It's a good day to be alive if you still wax nostalgic for the 1994 PC/PS1 strategy game X-Com: Enemy Unknown (X-Com: UFO Defense for North America). The game is in many ways a masterpiece and continues to remain a presence on many gaming journalists "Top PC Games" lists. Creator Julian Gollop's work would go on to spawn a number of sequels and spiritual successors, each trying to recapture as much of the original's combination of geopolitical maneuvering with squad-based tactical combat with varying levels of success. Now it looks like the man who was behind the wheel for the first title is going to try and strike gold twice with the announcement of his new game Phoenix Point.
https://twitter.com/julian_gollop/status/710810204347224064 As Phoenix Point is currently in its initial stages with his studio, Snapshot Games, at the head, there has yet to be any substantial news around its development. As it stands there seems to be little info about the game itself besides that it will have a similar theme and scale to the original X-Com title. Currently Phoenix Point's webpage only shows a shadowy towering alien like figure as a background with a link to receive further email updates.
This announcement also comes on the tail of Julian Gollop's well-received fantasy strategy game Chaos Reborn. Chaos Reborn is his first independent release since Laser Squad Nemesis in 2002 and has ongoing work to implement features that were promised during it's successful kickstarter which raised over 200k for development. Before that he had been working with developers Ubisoft and Namco.
Quick-Take
It's nice to see a return to form for one of the most influential figures in PC strategy gaming. While details are practically non-existent at this stage, hopefully this will be the start of something beautiful for new and old fans alike.
