Phoenix Point, which has been in development for over a year, is a turn-based tactics and world-based strategy Sci-Fi game from the minds of Julian Gollop, veteran designer of the original X-COM games, and David Kaye, the founder of Gaming Insiders. Phoenix Point draws inspiration from a deep pool of talented developers from companies such as Ubisoft Sofia and Crytek Black Sea, and games such as XCOM 2 and X-COM Apocalypse.  

The spread of alien Pandoravirus was an unimaginable extinction event, nearly wiping out all human life. The fortunate majority were quickly killed off by the virus, but some were mutated by the aggressive virus, which attacks human DNA sequences and imbeds its own transformative DNA, thereby mutating humans into horrifically disfigured alien species with the ability to clone.  Those who somehow survived gather in isolated havens spread throughout the world, with several of the largest and most powerful factions of radically contrasting ideologies controlling most of the world’s resources.

You play as part of the Phoenix Project, a worldwide organization set in place before the Pandoravirus, and designed to activate in times of world peril. You and your team must find out what has happened to the other Phoenix Project sleeper cells as you race to bring humanity back from the brink of extinction. Along the way, you will encounter constant threats from an ever-increasing variety of alien mutants (procedural generation system) armed with varying6 tactical abilities and intense boss battles with massive monsters and alien land walkers. Aliens are not your only concern as you will come face to face with unpredictable interactions with human factions with their ideologies and rife with internal conflicts including kidnappings, assassinations, sabotage, military coups, and base defense missions.

Snapshot Games have released a new batch of screenshots for Phoenix Point showing off the Mutoid soldier unit coming in DLC 4: Corrupted Horizons.

DLC 4 introduces the deadly new Corruption effect, which can impact your soldiers’ will to fight. But a new allied unit can help counter this threat: the Mutoid, a human-Pandoran hybrid immune to Corruption. Mutoids’ abilities can be acquired from any class known to the player, allowing them to combine powers in new and exciting ways. But Mutoids cost Mutagens to produce, evolve with new abilities, and heal when wounded, adding an element of risk to their tactical advantages.

For the development team, bringing Phoenix Point to consoles meant redesigning the interface and control scheme to ensure that every action feels intuitive on controllers. Rather than simply mirror mouse controls, actions are assigned to specific buttons, and menus are broken into tabs accessible by controller triggers or with shoulder bumpers. In addition, an onscreen legend helps make sure players always know what actions they can and can’t perform at any given time.

Phoenix Point: Year One Edition is available now on PC (Epic Games Store / Steam / Microsoft Store / GOG.com / Google Stadia), while Phoenix Point: Behemoth Edition, featuring the full game plus four major DLC expansions - including DLC 4 - plus a free next-gen upgrade to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S after launch, will debut on PS4 and Xbox One alongside the release of DLC 4 on all platforms on October 1, 2021.