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Phoenix Point |FIG| Sci-fi horror "Cthulhu-COM" from creator of original X-COM

NoPiece

NoPiece

Member
More_Badass said:
I've come to accept that "Lovecraftian" games, much like many sci-fi games, most often use the influences for cool enemy designs, weapons, and locations, and rarely delve into the substance of the genres.
Click to expand...

I hope though, they are going a little deeper. It sounds like there is that intent:

Lovecraft is also a major inspiration, and I really like a lot of the subtle cosmic horror in his stories. In a way, our narrative is based on a modernization of Lovecraft.
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A

afternoon delight

Member
Yeah the addition of 4X elements has incredible potential. From what I played of Endless Legend, I was surprised how many different (and fantastic) layers were applied and it still maintained the action.

Oh the possibilities!
 
NoPiece

NoPiece

Member
More_Badass said:
I feel that kinds of goes out the window the second you're able to fight back. At least his claims of "modernization of Lovecraft"
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Yeah, it seems like a lot of the Lovecraft inspiration in video games comes more from the Call of Cthulhu pen and paper RPG than his writing. Though. from his writing, you could come up with some fightable enemies (e.g., cultists), but you'd have to draw the line with the big baddies. Any true Lovecraft game would need a predetermined failure at the end, so not if people would accept that in this kind of game.
 
A

Anno

Member
Glad to see that Julian acknowledged modding support would be a possible stretch goal. XCOM 2 has benefited so much from the mod scene and it looks like this easily could as well.
 
E

epmode

Member
That RPS interview is making me so happy. It's disappointing that it took Gollop so long to make a pure successor to X-COM but he's seems to be genuinely excited about the prospect.
 
F

F!ReW!Re

Member
I like the ability to target different body parts;

phoenix5.jpg


And the quote from the fig video;

"They control the sea, you control the air and you'll fight for the land"
 
D

DeadPhoenix

Member
Got in with the early backer email, which I'm guessing saved me about 10 bucks. Got high hopes for this that I'll forget about in a month, only to be surprised when it finally comes out.
 
H

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
More_Badass said:
I feel that kinds of goes out the window the second you're able to fight back. At least his claims of "modernization of Lovecraft"
Click to expand...
Lovecrafts Cthulhu got stifled by a boat. There are levels to cosmic horror. Also if you are playing call of Cthulhu and the basic monsters aren't wrecking the party you are playing it wrong
 
P

Poodlestrike

Banned
Holy shit this sounds unbelievably hype. I love today's gaming where XCOM2, Xenonauts, and this all exist and are all excellent (or excellent looking). Spoiled for choice.

Backed as soon as I get home.

More_Badass said:
I feel that kinds of goes out the window the second you're able to fight back. At least his claims of "modernization of Lovecraft"
Click to expand...

It's definitely more Lovecraft Lite, but is that such a bad thing? More pure cosmic horror makes for very cool stories but I question how well it'd work for most games. You'd be limited to Survival Horror and that's about it.
 
F

FunkyMonk

Member
I've been salivating over this since I saw the rps article last summer and have backed at $40, £31 (thanks brexit), to get early access later this year. If they can pull it off it'll be superb, and i have a good track recors with crowd funding, also the apocalypse features I'm seeing look like great fun.
 
W

Weebos

Banned
I might need to look into this whole Fig investment thing. These are the kinds of games I'm willing to support like that.

Looks very cool.
 
A

ashecitism

Member
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-04-26-there-is-no-plan-b

The team of eight developers at Snapshot have been working on Phoenix Point for more than a year, but Gollop suggested that effort could go to waste if the crowdfunding campaign isn't successful.

"There is no Plan B. We do not have an alternative plan," Gollop said. "This is an all-or-nothing, make-or-break decision for the studio. But I'm pretty confident we're going to do quite well."

Much of that confidence came from Fig's Backstage Pass program, which allows a group of investors with previous experience on the site an early peek at campaigns and the chance to back them early. The Phoenix Point campaign tested particularly well in this program, with about 30% of people who checked out the campaign going on to back it. That confidence appears to have been well-founded. Within a single day of launching, the game is just over 60% of the way to its goal, with $309,000 in pledges and investments.

"We had approached publishers and investors," Gollop said of the decision to crowdfund the game. "We looked at every possible opportunity we could think of, and for various reasons, we turned down a couple of these other offers. Some of the interest we got from some big publishers was there, but ultimately they didn't want to go ahead with the project, so coming back to crowdfunding seemed like a logical step for us. We would be in control of ownership and the IP in particular for the long term."
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M

Machina

Banned
I rage quit X-COM 2 for what felt like the 3rd time a few days ago just because I felt like the mid to late game missions they throw at you can be just absurd with how much they expect you to deal with and how quickly, but I have to admit the thought of Cthulhu-COM is hard to ignore. Sounds amazing actually, just please balance the bloody difficulty.
 
M

Makarov Cubone

Neo Member
Looking at the monster designs a bit more, they don't strike me as purely Lovecraftian as much they do a mix of Lovecraftian elements with what The Thing probably would have become if it became free from Antarctica.

And I'm even more down for that than I am for straight Lovecraftoids at this point. Plus, it'd be cool if some of the bigger enemies could break down into smaller ones after enough damage.
 
E

ElectricThunder

Member
Hell, the bio-horror and tech fundamentals are begging for this thing to get modding support in at a decent level. The Winners Bench consisting of Guyver and a great many other cult classic Movies/OVA's and such having an entirely primed staging ground for the community to go wild and have it actually make perfect sense is just massive~
 
J

Johndoey

Banned
More_Badass said:
I feel that kinds of goes out the window the second you're able to fight back. At least his claims of "modernization of Lovecraft"
Click to expand...

The issue isn't being able to fight back, it's being able to fight back effectively. You shouldn't ever have the upper hand or even relative safety, the threat of total failure should be ever present.
 
S

Sir_Crocodile

Member
70% now!

ElectricThunder said:
Hell, the bio-horror and tech fundamentals are begging for this thing to get modding support in at a decent level. The Winners Bench consisting of Guyver and a great many other cult classic Movies/OVA's and such having an entirely primed staging ground for the community to go wild and have it actually make perfect sense is just massive~
Click to expand...

Man, a Bio Boost mod would be incredible. Take out some Zoanoids and Zoalords.
 
Evolved1

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
This would be the first thing I ever backed if they were doing ps4.

Very exciting though, either way. Will watch how it goes.
 
G

gabbo

Member
I havent backed a game in a while, this might get some dollars from me.
Xcom and Cthulu are a nice mix.
 
T

TheVoidDragon

Member
I very much like XCOM-style games but i'm not entirely sure what to think about this. From a gameplay perspective it all sounds awesome, but the animations shown in the video seem a bit janky at times and like they need quite a bit of work along with the sounds. It's early though so hopefully that will change.

The different human factions look interesting, but the Phoenix group seems slightly generic with it's designs. The background mentions its a worldwide organization but that doesn't really come across in the characters shown.The enemies with the human heads seem a bit silly as well, it does make sense with the background/idea they've mentioned but that doesn't really stop it looking strange (not in a good way). Those aren't really that much of a problem though, i'm still interested in the game overall.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Do we know if your soldiers will have limb and body damage like the enemies? Would be cool if you could lose limbs and replace them with prosthetics
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Some details from the comments

On weapons and aiming
Will the weapons work like the original X-COM? For instance being able freely aim at non-enemies (e.g. walls), and proper bullet trajectories so that stray shots can hit other objects/creatures
Yes
Click to expand...

On squads
You will be able to deploy larger squads, but it won't be something you can do all the time. Shortage of personnel and injury are important factors. Unlike new XCOMs it is not usually critical to avoid most missions, and there are no 'artificial' limits on squad sizes.
Click to expand...

On the movement/action system
It's a hybrid - you have a move and shoot action as standard, but you can use 'will points' to extend or add actions depending on abilities, plus if you spot an enemy your movement is stopped and you can react - either by moving or shooting.
Click to expand...

On alien mutations
Mutations are plentiful, but limited - and new 'archetypes' appear as the aliens develop their own 'tech'.
Lowered tiered aliens may disappear late game.
Click to expand...

On map design
The maps will be multi-level and height will be an important factor. They will be procedurally generated in a similar manner to both old and new XCOMs.
Click to expand...
 
F

F!ReW!Re

Member
More_Badass said:
Do we know if your soldiers will have limb and body damage like the enemies? Would be cool if you could lose limbs and replace them with prosthetics
Click to expand...

That could work very well.
Maybe even transitioning into an late game "bio-science" division where you can mutate/regrow body parts, giving like crab claws as offensive melee weapons or something like that.
(Maybe one of the human subfaction is a fan of using mutation and when you "side" with them u unlock the mutate ability but disgust other human factions)
 
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