This familiarity continues when you jump into the game tutorial. Sound familiar? It should, if you swapped Phoenix Project for XCOM and Pandoravirus for Aliens the plot would be identical to Enemy Unknown. You take the reins just after it has reactivated to take on a new threat, the Pandoravirus – a weird pathogen that can mutate any life form it touches into hostile alien life forms – which has already decimated civilisation as we know it. You’re taking control of the Phoenix Project, a clandestine military force that was founded after the Second World War to protect humanity. Click the new game button and you’ll see a cutscene that’s pretty much scene-for-scene identical to the openings of past XCOM games, and for good reason. Powering up the game, everything will feel immediately familiar to XCOM fans. Phoenix Point is distinctly XCOM to start

Make no mistake, if you like XCOM then you’re going to love Phoenix Point, even though its current state is buggier than an ant hill.

Having finally gotten my hands on the game, and played/failed my way through three story campaign attempts, I can safely say that this is a modest description of the game. If you’re a fan of the iconic XCOM franchise, Phoenix Point has likely been top of your games or Christmas wish list for quite some time.ĭeveloped by a team at Snapshot Studios with Julian Gollop – the father of the original XCOM games – as lead designer, Phoenix Point has been described and marketed as the “spiritual successor” to XCOM and generated quite a lot of hype over the last year.

Phoenix point xbox