"Phoenix Point" review: the heart is willing but the power is insufficient

When Phoenix Point was first announced, I didn't hesitate to include it as one of the must-play games of the year for one reason: the new work from the father of "X-COM" or "Ufos." This label was even attached to the Phoenix Point as soon as it appeared in people's view.

And this time we are very honored to get the "Phoenix Point" evaluation qualification, in the actual start to find that the label is true, all aspects can see the shadow of "Ufos". And "Phoenix Point" as its name, did not live in the shadow of the previous work, in the halo of the previous work has a more dazzling spark. Had it been made on a larger scale, "Phoenix Point" could have been a better work than "UFO".

But that's just a hypothesis. Because "Phoenix Point" finally left a little regret, the whole work gives people a feeling of "willing but insufficient", can not help but make people feel some regret.

The success of "Ufos" on the one hand depends on the gameplay, on the other hand depends on a unique world view, and this advantage is also extended to "Phoenix Point". The Antarctic glaciers melt, a virus called Pandora spreads from the ocean, and the humans of the Old World continue to disappear, only to return from the sea fog as monsters.

The Phoenix plan should have been a barrier to protect the world, but for many reasons eventually stalled, and the human organization also fell apart, and finally under the leadership of the protagonist, the Phoenix team was reborn in the fire, and once again became the hope of saving all mankind.

Compared with the "Uprising-style" storyline of "XCOM 2", "Phoenix Point" has more than a hint of mystery - where does the virus come from? Why did Project Phoenix fail? What are the contradictions in existing organizations? What plot will the Phoenix team uncover?

The two are far apart in subject matter, but it soon becomes clear that their ultimate destination is humanity itself. As the countdown in the top right corner of the game screen says: "You have to save what's left of humanity", these puzzles are like clues that lead players to explore the world.

Compared with Ufos, the map of Phoenix Point is larger and richer. From a game point of view, they naturally don't want to waste a huge world, so the game intentionally lets the player explore, which is designed to further encourage many interesting elements, such as the Japanese stronghold led by the Cat people. Exploration is also necessary in this game, if you want to fly across the Bering Strait, then you need to scan the nearby nodes step by step, because the plane has a range limit, if you do not explore then the main story is difficult to advance.

In the control of the plot rhythm, "Phoenix Point" and "Ufos" adopt the same form, through a "doomsday plan" constantly urge the player to promote the progress of the game. The trick of Phoenix Point is that players can see the fog in the game from the coastline to the inland, constantly eroding the process of the world, and then count the dotted settlements and exploration points on the map, which makes it easy for players to produce a sense of tension that "saving the world is imminent".

The exploration of killing time and the urging of the "doomsday plan" can easily make players feel hectic, in order to balance the pace of the game, Phoenix Point allows players to use multiple teams. Players can build more ships to explore and advance the main story, and if you find the hidden Phoenix base on the map, you can divide the ships into different areas of disaster relief.

It sounds wonderful, but Phoenix Point's exploration mechanics have some flaws. There are frequent battles in the later stages of the game, resulting in players often having to fight Lien battles, and although the combat system is very interesting, it is difficult to fight too many at once.

Familiar with the "UFOS" players must know that "98% hit the face of the empty gun", it sounds very dramatic, but the actual game experience is still more uncomfortable, especially the bloody players hit the face of the empty gun, the feeling is simply sour.

The reason for this phenomenon is in addition to the "malicious luck", as well as the problem of the game mechanism itself, all bullets rely on a luck judgment, obviously does not meet the firing principle of modern rifles. In contrast, the combat mechanism of "Phoenix Point" found a good balance between drama and gameplay, and the "face empty gun" did not disappear in this work, but stood in a very suitable position for it.

"Occasionally in this game, the gun is empty because the bullet is not judged, which is a small BUG"

"Phoenix Point" battle and "Ufos" not only have the same wonderful, even better. In addition to the original charm of terrain, equipment, and luck, Phoenix Point specifically introduced the mechanism of spot destruction, if the player successfully destroyed certain parts of the enemy, the corresponding ability can be removed.

In addition to the strategic depth brought by "site destruction" itself, the addition of this mechanism means that the original damage determination mechanism can no longer be used, otherwise the combat will be too metaphysical. Under this, Phoenix Point added aiming shooting gameplay, players can manually aim at specific parts of the way to shoot, this mechanism naturally solves the "face empty gun" problem, but also gives a new meaning to cover - players occasionally need to relocate because they can not aim weak points.

"Large enemies have more parts, and different types of defense have corresponding weapon resistance, which is very challenging."

The addition of these two plays has solved the problems of the past well, and has also become the unique new charm of Phoenix Point. Through manual targeting and luck determination, the player's damage limit is guaranteed, ultimately reducing the frustration of "sticking to the face empty gun", and bringing a new experience to the original combat framework.

From the previous face-sticking shooting all hit blank, to the combination of manual aiming and bullet independent calculation hit rate in Phoenix Point, the game returned the "hand" of the dice from the computer to the player, and behind this is the deepening of the concept of "luck". In the twilight years of battle board games, we can still see people working tirelessly to make this game genre more depth and fun, for the players who love it, it is a very lucky thing.

In the "Phoenix Point" also added vehicle gameplay, players can use vehicles as mobile cover, and bring plasticity to the "board", and as "chess pieces" of the role, in the "Phoenix Point" is also different.

The opening stage of the battle may be boring, and as the game progresses, the technology of the three forces continues to unlock, players also have the opportunity to recruit the special arms of each force, they are different in shape, compared to traditional soldiers in ability is more characteristic, and of course, it is different weapons and armor types, these content will not be repeated, they are too many!

"Biochemistry, Technology and Tradition"

You can think of the basic soldier as the origin, and the power class is like the spread of the three rivers, the farther they are from the origin, the greater the difference, so this does not mean that the farther the better. In some battles, the general class is more practical, and when you choose the team members, you simply choose a node in the entire network, more in the applicability rather than strength, and most classes have the power to fight in a specific scenario.

In the content of the game, we can see that "Phoenix Point" has a lot of "willing" design, but as the title says, the whole game finally makes people feel "willing but insufficient", next we will start from the level design, talk about the "insufficient" part of the game.

"Sometimes blind dead enemies need to be confirmed by the player, but it is a little unreasonable to be so close and not confirmed."

One of the features of "UFOS" is the exquisite and layered level design, although the teacher from the same door, but "Phoenix Point" level design is still less meaning, less "level".

In "Xcom", after the player completes the stage objectives within the level, the player often discovers new enemies or elements, and the further the exploration of a single map, the more difficult the level becomes. In the process, the player will experience more and more tension, and enjoy the release of tension when they finally complete the task. This is an important piece of design, as it allows the player to control the pace of the game by layering the levels, and in Phoenix Point, this part of the level design is missing.

"The spatial structure of this floor makes me confused, who am I and where am I?"

In this game, the level is presented in front of the player from the beginning, you can even see the biggest threat of each level at a glance, the whole level design is close to the plane. While this problem is mitigated in parts of the map that need to be explored, because the player is constantly confronted with the unknown while searching, the tension of the successive levels of Phoenix Point tends to make the player more and more relaxed, like a slowly deflating balloon, which makes the pace of the game less good in the process.

In other words, the lack of level hierarchy in Phoenix Point is its lack of design.

"The early stages with a few monsters were fun."

Why is this the "weak" part? With more to explore, there are a large number of random levels to be constructed, and if each level can be adapted to the level design, it will undoubtedly be a huge challenge for Snapshot Games' development level. In fact, selecting a few necessary levels for design can also alleviate this problem, but at present, these levels exist but the design is also relatively general, the overall mediocre and lack of highlights eventually became a pity.

The lack of hierarchy is not a separate level, it's a problem throughout the game. During the first and middle stages of the game, the player will face a large number of similar battles, such as protecting key facilities, hostages, resource points, and so on. The monotonous combination of the task form and the relatively flat level design makes people want to add an automatic battle button. Moreover, the plot performance in this work mainly relies on the very general quality of "PPT" to complete, so that the original plot is not well performed, and the weak narration of the narrator is difficult to support the plot itself.

In general, "Phoenix Point" is well-deserved "the father of UFOS" label, and the game as a whole has a very orthodox "Ufos flavor". Even more interesting and unique than the original battle, the new mechanics not only solve old problems, but also bring new meaning, both in terms of design and player experience is very thoughtful and good. The map exploration that can be carried out separately in the early stage makes people feel full of surprises, but in the later stage, some people still can't cope with it, and the problem of lack of hierarchy continues to spread in the game from the level, coupled with some performances that are not in place, making people feel that "Phoenix Point" has some "force" not from the heart, but in terms of the core, the work is still very good.

If Phoenix Point had been more powerful, players would have reason to believe that it would have been a better game than XCOM, which is probably why Snapshot Games finally signed on to Epic. Expect them to follow the Chinese meaning of "Phoenix point", so that this point becomes the starting point of phoenix nirvana.