer one and a smaller inner one. Bullets are guaranteed to fall within the outer circle, every single time, and will fall within the inner circle 50% of the time. The more of the enemies body within the circle, the less chance to miss. The circle will also get smaller when you get closer or have higher accuracy. It sounds more complex on paper than it is in practice, but is well explained in the excellent tutorial, and gives a more skill based feel to the combat while also keeping some of the element of random chance too. It gives the best of both worlds, but is also enhanced by the fact you can take complete control of the aiming to target specific body parts. Each body part has a different effect when destroyed, further increasing the tactical choices you have at your disposal. Do you take a shot at the most damaging place, hoping to take down the enemy before it reaches you? Do you cripple its legs, hindering its ability to travel long distance? Do you fire at the head and limit its action points or even destroy its weapons and remove its ability to attack altogether? These options aren't that important at first, when a single soldier can kill in one turn.  As enemies mutate and become stronger though, or when the tough DLC enemies appear, these tactics become more necessary as the opponents can survive a few turns before you can take them down. It's important to think strategically too as your troops can die permanently, and are hard to replace, if you rush in without thinking. It's easy to find yourself in a punishing situation where one troop, underpowered or too far from allies, is surrounded by enemies and quickly taken out in one turn. Luckily though you can not only restart battles without penalty but you can also save anytime, anywhere, across many files, meaning the good old save spamming trick is always an option if you screw up too badly when making your tactical decisions.
 
And speaking of tactical decisions, that brings me to the other part of the game. The part where the major tactical decisions are made, and where the long-term aspect of the experience plays out.

The Geoscape.

If the missions are where you win the battles, this is where you win the war. It's here that you make hundreds of little choices that add up to your ultimate victory, or to your complete failure. It’s here you manage your base and build new additions to it. It’s here you manage your soldiers, assign them armour, weapons and equipment.
It’s here you give your science division projects to research and tell your factories to manufacture new technology.

Most importantly though, it's also here that you send your teams out to explore the world, gather resources, interact with other factions and assign squads to the various missions you'll discover. There’s a lot to get to grips with and manage, especially as everything takes time and resources, but again the excellent tutorial slowly eases you in and explains everything, slowly unlocking new features over time.

When it starts, you'll see a representation of the entire globe, almost totally blank, with your home base being the only thing marked on it. It doesn't stay like that for long though.

Get your radar system up and running, and various points of interest will begin to show up in scanning range. At first you've no idea what these are, so the first point of business is to send out a squad to investigate them. There are a huge amount of different events you can trigger here, each with its own risk and reward associated with it. Some will lead to combat missions, as described above, where as others will be entirely text based.

You discover a giant tower for instance. It's made out of scrap metal. What do you do, scrap it or leave it alone?
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Scrapping provides a certain amount of materials to use in your factories. It also infuriates its builders though, affecting your relationship with that faction. Leave it alone though and they'll see that as a sign of respect, liking you more and sending over some food to feed your men. Like I said, there are a huge amount of these, with loads of different outcomes, and you probably won't see all in one playthrough.

And these decisions matter because the Phoenix Point organisation isn't the only faction out there. The survivors of this war have split into three major organisations, each with their own beliefs and ideologies that may conflict with yours, and each other’s. New Jericho are the militaristic group, they seek a weapon based solution to the Pandora problem and hope to return Earth to the way it was. Synderion are the futuristic technology based society, they don't believe in hierarchies and allow science free reign. They believe the solution is technological in nature. Finally there's the Children of Anu, a religious group who believe that while the human soul is perfect, its body is not. They think we should follow the example of the Pandorians and genetically alter humanity to face the threat. Each faction has its own tech tree, unique to it, which they will share with you if you prove yourself an ally. Problem is that befriending one side may alienate the others so it's a constant juggling act of diplomacy. Do you try to keep everyone sweet and risk getting nowhere with any one organisation? Or do you throw your lot in with one early, earn their friendship and unique tech, but end up going to war with the other parts of humanity? Each faction has their own ending to discover, their own story path and tech, which dramatically increases replayabilty. You'll want to discover each storyline and ending, discover the unique tech and upgrades of each so the diplomatic relations is important to keep track of.

Remember though, your also balancing the loss of humanity as a whole, because if the global population drops below 20%, it's game over for good. Wiping out a faction may add your chosen allies but might cost you the game too.
 
So like I said, there's a lot going on. You have many things to consider and many ways to play the experience. Replayabilty is huge in the base game, with 4 endings at least to discover, but there's also the DLC in this edition too. Adding new weapons and armour, new enemies, giant kaiju walking the earth, aerial battles and more, they up the difficulty and replayabilty to an even greater level. At first glance you might think this is just XCOM 2 with a new skin, which wouldn't be a bad thing tbh, but keep playing and you'll realise that, although similar, builds on that game to create something new enough and different enough to warrant attention.

The combat sections are as good as can be found in the best of the genre with a wide range of enemies to fight, with a wide range of abilities and capabilities. The Geoscape management has many options to consider, many choices to make and directions to go in. Some may like the more streamlined approach of XCOM 2 and how it used its version of the Geoscape but the one included here provides many more ways to go long-term. You have each of the factions to experiment with and to try their solutions, giving reason to play over and over. An excellent tutorial eases you into the action and explains the mechanics, while a brilliant UI helps give information in combat. My only criticism? Veterans might find the combat too easy (but can try highest difficulty) and the Geoscape taking up too much of the game. Those who like the management section though might applaud the greater use of it and the many paths available. My simple takeaway is this though, if you're a fan of the genre you should check it out!

Note: A copy of the title was provided for the purposes of the review
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Final score: 8/10

+ Well done turn-based combat
+ Geoscape has tons of choice
+ Replayabilty bigger than others in the genre
+ Loads of cool, and some huge, creatures to fight
+ Includes all the DLC

- Choices can overwhelm
- Lot to consider
- Might be too similar to XCOM for some