Phantom Doctrine wants you to get comfortable with getting your hands dirty. In the style of XCOM, this stealth-action tactics game coming from developer CreativeForge Games--the same team behind the occult-western tactical-RPG Hard West--puts you in control of the last line of defense against an evil organization looking to attain world domination. Even though you're fighting for "the greater good," the decisions you'll make will have you question whether the ends justify the means.
Channeling the works of notable fiction of the spy genre, including John le Carré's Karla series, Atomic Blonde,and--oddly enough, according to the developers--Rocky IV, Phantom Doctrine is set during a period of immense distrust and secrecy. As the commander of the shadowy organization known as The Cabal, you'll engage in the seedy and dark world of espionage during the tail-end of the Cold War in an alternate 1983. With a sinister threat known as The Conspiracy slowly expanding its reach across the world, your organization will need to counter its growth by launching operations to dismantle their control over criminal syndicates and even world governments. But in doing so, The Cabal will have to make some tough, morally ambiguous choices to wipe out The Conspiracy--possibly putting the world at even greater risk.
There's a lot of focus placed on the actual investigation of The Conspiracy in Phantom Doctrine. During downtime in your base, you'll be able to examine clues and interrogate captured assets to gain new data. In order to open the pathway to key operations, The Cabal will need to tackle smaller scale ops, such as sending your operatives on timed missions to other countries or build new tech and data-gathering networks for your operation. When unraveling the complex connections between persons of interest, you'll engage in an interesting mini-game that emulates a paranoid conspiracy theorist's crazy wall of connections. In Phantom Doctrine, you'll need to examine all the data and clues in order to unlock the pathway to new operations and key assets.
In similar fashion to XCOM, you'll micro-manage the ins and out of your operation, its resources, and expand the scope of The Cabal by recruiting new members to take on bolder missions. With command over The Cabal, you'll have to accomplish your goals by any means necessary--which includes local and state-level espionage, assassinations, and even disrupting foreign governments. From your secret base, you'll be able to customize, upgrade, and command your group of operatives made up of soldiers, spies, tacticians, and scientists recruited over the course of the campaign. Eventually, you'll find special engineers and scientists that can craft rare equipment and even dabble in performance-enhancing drugs for your agents.
While these members can join The Cabal willingly, there may be some cases where you'll need to forceful methods--such as sending captured targets through a round of brainwashing to bring them into the fold. While you can place them onto your strike team of operatives or keep them in your base, you can also turn them into sleeper agents and send them back to their countries of origin. When the time comes, you can activate these agents with a trigger phrase, allowing you to gain intel and even have an extra hand during field-ops. In such cases, sleeper agents will turn against their group when the need for it comes.
While out in the field, you can command your crew of operatives to tackle the missions in anyway you see fit. Within a turn-based tactical structure, you'll guide the team's actions and execute their moves to accomplish several goals throughout the operation. Each choice you make in the field, whether it's choosing to hack a computer to disable CCTV cameras, send one of your operatives into cover, or take out a guard, matters. While some assignments will recommend a specific approach such as stealth, Phantom Doctrine is pretty loose with how you choose to go about each mission. Before each operation you can outfit your crew accordingly, either going full tactical action, or opting for the quieter approach. In addition to your main strike team, you can also bring in support members such as snipers stationed on nearby roofs, or helicopter gunners for when things get hectic. But above all, it's important to accomplish your goals quickly and get out of dodge since you're under the pressure of a limited turn count, otherwise, you lose valuable assets that'd compromise your agency.
Phantom Doctrine brings together a lot of clever ideas and concepts for its take on the tactical RPG. Many of your choices have a lasting impact on the campaign; perma-death and the loss of valuable resources are a looming threat for your agency. This strategy-sim gives off a perpetual vibe that the world is one failed mission away from the brink of chaos. The setting of the mid-1980s also offers a refreshing change of pace for the genre, giving a strong feeling of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that was prevalent during the era. Phantom Doctrine's approach to the tactics genre within a more realistic and grounded space makes it feel like the stakes are all the more real--which should undoubtedly make for tense and exciting campaign come late 2018 when it releases for PC.