Good day. Do you want XCOM? Do you just like the current and wonderful MechWarrior Ways recreation? And most significantly, are you in any respect within the passage of time? In that case, then there’s somebody I’d such as you to fulfill.
That is Phantom Brigade, a turn-based techniques recreation that got here out final week. It’s a recreation of two halves, one the place you command a squad of mechs on the battlefield, the opposite placing you accountable for strategic stuff like conquering enemy areas, managing pilots and upgrading/repairing your mechs.
These are all issues I like and issues I’ll take a look at out in even essentially the most fundamental try at a turn-based recreation. However Phantom Brigade is admittedly setting itself aside in a couple of key methods.
First up, it seems superb. It’s received a really Digital On form of vibe occurring with its mech design (and animation, even), and I simply love how slick and funky the entire thing seems. Even the interface is superb, taking cues from video games like Limitless Legend, and displaying that simply because a recreation is about technique doesn’t imply it additionally cant look good.
Subsequent, this isn’t strictly a turn-based techniques recreation. Like Damaged Traces, which I appreciated and wrote about a couple of years again, Phantom Brigade is kinda turn-based, in that you simply undoubtedly get on a regular basis on this planet to line up your strikes, however the precise decision of these choices performs out in real-time.
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The story’s narrative basis is that you simply and your crew of mech pilots have gotten maintain of a secret prototype weapon that allows you to see briefly into the long run. Simply lengthy sufficient to see how far an enemy unit goes to maneuver within the subsequent 5 seconds, and what they’re going to do whereas they’re getting there. Handy!
It really works like…a video editor. The developer walkthrough beneath takes you thru it intimately, however the strategy planning stage of every flip entails lining up a sequence of actions on a timeline, on which you’re capable of “scrub” backwards and forwards to see how every little thing goes to go. When every little thing is to your liking, you hit play execute and the entire sequence of strikes performs out.
Which may sound straightforward. If you happen to can see into the long run, then you’ll be able to see what your opponent is doing, and you may merely react accordingly. However there’s problem and unpredictably inherent on this, since each time you shoot, or transfer, or come into bodily contact, or deploy a defend, these actions are timed, and play out throughout an animation sequence.
Combating recreation followers would possibly know the place that is going; it’s all nice seeing what your opponent is doing and organising one thing to defeat or counter it, however when you get the timing unsuitable, then you definitely’re fucked.
You may additionally have observed from that video and gif that Phantom Brigade is, because of this emphasis on timing, all the time transferring. There’s little or no extended use of canopy right here, the sport needs to make this extra of a dance than a gunfight. I’m very a lot into this at only a click-by-click stage, because it all the time offers me loads to do, even on turns the place it seems like not a lot is going on.
The sport launched in Early Entry on the Epic Video games Retailer a few years in the past, which is once we first coated it, however has now reached model 1.0 standing and dropped on Steam as nicely, trying a little bit slicker and enjoying a little bit tighter within the course of.
This submit was initially written in 2020; it has been up to date after spending time with the 1.0 launch.