Phantom Brigade

Good game, scratches the XCOM itch.
In plus: Action pause system is fun, lots of mech customization, solid campaign experience, AI that isn't completely brain dead.
In minus: gets repetitive, soldiers are replaceable, there is zero attachment to them - a memorial for casualties would be a great way to fix it, as is I lost like 20 soldiers, and it feels like the squad just ditched them as road kill and kept going. The game also really needs a way to see a replay the entire mission from start to finish, experiencing everything in action pause chunks results in missions feeling disjointed.

This game is so unique. so far there has been a lot of depth in the weapons.

melee combat is terrible, really really bad, they could have done it better. i have thoughts about how.

the rest was great though. water and buildings and terrain all have different implications. the weather also effects things from the overworld.

some things I would have liked to see:
- more biome types. like deserts that affect mobility with occassional sandstorms that effect visibility
- more weapon types. like smoke weapons that effect visibility, or glue grenades that make sticky areas that cause enemies to trip up (so like area denial). Area effect weapons like Flamethrower. just even more creativity on top of what they had


overall really great game. enjoying it so far, may update this.

This game is an absolute blast to play, offering a visually stunning battlefield filled with destructible buildings, rolling hills for cover, and intense rocket barrages that make every fight feel cinematic. The level of environmental detail is incredible, and the way battles unfold with strategic positioning and destruction makes for an engaging experience.

However, there are some mechanics that hold it back. The enemy scaling—where opponents level up as you do—feels frustrating, removing the sense of progression. It would be nice if not all enemies scaled at the same time. Some scaling is fine, but at least an indication—such as a small text notification like "The enemy has researched X and improved slightly after losing the previous five fights"—would make it feel more natural rather than an artificial difficulty spike.

A better approach to progression would be rewarding players with weapon schematics after missions or implementing a research system to develop experimental weapons. Additionally, after defeating enemy mechs, unlocking their blueprints for crafting would make for a much more satisfying reward system.

One of the more frustrating aspects is the lack of visual cues when using weapons. There is no in-game preview of how weapons function, leaving players to rely on YouTube videos or trial and error, which often leads to unnecessary defeats. Implementing a test ground where players can experiment with different weapons before deploying them in battle would be a significant quality-of-life improvement. A simple firing range or simulation mode could allow players to assess fire rates, projectile behavior, and area-of-effect capabilities without the risk of losing battles due to miscalculations.

Another major issue is the complete lack of pilot progression—which is really disappointing. Your pilots never grow, develop skills, or specialize over time, making them feel interchangeable instead of valuable assets. A progression system with perks or specialties would add a layer of depth and investment in your squad.

The story is minimal, which isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, but side objectives feel underwhelming. They mostly consist of fetching supplies or destroying towers, without any deeper narrative or meaningful rewards. Expanding these with lore, unique encounters, or rare gear would add much-needed depth.

Another major drawback is the squad size limitation of just four units. It’s disappointing, especially since increasing it requires mods. A built-in option for larger squads would offer more tactical flexibility. Also, the HUD lacks detailed explanations—new players have to dig through discussion threads or rely on community guides just to understand all the mechanics. A better in-game tutorial or tooltip system would be a huge quality-of-life improvement.

Final Verdict
With all that being said, the game delivers an exciting and visually impressive combat experience but is held back by weak progression systems, lack of pilot development, and limited squad size. While the core gameplay is fun, it could benefit from additional polish and refinement. For those who enjoy tactical battles and don’t mind its shortcomings, it’s still worth playing—but best picked up during a sale.
I will continue playing and remain hopeful that the game improves over time. If the developers continue to support and refine it, addressing some of these issues, I will gladly revisit and update my review to reflect the improvements.

quite fun though the game play can get a little reppetitive

i do like this but i dont love it
turnbased is a bit past me by now, mostly bc i hate to wait for enemy turns.
this game doesnt have enemy turns. its your go all the time
that is nice.
but the upgrade and part system is weird, the guns and their function are a bit mysterious to me still even after playing it all the way through.
theres one gun (i think its a railgun?) that just beats everything else. just use 4 railguns youre set.
that said, the beginning is very difficult. and losing pilots and mechs feels bad.
im not keen on feeling the loss.

Been awhile since I played. This game is just disappointing. Bland characters, bland story, and bland world. Combat is cool. Time-predicting mechanic is cool. Strategy lite elements that they do have are cool. But if you only have the basic elements of a game and don’t put more content into it then it’s just boring. I’d have more fun with a bad game than a mediocre one. It’s so boring I completely forgot it existed until 2 years later.

P.S.
Forgot to mention, the trailers basically showed you the entire game. There’s nothing else more to it. Buy on a 50% deal or equivalent only.

This game is resoundingly fine. I think it's a really interesting mechanic, playing with time and seeing enemy moves early so you can answer them yourself, but the gameplay loop does not change.
Ever.
Enemies are pretty samey and some mechanics are hard to get the hang of but it can be extremely rewarding to perfectly handle a fight, feels great. Enemies are always your level so you need to pay attention, but there are clear balancing issues. If you run all missiles you win and melee is just insane if you get a mech built well for it. The game is cool and I've enjoyed my time but I haven't played it for a year. I feel like I'm playing the same mission over and over with slightly different flavors.
If you are three hours into this game and still wondering if it's worth it, it's not.

its fun

fire game do recomend

Its such a travesty that this game's review score is sitting at "mixed". This, along with AC6, are hands down my favorite mech-type games on the market. No other mech game has combat quite like this, it is just so good. My only knock on the game is the pretty bland campaign and lack of pilot progression, which the devs are actively working on. Other than that, you deserve to at least give this game a chance.

Returning to Phantom Brigade after a long hiatus has been quite the experience, and it's incredible how the game's unique blend of tactical mech combat and RPG elements continues to stand out. The core mechanics, particularly the four-second planning system and the turn-based strategy, create an endlessly compelling gameplay loop that keeps me coming back for more.

While the story might not be its strongest suit and hasn't managed to capture my attention, the tactical gameplay loop and mech customisation more than make up for it. The weapon variety is a definite highlight, constantly unlocking new weapons and adapting tactics based on the diverse map types, ensuring the gameplay remains fresh and engaging. Sniper rifles may be a personal favourite, but the need to switch to explosives and other tactics for certain missions adds a layer of strategy that keeps things interesting.

The base-building aspect, while functional, could benefit from more depth and variety. The focus on movement upgrades is practical, but I find myself wishing for more meaningful perks or customisation options for individual pilots and mechs. The pilots, in particular, feel a bit lifeless without any backstory or progression, and a bit more customisation beyond just colours would add some welcome depth.

Despite these minor gripes, the game truly excels in its core gameplay and the deeply satisfying destruction you can unleash on the battlefield. If you're a fan of mech combat with an emphasis on tactical gameplay, Phantom Brigade is definitely worth your time.

One of the kind tactical gameplay.
But any strategy progression is actually pointless. Everything is auto leveled to player squad, so there is no possibility of getting ahead the enemy in any capacity. You progress only to catch to enemy in power, not to overpower them.
Needs rework. Or atleast mod disabling autolevel mechanics.

If you have a thirst for Mech action this is it, and not the big Gundam mechs but the fast mobile ones like in Robotech and Blue Gender. Get your hands on a saber sword and your going to town like a Mechanized NInja and with the newly integrated boss fights it adds a little more variety. I would like the devs to focus more on the pilots, and they have but I would like them to be able to get out of the mechs or after they have ejected be able to move around the map and fight, get picked up by a fellow mech copilot or steal an enemy concussed mech. I know, I'm asking for too much in this game but a little pilot on foot action just a little would suffice or even a mission to go in a building and still plans....Anway we'll see. I appreciate the devs thirst for mech action much like the rest of us. Damn... I miss Titanfall but this does us some justice in the Mech Game arena, thanks!

Really enjoyed the core gameplay, but I'd love to see more content and the ability to watch the whole fight over in real-time at the end of a mission.

My guy died.

Amazing mech game, underdog setting and stealing everything that isn't nailed down. What more do you need?

Would love to see this game get continued support and more love in the future, wouldn't say no to a proper expansion even.

If you like mech combat, this will scratch that itch. If I were to describe the gameplay, I would say it's a mix of Battletech, XCOM, and Heavy Gear. Actual combat is fun, and runs smooth. There's a large variety of gear to mix and match.

However I do have some minor nit-picking to do. As large as the campaign map is, combat maps are limited in number. The actual pilot you put in a mech doesn't matter, the pilots themselves don't level up. Mission type variety is also a bit limited. One mechanic that isn't explained at all is how collisions work, but once you figure it out, it's fun to bulldoze enemy mechs.

Overall, I'd say it's worth your time if you're a stompy robot fan.

Fun game, good UI, good graphics, excellent customization of mechs, good story line, and at a good price on sale.

It's not bad. The idea makes for a few interesting battles but in the end there is not enough variety to the game to make me invest the 100 or so hours of unchanging combat.

Doesn't help that the loop of plot-watch-plot-watch is extremely tedious to configure over and over and over again.

Obviously you never see the cool visuals from the trailer ingame. As usual you are that disembodied eye in the sky that send tiny tin men to do tine pew pew things

This game is a neat concept that is very well executed. I've enjoyed it as much or more than games like Doorkickers, Frozen Synapse, and the like. Fights look cool, winning a tough battle by perfectly coordinating your team of mechs is IMMENSELY satisfying, customizing your mechs into unique roles and discovering your own playstyles is extremely fun... And the devs are still releasing huge game-changing updates, years after release, despite having no obligation to.

If you like mechs or tactics games with lots of freedom, Phantom Brigade is absolutely worth $30.

This review may be updated in time, but currently, I don't really recommend this game.

From the perspective of running speed and stability, I have had absolutely no issues. The game functions and performs quite well, and aside from a few choices of keybinds being slightly awkward (I'm not a large fan of Esc not being the go-to 'back/undo' button) there isn't much to complain about in the way of functionality. Beyond how smoothly it runs, however, there isn't entirely a lot that the game has going for it.

Though the degree of customization with your mechs is nice, you barely get to see much of it in battle, and in general, since all of the models are designed to mesh with one another, the end result is that most of the designs don't actually feel all that visually distinctive or recognizable. This is fine, since the hitbox is so large on most of your units that they'll get killed either by friendly or hostile fire long before you actually get the chance to zoom in and admire how they look. In a similar vein, the pilots in the game - crew members you require to actually operate your mechs - are rather bland beyond some basic backstory text, and show no individual development or have any meaningful skills unique to them. This means that you barely feel bad - or anything at all - when one of them goes down in combat. More than anything, you just get upset at how irritating whatever mechanic that killed them is, and forget all about the fact that it was supposed to be a heartfelt character death in the first place.

A lot of the gameplay mechanics are unintuitive. Shields are hard to understand because the game doesn't teach you anything about them. The heat build up mechanic is confusing and will outright lie to you at certain points, leading to your units taking damage you didn't want them to. Sometimes, you're required to destroy a certain building to accomplish a given objective. As these buildings do not count as hostile units, you need to target the environment to destroy it. This can lead to an incomplete destruction of the target, despite it looking and seeming quite damaged, and the continued functionality of that building. Especially irritating when it is linked to enemy turrets or reinforcements that become operational moments afterward.

Certain weaponry and components are entirely overpowered, and render all other equipment and in general any form of tactics entirely pointless. Heavy beam weaponry and missiles in particular turn the game into a point and click adventure - a single unit equipped with this gear can rather mindlessly confront dozens of enemy units from afar. On the other hand, certain gear is incredibly underpowered or confusing to wield - and you only realize this after trying to use it for the first time and losing a valuable unit as a result. Often, balancing hardly depends on the difficulty, but rather on if one of your poor units ends up being accidentally caught up in an overpowered weapon's field of fire, whether that be from an allied or enemy unit's hands.

There isn't much to offer in the way of gameplay expansion. Once you've experienced combat in the first few areas and captured your first territory, you've basically seen it all. Aside from minor upgrades here and there to your equipment (most of which are meager in nature), there isn't much to enjoy if you aren't heads over tails for the gameplay loop as it's immediately introduced to you in the tutorial.

I love the idea of Phantom Brigade, so here's to hoping that I'm convinced otherwise of what I've stated here by future experience - or by any changes made by the developers going forward.

Very enjoyable, satisfying to watch your turns back and revel in the action.

Dynamic and spectacular battles, especially in urban environments when the buildings catch stray fire.

Interesting and varied missions that encourage mech loadout experimentation.

Friendly fire adds satisfying tactical depth.

The soundtrack by Riley Koenig was good enough for me to find it streaming on Spotify.

Some familiar mechanics for players of BattleTech or other mech games e.g. managing heat buildup and dissipation, attacking from certain angles to optimize location-based damage, dashing with thrusters.

Spoiler: the first boss battle was also an unexpected and cool surprise. Kudos to the designers for making the boss fight mechanics work seamlessly in the same system as the rest of the game.

I like this game, however for the current price it is not worth it. I am not recommending the game currently as after the latest update the game crashes my gaming laptop and the Steam client when I try to run it. It works fine on my desktop computer, and it worked fine on the gaming laptop before the latest patch, however I only want to play this on my laptop and if it doesn't work on it (when it had no problem running the game previously), then I give bad review. Also if you go check out the discussions page you will see many people are saying after the latest patch that the game isn't running well, and you will see a member of the Dev team blaming the players and their systems (when the game worked fine last patch lol but he blames us). Unprofessional behavior by the Dev.

Can be jank but its a lot of fun

Very enjoyable by itself as a game, but it also depends how fast your game play style is. Otherwise, you will find it boring for how repetitious it can be. Depends more on the player. I would personally prefer more movement shooting than duck and cover. The gameplay seems to be heavy for light armor across most unit types (light, medium, and somewhat even heavy) and they need be still for accurate hitting. That would be for most occasions. I like your typical walking mech that can take several hits before incurring actual damage and some other aspects. Though the games stat readings on setup is pretty awesome, but I wish they improve the comparison charts for attaching modules. Good game overall.

Wish I could say it was great; I think the base system developed is really wonderful. But the elements just seem to lack any sort of depth to them, and adding that to the fact that completing a campaign seems very long; it ends up feeling mostly repetitive with an upgrade loop to stay relevant. Certain mech builds dont really shine, at least compared to bulk missiles and a giant laser.

I'd give it a passing score but there's like 6 total mods in existence still and they dont do anything to rectify the issues.
I would genuinely love if the diversity of events and items, customization, and balance got improved; could easily see that becoming one of my favorites.

Cool designs that you can never actually get a good look at in normal gameplay. Everything else is sooo nearly good, and yet sooo jank. I think an order to continually attack a target at low heat would save sooo much hassle, continually dragging the same attack to the same target is such a boring loop, and that's all you're doing most turns.

Timeline shows it's a safe shot with no heat warning? Sorry, close enough, overheating and now you're on fire.

Timeline shows bullets hitting terrain/building? Nah, sorry, actual bullet threads the needle and hits you no problem.

Timeline shows the opposite, a nice clear shot from cover? Nahhh man, your pilot just fired that rocket directly at the wall in front of them, killing them instantly.

Artificial difficulty in the form of regular, repeated, boss fights, which don't even test your build/skills as they just consist of hiding the ONE unit being targeted, while your other mechs just repeatedly target the core until the numbers go down. Lame as FUCK! And you get to do this everyyyyy time you start to get into the swing of fighting other mechs. Behemoths could be such a fun and sudden challenge if there was a chance for them to wander into another mission, as the set boss fight every single fucking area is just boring as all hell.

Any fight that could be interesting is such a slog to control it's just not worth it, just build heavy armour so you don't have to worry about buggy damage and do the same exact actions again and again, hoping the timeline doesn't burn you more than it says it will. Yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

I have mixed feelings about this game.

One the one hand, the time mechanic and projection into the future is fun to play around with. On the other hand, I've been playing this since it was a beta on Epic games, and frankly, while some aspects of the game have improved by leaps and bounds, I think it was more fun back in beta.

Assault rifles, machine guns, and melee weapons and shields were just plain FUN. I had a blast in those first few months.

Since then, they've added weapons that pierce cover. Weapons that spray a continuous stream of fire. And OH MY GOD they've added missiles. Missiles, missiles, missiles. And that last bit hurt the game.

I remember how much enthusiasm I had for missiles when they first showed up (and were a little bit useless unless you were in certain niche situations), but they added more and varying types of missiles, and now... that's mostly what the game is about.

And here's the thing: Missile spam isn't fun. It's not fun when I have missiles, and it's not fun when the enemy has missiles, and when both sides have ONLY missiles, well, that's not fun either.

One of the best moments I've had in this game was when two of my mechs were crossing one another's paths, and an enemy sniper shot at mech 1 as they began to cross one another. Mech 2 lifted his shield and blocked the shot meant for his buddy. This was planned out by me, and it was a great moment in what was looking to shape up like a great game. There was a sense of choreography and precision that mattered, and it was FUN. Getting the enemy to shoot his own ally was FUN. Sometimes, it was straight up hilarious.

I keep trying to get back into this game, but there are just too many goddamned missiles now, flying everywhere. There's no need for the epic dances of before because now you're just trying to move fast and avoid the missile spam.

Oh, and pilots have never really mattered. They promised to one day give pilots stats and RPG elements, but they broke that promise and never delivered. Now they're promising to do it again, but I've heard that before.

Did I mention all the missiles?

Aside from most other turn based strategies I've tried, this game felt refreshing and unique in its own way. It does not feel too intense and suits a normal, casual player like me just fine, while still also providing room to sweat and pull off some really tight, calculated plays.

I can see what the early reviews meant about the game needing more to its world map or felt like it was missing stuff that should have been in a game like this. That being said the devs are working hard on it and I'm looking forward to what is to come.

The game plays smoothly and does have a decent learning curve with all the controls and UI, but also great freedom that with how you use your actions and abilities. But once you start to get the hang of it you'll really appreciate the game for what it is. The quality of the graphics and art style look and feel very refined and makes me feel like I got a huge steal for the discount I got it on. Games like these tend to scratch an itch for me, Phantom Brigade has given me a rash that only it will be able to satisfy as time goes on. Looking forward to more and hopefully the Playtest when it rolls around.

And yes, a mission replay or save feature would be incredible just to see how the whole battle unfolds. Though that does sound like a huge back-end extension, not to mention a great deal of optimization for replay storage.

Better than Battletech, set the new standard in this direction, love it, and that the devs are really loving and are pushing it even more. Innovative and cutting edge for an indie studio.

This one is certainly a hidden gem. Worth getting if your into turned based and mechs.

Excellent stuff. I cannot wait for the sequel. :D

Weirdly, I recommend this game to you if you've ever used video/audio editing software. Dragging things along a timeline and scrubbing back and forth. The skills translate, and you will feel like you can kick ass with your post-production skills.

If you like underdog RTS this is the place for you. Everything will click, you see everything, know everything. Despite being outnumbered your small squad dances between every shot. The little events that happen when you travel really flesh out the story. Do you disturb the grave of an old battle to recover parts or let the dead rest. How do you handle rumours of instability and the only thing that is keeping you going. You can use a built up area as cover but you risk destroy everything.

cool and refreshing gameplay compaired to other turn based stratagy games

This is a very fun game to play I mainly bought it for the fact it has mechs in it but was impressed how fun it was to play I would recommend this to anyone who likes strategy or mechs

Not enjoyed a game this much for a while. Crazy good battle system & tons of content.

Would be nice if an option for a replay of the entire battle at the end was available, but otherwise love it so far! Mech battles and being able to see into the future are surprisingly addictive even though there are no redoes.

- "turnbased" gameplay is just RTS with extra steps
- fog, blur, bloom
- poor dialogues and story
- UI is annoying

I didn't like the first hour, I thought it was too challenging to figure it out. If this happens to you, push through for another 30 minutes and you may fall in love like I have! It scratches the puzzle-solving itch, and if you love mechs, this should be an easy win.

great game

Not perfect, but for a turn-based mech game it's very highly up there. The modding support is amazing too.

The nature of the foresight/predicted actions means you can very easily dodge, which makes Light mechs way more powerful than in other games. Still, the developers are still working on the game, so I think this will get solved.

There are Mecks need i say more.

fine you force my hand i shall speak more if that is what you demand. it has a good vibe fun combat and the story is the perfect mix of you need to save the world and also look we wont to play with big war machine's with a good sprinkling of flavor and world building it is well worth picking up and in the days of micro transactions this and battle pass that it is refreshing i can just paint my massive death machine pink without getting FOMO that its not the best pink. in short bye it now thank me later

This is a really good combat engine that has a fairly mediocre strategic layer stapled onto it. The plot is weak, the non-combat stuff is bland, but my god is the combat amazing. Go in with that expectation and you'll do fine.

Awesome gameplay mechanics. A bit barebones when it comes to other things but I believe the devs can still put out some much needed updates and more parts.

I really enjoyed this slow, but stressful gameplay.

Yes. Get it, play it, love it!

I really didn't get the hype of this game.

Battles feel clumsy, unfinished, unpolished.

Not for me, I guess.

I've been addicted to this from the start. Incredible builds, engaging game play, and mission variety will keep you coming back to take back the homeland!

great strategy game sucks how you can only send four at a time without mods though