Phoenix Point Fig Campaign Starts, Already At 60%

Phoenix Point is the next game from Julian Gollop, the creator of the original X-COM (the one from twenty years ago). The devs have started a crowdfunding campaign for it on Fig, and they’re looking for $500,000. Less than a day has passed since the campaign’s start, and they’re already at 60%. They’ve released a video which explains the concept and provides some gameplay footage as well.

It’s going to be an XCOM-like (notice the lack of hyphen), themathically similar to X-COM: Terror from The Deep. After a mysterious virus was freed from the melting icebergs, it started to interact with sea creatures, turning them into atrocious monsters. In the following two decades, humanity has been decimated. The monsters are trying to conquer to dry land, and people are resisting in small groups, separated into havens. You will take on the role of commander in a single cell of the Phoenix Project – your taks will be to unite with the other cells and defeat the menace from the ocean floor.

One of the selling points seems to be that the aliens are going to evolve and adapt to your style of play. It should completely change the difficulty curve – instead of starting off hard and getting easier as you advance, it should provide for constant ups and downs. You’ll research new tech, use it to kick ass, but then the aliens are going to take your new tech into account, which will even the playing field once more.

Apart from the monsters looking to assimilate you, you’ll have to juggle relationships with the rest of the human factions. Not all of them have the same goals (apart from killing the monsters), so you might end up fighting some of them as well. The biggest change in the tactical system seems to be the addition of targeting similar to that in the Fallout series, which lets you target specific body parts for different effects.