A good effort of a game that could have been a great one, but fell far short.

Pro Tip: Only chapter 1 is different for each of the factions. Extended Campaign option does have additional cut scenes and two extra missions. Also, never send your guys off on their own. ;)

Basically a fully fleshed out version of X-Com: Enemy Within's covert and intelligence ops feature, so if you played and liked that you'll definitely enjoy this.

Interestingly, the setting is very well done and detailed for the time period, and surprisingly i found the actual story to be actually quite good - rare for a game of this type.

I've got to applaud the devs for creating a game with some very unique, flavorful and interesting mechanics (eg. intel board, MKULTRA, etc.) BUT i've also got to berate them for some bizarre game design choices which detracted from the reality of the setting or even simple intuition (eg. weapon tiers, agents investigating are location based but deployed teams are not, lots of useless skills/traits, etc.). I also wish it didn't get so grindy towards the end, more variety in missions and parameters would have helped in this as well as some logistical management of your cabal of agents - one of the most fun aspects of xcom. Like many other things in this game, it's there... but not quite.

At the end of the day, i did enjoy Phantom Doctrine and especially its setting and premise and for that i would recommend you give it a try. Looking forward to a sequel with the lessons learnt - this really does have the potential to be a game for the ages if done right.

A good effort of a game that could have been a great one, but fell far short. Pro Tip: Only chapter 1 is different for each of the factions. Extended Campaign option does have additional cut scenes and two extra missions. Also, never send your guys off on their own. ;) Basically a fully fleshed out version of X-Com: Enemy Within's covert and intelligence ops feature, so if you played and liked that you'll definitely enjoy this. Interestingly, the setting is very well done and detailed for the time period, and surprisingly i found the actual story to be actually quite good - rare for a game of this type. I've got to applaud the devs for creating a game with some very unique, flavorful and interesting mechanics (eg. intel board, MKULTRA, etc.) BUT i've also got to berate them for some bizarre game design choices which detracted from the reality of the setting or even simple intuition (eg. weapon tiers, agents investigating are location based but deployed teams are not, lots of useless skills/traits, etc.). I also wish it didn't get so grindy towards the end, more variety in missions and parameters would have helped in this as well as some logistical management of your cabal of agents - one of the most fun aspects of xcom. Like many other things in this game, it's there... but not quite. At the end of the day, i did enjoy Phantom Doctrine and especially its setting and premise and for that i would recommend you give it a try. Looking forward to a sequel with the lessons learnt - this really does have the potential to be a game for the ages if done right.