Phantom brigade simulator#

Customization also alters your approach to each mission. Models are intricate and customization you make to your teams can be seen on your mechs as each battle progresses in addition to the damage you take.Ĭustomization is fairly deep and most if not all aspects of the mechs you pilot within your team can be altered to take advantage of the parts and components you find, steal or retrieve and salvage from fallen enemies. Once the planning stage is carried out it plays out in real time with the same camera options available. Played out on fully three dimensional maps the planning and strategic activities allow you to zoom and pan around the battlefield to best plan your attack, any response around potential obstacles, their planned movement and any offensive measures they throw at you. Phantom Brigade ’s presentation is also rather cinematic. Given how debilitating damage to your mechs can be and how difficult parts and resources can be to locate for repairs it’s very clear early on that progress is so intertwined with the timeline mechanic that most players won’t advance past the opening stages if they don’t get acquainted with it fast. Using that information you decide to pop out of cover immediately, fire off a few rounds from your cannon and then move across the road into the opposite cover leaving your enemy to fire into bricks and mortar. As a tank rolls down main street the timeline tells you that it plans to progress in its current path and after 3 seconds fire in your direction. It’s hard to describe on paper, but imagine playing out your tactics all at the same time. Once this is understood, the state of play repeats in each turn from reviewing the timeline to absorb enemy movements and then planning and executing. Using the timeline feels a little awkward to begin with given most players are expecting the initial action to be on the actual battlefield so default to pressing attack and trying to move characters around but the planning actually takes place on the timeline itself with any additional detail taking place in specifics on the field.

The obvious benefit being that planning with hindsight allows the player to strategically avoid enemy fire or ambush accordingly to gain the advantage. Winding forward shows enemy movement paths in addition to offensive or defensive actions taken during that window.

At any time during your planning stage you have the ability to wind time forward and back over the next five seconds. The difference between Phantom Brigade and other real time or strategic turn based games is its unique time device mechanic.

Phantom brigade simulator#

I really enjoyed this game, and it felt like it was a triple-A experience, even though it was made by an indie game studio.In the final days of an invasion by an opposing force the last vanguard of resistance deploys its secret weapon to try to turn the tide of the war in Brace Yourself Games’ hybrid real-time tactical mech warfare strategy simulator - Phantom Brigade.Īfter a brief training session for a new mech pilot, the resistance are ambushed and as your commander is mercilessly executed by a number of the opposing force it comes to light that your experimental armour is fitted with a time altering device that allows you to view up to five seconds into the future and plan accordingly. I fired at them from a good vantage point and sent them into retreat. Then I had to hide from the tanks that were arriving from another direction. I managed to completely disable the enemy’s lead mech in two turns. When you are done, you end the turn and the combat scene plays out. Then you can ambush the lead enemy mech, positioning your mech to fire at a place where the mech is expected to be. But using the predictive analysis, you can maneuver to spots where the enemy can’t see you. But you only have two mechs to face off against enemy infantry, tanks and mechs. Well-crafted cinematics convey a sense of urgency and story.Ī second mech comes to help with a shield. A red enemy force comes close to the town and takes out one of your mechs, but not before it sends a warning. You play the blue team with a squad of mech units.

The art looks realistic, with a kind of cartoon layer. The developers showed me how the fighting works in an assault on a small town.