Finished game on hardest difficulty with DLC Blood and Titanium. Here feedback, many words, maybe spoilers. And sorry for my English
To complete game on legendary with new ODI you have three monthes, no matter defend you heavens and destroy lairs or not. Devs said, that new system work fine, but not. I finished at 66 day and have ODI 72%. With some math you can find, that 100% ODI will be at day 91. And yes, I defend all heavens and clear all laiers (in January, when I complete game on legendary, ODI was lower 5% with same actions).
With such ODI the only chance to win on legend, as I see, - complete PP storyline. I doubt, that factions will complete all preparations to final mission before ODI 100%. I ācheatedā a bit, and last 10 days of research (few techs to launch final mission) hurry up by raiding faction heaven for researchpoints. I just affraid, that ODI reach 100% and I loose.
I used one squad on base PP aircraft till late game. With new prices on recruits and SP gain system itās uneffective (and in some case impossible) to have more than one squad of skilled soldiers. Also, I manage to recruit only 3 soldiers without mutations or augmentations. Then every soldier from Anu and Jereho come with modifications. With cosmic price for hire and modifications there, where I donāt want to have it. So, I stop hire any new soldier.
The main strategy in PP - find soldier with imbalance combination. I made assault+heavy with torso that give -1AP with melee weapon, perk +20% damage with melee and shotguns, perk +30% damage -20% accuracy. With heavyās +50% to melee damage I had 320 damage (with Anuās hammer) for 1 AP. With 7 level perk from assault this one soldier complete all missions for 1 turn, sometimes for 2 turns (lairs without priest takes 3-4 turns). The more Pandorans came to mission - the better for me to plan chain of kills With priestās speed buff lairs completed for 2 turns too. At final mission was atrons wich canāt be killed with one hit, so my terminator ask help from all squad
Itās enough to have just two bases to win - starting base and one new for prison and labs. All other bases just for bonus from buildings it has.
With new SP gain system near end game you have soldiers with max str/will/speed and all perks you want from two classes. Itās boring, your brain is sleeping - you donāt need to choose, which skill take and which stat max to your soldier cause you donāt have skillcap. SP system befor DLC and patch was much better.
New augmentations in DLC is poor. There are three intresting aug: torso with shield and wallbreaking, torso with -1AP to melee, head that silenced weapon (this is masterpiece of stupidness). Without others aug game will loose nothing. Legs with jump for 5 tiles with cost of 2 AP? Why? May be to jump in windows at second floor? No, it canāt. Atrons place there shields for 0 AP, but shield from aug cost 1AP to activateā¦ And what about new medkit for augmentated soldiers? It cost in resources more then TEN times than standart medkit, but heal 40 HP. And all aug soldiers normally healed with standart medkit.
New subfaction, Pure and Mutants (canāt remember how they called on English), killing assault rifles completly. All these subfaction in the very begging has only heavy aug/mutation with armor 30+ for all body. It was very āfunā to fight them with starting 4 soldiers at scavenging missionā¦ Also, I want very much to ally with Pure and destroy stupid bags of meat, that fighting each other near total extinction instead of unite, but I canāt! WTF? I cry one manās tear when destroed Pureās citadelā¦
I complete this game third time, all on legend. And I never had attack on my bases. I always at war with one faction after week or two, at war with Pandorans, but noone want to attack me. Noone want to be my guest ;(
In this game I didnāt find even one Pandaranās citadel - only lairs.
The only ray of light in this kingdom of bugs and boring was second mission of living weaponās quest. It takes about two houres for me to complete it (final mission was finished in 30-40 minutes)! For a moment, I have emotions, like it was in 199x when I playing āTerror from the deepā. You are shooting, hiding, killing, healing, pushing to that-damn-bombard-chiron. Was really fun and hard.
In the end I donāt want to talk about tons of bugs, bad localization, bad balance of core mechanics or ask why we make early beta-test for 3 monthes and pay for it. I just want to say, that right now Phoenix Point is the worst XCOM-like game I ever played. But I love turn-based tactics very much and hope PP will be good enough some day.