A ruthless and violent occupying force has seized power by looting and deporting the population. A group of rebels organizes to stop it, using the same technologies as the enemy: powerful mechs armed to the teeth with which to reconquer strategic places and entire territories. Season it all with a game system based on time manipulation and you will have a potentially explosive title on your hands, which could aspire to be one of the best strategies of the year. Except sometimes even good ideas can be thwarted by counterproductive decisions, as we'll see in the Phantom Brigade Review.
An exceptional idea
Phantom Brigade seems very complex to play, but it actually becomes quite simple once you master the few tools necessary to manage the movement of our units. At the beginning of each shift, the system resets a timeline, which shows the actions of the forces on the field for the next five seconds. Therefore, by moving along the line we will be able to know where the enemy mechs and tanks will go, when they will shoot, what targets they will aim at and other vital information, to which we will have to react by fixing the actions of our team in the timeline itself. We are, therefore, faced with a tactical game in which time plays a fundamental role and in which the player plays a role that is simultaneously similar to that of the director and the editor of the film.
Each action has its own cost in terms of game time and must therefore be managed intelligently, in tune with the actions of each unit. The basic actions are actually few: one mechanisms can move, can fire with primary or secondary fire, can take cover or you can decide to make the pilot escape, if the vehicle's resistance is running out. Exciting situations often arise, in which you can also enjoy performing reckless and spectacular actions (which will later be reviewed in slow motion with the integrated tools), making the mechs act at the last moment or attempting seemingly impossible exits, thanks to the ability to anticipate opponents enough to make them feel powerless and humiliate them (or vice versa).
Incomprehensible options
After each battle we will be able to recover resources left by enemies on the battlefield, including mecha pieces, fusing what we don't need to obtain materials, so that we can upgrade our units with new technologies, ready to use immediately in battle . There progression It's really exciting at first and works really well. The improvements obtained are important, as well as essential to face the incremental challenge represented by increasingly ferocious enemies and the expansion of the number of provinces that we must first liberate and then hold (calling the resistance forces to our aid). Having escape routes is essential if you want to survive the inevitable defeats, which require retreat and reorganization.
At first everything seems to be going well, framed by one Front Mission graphic style It's not great, but it's still very refined and satisfying. The mechs are well modeled, the animations are well done, the battlefields, although not very varied, offer interesting and always different tactical ideas and the artificial intelligence seems adequate to maintain high interest. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long to discover that the system as a whole is full of flaws and imbalances.
Il the problem is that some advanced weapons are too powerful and end up completely ruining the tactical aspect of the game, making it a walk in the park. For example, by finding miniguns you become practically omnipotent and winning or not a fight becomes only a matter of location. All you need to do is stand at the point with the best view of the battlefield and shoot repeatedly to literally tear your opponents to pieces. When the entire team has ultra-powerful weapons, the dynamics of the game flatten out even more and the enemy mechs become insignificant, because they are unable to react to our sudden aggression. Keep in mind that shots from some of the best weapons can pass through buildings and hit the target wherever it is, so sometimes you don't even need to move to aim.
Devastate enemies the first time, even when equipped with weapons Very powerful people tend to maintain a more cautious attitude, as if they did not realize the destructive potential they exert, it is also satisfactory, but the second becomes a mere repetition of a story already written and from there consciousness begins to act. its appearance. in the awareness that Phantom Brigade is simply a wasted opportunity for the desire to please the players-know-what dream of omnipotence.
The game, which worked perfectly when any mistake could lead to the loss of a mech and which asked us to spend entire minutes observing the timeline to better synchronize our actions, truly making us feel like an underground resistance force in the face of a powerful and overwhelming The enemy disappears, devoured by repetitive gameplay with identical battles, in which opponents seem increasingly useless and limited in the face of our brute force.
limitations
It should be added that when the game begins to show its most repetitive, also begins to reveal some production limitations that had not been noticed before, taken as we were by the novelty. For example, you notice that there aren't many enemies in terms of variety and attack patterns and that the scenarios are always built around a handful of biomes that repeat endlessly until the end. The same happens with the history, which practically does not exist. In the prologue some basic concepts of the scenario are established, which however are never developed within the game due to the lack of interlude sequences, dialogues, etc. It's not bad, if the gameplay had maintained the same level of interest throughout, but as explained in detail, from the middle of the campaign everything falls apart and you find yourself looking for some support that justifies continuing playing, a support that unfortunately never happens. arrive. arrives.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, epic games store Price 28,99 € Holygamerz.com 6.5 Readers (4) 7.8 your votePhantom Brigade is a game that starts from an exceptional idea, it works very well for a few hours, but it is broken by a sloppy execution in the management of progression, which brings out all its limitations. It goes from a satisfying and intriguing experience to a terribly repetitive and useless experience in the space of a few maps, to the point that it almost feels like we're looking at two different titles. It's a shame, because it's like seeing the idea of the year frustrated by elections that could have been managed much better.
PRO
- the idea is excellent
- At first you can't separate it, it works very well.
AGAINST
- Poorly managed progression transforms the game
- Repetitive
