Recent reviews by Holy Athena

This has to be the first time I actually down voted a DLC by paradox, or felt such frustration that it's required..

The vassal system actually isn't that bad. It's interesting and fun to play around with, but has it's own issues. The other reviews state pretty well what these are, but ultimately I wouldn't give the dlc a downvote from it.

It's the hyper relays that are a serious issue. The game already has late game options for faster traveling. Relays which are the end games quick travel between systems. They let you link 2 or more systems together that normally are not. Super powerful system late game for getting fleets across the galaxy.

On top of that, you have the hyper jump ability as well, a VERY late game tech that lets you literally jump across multiple systems, by passing defense stations, etc. or jumping over to other star systems not connected in a quick fashion.

But now you have these "hyper relays" which are basically just super highways, Unlike the normal Relays, these super highways must be jumped system by system, but they make it so you don't have to travel across the system, and the cool down for jumping is much less.

You can get this tech very early in the game, or even early mid game..

Game was never designed for hyper fast travel at early/mid game to begin with. Having your opponents able to easily send massive fleets in seconds anywhere at any time is an absolute nightmare, especially when you can't, as the aggressor. You can use them if you take them, sure, but traveling still takes awhile for the systems you don't own, yet they can drop 5 fleets in 5 different systems in seconds, even at massive ranges that would normally have taken time to get there..

You want to bombard a planet? To bad. They will mass build corvettes, and destroyers and send them non stop at multiple systems, and they will do this in a fraction of the time it normally took.. You never have time to bombard planets, siege, or do anything other than chase around enemy fleets.

Then you add in the late game stuff, like the regular relays, and such which added to these hyperlanes are just an absolute joke in trying to do anything when your enemies can respond in seconds at a moments notice across monstrous distances even by mid game..

And don't get me started on the end game crises... you thought they were bad before...
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This DLC completely destroys the balance of the game, for this and many other reasons.

Having played the Demo, and a few hours further into the release. This game is definitely a good one.

The story takes place during the Asia Minor campaigns, prior to Julius Ceasars rise to power. This is evident in the fact you meet Julius Ceaser early on as a regular soldier himself. Which I thought was pretty cool. Far too many Rome games focus on Julius Ceasar, yet tons of Rome history is left untouched, it was a nice change.

You're given command of your own speculatores troops, and it's quite obvious the developers put ALOT of effort into researching how the Roman army operated, as well as the Roman titles, words, and heirarchy, all of which most games ignore, or get wrong. Quite honestly it's a good game just to get a better understanding of the inner workings of the Roman legionnaries, and military.

While you are mostly commanding speculatores, they do lump you in as the commander of legionaires as well. They were historically seperate, the speculatores being the forefront scouts, explorers, spies, etc. This is a role you do play in your small party, however you also get to command the Legionarries troops.

Customization

The customization is top notch in my opinion, when it comes to your soldiers, and troops of your speculatores. Styles of words, spears, armors, shields, etc. You can outfit your soldiers without changing their stats. While some spears styles have similar stats, with just a few minor differences, later in the game you can switch out these differences, adding even more customization.

Historically the legionarries and speculatores were recuited from their regions, and especially the speculatores were given more anonymity to blend in. Which just adds more realism and customization. You can use Greek shields, and spears, keep yourself looking like a Roman legionairre, or even as you go to Africa, start using their garb and weapons to role-play blending in more.

Battles

I played on Normal Mode, to get a good level ground experience of the game. The combat again in my opinion, is very immersive. You'll have civilians running around, and friendlies many of the times, with numerous enemies. Unlike other games who keep most if not all the combat specific to your group vs countless enemies. This game expands on that, and often will add friendly AI soldiers into the mix for many encounters for various reasons.

There are many strategies and tactics that can work, but going into battles with a game plan and expectations of what to expect can be helpful as well. For instance, getting ambushed. I could of expected archers, and fast attackers, and less shield bearing enemies, which is exactly what happened.

The terrain has a ton of elevation differences, cover, and tools to use to your advantage, and the enemy will use them as well against you. It's one of the best tactica/strategy combat I've had in a game in a long time, where the balance between options, personal taste in style didn't undermine the strategy and tactics side of the combat. Whether you like to play archer heavy, front line heavy, hit n run heavy, or a mix, the combat really can be done any way, as the terrain, and situations will give you options to make that successful. Though a balanced party is of course still the best.

Managing your Army and Strategy Battles

This is unfortunately where I have a little bit of a problem with the game. The campaign map when you're running around feels a little "empty". You get random events as you move around, and you can send your army to cities, or areas' to attack, secure, or gather supplies of food, money, slaves, etc.

however it all feels a little.. "tacked on". That's not to say it's bad in anyway, but there just isn't much too it.

The strategy battles is the biggest let down, as the generals you use, strategums you get, and everything else feels like nothing matters with the outcome. Whoever has the largest army at the beginning is the one who's going to win, period. The damage done, damage recieved, tactics used, none of it seems to change the outcome, and the damage is all seemingly randomized. This is the biggest "complaint" about the game I see most people having.

Strategy Battles

The strategy battles seem like they had an idea of deck building, but then just never really finished it.

During each "phase" of the battle of which there are 4. You get to choose 1 of 3 randomly selected "Cards" which do something. Usually with both a positive and negative. One card may give your army a morale boost of 5 while giving the enemey -5, one may give your generals higher chance of surviving, but at a cost of "player aggression", etc.

The problem with this... is none of it seems to matter. No matter how many times I play a battle and choose cards, nothing really seems to matter in the end and it seems to be random, that while the phase plays out, you give and recieve damage but the numbers just seem random. The tactical card you used almost seemingly does nothing unless its a straight direct outcome like directly removing or giving manpower, etc.

To make matters worse, unlocking new cards and using your camps tools to unlock them is directly hurting you. Some cards are better than others. An example is 1 card gives you a huge benefit to manpower saved, and surviving, while another is a 50/50 card, that deals a lot of damage to the enemy manpower, but you also potentially lose just as many yourself. Another is the end phase cards, where 1 could drastically increase the loot pool (your rewards at the end). However if you keep unlocking new cards you're going to just saturate your card choices, and you may never get the cards you want, as it won't be picking from 5 cards for the 3 choices, but 15 or more, vastly decreasing the chance you get anything useful for the current situation.

It feels as though they originally planned this to be a"deck building" mini game, but just didn't follow through.


Side note on the "Woke" b.s I've seen.

I do see ocassional gripes, and whining in reviews, and the forums about a certain female character. Which I find rediculous. So if you see others saying the game is "woke" or some other garbage, they are knee jerk reacting to something that's completely historical still.

There is 1 female in a position of scout/spy that historically a female would not have at that time. She is so far, the only female. 99% of the rest of everything is male dominated, and apparently these people have never heard of Joan of Arc, or the Russian female sniper teams in WWII. Two examples out of hundreds, where a female, or females were fighting in battles, or even a leadership role when historically it never happened.

I really don't think 1 or 2 females in these roles constitutes as a "woke" situation.

This is a beautiful game based on Battle Brothers. A rogue game where you manage a mercenary band from infancy to hero status. Good guys or Bad Guys.

The only difference here is that the world itself is not procedurally generated, however the enemies can be randomized, still giving a decent amount of replayability.

The game also seems to take quite a lot of inspiration from the major Battle Brothers overhaul mod, allowing you to upgrade your camp, and assign mercenary members to jobs, such as Smith, Miner, Medicine, etc. As they grow in level, you can unlock better tier of equipment, supplies, etc.

With an active Discord channel, the developers really listen to feedback, and the game despite being Early Access at the moment, has tons of potential, and feels like a solid game. (It doesn't feel like Early Access).

Combat:

I decided to make a edit about Combat, as the more I play the more I realize it is the one thing greatly separating Battle Brothers and WarTales. (The campaign/world map is pretty much the same game-play style)

- While choosing your start, you get a few options that pre determine your starting units. Their stats, skills, etc. are RNG rolled after that from a few select choices.

- Classes are hard locked in weapons they can use. (Though the devs have mentioned I think they may look into opening this up a bit). You can hire units from towns like in Battle Brothers however, and dismiss those you don't want.

- Armor is locked behind level 2-3 of the unit, and from there you choose a specialist class, which determines the armor it uses.

- There doesn't seem to be elevation to maps, at least right now, but there are Fog, rain storms, etc. which obscure vision.

- Starting Locations of the combat allows you to always flank, or setup units behind them. In-fact sometimes you can't get all your units to be in the front. This is at the moment one of the biggest "complaints" on discord, so the developers may do something about it and have taken note of it.

If you're just not sure about the game, I'd honestly hop over to the Discord, and join it. You'll get updates and see the discussions, etc. and the game may turn into something you want if you're on the fence.

As a COD game with vehicles, this game is pretty good. It literally plays and feels like a COD game in everywhere, especially with the specialists. Feels like they infused COD Warzone, gave it a Battlefield HUD, and threw in Battlefield vehicles and called it Battlefield 2042.. oh wait, that's what they did!

I'll still be enjoying this game, because.. well Warzone has serious issues and this is the next best thing for a COD game.

I'm downvoting it though because it's not a battlefield game by any means, and it was sold, delivered, and touted as being the Battlefield for all Battlefield fans, which is completely opposite of what it is, and it has many issues and problems at the base core of the game. (Like map design, etc.)

Humankind is a 4x game, which takes much of its influence from past games from the same publisher. Which to me, is great. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel of its successes in the past, if you've played Endless Legends, etc. you'll feel right at home.

Like most 4x games, it has the same play style. Build up from settlers, and go through the ages and tech tree. When it comes to this, there really isn't anything different or profound. So instead, I'll focus on the things Humankind does different.
------------------------------The Era's-------------------------------------

The main focus of Humankind is to "re imagine the past". Like in real history, cultures meld, and transform over time. A warmongering country, may turn docile after a few hundred years, or simply vanish. Peaceful co exsting nations may turn into a disgruntled, problematic neighbor at some point in history.

Unlike in most 4x games, like Civilization, Stellaris, etc. where your neighbors are more or less, always the same personality, or play style. Humankind attempts to mix things up a bit by making nations and countries different, and able to change according to the present situation.

Each "Era" allows you to pick a new base nation to play as. Each nation has its own unique military unit, building, and focus. (Military, industrial, exploration, trade, etc.)

So while you may have at the start of the game, been an aggressive expansionist, perhaps now you've ran out of room to expand, or have a problematic neighbor, the next era you may choose to instead be a merchant, war focused, or production focused nation.

This allows your nation, and others to change dynamic age to age, meaning your neighbors will change too, and their outlook and personality may adjust to fit what they need as well.

This creates an interesting dynamic that is fun to play around.

------------------------------------Diplomacy--------------------------------

The Diplomacy is a bit different as well. While you have the same options and choices as most 4x games, (Trade options, open borders, etc.) The way it goes about war itself is a bit different, and makes more sense in the terms of fluidity, and logic.

Surprise wars do happen, and can be a choice, but it's at the cost of stability, and how happy your populace is, and the AI rarely go this route themselves, unless its absolutely necessary, or advantagous.

As situations happen around the world, you will get a "crises" or situation with another nation.

Their armies crossing your border? You can push for that, and that becomes a crises. You can either then let it go, or push a demand. If they don't accept your demand, it goes on the list of reasons for war, and war support in your country goes up.

Over time these will go away, if you don't push the demand, but you can keep it as a demand for as long as you'd like.

This makes a natural build up of tension and reasons for going to war realistic, and more logical than most 4x games, and is a system I really hope future 4x games look at.

Once the war breaks out, you'll both have your own war support, and winning and losing battles and how badly you have will change this war support, making it go up or down. (though a natural curve downwards through time as well, you can't stay at war forever).

The way the war support works is also pretty natural and logical. Just because you're rampaging through their lands killing everything, doesn't mean you necessarily win the war if you don't cease, or claim something you want, and if the war support isn't high enough. Just like America stampeding through the middle east, and pulling out, doesn't mean America gets to Annex Iraq.
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Humankind isn't about painting the map (though you can certainly do that), it's about building up the era stars and being the most memorable and influential nation.

As you progress, and make achievements, build world wonders, expand, trade, and work in diplomacy you'll get Era stars, which contribute to your over all score, and whoever has the most stars at the end of the game wins.

Is this game "Bad"? No. Not really.

It's not exactly amazing either. When I play an RE game I want to feel scared, or tense. am I low on ammo? Do I need to conserve ammo? etc? This almost never happens in this game.. and it the game plays out more like a Disney multi part carnival ride than anything..

Don't get me wrong, some parts feel like a game, but they are small parts, and almost never like you're in trouble, or on the brink of being in a bad situation.

You walk through a set, that feels like a set too... you know.. set the mood.. that's the opening with the village..

The whole cinematic scene as you're running down the tunnels, with that big dude with the hammer jumping down, and hitting you off feels exactly like one of those super hero 3D carnival rides you go on on Disney world with those 3D glasses..

Then the Castle... same pattern, that makes it dull, and not scary.

No enemies, then an unkillable enemy chases, so you run. Then they stop chasing you,, and that is your trigger that you know little minions will be needing to be dealt with very soon, after dispatching those, you get into the "boss" fight, which you magically figure out how to kill them at that point by sheer dumb luck, Then you go back to the main area of the castle with no enemies, buy stuff, rinse repeat...

There are almost never enemies that just show up that you gotta plan for, It's all so equally scripted that you know what's coming.. You know when it's safe, and you know when you can use items like the land mines and you're not wasting it.

Compare it to gamesl ike RE 1, 2, and others. You never knew what was coming, there was never a pattern, and you never knew when a perfect time to use an item was. Would it be a waste to use this grenade on this group of enemies? Or will there be a bigger group later and no other grenades to find? as an example. Every shot you took, and every item you used was a risk.

That's what made it scary, and thrilling.

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The castle is even worse for the disney ride attraction. You might even have a gun, but you never feel threatened in MOST cases, just like those disney ride thriller attractoins. You never feel like you're on the verge of dieing, or running close to no ammunition, etc.

It's just...

Village attraction, then walk down a scary tunnel to transition into the castle portion of the ride, walk around a beautiful entrance, and go up the stairs to the chase scene, and into the dungeons for another kill the mutants attraction, before you wrap back around to the voyeur area, and onto the next attraction!

It's literally setup exactly like a multi part disney ride thriller..

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Upgrading weapons:

The upgrading in this game is honestly 99% of the time useless..

- The amount of shots it takes to down an enemy with a pistol upgraded, is the same, unless its fully upgraded. You MIGHT get a slightly higher chance to blow the head immediately, but I don't even know.

And even when you get it fully upgraded and it takes 1 maybe 2 less shots... well you get so much ammo anyway it doesn't matter.. This is playing on Standard Mode. Hardcore is much harder, but still, that just makes the upgrading even less useful.

- Larger Clip, and Reload speed is again useless.. we're talking 0.2 percent quicker here per upgrade.. At no point is that going be useful. Until again, it's fully upgraded, then it'll slightly help, but with how the maps are setup, and how slow the enemies are in most cases.. You can just kite them, group them up and throw a pipe bomb. Or shoot them down the numerous hallways in the game from afar, even with the pistol.

- The better weapons you can find laying around, are equal in power to the weapons you just stupidly wasted money on upgrading.. Infact I found the next best pistol, and shotgun before I fully upgraded my previous ones, and they are better in every way.... Making my money I used upgrading entirely waste of money I could of used on bullets instead just so I could spam through the game even faster.

- This also means the money to buy parts for said weapons is also entirely useless.

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The food buffs are also pretty useless. Except maybe the health ones for Hardcore mode.

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This means don't waste your money on upgrading anything ever, until you get the best weapon in the game. Then blow your money on upgrading it, with the customizable parts.

I love this game.... Maybe its just the Nostalgia of playing Descent as a child, but this is 100% exactly the same game-play, by the same developers.

An arcade shooter, where you're put into a complex... complex... Every level takes place inside a moon, planet, etc, and its your job to navigate the labyrinth of corridors, and hallways to complete the missions, find the secrets, and get out.

While this game does take away some of the difficulty the older games had in the form of a drone which will guide you out, and guide you to things you need. (The old games didn't have that). You can simply not use it. Or abuse it.

You'll find weapons scattered around which you use on the fly to eliminate the enemies in the level, and after each mission you can upgrade your "character" or, rather the ship you fly.

It's a fun little arcade-esque shout out to the old 1995 Descent games, that you can sink many hours in.

Absolute travesty to have this unlisted... No idea why they put it down as unlisted.. It's an RPG dream and a gem.

Yes, it's not perfect, but you'll notice many of the downvotes are by people who couldn't be bothered to actually learn the game mechanics.. They are in depth, and many many hidden attributes, etc. make mastering this game difficult, but totally rewarding.

Boy... I backed this game over a year ago. (Played it for 40 hours on Epic when it released Epic Exclusive a year ago). Original Creator of Xcom? Sign me up! Getting to fight massive aliens? Sign me up X2! What?! They actually evolve and change how they fight depending on how you fight? DAAANG here's all my money.....

Obviously this guy is going to push the xcom series even farther right?
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This game was a monster let down.... It's a 2 inch deep ocean with almost no outstanding mechanics..

If you want a good Xcom game, literally go buy Xcom 2.. You aren't missing out on anything... And for less than half your money you can have a highly customizable game, with far far more content and depth even if you don't buy the Xcom 2 dlc.

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So what went wrong with Phoenix Point? Plainly put.. nearly everything..

One hallmark of the Xcom games is the combat strategy and tactics involved, dealing with an increasing alien threat... Right?

Except the maps are incredibly small. You get vehicles, but you never have to move them. They can shoot the entire map from the get go.. Got a sniper? Perch him up on a building and he can snipe the whole map.. (no joke). With extreme accuracy...

Oh a wall in the way? Don't worry, your pea shooter 9mm pistol will knock down even the thickest concrete barrier with ease....

Many of these issues were brought up in Alpha, and beta, and even all of year 1 on Epic Store... Devs didn't do a thing about it...
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Then you have the World Map.. A spreading red circle showing the spread of the deadly virus and what not.. Pretty cool.. Neutral factions to deal with.. Awesome right? They could be friend or foe, you can steal from them.. and even allies can be enemies.. right? Awesome right? Alliance with factions to gain their tech....No... nope.. nada...

None of it matters....

You're jumping around on the map from point to point... just checking stuff off.. and clearing area's.. You have to scan for these points, but.. the whole task becomes extremely boring and lack luster very early on... boring, bland maps... and when walls can be shot through and destroyed with a simple pistol, makes half the "cover" in the game pointless... (I've had my guy hiding behind a concrete barrier get his cover destroyed by a pistol many times... now he's out in the open, and all the other enemies get free shots on him).

Its even more abuseable by the player, since the player can free aim if he knows an enemy is behind 3 walls.. just free aim and shoot.. knock down all 3 walls with the first 3 bullets and the rest will hit the target... GG....

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To make matters worse the whole factoin system is rather dull as well.. You get text boxes with options and depending on which option you choose your alignments go up or down with them.. Alliance to get their tech, or just steal it...

Stealing it is 100x faster and easier, without the headache.

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Then you come across the major issues... Like bugs that are still in the game from BETA>.. yes... BETA bugs from nearly 2 years ago.. STILL in the game...

You still have game breaking issues with certain story missions as well... just got to the end of a mission and need to grab something, but the ladder got busted because every wall can be destroyed by breathing on it? Too bad... you gotta restart the mission and hope the enemies don't destroy it in their grenade spams...

Even the very first mission you go on, can be rendered unbeatable because the SINGLE LADDER you need to climb up could be destroyed with 1 bullet.. making you have to restart....

This problem and sooooo many more have been brought up, talked about, and begged to be fixed on Phoenix Points discord channel all through Alpha, Beta, and release for the past 2 years.... And they still haven't fixed it...

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This then comes to the lack luster DLCs... 1st DLC added a few armors.. yay? I guess....

Second DLC added some weapons.. yay.. I guess again...

third DLC seems kinda cool but cant' be bothered to get to it due to how boring and lack luster the rest of the game is....

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AND then that doesn't add in the final touches.. Breaking promises it won't be Epic Exclusive for a year, which it did, then promising big game changing DLCs.. which.. none of them were... and then of course, the dlc which is gonna be a game changer is now no longer part of the original backers dlcs... so they did the old switcharoo, because that DLC will actually be worth something...

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TLDR: Buy this game if its like... 15$.. otherwise Xcom 2 is way better, and far far more content...

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Edit: I'm actually going to add this bit, because people are commenting once in awhile and a few individuals keep responding that PP has depth and I'm wrong. Pointing out things such as the Free Aim, etc.

What makes me so disappointed in Phoenix Point is the fact that these mechanics SHOULD add depth to the game, but they don't because of flamboyantly stupid game design decisions surrounding these mechanics, making them at best a gimmick, or pointless, and removing any and all depth they otherwise should have added.

Example which several like to bring up is the Free Aim. If Walls didn't get destroyed in literally 1 volley of a weapon, then this mechanic would in a heart beat become a very in depth, and intricate mechanic, that adds depth to the game.

however, because walls can be destroyed so incredibly easy and without effort, it completely takes away from this mechanic, making it a gimmick that doesn't matter.

And that's how pretty much all aspects of PP is... mechanics which should have brought depth and interesting game play, killed off because of stupid game design decisions surrounding it...