Phantom Doctrine - Released and first Reviews

The turn-based tactics RPG Phantom Doctrine is out now. Henriquejr spotted some rave reviews:

Gamespot - Score: 9/10

Strategygamer - Score: 5/5

TechRaptor - Score: 9.5/10




More information.

I installed it but haven't started. There are some positive reviews but there are also a few negatives ones:

pcgamesn: 70%
https://www.pcgamesn.com/phantom-doc…octrine-review

gameswatcher: 60%
https://www.gamewatcher.com/reviews/…e-review/13052
-

Been fairly busy but will probably play a bit tomorrow.
-
Also the steam reviews (user comments) reflect gamewatcher impression which is not promising so far; but also patchable so fingers crossed.

I'll believe the negative reviews - that are not bought & paid for. Stupid corrupt big-news sites. At least the editors at Gamespot will be able to buy the shiniest new 3D hardware now that they got their money.

I'll be buying this one at some point, probably sooner than later, simply because it's a turn-based espionage game. That's reason enough for me.

Originally Posted by you
I installed it but haven't started. There are some positive reviews but there are also a few negatives ones:

pcgamesn: 70%
https://www.pcgamesn.com/phantom-doc…octrine-review

gameswatcher: 60%
https://www.gamewatcher.com/reviews/…e-review/13052
-

Been fairly busy but will probably play a bit tomorrow.
-
Also the steam reviews (user comments) reflect gamewatcher impression which is not promising so far; but also patchable so fingers crossed.

I agree, game watcher reflects it nicely. still i do wanna play it, just need to wait some…

Those reviewers certainly don't agree with each other. Some seem to miss the % to-hit-chance from XCOM, to me that doesn't sound like a negative, just different. The only negative in the reviews I read that really bothers me is the fact stealth can be broken in "unfair" ways, like walking up a stair with no way of knowing what's up there. Things like no animated cutscenes or lack of voice overs I don't see as problems at all.

I'm buying this.

The zero RNG "awareness" mechanic is a little extreme for my tastes, and not necessarily something I would agree with (there should most definitely be cases where cover or mobility ensures safety) - but it certainly has the potential to be much more consistent than the awful over-the-top RNG influence in the modern X-Coms.

I suspect it's the sort of thing you need to adjust to - and some people are probably too stuck in the RNG mindset when responding to this in the reviews.

That said, I'll wait a few months before I start playing - and if there are too many exploits or annoying edge cases - then they should be fixed by then.

Originally Posted by Darth Tagnan
That said, I'll wait a few months before I start playing - and if there are too many exploits or annoying edge cases - then they should be fixed by then.

Agreed, I have a backlog already so only wishlisted this for now.

Originally Posted by mercy
I'll believe the negative reviews - that are not bought & paid for. Stupid corrupt big-news sites. At least the editors at Gamespot will be able to buy the shiniest new 3D hardware now that they got their money.

I hope you are joking, people behind PD are almost an indie team, they cannot afford to pay for reviews.

I'll be buying, and hoping for a patch-tastic future. The game really appeals to me, and sounds like the flaws are quite fixable.

Opening minutes:

The only downside after playing 8 hours (i am still in chapter 1) is that missions get grindy after a while. Like really bad. It's the same tile-set and mechanics over and over again. And rain, and night.

Regarding combat. You should really play infiltration, shoot out is the last resort as it blows you cover, your agents get wounded. It all costs money.

BTW agent candidates will get eventually hired by enemy org. Get those 3-4 hidden perks agents right away.

Seen some complaints about bugs but went ahead and bought it anyhow.
At worst I'll put it in backlog until it's fixed and I do love this type of game along with wanting to support day 1 GOG releases.

I haven't played as much as blackvoid; only 3ish hours so it hasn't become 'grindy' per sey - yet but the focus is on the intel collection and stealth and the actual missions don't pop up right away… at least not yet for myself.

Originally Posted by you
I haven't played as much as blackvoid; only 3ish hours so it hasn't become 'grindy' per sey - yet but the focus is on the intel collection and stealth and the actual missions don't pop up right away… at least not yet for myself.

I tried to keep heat low and didn't have many agents, cause moving costs stupid amount of money at the start. $4K. Hiring costs 60 heat and your base has 240 threshold at the start as far as i remember.

Also I was always late for the operations, where the only option left was the direct infiltration. So no recon, no disguise, just camera and guards dodging. Over and over again.

Now, I have 13 agents and still can't cover the country. Just as an experiment, I will try keeping 2 agents in major urban centres, if I ever get to 20 agents.

I think playing KGB is harder, as USSR is so huge, it's 14hrs travel from Europe to Far East.

Why are you guys not waiting for the goty or complete version? I mean, every other game gets "I'm going to wait for a 80% sale" but this one is a getting day one purchase even tho the other games had much better reviews all around and this one has been received pretty poorly.

I just want to understand. Were the devs regulars on RPGWatch?!

Will wait for patches and so on. In our days, you are better off buying late, when all the DLC's/expansions/patches were released. Even better, i would rather have the mandatory complete edition that always seem to appear after one or two years.

Have a good backlog to keep me busy for long, so, while the idea of Pahntom Doctrine is interesting, i can wait until they've fixed the game's problems..

The devs have mentioned they're looking into the "shooting through walls" thing and potentially offer alternatives to that approach - which I really don't know what means in this game as I haven't played it much - but apparently it's one of the major complaints.

So, it looks like they're willing to change things in upcoming patches. That's nice.

It still looks and feels like a very intricate and complex tactical/strategy game - so I'm relatively confident it'll end up being very good.

I don't care about random generators nor broken stealth.
I care about story - is there any and is it good enough to give reason for game? If it does, I'm buying. If not, well, I don't want another Candy Crush and Tetris in a new outfit.

Probably buying eventually, as the setting is too intriguing to pass up, but like most I'll be holding off until a "complete" edition hits the shelves.