This has the ingredients for a fantastic strategy game but just never gets there. The combat in the game is really fun at first and the "precognition" mechanic which allows you to see the enemy moves in advance and position your units so they either don't get hit at all or make enemies attack each other is really interesting. But also sadly the way it is executed feels a bit too clunky and overall the combat just stays too same-y to keep me interested. You really just move from fight to fight to fight. In theory there are multiple spots you can attack in each area but after roughly 15 hours I still couldn't tell if it mattered at all which one you attack. There really isn't any story to speak of which in theory is fine for a strategy game but without that and the combat already starting to feel stale while I wasn't even close to the end (there are approxiamtely 30 regions and I liberated 4 after ~20 hours) there just wasn't anything to keep me going. I would love to see a Phantom Brigade 2 that builds on this foundation tho
Mmm.
If you scroll a bit through this game's newsreel on Steam, it proudly celebrates its exit from Early Access in February of 2023.
Which is a problem, because after playing 9 hours across three sessions of this game I quit out and thought "wow maybe it'll be great when it leaves Early Access".
The core is absolutely solid. This game is Your Only Move Is Hustle for the Real Time Tactics genre. A bespoke 'prediction' feature (which tells you what the AI will do over the next few realtime seconds once unpaused) gives way to you guiding your mechs through various connecting instructions.
Enemy mech running away from your protector mech? Run your damage dealer/flanker into their path and unload 3 straight shotgun shells into their back. Tank about to unload on a weakened, armless ally? Have someone dash across the path to take the damage while a long range mech turns the tank into paste. Enemy path taking them near a building? Drop it on their fucking head!
The method of giving out orders is great. If you've ever edited a video or audio with multiple sources, it feels the same here. Drag 'Run' onto the timeline and set a destination. Add 'Shield' at the start to soak up damage. Cap it off with 'Attack (Primary)' to kill the bastard. Rinse and repeat. Salvage mechs using a bootleg Battletech/Mechwarrior system and throw your loot on the suits.
Rinse and repeat.
Over... and over... and over... and over... and... over... and...
And...
Okay, so you probably already know what the issue is.
The first three hours of this game are great, I'd say clearing the tutorial province and the adjacent one were sincerely fun.
The subsequent hours, less so. Because they were the same thing ad infinitum with no... anything?
I admire the creative confidence that comes with giving you a good mechanic and saying "here's like 100 hours of world map to conquer, go nuts". Lots of my favourite games do that! Those other games also add new things to the formula! New enemies, game mechanics, overworld mechanics, so on so forth.
While PB does feature a base upgrade system, it's very... To potentially sound deeply unkind: It's very uninspired. More squad slots, extra recipes, faster overworld movement, yada yada yada.
The actual battles, and the mechs you fight them with, basically never change.
There is a loot system, with you picking up salvage from progressively harder enemies that come with an increasingly higher item level. They don't actually do much, though? This is not modern XCOM, you will not spider man sling up to rooftops, become Predator or get anything that changes how you play.
Oh, also, the item level is enforced. The game does not tell you this, but if your item level is lower than the recommended value (also hidden) then enemies get a noticeable buff to damage against you that goes far beyond what you'd expect from simply having -7 less integrity. Hell, sometimes using a lower level build will give you more stats but ultimately result in more damage.
It's a great concept, but how well it'll land for you depends on how much you think you can get from a game that repeats ad nauseaum for hours. The world map is huge, and only repetition awaits you. Not the iterative kind of repetition present in Diablo and its various imitators, MMOs or what have you, but sheer A-B-C-A-B-C repetition with no dressing, meaningful progression, narrative or mechanical dripfeed.
And to be honest, if you want turn based tactical mechs, HBS Battletech is solid.
If you scroll a bit through this game's newsreel on Steam, it proudly celebrates its exit from Early Access in February of 2023.
Which is a problem, because after playing 9 hours across three sessions of this game I quit out and thought "wow maybe it'll be great when it leaves Early Access".
The core is absolutely solid. This game is Your Only Move Is Hustle for the Real Time Tactics genre. A bespoke 'prediction' feature (which tells you what the AI will do over the next few realtime seconds once unpaused) gives way to you guiding your mechs through various connecting instructions.
Enemy mech running away from your protector mech? Run your damage dealer/flanker into their path and unload 3 straight shotgun shells into their back. Tank about to unload on a weakened, armless ally? Have someone dash across the path to take the damage while a long range mech turns the tank into paste. Enemy path taking them near a building? Drop it on their fucking head!
The method of giving out orders is great. If you've ever edited a video or audio with multiple sources, it feels the same here. Drag 'Run' onto the timeline and set a destination. Add 'Shield' at the start to soak up damage. Cap it off with 'Attack (Primary)' to kill the bastard. Rinse and repeat. Salvage mechs using a bootleg Battletech/Mechwarrior system and throw your loot on the suits.
Rinse and repeat.
Over... and over... and over... and over... and... over... and...
And...
Okay, so you probably already know what the issue is.
The first three hours of this game are great, I'd say clearing the tutorial province and the adjacent one were sincerely fun.
The subsequent hours, less so. Because they were the same thing ad infinitum with no... anything?
I admire the creative confidence that comes with giving you a good mechanic and saying "here's like 100 hours of world map to conquer, go nuts". Lots of my favourite games do that! Those other games also add new things to the formula! New enemies, game mechanics, overworld mechanics, so on so forth.
While PB does feature a base upgrade system, it's very... To potentially sound deeply unkind: It's very uninspired. More squad slots, extra recipes, faster overworld movement, yada yada yada.
The actual battles, and the mechs you fight them with, basically never change.
There is a loot system, with you picking up salvage from progressively harder enemies that come with an increasingly higher item level. They don't actually do much, though? This is not modern XCOM, you will not spider man sling up to rooftops, become Predator or get anything that changes how you play.
Oh, also, the item level is enforced. The game does not tell you this, but if your item level is lower than the recommended value (also hidden) then enemies get a noticeable buff to damage against you that goes far beyond what you'd expect from simply having -7 less integrity. Hell, sometimes using a lower level build will give you more stats but ultimately result in more damage.
It's a great concept, but how well it'll land for you depends on how much you think you can get from a game that repeats ad nauseaum for hours. The world map is huge, and only repetition awaits you. Not the iterative kind of repetition present in Diablo and its various imitators, MMOs or what have you, but sheer A-B-C-A-B-C repetition with no dressing, meaningful progression, narrative or mechanical dripfeed.
And to be honest, if you want turn based tactical mechs, HBS Battletech is solid.