X-COM's creator wants to make a sequel to his spiritual successor, despite it being a 'very difficult project'

(Image credit: Snapshot Games)

Phoenix Point is one of the X-COM tree's most interesting branches. Where Firaxis created a modern, flashy, accessible variation of the original X-COM, the series creator, Julian Gollop, took a different approach. Phoenix Point maintained the original's complexity, elevated the strategic side of things dramatically and gave us tactical battles built on a detailed physics simulation.

Unfortunately, it was rife with bugs at launch, and probably didn't get the fair shake it deserved thanks to its status as an Epic exclusive. It would take another year for it to come to Steam. Gollop remembers it as a "very difficult project".

"We reached a really great big audience with that one," he tells us. "It was a very difficult project to do. With crowdfunding, you make promises which you don't know if you're going to be able to deliver. And we obviously tried very hard. We had all these backer builds that came out once every two or three months. Progress towards the final game was getting slower, though, and the game is complex. The original release was not perfect, shall we say, although we did continue working on it for quite a while. And then a year later, the Steam release was much improved, and we had a much better tutorial."

Gollop calls it "ambitious and unusual", and that's certainly how it feels to play. "We were trying to do some things which were a little bit new. The idea of immersive strategy is also there, because you have the first-person aiming and shooting thing, which generally players really liked. That gave you an instant visual kind of feedback as to what you were facing, what you could see, what you might be able to hit. But it felt more personal as well. So that also has some very important elements of immersive strategy."

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.

With contributions from

Jeremy PeelContributor

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