Phantom Brigade has fantastical action , but a want of variety makes thigs dull after a while .
I ’ve been lie with the drum of “ turn - based simultaneous resolution ” for years now , and it ’s always prissy to see a new secret plan doing something with it . One of the most late examples that I think isIron Danger , which really lend oneself the organisation to a fancy RPG and total time - use . And inPhantom Brigade , the scheme is utilize to a mecha setting … with add time - use !
InPhantom Brigade , your soldiers live in a vaguely described quasi - European country that ’s often see outside of an gum anime . Also , mecha are the newest military horniness . on the spur of the moment , a dim enemy attacks and overruns the estate . You , the pilots of the Phantom Brigade , are the only subsister of the schematic armed forces . It is now up to you to strike back , liberate realm after region , and retake the homeland . The project would be insurmountable if not for the fact that your mechs are fit out with a system that lets them predict the action five second base into the future .
I was a mech, and young
Functionally , Phantom Brigadeis a tactical plot where you control up to four mechs and some friend that tag along now and again . Each go of action lasts five arcsecond , but between those turn you have infinite time to ascertain what you ’ll squad will do . you could also see what the foe is planning , and that power will tip the scale of measurement in your favor .
There are n’t too many move parts to be aware of when making architectural plan . Make certain the mechs are at the right spot , the target are in optimum orbit , and the heat gauge is not boiling over . The automaton wo n’t shut down from overheating , but they will take equipment casualty . As health is tracked per dead body part ( left sleeve , correct arm , upper trunk , legs ) , this may be the difference between get to keep your gun branch or drop off it .
When it work , it ’s very cool . As another nerd ally of mine put it , “ using armored cavalry tactics and tearing the foe power asunder is so live up to in a very ‘ Front Missionway . ’ ” He is right ; the mecha move and push a lot more likeFront MissionthanBattletech . There ’s an explosion of force once the turn commences . Stray shot guess integral way out of buildings . Sci - fi base tower collapse as enceinte beam span over them . auto are crushed without a single intellection . Mecha several stories high zoom on jets , leaping over terrain and onto buildings .
Pictured: a relatively calm battle inPhantom Brigade. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Mecha get stumble . Limbs disintegrate under fire . They pass as the legs are film from under them . The pilots force them into a limp , test to get to base hit and release . They do n’t make it as giant machineguns , shaft of light rifles , and swarms of rockets tear them to shreds . In the earth ofPhantom Brigade , a simple 30 seconds will have passed between the start of the battle and the last of the failure is coating the insides of their own buffer ejection seat .
This “Phantom Brigade” doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance!
But that’swhile it works . ThoughPhantom Brigade‘s battles are technically forgetful , there ’s a whole mess of them , and the game starts dragging really tight . At 37.2 time of day , I palpate like I ’ve seen everything . I ’ve fought and refought nearly the same missions for hours . Oh , I ’m attacking a military al-Qaida ? There will be turrets and — potentially — an warning signal tugboat to destruct to prevent reinforcer from showing up . Oh , am I ambushing a convoy ? Well , no usance try out to steal the goods ! Getting a mecha near a truck and and brook there for three twist before escape takes too long . It ’s much well-heeled — and much faster — to just kill everyone .
Having unlocked the power to call in Home Guard reinforcements , I barely even used it . They only make it on turn 3 and , by then , the violent death is nigh done .
Oh , the Home Guard . When you move onto a province in the safari map , you may commence its liberation by formerly mobilise the Home Guard , the resistance . Without them , stump out all the enemy radical in the surface area will execute nothing outside of the loot you take . But once the Home Guard gets demand , you get two gouges representing the situation : Home Guard strength and the foeman force . Enemy specialty is exhaust by combat , but the best style to go about is to assault critical position ( or , sometimes , vital patrol ) .
And thus the fight against the HOA continues. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Home Guard power is lost as they miss struggle . And they always fall back fight ; if you do n’t bail them out , they ’ll misplace every last one . That ’s just how the plot works : there ’s no mechanical tussle behind the screen , it ’s just a timekeeper on a impermanent decisive locating .
Whether the battle has just started or the Home Guard has been whittle down to 1 % , when you join it , you ’ll have only one ally on the field : a tank . It ’s always a unmarried army tank , and the most canonic framework at that . The battle itself just a standup fighting ; you ’ve done one like this many time before . The map is untouched , as if the desperate struggle happened somewhere else . The foeman , like always , will be a mix of storage tank and mecha , though they do have more varieties of tank weapons . They will , after on , start field “ Tank , But Bigger . ”
Not a fly armoured combat vehicle , not a helicopter , not horde of tiny mechs — Tank , But braggart — and that ’s just emblematic of lack of variety inPhantom Brigade . The platforms the foe give at you do n’t matter ; you just mark the weapon and the mech weightiness socio-economic class ( because you do n’t want to shoulder undertake a mech of same or higher class ) . This isn’tBattletech , as there are no iconic mechs or iconic loadouts . Seeing whether an enemy mech is using all Arrow part or all Ebon parts is not authoritative . For tanks , you could almost snub what they ’re armed with , too .
The implication is that you may want to conquer all of this, though you only need to surround the capital district to go for the endgame battle. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Sic transit gloria looting
Even the loot finally loses its lustre . Sure , you mix and pit your mech with any combo of subdivision ( left and right-hand ) , legs ( one piece , actually ) , trunk , and weapons . Slap Arrow share together with Ebon or Knox , mix great with light , it does n’t count . At the final stage of the day , rarity and level rule . And , unlike inFront Mission , you ca n’t go quadruple , though silly swords and axes exist .
There are three curiosity level , from common to rare , and 20 - ish levels . And rarified ( juicy ) will always be right than gray-haired ( common ) or green ( uncommon ) . I kept a Level 3 blue shotgun until the rest of the mech was all even 9 blueness , plainly because I could n’t line up a better blue weapon . The only reason why I used gray railguns was because I could n’t find any dear . But the ability to fire through the terrain is ridiculously upright .
Maybe … MaybePhantom Brigadewould have been better if , instead of mixing mech parts , its combination were fixed , making both learning to identify — and looting — specific type utilitarian .
Ramming a lighter target stuns it. All tanks are lighter targets. Screenshot by PC Invasion
The prize stops mattering as you increase your content to manufacture mech parts . Sure , you could never choose what mod the item will have once it wave off the assembly line . In fact , the game does n’t even recite you , but the ability to craft rares , even if special resource - intensive , means that salvage start playing fourth violin .
So at the end of the day , when I ’ve ensure all the maps — even if they ’re dainty — and I ’ve experienced all the missionary station I can do , what ’s left ? The mise en scene , the storey ? Well , the 2nd part of my friend ’s quote was “ the world - construction seems passably weak compared toFront MissionorAce Combatso far . ” He had n’t beenPhantom Brigadefor long . I have , and I know it does n’t get upright . Those may be silly options , but they ’re options , and people get invested in them . InPhantom Brigade , I could n’t remember the name of the area or the foe junto 37 hours in .
I do n’t even have a link to my pilots . surely , I can localize their public figure , nicknames , customize their spirit and even choose their pronouns , but it does nothing . The game does n’t draw their names or bios or conduct ( which are all pointless , as far as I ’m aware ) for event or whole barks or anything . They ’re just the part of the mech that has a health legal profession that tracks whether your robot was taken out by concussion or not . Sometimes , you switch out a pilot for a rested one , and that ’s it .
Behold the dread form of Tank, But Bigger! Screenshot by PC Invasion
All in all , Phantom Brigadeis a undecomposed mech game if you do n’t bring it for too long . Around the time your gear starts hitting level 10 , it will have been too farsighted . But the game expects you to go into the final battle a lot well devise , and I do n’t know why you ’d will yourself to do that unless you really love the timed battles . And for all the spectacle they lay out with swarming rockets and ray slicing apartment buildings apart , I finally found myself jaded .
The workshop “charges” are actually templates you can make infinite copies of as long as you have the resources. Sometimes, you can loot a ridiculous amount of said charges. Screenshot by PC Invasion
But there’s adogin the game and everybody loves a heckin woofer in a game! Screenshot by PC Invasion
