Phantom Doctrine

[b]Completion:[/b] CIA campaign completed, 20/47 achievements [b]Overall Score:[/b] 8/10 [hr][/hr] [h1]A Strong Cold War XCOM-Like That Makes Stealth Too Easy[/h1] Recommended if you enjoy old-school XCOM-style strategy, spy fiction and stealth-focused tactical missions. [hr][/hr] [h2]Context[/h2] Platform: PC Controls: mouse Playtime at review: ~52 hours Mode played: single-player, normal campaign on easy [hr][/hr] [h2]What This Game Is in 2-3 Sentences[/h2] This is a turn-based tactical spy game with a strategic layer that reminded me of the old DOS-era XCOM. You investigate enemy activity, manage a base and a team of agents, then carry out missions that can usually be completed without raising an alarm. The core loop: investigate suspicious activity, manage limited money and agents, connect evidence, then complete tactical missions. What makes it interesting/unique: the Cold War setting, spy management and the option to finish almost every mission through disguises and stealth. [hr][/hr] [h2]What Is Especially Good[/h2] 1) The strategic layer works well because money is scarce enough that upgrades and expenses need some actual planning. 2) Stealth is genui…

This game nailed it! Awesome experience. 10/10 Gameplay - 10/10 Optimization - 10/10 Graphics - 10/10 storylines. I'm playing it in 2026 and it still rules.

Good game, not amazing. Gets a bit repetitive after a certain point. A bit too long

It starts out promising. The X-COM influence is obvious, and the first few missions are fun enough. However, not long after, it starts to become quite a boring slog to get through. Then there's the story, I expected it to matter and be a large part of the game, but it's not. Yes, you are given some information, and the puzzle with clues helps a bit, but it’s not really interesting and there isn't much of it. The major problem is simply repetition, and I mean in everything: similar maps, similar enemies, and even your units are generally the same. On top of that, unit enhancement is a mess; without an online guide, you're just picking things at random. It is not worth the time or money.

The game seems like a low quality clone of XCOM. Game is boring. First issue is the story, it has this document matching mechanic that looked cool, until you realize those documents are just random garbage. Half of them are just pretagged pictures that you cannot zoom, the other half are random texts requiring you to find keywords, and after you finish the matching, you just get a "congratulations, here is a new agent you can recruit". No resolution, no story no explanation what happened, not even a decent reward. The second problem is the fights themself. They are boring. 99% of the time you just hide and use a single ability (mele attack). The moment you use anything else or if anyone sees you, everyone becomes aggressive and starts hunting you. There is also no time limit, so you can just keep skipping turns until oportunate moment happens (most enemies follow the same route so you sometimes have to wait 5 turns). Weapons seem to have parameters but most of those do not matter. And then there are bugs (or weird behaviors). Apparently overwatch does not work on agents or something. I setup a trap for enemy agent that I was supposed to kill, setting up 2 overwatches on en…

The crude graphics is mismatched with the overly complex systems, resulting in a lack of appeal.