Why people love Phoenix Point more than XCOM2?

[Chenni]

I don't get it. I sunk hours on XCOM EW and XCOM2 and I liked the polish on both Tactical RPGs. I also like Battletech, Jagged Alliance, even some CRPGs like Divinity and Pillars of Eternity. Heck I can even find fun on Japanese TRPGs like Fire Emblem and Langrisser.

But when I look on Phoenix Point, I can't bring myself to like it. It feels like it lacks polish, feels too indie and low quality. Sure people can argue the high degree of difficulty on PP---but even XCOM2 LW have more polish on it than the whole Phoenix Point.

To each on their own I guess... but really PP over XCOM2, XCOM EW, Battle Tech, Gears Tactics? Nope.

[DasaKamov]

Phoenix Point: 70% Positive Overall Rating; 58% Positive Recent.
XCOM2 Vanilla: 85% Positive Overall Rating, 82% Positive Recent.
XCOM2 WOTC: 84% Positive Overall Rating, 86% Positive Recent.

Where'd you ever get the idea that "people love Phoenix Point more than XCOM2"?

[mosspit]

I remembered seeing this post earlier in the year so have at it.

Personally, I was following a few of my usual LP streamers who also played PP. But seeing them go through the campaign, I can kind of envision that I wouldn't enjoy the game. So I didn't bother with PP.

[Hold these kitties]

xcom is a masterpiece bro.

[Narrowmind]

Never seen anyone prefer Phoenix Point.

Edit The acclaim comes from the designer of the original Xcom being tied to the project, I believe. Maybe it will be a serious contender after the release of all the dlc, if still coming.

[Dan Dunwich]

I've sunk 36 hours into Phoenix Point, and I will be perfectly honest. It could be better. The difficulty is welcome, the mechanics both on the world stage and in combat are welcome and suitable for what the game aims to achieve. Overall it certainly "feels" like they are making an attempt to be a more tactical version of XCOM, right down to the aiming of individual weapons. But fundamentally, I was not hooked by it. I was hooked by mission 2 of XCOM 2, well before most of the game is even unveiled or hinted at. At this point in time, I'm looking forward to XCOM 3 (and praying they use nothing they experimented with in Chimera Squad) and hoping it's either identical to XCOM 2 or even more in depth or ambitious than XCOM 2, but if they make it more like Phoenix Point, odds are better than fair i'll just avoid it.

[Sabaithal]

Both are alright, but I personally prefer XCOM 2. I know the gameplay a bit better, and I like the aesthetics a bit better.

[Marcus]

If pp had mods that were easy to put into the game, not like it is at present, way to hard to use them, having to update every update to the game, wotc ant day for me. Am trying to finish it, but never get to the end - to many mods to try out, even after 7,500 hrs play!

[Gimli]

I haven't touched Phoenix Point in a while. I thought it was fun but I felt significantly more pressured to get stuff done on the world map than I do when playing XCOM 2. If there was a way to tweak that I'd totally go back in.

[talemore]

Plus xcom has no helmet option. The director wanted to make the game realistic and made the enemies always shooting toward the lowest armor. Which means to actually have a properly armor set in PP you need to use a heavy helmet with light armor.

Xcom could had end up as pp, xcom wasn't meant to be turn-based when the director was tasked to make the game.

PP has strengths, you can play it like xcom or use the manual. But the balance and difficulty and game mechanics are just wrong. it's not comparable with xcom or x-com or xenonauts.

It's like this; in Phoenix point you start at the last mission in the game. Then asked to do side missions and unlock items you should already owned, who you can obtain in certain ways very quickly.

Xcom remind about Maz Katana telling a moron that they already have a weapon. Your soldier can not shoot further than the reach of a sword. You're not asked to unlock items early on, you're asked to do with what you have. Which is enough to pull it off.

In Phoenix point, if you don't have a certain skill you're done. You can not do anything against it and if you take a hit, it will go downhill very soon.

[Arthur two sheds Jackson]

biggest pp problem is you cant manualy aim from cover, because you be shooting the walls its kinda stupid

[Sevrun]

PP has some structural problems that have never been addressed, namely in regards to overwatch and some pieces of high cover, that for me are simply deal breakers. It makes everything you're trying to do so much more needlessly complicated when you can never be certain if you're ALLOWED to lean out from behind this piece of wall to shoot.

[Sabaithal]

Honestly, for me PP feels much less controlled to a degree. IE, if an enemy spots you, it can also attack you on the same turn, making super paranoid about approaching anywhere, especially buildings.

[ScienceDiscoverer]

I tried a few encounters of Phoenix Point. I quite like it. You know, I felt like I acautlly playing turn-based First Person Shooter game, and not slot machine simulator that is XCOM

OFC, when I play XCOM/XCOM 2 I always try to make 95-100% shots with help of flanking/destroying cover/scopes/PCSs etc. But still, it just has totally different feel than PP.

[Acer Spacer]

A real comparison would be Comparing the Xcom remakes to Xenonauts which has a 87% positive review rate on steam and it's sequel which is currently being made.

[Fenris]

What ?
https://steamcharts.com/cmp/268500,839770#3m

Phoenix point is laughable in comparison to Xcom2.
The only problem is Xcom2 had some problems recently with players because of their new launcher and mods. (so, why the reviews are what they are actually). If not, Xcom2 reviews would continue to be +80%, and would continue to be X10 instead of X7/X8 what have PP when speaking of players numbers.
Because it's what is important, the actual player numbers, not the % reviews.

PP is really bad designed, it seems so amateurish. And most of people seems to think the same thing, seeing his low player numbers. And i bet the review score will down again in the "mixed" score when people who bought it after the summer sales will see how the game is after some hours of playtime.
PP has already failed and 2 more poor designed DLCs, like the last one was too, won't change that. They are unable to learn, from their first Epic Store release, to the Steam release one year later, to their last DLC recently. The next DLCs will probably be exactly the same. The opposite would be a miracle.