Phoenix Point’s Long Road To Greatness
Phoenix Point has had a pretty unusual journey. Created by Julian Gollop, the original mind behind the classic X COM, it promised a deeper and more complex take on modern strategy than Firaxis’ slick reboots. On paper it sounded like a dream for tactics fans: detailed soldier inventories, multiple human factions, manual aiming, and terrifying mutating enemies.
In practice, the launch version fell short. Players ran into bugs, heavy repetition, and a lot of micromanagement that made long campaigns feel more like work than fun. The core idea was strong, but the overall experience did not quite land the way fans hoped.
Then the community stepped in. A mega mod called Terror from the Void completely shook things up and showed just how good Phoenix Point could really be. Now, to celebrate the game’s fifth birthday, the developers at Snapshot Games have released the Firebird update, a patch that openly takes inspiration from that mod and tries to bring the base game closer to what fans actually want.
How Terror From The Void Changed The Game
Terror from the Void is a massive fan made overhaul that goes way beyond a simple tweak or balance pass. It is almost a relaunch of Phoenix Point inside the same engine. The mod adds a new story, reshapes how progression feels, and layers in fresh mechanics that make each campaign more tense and unpredictable.
Some of the standout changes in Terror from the Void include:
- A reworked campaign structure with a new narrative thread.
- Delirium infections that can change your soldiers’ abilities, turning mental stress into a real gameplay system.
- The horrifying possibility of zombified former squadmates returning as enemies and fighting against you.
For many Phoenix Point players, this mod is the definitive way to experience the game. It tightens pacing, deepens strategy, and makes the alien threat feel more dynamic and sinister. It has been praised so widely that even Snapshot Games themselves are tipping their hat to it.
In a Steam post for the new update, Snapshot gives a direct shout out to the modders behind Terror from the Void and openly admits that many changes in the Firebird update are inspired by their work. That is a rare and refreshing kind of honesty from a studio, and it is great to see official support leaning into what the community loves.
What The Firebird Update Actually Changes
The Firebird update is all about fixing the pacing of Phoenix Point and smoothing out the roughest edges of long campaigns. Snapshot clearly listened to the common complaints about the late game feeling like a grind and has tweaked systems to keep the tension high without burning players out.
Here are the most important changes in the Firebird patch:
- Faster research: Research times are reduced by about 20 percent. That means you unlock key technologies and story beats faster, so you get to the interesting decisions sooner instead of sitting on long timers.
- Quicker faction endgame projects: Construction times for faction ending project buildings are cut in half. That shortens the drag at the tail end of the campaign and helps the story close on a stronger, more exciting note.
- Ammo is easier to produce: Ammunition is less of a resource headache, which reduces micromanagement and lets you focus more on tactical decisions and geoscape strategy rather than constantly babysitting your stockpiles.
- Less punishing base defenses: Base defense missions have been reworked so they are not as brutal. Defending your own HQ should feel tense but not like an instant campaign killer for one mistake.
One of the biggest mechanical changes is how the game now handles the evolution of the Pandorans, Phoenix Point’s aquatic alien enemies. Previously, Pandorans would gain evolution points even when they lost battles or had bases destroyed. The result was a weird contradiction: the more you fought successfully, the stronger your enemies became, and difficulty could spike in a way that felt unfair.
Firebird changes this so Pandorans no longer earn evolution points from losing. This mirrors a core improvement from Terror from the Void and keeps difficulty growth from spiraling just because you are doing well. It is still a challenging game, but now it is less likely to punish you simply for winning.
On top of that, the update also:
- Makes soldier rescue missions more predictable in difficulty so you know more clearly what level of threat you are walking into when trying to save new recruits.
- Increases the frequency of ambush missions to keep the world feeling dangerous and alive.
- Adds loot crates to ambush missions, giving you extra tactical goals on the map and rewards that can boost your chances of survival if you take calculated risks.
Importantly, the Firebird update is designed to be fully compatible with Terror from the Void, both for new campaigns and those already in progress. Snapshot does recommend making sure your mods are updated to their latest versions, but otherwise everything should work together. That means you can enjoy the best of both worlds: official balance and pacing improvements on top of the deep overhaul from the community.
To sweeten the deal, Snapshot is running a sale to celebrate Phoenix Point’s fifth birthday and the release of Firebird. The game is currently 60 percent off, dropping the price from 25 dollars to around 10 dollars, with a similar cut in other regions. For anyone who loves tactical strategy, especially fans of X COM style games on PC, that is a strong offer given how much the experience has improved since launch.
Between years of patches, the ambitious Terror from the Void mod, and now the Firebird update tying everything closer together, Phoenix Point has finally grown into the deep, indulgent tactics game it always wanted to be. If you skipped it at launch or bounced off early, this might be the moment to give it another shot.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/phoenix-points-terror-from-the-void-mod-is-so-good-snapshot-games-just-released-a-massive-patch-to-make-the-original-game-more-like-the-fanmade-overhaul/
