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 recreation doing one thing with it. One of the vital current examples that I bear 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 stay in a vaguely described quasi-European nation that’s typically seen exterior of an anime. Additionally, mecha are the latest navy hotness. Instantly, a imprecise enemy assaults and overruns the land. You, the pilots of the Phantom Brigade, are the one survivors of the standard navy. It’s now as much as you to strike again, liberate area after area, and retake the homeland. The duty could 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 long run.
I used to be a mech, and younger
Functionally, Phantom Brigade is a tactical recreation the place you management as much as 4 mechs and a few allies that tag alongside on occasion. Every flip of motion lasts 5 seconds, however between these turns you have got infinite time to find out what you’ll squad will do. You can too see what the enemy is planning, and that energy will tip the scales in your favor.
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. Make sure that the mechs are on the proper spot, the targets are in optimum vary, and the warmth gauge shouldn’t be 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 pal of mine put it, “utilizing armored cavalry techniques and tearing the enemy forces aside is so satisfying in a really ‘Entrance Mission method.’” He’s proper; the mecha transfer and combat much more like Entrance Mission than Battletech. There’s an explosion of violence as soon as the flip commences. Stray photographs gauge total rooms out of buildings. Sci-fi base towers collapse as heavy beams sweep over them. Vehicles are crushed and not using a single thought. Mecha a number of tales excessive soar on jets, leaping over terrain and onto buildings.
And thus the combat towards the HOA continues. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Mecha get hit. Limbs disintegrate underneath hearth. They fall because the legs are shot from underneath them. The pilots power them right into a limp, making an attempt to get to security and eject. They don’t make it as large machineguns, beam rifles, and swarms of rockets tear them to shreds. On the earth of Phantom Brigade, a mere 30 seconds could 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 a complete 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 practically the identical missions for hours. Oh, I’m attacking a navy base? There can be turrets and — probably — an alarm tower to destroy to stop reinforcements from exhibiting up. Oh, am I ambushing a convoy? Nicely, 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 only kill everybody.
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 flexibility 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 accomplished.
Oh, the House Guard. Whenever 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 exterior of the loot you’re taking. However as soon as the House Guard will get concerned, you get two gouges representing the state of affairs: House Guard energy and the enemy energy. Enemy energy is sapped by combating, however one of the simplest ways to go about is to assault important places (or, typically, important patrols).
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; if you happen to 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, it’s only a timer on a short lived important location.
Whether or not the battle has simply began or the House Guard has been whittled all the way down to 1%, if you be a part of it, you’ll have just one ally on the sphere: a tank. It’s at all times a single tank, and probably the most primary mannequin at that. The battle itself only a standup combat; you’ve accomplished one like this many occasions earlier than. The map is untouched, as if the determined battle occurred elsewhere. The enemy, like at all times, can be a mixture of tanks and mecha, although they do have extra types of tank weapons. They may, in a while, begin fielding “Tank, However Larger.”
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 word the weapon and the mech weight class (since you don’t need to shoulder sort out a mech of similar or larger class). This isn’t Battletech, as there aren’t any iconic mechs or iconic loadouts. Seeing whether or not an enemy mech is utilizing all Arrow components or all Ebon components shouldn’t be vital. For tanks, you’ll be able to 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’ll be able to’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 Stage 3 blue shotgun till the remainder of the mech was all Stage 9 blues, just because I couldn’t discover a higher blue weapon. The one purpose why I used grey railguns was as a result of I couldn’t discover any higher. However the skill to fireplace via the terrain is ridiculously good.
The workshop “costs” are literally templates you can also make infinite copies of so long as you have got the assets. Generally, you’ll be able to loot a ridiculous quantity of mentioned costs. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Perhaps… Perhaps Phantom Brigade would have been higher if, as a substitute of blending mech components, its combos have been fastened, making each studying to determine — and looting — particular sorts helpful.
The loot stops mattering as you enhance your capability to fabricate mech components. Certain, you’ll be able to by no means select what mods the merchandise could have as soon as it rolls off the meeting line. Actually, the sport doesn’t even let you know, however the skill to craft rares, even when particular resource-intensive, signifies 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? Nicely, the second a part of my pal’s quote was “the world-building appears fairly weak in comparison with Entrance Mission or Ace Fight to this point.” 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 folks get invested in them. In Phantom Brigade, I couldn’t bear in mind the title of the nation or the enemy faction 37 hours in.
However there’s a canine within the recreation and all people loves a heckin woofer in a recreation! Screenshot by PC Invasion
I don’t actually have a hyperlink to my pilots. Certain, I can set their names, nicknames, customise their seems and even select their pronouns, however it does nothing. The sport doesn’t pull their names or bios or demeanors (that are completely 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. Generally, you turn out a pilot for a rested one, and that’s it.
All in all, Phantom Brigade is an efficient mech recreation if you happen to don’t play it for too lengthy. Across the time your gear begins hitting degree 10, it would have been too lengthy. However the recreation expects you to enter the ultimate battle rather a lot higher ready, and I don’t know why you’d will your self to try this until you actually love the timed battles. And for all of the spectacle they offered with swarming rockets and beams slicing house buildings aside, I ultimately discovered myself jaded.
