I’ve been banging the drum of “turn-based simultaneous decision” for years now, and it’s at all times good to see a brand new sport doing one thing with it. One of the vital current examples that I keep in mind is Iron Hazard, which really utilized the system to a fantasy RPG and added time-manipulation. And in Phantom Brigade, the system is utilized to a mecha setting… with added time-manipulation!
In Phantom Brigade, your troopers dwell in a vaguely described quasi-European nation that’s usually seen outdoors of an anime. Additionally, mecha are the latest navy hotness. All of the sudden, a imprecise enemy assaults and overruns the land. You, the pilots of the Phantom Brigade, are the one survivors of the traditional navy. It’s now as much as you to strike again, liberate area after area, and retake the homeland. The duty can be insurmountable if not for the truth that your mechs are outfitted with a system that lets them predict the motion 5 seconds into the longer term.
I used to be a mech, and younger
Functionally, Phantom Brigade is a tactical sport the place you management as much as 4 mechs and a few allies that tag alongside every now and then. Every flip of motion lasts 5 seconds, however between these turns you’ve got infinite time to find out what you’ll squad will do. You may also see what the enemy is planning, and that energy will tip the scales in your favor.
![Phantom Brigade Reviewe (52)](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Phantom-Brigade-reviewe-52.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
Pictured: a comparatively calm battle in Phantom Brigade. Screenshot by PC Invasion
There aren’t too many shifting components to pay attention to when planning. Ensure that the mechs are on the proper spot, the targets are in optimum vary, and the warmth gauge is just not boiling over. The robots gained’t shut down from overheating, however they may take injury. As well being is tracked per physique half (left arm, proper arm, higher torso, legs), this can be the distinction between getting to maintain your gun arm or shedding it.
When it really works, it’s very cool. As one other nerd buddy of mine put it, “utilizing armored cavalry ways and tearing the enemy forces aside is so satisfying in a really ‘Entrance Mission approach.’” He’s proper; the mecha transfer and battle much more like Entrance Mission than Battletech. There’s an explosion of violence as soon as the flip commences. Stray pictures gauge whole rooms out of buildings. Sci-fi base towers collapse as heavy beams sweep over them. Vehicles are crushed with no single thought. Mecha a number of tales excessive soar on jets, leaping over terrain and onto buildings.
![Phantom Brigade Reviewe (49)](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Phantom-Brigade-reviewe-49.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
And thus the battle in opposition to the HOA continues. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Mecha get hit. Limbs disintegrate below fireplace. They fall because the legs are shot from below them. The pilots pressure them right into a limp, making an attempt to get to security and eject. They don’t make it as big machineguns, beam rifles, and swarms of rockets tear them to shreds. On the planet of Phantom Brigade, a mere 30 seconds may have handed between the beginning of the battle and the final of the losers is coating the insides of their very own pilot capsule.
This “Phantom Brigade” doesn’t stand a ghost of an opportunity!
However that’s whereas it really works. Although Phantom Brigade‘s battles are technically quick, there’s an entire lot of them, and the sport begins dragging actually quick. At 37.2 hours, I really feel like I’ve seen the whole lot. I’ve fought and refought almost the identical missions for hours. Oh, I’m attacking a navy base? There might be turrets and — doubtlessly — an alarm tower to destroy to stop reinforcements from displaying up. Oh, am I ambushing a convoy? Properly, no use making an attempt to steal the products! Getting a mecha close to a truck and and standing there for 3 turns earlier than escaping takes too lengthy. It’s a lot simpler — and far sooner — to simply kill everybody.
![Phantom Brigade Reviewe (53)](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Phantom-Brigade-reviewe-53.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
The implication is that you could be need to conquer all of this, although you solely have to encompass the capital district to go for the endgame battle. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Having unlocked the power to name in House Guard reinforcements, I barely even used it. They solely arrive on flip 3 and, by then, the killing is sort of performed.
Oh, the House Guard. If you transfer onto a province within the marketing campaign map, you can begin its liberation by previously summoning the House Guard, the resistance. With out them, stomping out all of the enemy bases within the space will accomplish nothing outdoors of the loot you are taking. However as soon as the House Guard will get concerned, you get two gouges representing the scenario: House Guard energy and the enemy energy. Enemy energy is sapped by combating, however the easiest way to go about is to assault vital areas (or, typically, vital patrols).
![Phantom Brigade Reviewe (50)](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Phantom-Brigade-reviewe-50.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
Ramming a lighter goal stuns it. All tanks are lighter targets. Screenshot by PC Invasion
House Guard energy is misplaced as they lose battles. And so they at all times lose battles; for those who don’t bail them out, they’ll lose each final one. That’s simply how the sport works: there’s no mechanical tussle behind the display screen, it’s only a timer on a short lived vital location.
Whether or not the battle has simply began or the House Guard has been whittled all the way down to 1%, once you be part of it, you’ll have just one ally on the sphere: a tank. It’s at all times a single tank, and essentially the most primary mannequin at that. The battle itself only a standup battle; you’ve performed one like this many instances earlier than. The map is untouched, as if the determined battle occurred someplace else. The enemy, like at all times, might be a mixture of tanks and mecha, although they do have extra sorts of tank weapons. They’ll, afterward, begin fielding “Tank, However Larger.”
![Phantom Brigade Reviewe (75)](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Phantom-Brigade-reviewe-75.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
Behold the dread type of Tank, However Larger! Screenshot by PC Invasion
Not a flying tank, not a helicopter, not swarms of tiny mechs — Tank, However Larger — and that’s simply emblematic of lack of selection in Phantom Brigade. The platforms the enemy throws at you don’t matter; you simply observe the weapon and the mech weight class (since you don’t need to shoulder sort out a mech of similar or increased class). This isn’t Battletech, as there are not any iconic mechs or iconic loadouts. Seeing whether or not an enemy mech is utilizing all Arrow components or all Ebon components is just not essential. For tanks, you may nearly ignore what they’re armed with, too.
Sic transit gloria looting
Even the loot finally loses its luster. Certain, you combine and match your mech with any combo of arms (left and proper), legs (one piece, really), torso, and weapons. Slap Arrow components along with Ebon or Knox, combine heavy with gentle, it doesn’t matter. On the finish of the day, rarity and degree rule. And, not like in Entrance Mission, you may’t go quadrupled, although foolish swords and axes exist.
There are three rarity ranges, from frequent to uncommon, and 20-ish ranges. And uncommon (blue) will at all times be higher than grey (frequent) or inexperienced (unusual). I saved a Degree 3 blue shotgun till the remainder of the mech was all Degree 9 blues, just because I couldn’t discover a higher blue weapon. The one cause why I used grey railguns was as a result of I couldn’t discover any higher. However the capacity to fireplace by means of the terrain is ridiculously good.
![Phantom Brigade Reviewe (66)](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Phantom-Brigade-reviewe-66.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
The workshop “fees” are literally templates you may make infinite copies of so long as you’ve got the assets. Typically, you may loot a ridiculous quantity of mentioned fees. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Possibly… Possibly Phantom Brigade would have been higher if, as an alternative of blending mech components, its mixtures had been fastened, making each studying to establish — and looting — particular varieties helpful.
The loot stops mattering as you enhance your capability to fabricate mech components. Certain, you may by no means select what mods the merchandise may have as soon as it rolls off the meeting line. Actually, the sport doesn’t even let you know, however the capacity to craft rares, even when particular resource-intensive, implies that salvage begins taking part in fourth fiddle.
So on the finish of the day, after I’ve seen all of the maps — even when they’re good — and I’ve skilled all of the missions I can do, what’s left? The setting, the story? Properly, the second a part of my buddy’s quote was “the world-building appears fairly weak in comparison with Entrance Mission or Ace Fight up to now.” He hadn’t been Phantom Brigade for lengthy. I’ve, and I do know it doesn’t get higher. These could also be foolish settings, however they’re settings, and other people get invested in them. In Phantom Brigade, I couldn’t keep in mind the identify of the nation or the enemy faction 37 hours in.
![Phantom Brigade Reviewe (46)](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Phantom-Brigade-reviewe-46.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
However there’s a canine within the sport and everyone loves a heckin woofer in a sport! Screenshot by PC Invasion
I don’t also have a hyperlink to my pilots. Certain, I can set their names, nicknames, customise their seems to be and even select their pronouns, however it does nothing. The sport doesn’t pull their names or bios or demeanors (that are totally pointless, so far as I’m conscious) for occasions or unit barks or something. They’re simply the a part of the mech that has a well being bar that tracks whether or not your robotic was taken out by concussion or not. Typically, you turn out a pilot for a rested one, and that’s it.
All in all, Phantom Brigade is an effective mech sport for those who don’t play it for too lengthy. Across the time your gear begins hitting degree 10, it can have been too lengthy. However the sport expects you to enter the ultimate battle quite a bit higher ready, and I don’t know why you’d will your self to do this until you actually love the timed battles. And for all of the spectacle they introduced with swarming rockets and beams slicing condominium buildings aside, I ultimately discovered myself jaded.