After waiting since the pc launch to get my hands on this game, watching playthroughs and stalking the phoenix point Facebook page for news on a console release, It’s fair to say I was hyped up. However, it has been an utterly disappointing experience.
So do I hate the game? No, I really like the game. I loved the xcom series and even played some of the originals on pc back when I had a pc and I really like this game and how it differs from xcom 2 with the ballistics and manual aim system. If I could, I would play this game all night with no sleep and believe me I have tried.
Unfortunately phoenix point PS4 release is a complete mess, at least it is for me, but before I go in to that I want to give some feedback on the game itself.
In respect to gameplay, it is as I expected it to be. It’s engaging and fun. Perhaps lacking in the tactical versitility of xcom but it feels more grounded. Characters don’t feel as overpowered as they do on xcom.
Enemies types are usually just slightly different versions of eachother and I have not reached nor can I reach end game so I have not seen all the enemy types. It feels varied enough but some different enemy types early game would be appreciated. Those poison worms for example, I have only seen in 2 or 3 missions. Could of mixed them in a bit more. For the most part, the evolution of enemies as time goes on feels right and has me thinking ‘oh sh**, they have grenades now’!? This is good.
The visuals and sound in this game take a back seat behind the gameplay and are drab and dull. I get it, it’s supposed to be a depressing apocalyptic world and I don’t expect xcom levels of polish.
On that note, performance and load times are not great. I know it’s running on a PS4 and I know it’s more of a budget title but for a game that seemingly lacks the graphical detail and jazz that xcom 2 has, it somehow has similar if not longer load times and aweful delay and choppiness on menu navigation and as another example, upon death animation.
Now I have not played much of festering sky because progressing on a game that crashes or bugs almost every other mission is like walking through mud. From what I have played, it is not so fun. With no way to intercept the ships mid flight, instead having to fly to the haven it’s scouting, it’s pretty annoying. On top of that, the behemoth just goes around stomping havens while all you can do is yell harsh language and twiddle your thumbs.
It would have been appreciated if you could defend the havens in some way.
I would of loved to have more variety in equipment such as different ammo types or even gun customisation.
Overall, the actual game is a blast but…
It’s almost unplayable.
Now at first I considered it may be a problem on my end with my PS4 or disk drive but after playing other games on disc for a few hours such as fallout4 and alien isolation and perusing YouTube comments and forums. I can conclude that PS4 the version at least, runs like a dream, if that dream is actually a nightmare of yourself being smothered to death in Susan Boyles cheesy cleavage.
Where to begin, from the constant crashes to a bug that locks out control input so you can’t move your characters or even restart the mission forcing you to restart application.
One night I forced my way through crash after crash. I would do a few missions, then a crash, restart, then another few, then control bug, restart, and so on. I forced my way through over a dozen crashes and restarts because I so desperately wanted to enjoy the game. As I progressed, the performance got worse, the enemies combat turn would take longer than usual as if the ai had no idea what to do and like this feedback post it would take forever to get anywhere.
Finally the game started to crash after almost every mission. I managed to do 2 missions today before it booted me to the report a problem screen, then back to 1.
After the final crash I had enough. I gave up. The pandorins can have the bleddy planet. The game is flat out unplayable and that’s coming from someone who has tried to play the crap out of it regardless. I’m sure many of these issues will be fixed but in my opinion, a product should not be released in this state. I’m holding out for a patch but will be grabbing a refund next week. Then maybe pick it up again on sale in the future. Absolutely gutted.