Phantom Doctrine is a bit of an enigma. With a secret base you build across a campaign and turn-based combat on an isometric grid, it walks and talks like an XCOM set in the Cold War. But from what we've played, this isn't simply a reskin where sectoids are swapped for Soviets—refreshingly, Russia isn't the bad guy at all, but a secretive group known as The Beholder Initiative.

Instead of soldiers, you build a roster of agent-operatives, who populate a world map filled with enemy agents. Unlike XCOM, both your spies and your enemies can be captured, put under the influence of each other's brainwashing, then released back into the world for later instruction. Perhaps you'll lose track of your Czech agent Wendigo in Kiev, only to have them return to you weeks later at 1 HP, unsure if they escaped bravely or are actually a double agent.

A new video given to us by CreativeForge games explains how espionage and conspiracy-untangling fit alongside the trappings of XCOM—check it out above ahead of Phantom Doctrine's release date of August 14.

Phantom Doctrine, CreativeForge Games' strategic turn-based espionage thriller that feels a wee bit like XCOM, has a release date. Enter the Cold War on August 14, 2018. 

Now enter its latest trailer:

Phantom Doctrine is a lucky bag of spy staples and stereotypes, with cover operations, counterintelligence, secret organisations and, so says publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment, a dose of paranoia. 

As head of The Cabal, an undercover cohort fighting against a global conspiracy, you'll direct your base from the underground. You'll recruit and train agents, investigate cases, research new tech and biochemical engineering. And you'll interrogate and brainwash and forge documents and identities.But don't listen to me paraphrasing a press release, listen to Jody whose hands-on impressions of an early build are a delight. Let me pick out my favourite excerpt:

My favorite part of the base is the conspiracy corkboard where I get to analyze the documents. Each scrap of text full of blacked-out secrets has to be pored over for codenames and locations, which can then be connected to the same names when they show up in other documents. It's a simple matter of clicking on, say, a photo of a suspect and dragging a piece of string to a corroborating folder or piece of microfiche, but it quickly becomes a tangle of pushpins and color-coordinated string just like in the movies. Make enough connections and a new mission unlocks, whether to raid a location or take out a target or steal some more info. 

Jody even illustrates the above with a gif:

Elsewhere, Jody explores Phantom Doctrine's likeness to games like SpyParty, Alpha Protocol, the Tom Clancy catalogue, and, of course, X-Com/XCOM. Read that in its entirety here.

If you fancy any of that, Phantom Doctrine is due on PC via Steam on August 14, 2018. It'll cost £29.99/$39.99.