Phantom Brigade Review

Although turn-based strategies consistently arouse the interest of gamers, truly outstanding projects appear very rarely. The authors of Phantom Brigade succeeded.

Developer Brace Yourself Games spent over two years in testing before its release on Steam. The developers managed to mark the Industries of Titan strategy and the Crypt of the Necrodancer roguelike before. The authors entered into an agreement with Epic, which made the project exclusive, and then worked long and hard on the game, trying to bring it to perfection.

The Phantom Brigade brings you up to speed quickly. The action takes place in an unknown country, which was attacked by an army of incomprehensible invaders in red uniform, who quickly captured an impressive piece of the state. Under the player’s command is a small guerrilla unit of mechs. The task is to return the conquered enemy back.

After a short introduction with a tutorial and screensavers, the player gets a huge map with dozens of provinces. Your brigade will move around the territory. You can manage a lot of things – pilots, mechs, upgrades and a workshop. New resources are regularly received that can be spent on repairs and improvements.

It is required to perform actions during the game quickly – it is advisable to choose cities, farms and military bases to attack. Sometimes it turns out to use the help of local militias. When a series of battles has passed, the area passes under your control.

Pilots can get a concussion during a duel, causing the car to no longer work and crash. Furs deserve much more attention. The body of each includes legs, arms, top and torso. Parts are destroyed, receiving damage of various types – thermal, kinetic, shock.

Each mech gets a weapon – primary and secondary. The range is quite large – here you have railguns, and machine guns, and rocket launchers, swords, and much more. There is a system of modules that are installed in weapons or body parts.

The Phantom Brigade does not have the classic experience system, the level of the mech depends on the details. When attacking, you need to take it into account, sometimes it is worth choosing weaker opponents.

Now – about the main possibility of the player. He is able to look into the future for five seconds, which makes any battle divided into small segments. Being able to know what the enemy is preparing to do is very useful. You can move according to their actions, which allows a small squad of mechs to dominate the battle even in the most difficult situations.

When you look at the timeline, it looks like you are in a video editing application. Mechs can run, attack, defend. A number of actions can be performed simultaneously. For example, you can run and shoot at the same time. Constantly attacking also fails – the weapon overheats.

The fights are thought out and will allow you to get a lot of thrills. Everything looks very interesting – big cars move, shoot rockets and lasers, block attacks, jump and dodge.

The game has some destructibility. A building can be pierced through and collapsed, a tree broken, furs pushed against each other. It is a pity that there is no full-fledged story campaign. When you find the perfect tactic, every battle will end in victory. This project is ideal for those who like mechs, long tactical battles and an incredibly interesting combat system.

Although there is no variety and interesting plot twists here, the project may well captivate. The developers came up with a fresh and interesting game, which is very important in an industry dominated by clichés. An excellent system of tactical battles, the graphics are not outstanding, but pleasant, the possibility of a well-developed mech customization – there is something to impress in the game.