Doesn’t need multi-player - and I’m not just talking about this game. It’s true of all the XCOM-likes.
Essentially, you are playing a series of squad-level tactical sims loosely connected by a strategic layer that enables you to re-equip your squad, research better tech and figure out why you’re fighting in the first place.
So you’re a Squad Leader, with the strategic ability to command & control how your squad develops.
So far as I can tell you are making one of two possible points…
Either you are content with a pure tactical sim,
You want a level of engagement in a story, but you are content with what is presented…
I am guessing you are making point number two… again, that is great if the level of game experience in PP is enough for you. For myself, and a good many others as well, it is not… Whether a game company can survive while losing a great deal of its player base depends, I suppose… But the question is, why should it? I expect if Snapshot can deliver the kind of game that appeals to me, it will appeal to you too. Who knows… you may even come to appreciate it… 
Avalon Hill… Boy does that bring back memories. I lived down the road from their location in Baltimore and drove up there one day to see if they had an actual sales counter on site or if it was all mail order. I met David Greenwood that day and no they didn’t have a sales counter on site. I was looking for replacement troop counters for “Panzer Leader”. I went back home and ordered enough troop counters, American and German, so that I could (using the guide included with game) completely build any of the divisional size units in the game. I went a little overboard. I also played “Panzerblitz”. And my favorite game of all… Squad Leader, which then morphed into Advanced Squad Leader. I still have all those games and all the extra’s I bought for them. My ASL collection is only missing 2 of the core modules. Armies of Oblivion and Doomed Battalions. Most are Avalon Hill originals and some are MMP. I also purchased a roll of the hexagonal grid stock that they had and I made 2 geomorphic game maps for Panzer Leader. I don’t have much to add on the discussion about PP (yet) because I have to compile all my notes together first. The only thing I will comment on though, is this. Fix unit movement! Stopping every time a new enemy is spotted is not only seriously aggravating but IMHO game breaking. I say game breaking because when I move a unit with the intension of setting up an overwatch and because that particular unit stopped umpteen times for each enemy it saw it’s movement somehow now exceeded that movement range and overwatch was no longer available.
lol, well that’s all I got for now. I will expand on my views and opinions about the game at a latter date. Probably after the patch on March 4th or 5th? I forget.
Of all the things AH should be remembered for, the one at the top of my list is the hexagonal map… a simple, intuitive innovation that changed gaming forever…
Oh, yes, picked up by so many other companies, without it no FASA Battledroids leading to no Battletech or then no computer Mechwarrior.
What expensive cinematics are you talking about?
They were made In-Engine with In-Engine assets or rendered live in-engine. Snapshot made several trailers in the same vein as Firaxis.
I’ve started the game several times now and I’ve not completed it once. I was happy for a few missions after the latest patch but soon realised that it still doesn’t connect with me.
Xenonauts (2) have their automatically generated character portraits that make soldiers unique, XCOM 2 had a great character editor. PP has a half-assed one and one where you actually never care about how your people look or who they are.
I’d almost prefer the tactical-game portraits to be with helmet so I can separate them…
Still takes artists’ time to create and render, voice actors time and money to record. Judging by youtube videos compiling all XCOM 2 cinematics, we’re looking at roughly 1h of footage.
That’s not done overnight and it’s pretty clear to anybody that PP was running way behind schedule and shipped unfinished and untested. This is not the optimal time for art teams to start cobbling videos together. Let’s face it, the amount of enemy models is pitiful for a game of this caliber and if given time, I’d rather have a few unique enemies created and animated than extensive videos.
As far as narrative goes, I’m happy with after effects animations. The issue isn’t technical for me, but rather that the story is badly told and not engaging, that Phoenix Point and mankind in general are un-relatable, and all other complaints that have been provided on this forum since launch.
Also, as you said, it’s done “in engine”, and said engine is Unreal Engine 3.5 for XCOM2. I remember talking with colleagues at Riot who wouldn’t stop praising how the Unreal engine lent itself to that kind of of work. I don’t know if Unity is as practical for this.
Unity has built in tools for easily going between gameplay and cutscenes in-game.
But sure, if they where behind schedule and all that I get it. But a few cinematics would have gone a long way for making story-missions actually different from other missions other than just, stand on this spot and activate, then kill all the enemies.
Instead of the usual, kill all the enemies.