living city with multiple factions that
you had individual relationships with.
This was something I wanted to explore
a lot more.”DEAD RISING
Gollop also wanted to bring back
the feeling of dread and tension that
permeated the X-COM series—of never
knowing what horror lies around the
next corner, or if your squad will make
it out alive. “That was very much a part
of the tension and excitement of the
tactical battles,” he says. “In Phoenix
Point, we have a mutation system
that can generate hundreds of enemy
variations, so you are never sure what
you’re going to be facing.
“I also wanted to bring some of the
RPG elements from the original X-COM
to Phoenix Point,” Gollop continues.
“That sense that you’re creating and
nurturing a squad and carefully building
them up to a force that’s going to save
the world. We want the player to have
to decide whether they’re going torisk
their best soldier in a battle, or save
them for when things get tougher later
While the core of the game will beits
tense, deep, strategic combat, storyis
also an important factor. But it’s more
than just window dressing: It actively
informs the flow of the game, and how
you interact with the various parties in
it: Be they friend, foe, or a bit of both.
“We’ve spent a lot of time building
the world,” says Gollop. “We’ve
produced a number of short stories for
[crowdfunding] backers, which have
been well received and give the game
a rich backstory. In the game, much of
the story will be revealed through the
research system — as it was, in fact,in
X-COM. And there are the factions,who
have different ideas about how to save
the world.”WHEN THE GAME STARTS IN
2047, MOST OF HUMANITY HAS
BEEN KILLED, ABDUCTED, OR
TRANSFORMED INTO ALIEN
MONSTROSITIES,” SAYS LEAD
DESIGNER JULIAN GOLLOP, WHO
IS PERHAPS BEST KNOWN FOR
CREATING THE ORIGINAL X-COM
SERIES. “BUT THERE ARE A FEW
ISOLATED GROUPS THAT HAVE
MANAGED TO SURVIVE.”
“The Phoenix Project organisation
you’re the leader of is very diminished,”
he says. “You’re being attacked on all
sides by various different powers. But
out of the ashes of the devastation of
the virus, which comes to be known
as the Pandora virus, there comes a
number of charismatic leaders who
claim their factions will be able to
rebuild the world and make it better.”
Julian Gollop has been making
strategy games for decades, from Laser
Squad and Rebelstar Raiders in the ’80s,
to the legendary X-COM series in the
’90s. That’s the old X-COM, with a dash
after the X, rather than Firaxis’ recent
(and equally superb) reboot, XCOM.
But Phoenix Point seems to be bigger,
grander, and more ambitious than
anything he’s done before, and I ask
what inspired him to start the project.
“I wanted to pursue what I call my
vision of a grand strategy game, which
involves tactical turn-based battles as
well as a wider strategic conflict,” he
says. “I love this multilevel, multiscale
aspect to strategy games, which is
heavily influenced by some of the
board games I used to play when I was
much younger. Before computer games
existed, in fact.
“I also wanted to revisit some of the
ideas I was developing in the original
X-COM series. For example, in X-COM:
Apocalypse there was this idea of a
E
g.”
soThe permafrost has melted,
unleashing a terrifying alien virus.
An eerie mist rolls across
the planet, compelling people
to wander into the ocean, where
they emerge as hideous,
mutated monsters.
The world is a mess, and in
turn-based strategy game Phoenix
Point, it’s your job to clean it up.