I got this on sale after 2.0 released, so I wasn't aware what changed, but after now finishing a run (on normal difficulty), I just have to say this game is great, but it could be so much more. The X-Com 2 inspiration is clearly there, reclaiming an overtaken world through a series of tactical skirmishes, but in Phantom Brigades case in awesome mechs.
[h1]Short review[/h1]
The combat gameplay - fantastic, 9/10
Story - 2/10 an outline of a story exists, but its not expanded upon at all
Overworld gameplay/Menuing - 6/10 its functional, it has some cool features, but also lacking in parts.
Sound design easily 9/10
[h1]Long review[/h1]
Phantom brigades gameplay is super engaging, pushes you to find ways to outmaneaver or power through, almost never feels completly trivial or completely impossible. Weapons are fun, and its really easy to see what everyone can do, and even if something goes wrong it does rarely feel unfair. And while it's a bit overwhelming at first, you'll get used to it super quickly. It has some quirks youll learn figure out through playing, like a safe use of missiles, and the hit-scan of melee weapons.
While I clearly enjoyed this game and will continue to put hours into it, you can really tell there was a shift of design for 2.0, even if you never played 1.0. Some menus feel retroactively expanded upon, and while thats great, some issues remain. Its hard to gauge what an item is at a glance, or how many you have, since there are no icons for most armors and equipped armors are not displayed in the inventory. The workshop wants you to dismantle a certain amount of items to be able to build them yourself, so you have to go back to the mech bay to check. If you want to use a different torso for your mech, you have to unequipp all modules like reactor manually, if you want to use it for the new torso too. (would love if the reactor/booster was its own equip slot on the mech instead of part of the torso).
And while I absolutely love the pilot system as someone that loves customizing my troops, as someone that even thinks the skills are good (though some tooltips should really specify what they do to decide if theire worth it, like frost giant), and even think the prestige system is a very interesting, that gives a lot of decisions to make - the way a mech progresses is just - well, not really existant. Its just equipment that can be swapped over to another mech without any cost, penalty or (ingame) time investment. There is no real penalty for a mech dying, as atleast on normal difficulty, you can always reclaim all parts and I had another mech that could just replace it, without losing any functionality. Which encourages a lot of equipment swapping between combats to always bring a healthy mech, which in turn is just tedious extra work. you don't have to, of course, but you put yourself at a disadvantage if you dont. Make them distinct somehow, like the reactor being part of it at creation and cant be changed or some other way, please
Furthermore, the overworld map feels... unexiting, sadly. there are few different mission types, and a couple different maps. Ive seen non-story maps atleast twice on my run. I'm not expecting that every game needs a generative map system like x-com, but thought id let you know. And then, I've found no lose condition, which ties into my last point:
The story leaves a lot to be desired - after checking other reviews and patchnotes, a lot from 1.0 seems to have been removed, which I can understand if thats the direction the game needs to go, but its replacement has been... not there? From the codex you learn why the neighbouring oligarchy invaded you, but other than that its... just nothing? How could they have won so easily? What have they been doing the three years since they invaded? They came for the meteorite minerals, but don't really seem to do anything with them? What about neighbouring countries? I really liked having a recurring named enemy pilot show up, but why was it the only one?? And spoiler for the end of the game: [spoiler] Why wasnt there ever a face put to the enemy forces leaders? Blowing up a tower in your own capital being the final, triumphant blow leaves me scratching my head as to what I've actually accomplished here.[/spoiler]
This review might have sounded very negative, but thats because it has grown very dear to me, and I want to see it thrive. BYG devs, you've done an amazing job, and I hope to see what else you have in store for us!
