Phoenix Point 25 Years On, X-COM’S Creator Hopes to Evolve the Genre Further
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H Y P E PHOENIX POINT 25 years on, X-COM’s creator hopes to evolve the genre further Developer/publisher Snapshot Games Format PC, Xbox One Origin Bulgaria Release 2019 ulian Gollop’s latest game is facing a of the camera as it slides from soldier to rather unusual challenge: existing within soldier, each rattling off overwatch shots. J two separate legacies, and needing to At first glance, it might be too close – the satisfy both at once. There’s the one that goes visual style, interface and even the majority back a quarter of a century, to 1994’s UFO: of keyboard shortcuts will be immediately Enemy Unknown (commonly known as X-COM, familiar to anyone who has played the Firaxis its US title), and the much more recent lineage games. But prod Phoenix Point’s systems a spawned by Firaxis’ 2012 XCOM: Enemy little more firmly, and the divergence from Unknown. The two might share a name, but that formula starts to become apparent. The Julian Gollop, they have distinct audiences, each with their headline feature is the ability to zoom in co-founder of own demands – as Gollop, whose Snapshot with the mouse wheel when firing, targeting Snapshot Games Games has funded Phoenix Point’s production individual body parts. Damage a gunner’s arm through a mix of crowdfunding and early- and it might be unable to fire a weapon or toss access preorders, is all too aware. “There are a grenade. Blow a leg off that Crabman basically two groups in our backers. There are advancing on your soldiers, pincers snapping, those who want something more like the and its charge will be reduced to a hobble. original X-COM but spruced up,” he says. “The This is the just most prominent example of other camp is people who want [things to work Phoenix Point’s simulationist approach to like] the Firaxis XCOM. And then there are a gunplay. It’s ditching the abstracted dice rolls few people in the middle, who want some to determine whether a shot hits or misses – mixture of both, somehow.” something that can mean a soldier standing He’s talking specifically about the game’s one square away from a target, its shotgun approach to character classes, which were practically tucked under the alien’s chin, still absent from the original but a major part of the misses the shot. Instead, it calculates a path reboot – but it applies to almost every element for each bullet, tracing it through anything that of Phoenix Point. The tactical battles in blocks the line of sight – including your own particular show the influence of Firaxis and the team members. Gollop talks gleefully about way it managed to, in Gollop’s words, “make realistic ballistics and bell-curve distributions, Phoenix Point currently has a turn-based strategy games sexy again”. There’s and how it recalls the 3D collision simulation single boss, the enormous Alien Queen, who mutates more than an echo of XCOM’s slick cinematic of the original X-COM, but all you really need over the course of the game presentation in, for example, the smooth pan to know is this: in the zoomed-in Free Aim 42 EDG330.h_phoenix.indd 42 13/02/2019 18:02 The ability to target individual body parts has impacted enemy design. A Crabman with one pincer mutated to form a shield requires you to position yourself carefully to shoot around its built-in cover 43 EDG330.h_phoenix.indd 43 13/02/2019 18:02 H Y P E PHOENIX POINT mode, you’re shown two concentric circles. that exists outside of the individual battles, Every shot you fire will land somewhere in the and how the two interact. This is the real link larger circle, roughly half of them inside the between X-COM, XCOM and Phoenix Point: central bullseye. This allows you to do things what Gollop calls “the concept that the battle such as sneak a shot through narrow gaps in you’re fighting is part of this bigger context, the scenery or catch the single alien appendage and what feeds into the strategy layer will also that’s poking out of cover, adding an extra layer feed back into the tactical layer, which is that of finesse to even the smallest decision. core addictive game loop.” Because the spread of shots widens as you get further from the target, and varies hugely Gollop’s proposed evolution, which By the time of launch, depending on weapon class, there’s a much he first experimented with in 1997’s X-COM The wisdom Phoenix Point is promising clearer difference between a sniper rifle and Apocalypse and was advancing in Dreamland extensive character of crowds a short-range automatic. Chronicles until its cancellation, is to make customisation for each Phoenix Point owes its soldier in your squad, but Every successful hit is followed by a string pushing against AI opponents as big a part of this is not yet present existence to the 10,314 in the build we test of tiny updates that reflects this stats-first the strategic game as it is the tactical battles. backers who helped its approach: not just the amount of damage, but The main strategic opponents in Phoenix Point Fig campaign raise which body parts were disabled or equipment aren’t the amphibious alien forces, but your over $765,000, and the damaged, whether the target is bleeding or took fellow man. There are three factions living in tens of thousands who have preordered the a hit to their willpower. “There are players who the outposts scattered across the game’s game in exchange for like and demand lots of stats – percentages, ‘geoscape’ map of Earth, all with their own early access to regular damage types, all this kind of stuff – and then objectives and diplomatic relationships with ‘backer builds’ of the there are other players who are much more the player and each other. The difficulty is game. Before the that, for now, the strategic game is something crowdfunding began, a survey helped of an iceberg. In the build we play, only the tip “From about 1999, I’ve Snapshot decide a of what Gollop promises is visible. There’s a multiplayer mode been trying to find ways to geoscape you can fly your jet around, wasn’t worth pursuing uncovering faction-owned or independent – so how much do evolve the big X-COM idea” havens which might need protecting, these backers affect development now? abandoned bases from your own Phoenix Gollop says the visually inclined. They just want to see some Project which can be raided for resources funding has mostly simple information, clearly represented, about and other points which immediately trigger been invested in the likely outcome,” says Gollop. So how does tactical missions. Fuel is a constant concern – expanding the art the team find a balance between old and new, run out and your jet won’t be able to make it team, to help it better complex and streamlined? “With lots of back to base, requiring resources to fill up or compete with the slick presentation of Firaxis’ arguments and testing, I guess.” It’s telling that, build a refuelling station. Beyond that, as well games, but the scope on the question of character classes, Snapshot as the usual base building, Gollop talks about of the game hasn’t landed on a compromise: each character can economic systems, and taking inspiration changed significantly dual-class, with an additional personal from grand strategy games like Civilization and as result. As for player progression track of randomised abilities – Stellaris. Call it a 4X-COM game. But most of feedback, it certainly seems to have the simplicity of one game’s systems, without these big ideas are currently hidden beneath influenced decisions giving up the other’s breadth of choices. the waters of development. such as how to As far as Gollop is concerned, though, As these games are rooted in the interplay approach characters’ neither the first X-COM or any of Firaxis’ between their two layers – and because that’s classes, but hasn’t led reimaginings are the main influence on Phoenix the particular aspect Gollop is trying to to “any major changes in the game’s design.” Point. He points instead to The Dreamland advance – this obfuscation makes it harder to Chronicles: Freedom Ridge – a game which was gauge the tactical game. It’s a solid foundation, cancelled during development, resulting in the yes, but how satisfying each mission is relies 2001 closure of Gollop’s Mythos Games on that broader context, the attachment to studio. “Some of the ideas from Dreamland are individual soldiers or the resources being actually in Phoenix Point,” he says. “You could wagered on the outcome of a battle. If the say that, from about 1999, I’ve been trying to strategy level can live up to its promise, Phoenix find ways to evolve the big X-COM idea.” That Point could break free of its legacies – both of evolution comes in the strategy meta-game them – and create something genuinely new. n 44 EDG330.h_phoenix.indd 44 13/02/2019 18:02 TOP Despite the efforts to present combat cinematically, each attack is followed with a feed of detailed updates. ABOVE LEFT Vehicles are another of Phoenix Point’s additions to the classic X-COM formula. above RIGHT Each action has a cost, either draining a soldier’s action bar, which refills each turn, or will points, replenished by completing objectives. LEFT The granular aiming system comes into its own when facing larger enemies, where there are more options to target 45 EDG330.h_phoenix.indd 45 13/02/2019 18:02.