Phantom Brigade review

At its heart, Phantom Brigade is a solo small-scale squad tactics game. You command up to four Gundam-esque mechs in small skirmishes against larger forces. While often outnumbered, you have the huge advantage of knowing what the enemy will be doing in each five-second turn. You plan your actions on a timeline, while projections show you where enemies are moving and who they’re targeting, like a more granular take on Into The Breach.

It’s satisfying to exploit, dodging out of a sniper’s aim at the last second, juking around incoming missiles or interrupting a charge with a swooping melee attack. Like you’re leading a squad of anime protagonists against an army of faceless goons, and it works great for the first couple dozen battles. After each fight, your little guerilla squad can salvage mech parts and weapons from the battlefield, melt down unwanted gear for resources, and upgrade your mobile repair base and strategic options. It’s an exciting progression loop, working your way across a strategic map of increasingly tough provinces, absorbing new enemy techs into your arsenal and then using it in a push to liberate that region, making it a safe place to retreat to and restock.

There’s so many little aspects that Phantom Brigade gets right. Visually, it’s a treat with clean UI design and sharp-looking robots inspired by Square’s classic Front Mission series. The turn replays are a joy—watching in slow motion that exact moment an enemy mech’s day was completely ruined never gets old—and there’s a real sense of heft to the mechs despite their jump-jet assisted agility. Mech weight also affects how collisions play out, with a heavier chassis allowing you to tackle lighter enemies, potentially concussing their pilot and letting you salvage their mech undamaged.