Phoenix Point (v1.30 & ALL DLC)

Humanity’s last organized defense operates from hidden bases while a shape-shifting alien threat turns Earth into a flooded, infected ruin. Phoenix Point is a demanding turn-based tactics game built around desperate missions, global survival, and the uneasy politics of rival human factions. As commander of the Phoenix Project, you recruit soldiers, secure resources, and decide which collapsing regions are worth saving. Its mood is tense and strategic rather than heroic: every victory can cost equipment, experienced troops, or diplomatic goodwill.

Battles play out on destructible 3D maps where positioning matters, but the standout feature is free aiming. Instead of simply selecting a hit percentage, you manually line up shots on enemies’ limbs, weapons, armor plates, and vulnerable body parts, allowing clever players to disable threats even when a clean kill is impossible. Between missions, you expand a network of bases, manufacture gear, research alien biology, train specialized classes, and send aircraft across a dynamic world map. Enemy species evolve in response to your tactics, growing new defenses and mutations that force you to revise squad builds instead of leaning on one reliable strategy. The Year One Edition also folds in its major expansions and updates, adding further mission types, equipment, enemies, vehicles, and campaign complications.

What separates Phoenix Point from its XCOM relatives is its willingness to make the strategic layer messy. New Jericho, Synedrion, and the Disciples of Anu each offer technologies, ideologies, and alliances, so diplomacy can be as important as winning firefights. Procedural missions and evolving alien designs give campaigns strong replay value, although the interface and difficulty spikes demand patience and careful planning. Fans of XCOM 2, Xenonauts, or challenging squad tactics should find a lot to enjoy, especially if they want deeper tactical shooting and a more reactive global campaign; newcomers can play it, but should expect a harsher learning curve than most modern strategy games.