The Disciples of Anu is a cult that thinks that the mutations of the virus are the next step, working on creating stable human/mutant hybrids. New Jericho prizes human purity above all else, believing that superior force is needed to save the world. Here the soldiers of the Phoenix Project are pulled between three major groups. Like Apocalypse, you're also juggling the wants and needs of various human factions. Your mutant enemy grows in strength as mist, mutating in response to your actions or lack thereof. The Pandoravirus is represented as a mist that slowly engulfs the world as you play every move, every raid, every research target costs you valuable time and continues the red mist's expansion.

Phoenix Point owes much of its core to 1997's X-COM: Apocalypse.

The only difference here is the true threat is something called the Pandoravirus, a mutating infection that was found by scientists within Earth's permafrost. In Phoenix Point, he sticks to what he knows, and in it, humanity is still fighting the good fight against a large alien force that's slowly encroaching on our territory. Gollop has reproduced and reiterated on the same formula multiple times over his career. Gollop has revisited this concept of turn-based strategy a few times, with three X-COM games, Laser Squad Nemesis, Rebelstar: Tactical Command, and Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars. Phoenix Point is the second title from Snapshot Games, the studio founded by Julian Gollop, designer of X-COM: UFO Defense way back in 1994. I can count on one hand the times that I actually played XCOM 2 to completion, despite absolutely loving it. Even outside of combat, there's always that knowledge in the back of your head that things are getting worse. These are the types of games where you'll miss a shot, have a soldier panic, and then see their corpse on the ground all within a few turns. Things can go bad quickly in XCOM, but even getting there is a death march. Playing any XCOM game is a march of despair.

Phoenix point character customization