Phoenix Point’s geoscape is as dark and full of terrors as its battles

You can tell a lot about an XCOM-like from its geoscape. Firaxis rendered Planet Earth in oceanic blue for Enemy Unknown, shimmering and hopeful, much like the mercenary story at its heart. But Phoenix Point paints the world in black. The continents on its surface stand out in relief, as if embossed, the land pockmarked and uneven, as if the whole world were merely a lump of charcoal. Over the oceans, a smattering of white suggests stars and constellations or a recently rubbed out chalkboard, the dots and lines hinting at information just beyond our view. Phoenix Point, like X-Com before it, is all about the unknown - the inky blackness that will inevitably give way to horrors should you dare to push into it. Near the poles, the globe resolves into rings, like those in the trunk of a tree. You might surmise that it is very old, which is true - the design for Phoenix Point’s geoscape is rooted in the very first X-Com, which designer Julian Gollop worked on back in the early ‘90s.

from PCGamesN https://ift.tt/2B2HUan