How is the "atmosphere" of PP?

XCOM1 vanilla was contents missing then, much more than PP i think.

XCOM1&2 are still hugely better on how managing a story telling but totally linear. For sure linearity does help, but I don’t think it’s only that. But ok perhaps on some aspect PP is stronger as you explain. That said I disagree on the hospital feeling but to each their own, I’ll stick to different opinions, nothing to argue.

When first hearing about PP, I thought that it would be a “dark” game, with maps full of fog and darkness. I mean the game is a about a spreading “evil” fog. The first short summary was: Only some human havens on the peaks of the highest mountains remained and “the player” has to travel down into the fog for the missions… (great premise for a horror themed atmospheric game)

The first previews were in darkness on a drilling platform and “Fort Freiheit” - I thought that this would represent the overall “tone” of PP…

Thanks, that makes me optimistic…

I was an early backer but deliberately did not play any of the backer builds. I’m enjoying the game as it is but know it will be more enjoyable after some polish, balancing & the DLC’s. The atmosphere has potential and sometimes makes an impression but there is a drudgery in the repetitive nature of battles on the same terrain that kind of spoils the suspension of disbelief. I trust this will be addressed.

You could for example have a stormy map disable the pings for creatures under the premise that you can’t hear them over the rain/wind. It could also lower the perception of soldiers and pandorans even further then a normal night mission would.

That was discussed already somewhere in the forums. Missions in Africa would be searing hot, with your soldiers loosing willpower randomly, missions in the snow would cut movement for every soldier, rainy weather would mess with sound, and so on.

It’s lacking. It’s halfway there but something went wrong during development. If you look at the E3 preview they have this super dark mission where there’s dynamic lighting and shots coming out of the dark - very reminiscent of old xcom. Release however, every mission day or night is bright. I can’t even tell what it is sometimes if I were to just look at it, and wouldn’t know if I didn’t already know beforehand.

The music is right in this regard… the visuals, not entirely so. The aliens look great, but there’s no unknown since the entire map is revealed. The Geoscape and Lore of the world is pretty nice I think (and I’m a fan of the way the factions work out mostly, though think Diplomacy Missions/Raids could use some improvements in regards to how factions react). You see everything happening that’s within perception range and line of sight (which is good I think), otherwise the enemy just vanishes and doesn’t draw on the map (which is weird). There’s no actual visible fog of war to distinguish what you can and can’t see exactly. No dark fearful atmosphere in this game. In fact, many missions you’ll have the biggest threats spawning within line of sight, and you’ll probably have the tools to immediately dispatch it.

The game works though, and I enjoy it. It’s challenging and fun if Superhuman was your difficulty setting of choice. If you’re really looking for a dark and creepy atmospheric game, then it’s not finished imo and maybe some luck in the future?

Honestly, I miss flares. Weird as that is. In Phoenix Point, you seem to always have an advantage at night unless you’re going up against one specific type of mutation on one alien.

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Thanks for your reply Rainer!

The flares were one of my favorite gameplay features in TFTD and X-Com 1. I even used a “always night” mod, because the atmosphere of night battles was that good and the flares added an additional tactical layer: you had to care for “light” and use “light management tactics”…

I simply do not understand why it is so hard to see (especially for the developer of the original X-Com) what made the old X-Coms so exceptional.

This is the biggest letdown! PP was advertised with a “fear of the unknown” Lovecraft citation and all initial footage (you mentioned it) was dark and atmospheric…

That the “biggest threats spawn within line of sight” is really bad: The most atmospheric time in X-Com and espacially TFTD was the time before contact happened. The anticipation of what you would discover and what was creeping around in the dark areas of the map…

So you never have to find an “alien” structure on the map or explore a map? In TFTD you first had to find the downed “subs”, close in, and then prepare for entering it…

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Yeah, sad to say it, but it’s very much not a Lovecraftian atmosphere right now, the only creeping horror is coming from the extent to which you’ll have unbalanced superhero soldiers dashing around the map. :cry:

Unfortunately I stopped playing PP from getting X2: WotC in the most recent Steam Sale. Even if I prefer Phoenix’s ideas, WotC’s execution it’s just much better. Of course, there are all the resources a company such as Firaxis can assemble, but even with that, there are some strange choices from Snapshot. I can’t understand the lack of FoW for a game about fear, why some aliens are echo-located, why our soldiers start the game already in full power armour - I thought PP was an almost dead organization? Of course, WotC is more Avengers sci-fi than Cthulhu horror, but has no shame in that. And how far we have come from The Fly’s body horror…

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Oh man exactly that is missing in PP. Loved that in apocalypse. And now: After 2 turns all is discovered and every enemy of the map is known. Maps are so tiny that you see all and you can sniper an enemy from one end of the map to the others. Hit Chance over 90% …

Maps must be larger. With more large buildings.

Hmmm… The problem is if they have plans to port the game on console… They don’t have 32 gb ram etc like pc have. We on pc can have maps large as we want… I hope that community will help with mods later. As part of map exploration for now on this small maps as we have now it is better this way. But if there is FOW or black part on map they can add more strategic stuff in game like prox granade, flares, movement scanners etc. whole new tech to research… and add more depth to the game.

How about maps with lots of mist already in place when your mission is in a mist zone ?
That would certainly be ultra dangerous and creepy…
Of course, “easy” difficulty would have very low amount of it if any. “legendary” with 1/4 of the map covered.

At the moment I feel PP empty. It is far away from personal, the AI is ok but far away from the fair play. The maps are generated, hardly touching the look of TFTD. I miss the soul from this game. There are good parts: the free aim. One of the annoying moment I try to arrange my squad; when I make someone to move I have no chance to controll my other soldier. I have to wait, but I do not want to wait. A lot of times I just quit the game because of this. I feel the missing confidence of the creators. I really gave the chance. My whole feeling was that I am in rush, and all my actions are independent of the point/map I get to. First off all I would change the aiming method. A soldier should have the appropriate level to aim to different parts of the enemy. And there are some classes, which one I would not give at all. Rocket launcher or machine gunner with focus aim? WTF.

One insane situation is when you move your sniper up to a roof next to its border and will never be able to use it, because of the border! I was really upset about it.

Some other good words:

  • promising
  • fantastic how you managed to implement this free aim mechanic. /should be improved/
  • the creator of the original xcom

So it is unfortunately … the horror factor is almost completely lost by the Power Rangers.
You can even expand that … Later, everyone will be “Power Rangers” on both sides! On the side of the player the superhero skills / combos on the side of the opponents simply the number and the type of opponent (the description is very shortened). As it says here:

From the beginning to the middle of the game, I would fairly say that the game worked well. In this phase, the real strengths of the game are shown.

Did the game pull me on it? Yes, but only because of the strong initial phase and the potential.
Did the game pull other players into it? Probably yes, too. Why? Even those who complain always come here to discuss or make suggestions for improvement. Nobody does that if they don’t believe in the game.

So if you want to try it out, you will find a good and in some parts even great game with a solid atmosphere for the first few hours. After that, well …

Other than the Lovecraft lore incorporated into the storyline, I don’t feel that the game has any real atmosphere. In my various playthroughs, my enjoyment comes in the individual battles. The storyline, faction warfare, etc. hardly provides me with a real feeling of “atmosphere”, it’s just a placeholder. WoTC, on the other hand provided much more atmosphere.