Every now and then an old IP will get a reboot in the modern era and it will be a standout success. The one that is most relevant to Phantom Doctrine would be last generation’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown, opposed to the disappointing take on Syndicate. A reimagining is certainly not always a bad thing, but keeping a strategy game as is opposed to turning it into a FPS (or third person shooter like The Bureau: XCOM Declassified) can hold some real weight. For fans of the original Syndicate, Klei put out a lovely game called Invisible, Inc. that unofficially serves as a spiritual successor, and is probably the closest in line with Phantom Doctrine in terms of gameplay.

Upon booting up the game, you’re given a large selection of customization options for your character. Being that I don’t have much free time these days, I flew threw it, although I did find it funny that your character model can be completely different from the image you choose for your avatar. Once you get that sorted, you can either jump into a tutorial or go straight into the game. In games that contain such a deep level of thinking and options, it’s always a good idea to run through the tutorial, although this one didn’t leave me confident at all when I was then thrust into the first level. And to be honest, the story and the way it’s told was lackluster at this point, feeling like a B-movie that thought it was an A-movie about the Cold War. Initial feelings were not great.

A tutorial can make or break a game like this, as they need to be fun and succinct to the point that the player is not bored, but also ready to play the meat of the game when it’s over. Often times strategy games will bog the player down with all the rules and options, meaning the actual game is never reached (hello Tropico). Others will run through a few options and leave the player in the dark when it comes time to playing the actual thing. This game takes the latter approach, showing a few pieces of the game and not really discussing other portions that are vital for survival and success.

Not having a lot of free time these days, it’s a lot to ask me to play the game for a few hours to “get it.” I absolutely understand the appeal of learning how a game works through trial and error, and even the feeling of accomplishment when you figure out how the mechanics in games like this work. But when you provide a tutorial that is so bare-bones you essentially have to spend a few hours teaching yourself how to play the game properly, it can be a major turn-off for players that only have an hour or less to play a day, or in some cases for the week. That difficulty is only amplified by the time away as you are subject to forget key points. So is it worth the time commitment? If you’re a fan of the genre, Phantom Doctrine does a lot right, so don’t let my rant keep you from playing this.

Aside from the cutscenes, voice acting, and somewhat low quality models/environments that all made me wonder what I was getting myself into, there’s a fair amount to enjoy here. While the game offers the ability to approach the levels in multiple manners, stealth is most likely always the best. To be honest, stealth is the best option in any game, assuming you are patient. But in this, you’ll likely end up reloading checkpoints or starting over entirely more often than not if you do something brash to raise the alerts. Once the alarm is raised, you better hope you’re making your exit, as everyone on the map starts coming for you, and typically in a method that will result in getting the best of you. This becomes especially difficult in particular levels where the difficulty spikes – this isn’t a consistent rise in challenge either, as they vary from level to level.

The game plays in a turn-based manner, with your characters all being prey to permadeath. Some neat touches in this are the awareness factor of enemies that will determine effectiveness of attacks, as well as being able to view the paths that enemies will walk. There are the standard abilities such as setting up as a sentry and killing enemies that come into view, as well as waking up sleeper agents within the facilities. If you’re familiar with turn-based strategy games, this should take you less time to learn than for someone completely new to the genre.

If you’re big into spies and war stories, you will probably enjoy the narrative. While I find both to be pretty fascinating, the low budget feel of its presentation got to me as I wasn’t expecting it. If turn-based strategy games are your favorite thing to play, this brings a few new (or at least not often used) mechanics I wouldn’t mind seeing integrated in other IPs, but I don’t think this will set your world on fire. Having not played CreativeForge’s last foray into the genre, I can’t speak to whether this is an improvement or not, but I can see them continuing down this path with positive results. I just wish I could get immersed right away like I did with XCOM, opposed to spending hours wondering if it would click for me.

7 out of 10

Pros

• In Depth Strategy
• Awareness Gauge
• Grounded Setting/Characters

Cons

• Rather Cheesy
• Lacking Tutorial
• Odd Difficulty Spikes

Phantom Doctrine was developed by CreativeForge Games and published by Good Shepherd Entertainment. It was released on PC, PS4 and X1 August 14th, 2018 for $39.99. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of Phantom Doctrine, check out the official site.

 

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