![]() Once you’ve cracked it, you’ll usually be able to launch a combat mission. You sift through documents for keywords, then lay out the evidence and link it up with the central target. In the briefing room you’ll use this gathered evidence to assemble one of those super cool intel maps on a cork board linked together with string. During this time they’ll recon enemy locations, go on stake-outs, tail the bad guys, and send back intel to build dossiers. The former is where you advance time for the completion of research projects, and send your agents on assignments around the globe. In fact, the majority of your time is spent between missions either on the map screen or in the briefing room. There’s less of an onus on combat than you’d expect, though. It’s all pretty camp and self-aware, but more enjoyable for it. It bounces from cliche to cliche, encompassing everything from terrorist cells to bomb defusals, microchips hidden in false teeth, double agents, and femme fatales. For example, the CIA plot sees you chasing down a pair of rogue agents in possession of nuclear launch codes, which is par for the Cold War course. Story isn’t a focus here, but the plot works as a decent enough framing device. Both sides play more or less the same, with primary differences to targets, agents, gear, and locations. Phantom Doctrine is a Cold War spy thriller set in 1983, and swaps aliens for Soviets (or the big bad CIA, if you pick the KGB instead). The biggest and most immediate difference between this and XCOM is the setting. ![]() ![]() We’ve recently seen Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle on Switch, and now we’ve got Phantom Doctrine on PS4 and Xbox One. Well, now it seems a respectable amount of time has passed that other developers are feeling safe enough to start cherry picking the elements they like. Firaxis created such an identifiable system that anyone using it would have been called out immediately. Fast-forward 5 years and it turns out I was pretty wide of the mark. When XCOM: Enemy Unknown launched in 2013, I predicted an immediate future wherein everyone aped its unique blend of turn-based combat, stylised violence, and base-building. ![]()
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