Good Shepherd Entertainment and CreativeForge Games have announced that Phantom Doctrine will simultaneously release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PC version will be distributed on both Steam and GOG, with the later being DRM free.
While Phantom Doctrine may look like an '80s XCOM at first, the game seemingly aspires to be much more as both the developer and publisher claim it will have innovative features. Some of these features are a "next gen" turn based combat, deep gripping story, stealth missions, and actual investigation board and more.
The next gen turn based combat apparently features more flexibility with movement and more than one mode of overwatch, but it remains to be seen what exatly it will encompass. One thing that neither XCOM nor Wasteland 2 had is an offence oriented breaching ability, which can be seen at work in the video above at the 0:57 time stamp.
Deep gripping story definitely sounds interesting and it's not a long shot since CreativeForge Games are the same studio behind Hard West. When everyone expected a generic Wild West story, they gave us demon cowboys, so Cold War fiction definitely seems like fertile ground for juicy conspiracy theories.
According to Phantom Doctrine's , it will feature both stealth and all guns blazing missions. Players will be able to complete the former with melee and silenced weapons, without the need to go Rambo mode after the first shot they fire. This is something Firaxis never managed to pull off.
Apparently, there will be an investigation board that will not just serve as background decoration. There is a picture of it on Steam and it definitely looks like a part of the UI, which will most likely track players' progress in their rogue intelligence endeavours with The Cabal.
CreativeForge Games
There is no listed price on Steam yet, but the description in the embedded trailer states it will cost $39,99 so it's not a full AAA price. If it's true that the game will offer us a 40+ campaign, this may turn out to be a real gem.
