Double-crossed

PHANTOM DOCTRINEs take on XCOM-style strategy manages to be exciting, original, dull, and underwhelming.

- Evan Lahti

Phantom Doctrine is a stranger XCOM with rougher edges. The combat doesn’t compare well to Firaxis’ cinematic chess game, and it does little to explain core systems that differentiate it, like stealth and detection. As you approach the end of its campaign, each mission begins to feel like the last. It reminds me a lot of Jagged Alliance—occasionally brilliant moments emerge from unpredictable systems and opaque rules, but more often I just felt bored.

At the beginning, you decide if your main character is ex-CIA or ex-KGB, and this choice sets up a distinct intro to the bad guys, a conspiracy group called The Beholder Initiative. When you’re not playing the turn-based portion of Phantom Doctrine, you’re engaged in a pausable global board game against this shadowy opponent, moving your agents between cities like pawns, playing whack-a-mole as Beholder agents try to locate your base or deny access to NPC informants. The metagame portion becomes a slight mess of alerts and micromanaging, but it adds urgency along the way.