Phoenix Point

 PC
Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 48 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 48
  3. Negative: 0 out of 48
  1. Eurogamer
    Dec 3, 2019
    Playing Phoenix Point has been a powerful propulsion back through my past, pinballing me through 25 years of alien-fighting nostalgia. And if I still find myself returning to it again, keen to blow the floor out from under another tentacled terror the moment I finish this review, then you know it's got much more right than wrong. Even if I never reach the end, I will still have enjoyed the journey, and the friends (soldiers) I met (renamed as my friends) along the way.
  2. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Dec 3, 2019
    There’s slow-burn greatness in Phoenix Point. It’s a game where you might be exploring a site, bracing for ambush, but instead find an abandoned theme park dedicated to a novelty boy band of hedge fund managers called the Lucrative Lads. Where you dread the thud of a parasitic worm dropping from a roof to the ground at your feet. Where the cold utilitarianism trained by XCOM slowly melts, and ideology begins to influence your diplomacy. It’s warmer, stranger, than its genremates. But it’s harder work to enjoy. Like its most outlandish guns and powerful armours, it takes a few hours’ research to get there.

Awards & Rankings

27
#27 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019
97
#97 Most Shared PC Game of 2019

User Reviews

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User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 398 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 161 out of 398
  2. Mixed: 94 out of 398
  3. Negative: 143 out of 398
  1. Scritty
    Dec 4, 2019
    10
    The best game I've bought this year. Though I've only bought about 3 full priced games.
    I have well over 800 hours in XCOM 2 and bought the    The best game I've bought this year. Though I've only bought about 3 full priced games.
    I have well over 800 hours in XCOM 2 and bought the original Microprose terror from the Deep on UK release day in the 90's and completed it on the hardest level many times.
    This is pitched somewhere between the Firaxis games and the Microprose games in terms of depth. It has a lot of user QOL improvements, good graphics and despite a couple of bugs (Overwatch can be flakey) it is a great game already.
    The tutorial does a great job. It explains the basics but leaves so much to discover,a nd that is - after all - a HUGE part of the game. Discovering what to buildm what goes where. There does not seem to be a right way to win, different strategies seem to work if they are well thought out. But the game lets you discover much for yourself and for me that is far preferable to being hand held.
    After the tutorial you can do anything and everything - but only at a superficial level. The rest is for you to find out. That's the ideal tutorial as far as I'm concerned Discovery and imagination are key gameplay ideas that so many developers destroy by forcing you to play a certain way and explaining every nut and bolt of the game
    It's a lot more stable (for me) than XCOM 2 was at launch and looks considerably better, The geoscape is a vast improvement over the Firaxis game. The UI in the base is clean and simple to understand the aliens are wonderful and that game has become a classic with solid developer support, well priced and effective DLC's and a massive boost from an enthusiastic modding community.
    Phoenix Point starts in a better place (as far as I'm concerned) and with good support could (and perhaps should) be a better game in timer than XCOM 2 is with mods, DLC's and bug fixes.
    It's a solid game now. 50-60 hours for a game that costs quite a bit less than most AAA releases.

    I'll be playing this game a lot in the coming months. This and Factorio are the only two games I'll play till Spring probably. Wish I had more time for games and wish there were more games like this :)    … Full Review »
  2. neutral22
    Dec 4, 2019
    4
    The fact that Snapshot games kept referring to Firaxis' last two Xcom games ended up hurting it.
    Truth is I was bored ten minutes in, 3 hours    The fact that Snapshot games kept referring to Firaxis' last two Xcom games ended up hurting it.
    Truth is I was bored ten minutes in, 3 hours later? It hadn't changed.
    You start out with two soldiers, rescue a third one (not as much as a hello), afterwards you're told to do some repairs. Then suddenly you have 3 more soldiers the next mission (no introductions, you didn't recruit them, you're just left with a "Huh... where did these guys come from?"

    Story/narrative feels completely absent (save the cutscenes giving you a vague introduction).
    As it's quite impossible to not compare it to Firaxis' games? I've got to say... I -miss- Bradford, Chen, Vahlen, Lily (Xc2). Having characters (that aren't faceless/without personality) did wonders for that game. Truth is? In Phoenix Point I don't feel I -care- for the soldiers under my command, nor any other people you come across.

    Phoenix Point to me, is just a bunch of numbers, menus and stats. I'm a backer (who -really-really-really- hoped the game would be up to expectations. At the very least not be disappointing.
    As reviews are always linked to what you feel about a game (are you having fun or not), I'm having trouble recommending it.

    As for me, personally? I'm not enjoying it (6 hours in). I -do- hope, and I really mean that, that Phoenix Point will keep evolving, and perhaps over time it'll win me over    … Full Review »
  3. Wolfoso
    Dec 4, 2019
    4
    Slow animations (the jetpack is painful to watch and drags on the combat), serviceable but little more.

    The monster design is cool, but the    Slow animations (the jetpack is painful to watch and drags on the combat), serviceable but little more.

    The monster design is cool, but the choice of interface and art direction of the rest of the game makes me wonder where did the Fig and Epic game went: why is an indie studio like Goldhawk Interactive able or willing to put more effort in the base for Xenonauts 2 than the creator of the "XCOM genre" with way more funding?

    Why is everything so lacking in "oomph" using jetpacks in a newer tactics game than using a grappling hook or just door-kicking a door or jumping through a window in a game from 2012? It's neither as elaborate or complex as Xenonauts, nor action-intensive or eye catching as XCOM, and the lack of actual story telling I personally missed: I spent the time I was playing it wondering why I wasn't trying Mutant: Year Zero, replaying XCOM: War of the Chosen, or looking over Xenonauts 2 instead.

    Since I couldn't give myself a satisfying answer to neither question, I reinstalled XCOM 2, and I'd recommend you to make the same. It's just a better game.    … Full Review »
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