Tactical strategy gem Phoenix Point is about to receive its sixth major update tomorrow. The spiritual successor to X-Com, Phoenix Point was created by Julian Gollop himself and his team at Snapshot Games, which released its turn-based strategy game back in December 2019, and it’s been steadily updating since.
Patch 1.8 ‘Arkham’ will build on the other improvements rolled out over the past year (the last big patch was 1.6 ‘Necronomicon’, released in August), and comes with a lot of Geoscape improvements. There’s new base selection functionality and a reworked personnel screen, a better UI to show where units are located across the various bases, even a new game over screen.
Don’t forget that the exclusivity deal with Epic will run out on December 3, 2020, and Snapshot has announced that Phoenix Point’s Steam release will be coming on that very day: December 3. It’s launching with a ‘Year One Edition’ that will include all of the free patches, but also the three add-ons released so far as well: Blood & Titanium, Legacy of the Ancients, and the Living Weapons pack.
Coming back to the 1.8 Arkham update, here’s an excerpt from the patch notes that detail the main gameplay changes.
Geoscape
- Improved aircraft selection UI
- Added Phoenix base selection functionality
- Reworked personnel screen
- Vehicles are shown along the soldiers
- Soldiers and vehicles are divided by the location they are at
- Added basic stats for each soldier and service record
- Character equipment and training screens are merged and information for stealth, accuracy, and perception is added
- Dismiss of soldiers is now accessible only from this screen
- There is a new tab in personnel screen showing the soldier memorial
- New game over screen with gameplay statistics
- Factions can now attack Phoenix bases when at war with Phoenix
- When New Jericho is attacking a Pandoran base now you can join in the attack and you will encounter some of their soldiers in battle
- Ancient Guardians: expanded list of resistances
- Project Glory now researchable after the first mention of the ancient civilization in the main story
- Bionic Fortress: increased deployment
- DLC 1 and 2: a number of missions have rewards increased
Tactical
- Visual upgrade of the tactical UI
- Portraits are now showing hit points along with will points and action points
- Advanced information about weapons can be activated from the gameplay options
Other
- Controller scheme rework – complete rework of Tactical and Geoscape controller scheme, there is no longer a free cursor in the game
- New neutral haven special mission
There’s also a sizable list of bug fixes as well, which you can read about here. The Arkham update will land tomorrow, November 4.