Phantom Doctrine, the Cold War spy strategy game, is getting mod support

Cold War turn-based strategy game Phantom Doctrine (think XCOM with rougher edges) is getting mod support, developer CreativeForge Games has announced. 

Here's hoping that modders can fix some of its major flaws. As Evan said in his review, Phantom Doctrine is occasionally brilliant, but mostly boring because both its enemies and heroes are too simple. Its combat is unbalanced, too: melee takedowns are a one-hit kill, and if you choose the right perks you can basically make your character invisible.

Thankfully, these are just the kind of things that mods can address. What if, as Evan suggests, you could spec your agents via a skill tree? That would make them feel more unique, and would give you incentive to stick with agents you picked up early on, rather than just switch to the more powerful agents that the game constantly serves up.

While the missions feel fresh for the first 10 hours, they soon turn stale, and follow predictable patterns. Again, that'd be something modders could address, adding new mission types and arenas in which to do battle. 

I reckon that browsing the best XCOM 2 mods should give you a good idea of what fans could come up with, from balance changes to gameplay overhauls. I'd be amazed if the Phantom Doctrine mod scene was as big as the one for XCOM 2, which has a much broader fan base, but I'm intrigued to see whether modders can put some more flesh on its bones. 

CreativeForge Games didn't say when mod support would arrive, just that it would work on it as a priority (that Steam post is from a few weeks ago, but the issues that needed to be fixed before work on mod support begun have now been resolved).

Samuel Horti

Samuel Horti is a long-time freelance writer for PC Gamer based in the UK, who loves RPGs and making long lists of games he'll never have time to play.