hen 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 organization 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’MEMORY LANE Julian Gollop’s greatest hits
REBELSTAR RAIDERS
1984
An early turn-based strategy
game, Rebelstar Raiders is a
multiplayer sci-fi game where
players control opposing
squads of soldiers.LASER SQUAD
1988
Another turn-based game, this
time featuring a variety of
tactical missions including
assassination, hostage
rescue, and infiltration.UFO: ENEMY UNKNOWN
1994
Also known as X-COM: UFO
Defense in North America, this
was the world’s first taste of
what would go on to become a
hugely popular series.X-COM: APOCALYPSE
1997
A deeper, more complex take
on X-COM, with self-adjusting
difficulty and rival factions,
including the alien-
worshipping Cult of Sirius.CHAOS REBORN
2015
A remake of Chaos: The Battle
of Wizards (an early Gollop
project), this strategy game
features warring wizards and
challenging combat.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 thePhoenix Point
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original X-COM series. For example, in X-COM:
Apocalypse there was this idea of a 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 to risk their best soldier in a
battle, or save them for when things get tougher later.”
While the core of the game will be its tense, deep,
strategic combat, story is 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 ofLEFT: You will need
to make use of the
free aim system to
take down these
beasts.