Phantom Doctrine

I'm playing the game since 20 hours and I absolutely love it. The biggest influence for the games is obviously XCOM, but there are also elements of one of my all-time favourites COVERT ACTION to find in there. And that's what I hoped for. Everything has been blended together quite nicely in addition with some fresh new game ideas. Also technically the game operates on a very high level and once you start paying attention to the textures on the monitors and posters, you'll see how much love went into the game. I'd only wish they'd add the same stealth restrictions to big weapons as come with the armor and that enemies would still recognize you after you stay too long in their cone of vision, even when you're disguised. The disguise option makes the game much too easy right now.

Phantom Doctrine carries cosmetic elements from the XCOM reboot, but plays more like a squad based evolution of Covert Action. I favor games with Push Your Luck mechanics, and this has them in spades. Risk/Reward requires constant balancing in the tactical missions, which involve infiltration and often escalating to rolling gunfights. Rewards scattered across every map assist in the Strategic element later, if retrieved, but require exposing agents to more time on target. Constant re-enforcements and airstrikes once combat kicks off require speed to avoid getting overrun, but speed means taking chances, and taking chances means inevitably making mistakes and getting broadsided. Almost anything you do before the enemy becomes aware of your presence involves taking on the risk of being discovered. Getting offsite involves not just clustering agents at a pre-determined point, but calling in evac, which takes several turns to arrive. If the Evac vehicle is on site more than a few turns, you advance a doom clock (enemy intel on your actions) that hurts your Strategic level play. Strategic play offers limited assets that must be balanced, usually with "payment in advance" for advantages or to avoid difficulties. If you want a sufficiently large team to stay on top of everything, you'll run a larger risk of bringing in an enemy mole. Cashflow is largely enhanced by way of very expensive initial investments which become lost when the Doom Timer cycles and your HQ gets burned. Body modifications can enhance your agents, but conflicts between drugs means taking advantageous meds now may prevent the use of better meds later. My big problems with X-Com (the reboot) are largely solved here. Strategic play is vastly improved and doesn't feel irrelevant with eventually victory assumed. Cameras rotate freely, not to fixed angles. Choices have weight, failure has cost, but messing up a few times doesn't require a full restart. It's good, is what I'm saying.

As a xcom1/2 veteran wanted to play something else. While phoenix point failed big time, this game was a huge surprise. Good story and cold war feel (fancy some le carre books?). Nice balance between stealth and combat (and frequently you decide on that). And it even does certain things much better than firaxis classics e.g. mid-late game much more interesting (especially on ironman) and you always hit when adjacent to the enemy (no more 95% misses). Definitely recommended, despite small flaws

Does the game have some flaws? Sure. Does the game covered every basis of infiltrations? No. But the core game play is interesting. The game incite you to be stealthy. Offers means of being not stealthy at all. And gives you the sensation of being in a Cold War era spy movie. It's fun! Oh, and it's not X-Com. At all. They did several changes that I would love to see in X-Com to the combat system.

I've ruined a couple of night's rests on this game and kept comming back from more. So clearly this game is doing something right. But between the bugs, odd design choices and unexplained mechanics, there's plenty that might turn you off. It'll take some trial and error to figure out that knocking out three people in a level during infiltration will bring enemy agents down on you without fail the next turn. Knock them out first though, and you can wipe out an entire enemy cell undetected, which is quite satisfying. What I found less exciting was the time it took the scour the entire map for loot and intel prior. This tended to take a lot more turns than actually completing my mission. The combat system is also a quirky little beast, with its awareness resource that is great at mitigating some weapon's damage (single shots) but quickly drained from others (automatic fire). Once you master it though, it's quite functional, although I wish it were easier to see if an enemy has enough awareness to mitigate your next attack. The late game also gets a bit easy, thanks to extra move and action points. On the world map, I found some more annoyances. The semi-random perks made characters feel distinct, but it did leave many agents that didn't get the good perk combos doing support work, which incidentally gives insultingly little xp. The investigation boards get tedious, don't teach you (the player) anything, and the useful rewards (new training options and drugs) are outnumbered 50:1 by trash you don't need and especially more intel to solve other investigation boards. Boosting your agents with various drugs, which require other drugs and block different drugs, each with different positive and negative effects, is increadibly complicated to plan out, and can only be done one drug at the time. Queing up drugs to apply, and seeing their combined effects, would've made this so much easier. In short: I had fun, but there's quite a bit you have to be able to look past.