My Review:
6 Out of 10
It is not bad, but it certainly isnt great. There are a lot of good ideas in this game. But i feel over all it lacks execution. Everything that ought to be quite good ends up being a bit frustrating and also quite annoying. Like how petty the factions are. Factions are good - but execution is bad. They dont really fit the narrative (in the sense that humans face extinction - so surely rallying around some cause is better than fighting against each other). This could have been handled better. Like in giving us a reason to go and blow someone else up for survival sakes. But it doesnt really do it.
The sound is awful. The soldiers sound as though they were recorded in a test tube. This is immersion breaking. And makes it feel like a hack job by a bunch of students.
The GFX are ok, but theres some annoying glitches and i must say i really do miss the action shot that XCOM provides when you score a kill.
Its a bit repetitive. Anyone who has played the originals should know what i mean here. You shoot one UFO down you have shot them all down (mostly). The originals were exactly like this but honestly that was more than 20 years ago now - gaming has moved on. Now there are demands of narrative, meaningfulness and so on. This game makes a half baked attempt at all of the added features but honestly ends up accomplishing none of them.
Soldiers. I felt nothing when one died. One of the great triumphs of previous XCOM games (by Firaxis) is that each soldier meant something to the team. In Phoenix Point they felt more like cannon fodder. A means to an end and nothing more. And losing one is not so much of a big deal.
Meta game. Here i think it does rather well. And over all i think is a success.
So its a mixed bag from me. I will be interested to see what modders make of it. I suspect they might make a much better fist of whats available.
