The combination of Frozen Synapse and Mixing Into the Breach creates an unavoidably powerful mech battle core, but Phantom Brigade’s other elements are lackluster.
I realized Phantom Brigade achieved something that I had been craving from games for years when I played the demo for the first time. It’s a turn-based game that creates amazing action scenarios with the power of our computer systems. In addition, savvy readers have probably observed that I really like action sequences with big robots. (I should also say that snapping images has been a complete pleasure; I’ve rotated and zoomed the camera to locate the ideal viewpoint of massive mecha colliding and blowing up one another throughout each turn’s chronology.)
Phantom Brigade does this in a way that isn’t really novel. It’s basically Into the Breach mixed with Frozen Synapse and a sprinkle of Battletech for good measure. You may fight opponent mechs and tanks in turn-based combat with a squad of mechs. Instead of marching and firing with each unit consecutively, you arrange your squad’s moves for each five-second turn, press the execute button, and witness your tactical mastery materialize in real time. Aside from the large robots, where Into the Breach shines is your ability to observe your opponent’s anticipated moves. As they say, “Forewarned is forearmed,” and you may maneuver out of opposing fire arcs and set up ideal death shots for yourself by using your prophetic abilities similar to those of Cassandra.
When it clicks, this core battle is bloody fantastic. Your mechs perform a ballet through bullet streams, slicing precisely past one another and releasing death with a taste of laser, bullet, and missile. Your sword-wielding troops may quickly eliminate lighter enemies by smashing into them or by swooping past enemy mechs and severing limbs after you get the hang of the somewhat difficult melee techniques. If you make a mistake, which generally involves not realizing that two of your troops will collide or inadvertently entering a firing zone, mayhem will erupt.
Every turn is a mini-puzzle to solve (though not as exacting or harsh as Into the Breach), and the prize is a happy carnage carnival that you can enjoy in slow motion from any viewpoint you want. Or research to determine just where you made a mistake, you huge idiot.
The mechs themselves are generic frames with varying configurations of armor and weaponry rather than exclusive models. You may create aggressive brawlers, ponderous artillery units on legs, or zippy ‘bots with tissue paper armor. With two weapon and four armor spots, as well as the ability to add other components like reactors and heatsinks, the design is very straightforward. Although it’s entertaining and adaptable, its frustratingly clumsy UI never quite shows the information you want when you want it and always appears to need more clicks than it should to accomplish anything.
Unfortunately, the entire game has a shoddy user interface. During combat, directives are given in an incredibly uneven manner. An attack action may be scheduled by putting it on the unit’s tiny planning timeline and selecting a target. Simple! You can’t pick when you want to move; you can only click where you want to go. Rather, you have to designate wait times, which are like moving in that they aren’t immediately on the timeline; instead, you have to draw a line on the map. It makes no sense and is strange.
Since the campaign is by far the poorest aspect of the game, the user interface isn’t much better and may even feel worse. The basic storyline is around your elite mech unit using experimental predictive technology rescuing your homeland from invasion. This means maneuvering a large truck at a leisurely pace, confronting (or sidestepping) enemy patrols, and striking targets to push the occupying forces out.
There are several provinces on the map itself. You can summon the resistance to retake a province once you’ve worn down the invaders there. This starts a timed battle in which you must beat the opposition troops too many times before they can gain too many objectives. You can advance to the next province when you’ve freed the previous one. Repeat after rinsing. There are random events that often consist of spending a few hours playing a game in one spot and/or giving up some resources in the hopes of winning anything or staying out of trouble. They just don’t seem like they’re worth the trouble, either way. Neither the prospective benefits nor losses are ever substantial, and neither your pilots nor any of the nameless, faceless NPCs have enough personality to make you care.
The main issue is that it gets monotonous quite fast. There are more than twenty provinces, so after a few you’ll probably have locked in some strong builds and be prepared for everything the adversary throws at you. Even though playing around with your mechs might be entertaining, there eventually becomes no actual need to do so, especially because the artificial intelligence isn’t very good.
It seems like the only thing your enemies can do is charge at you and shoot, let alone react to your strategies. There have been situations where the whole enemy force chooses to fire at one of my troops that is securely positioned behind a big hill at the beginning of the war, and they keep shooting at them as the rest of my team kills them one by one. Avoiding all damage is quite simple, but as time went on, I saw that my mech damage was growing worse and worse because it is easily fixed after combat and only completely damaged pieces really do anything.
What’s worse is that it’s quite simple to exploit the system. Regardless of return fire or the little damage from overheating, a heavy mech armed with a powerful rotary weapon will easily outlive any opponent. A heavy mech with a blade will easily shock any light or medium opponents.
Essentially, Phantom Brigade is like a well cooked burger surrounded by limp lettuce and a stale bread; it has a great core, but everything else falls short. I don’t recall ever being so disappointed with a completed game after having so much fun with its demo. On the positive side, because the foundation is so strong, all of the issues appear to be easily fixed. The box of rocks AI might be much more forgiven with only a few UI changes and campaign improvement. As it stands, aficionados of mecha and turn-based strategy games should definitely give it a try, albeit they shouldn’t necessarily purchase it. If you can’t figure out how, wait and see.