The review feels exactly on-point with the problems the game has right now. Pilots are cut from the same cloth (with some differences in HP and looks), which even adding something as simple as a level/skill system would give it much needed uniqueness. Map/areas could have specialized modifiers in them, but just ends up with the same village/base locations to attack. You could research specific parts to create... but instead they "randomly" give it to you after some time of gameplay. Game wants to be combat and action oriented, but the fact that it's main game is not really a campaign (more like a sandbox) means that it doesn't really have much happening during the playthrough to the goal. I think this game will probably get a lot of workshop support from the community, much like Mechwarriors, but like mentioned it's still a playable game as is. Just not quite to the potential that it could have.
I would love to see this kind of system with many units where all the units are given ai generated turns that you can modify and optimize. That way the out of combat layer becomes more about designing and supplying an army, and the combat becomes more auto-completable with optimization tweaking in more dangerous or important scenarios. It would also be cool to see pvp with simultaneous turns where the projected information is partial and can be enhanced or spoofed by abilities. I really like this tech and I want to see it refined.
Good take. The core gameplay is so good it begs for expansions, I really hope the developers release HBS Battletech 'Flashpoint' type campaigns or modes. Imagine 2-4 missions strung together with a boss fight at the end with no repair in-between, in exotic locations/biomes with temporary control of exotic mechs/vehicles. Some stealth mechanics would be cool too.
I'm really hoping for *at least* some good modding support, if not continued development. The skeleton for a game to rival X-Com is there. I don't think I've been as enthralled by a gameplay system as this for quite some time, but you're right to say that's about all it has going for it. Side note, the UI could also *really* benefit from some improvements. Trying to decipher what all the different perks/parts do is a nightmare. There isn't so much as a simple comparison pop-up for currently equipped slots vs. whatever you're highlighting, and it makes trying to craft the ideal mech more of a pain than it feels worth doing. Even when it kind of exists for weapons stats, you have to keep jumping between which one is highlighted to see how big the number change is.
Solid review! I had a lot of the same issues with the game. Love the combat but after liberating several areas it felt so samey. It's a game begging for more story and challenges (i.e. maps that limit the number or type of mechs you can bring, strongholds or base fights, protect or kill VIPs, ect.).
Good ass review I think, again nailed what I think was good and bad in the game It's interesting how much personality the progression of new fucked up alien types in XCOM gives to the aliens. You feel like they're malicious beings, come from across the stars to kick your uppity human ass directly back into the stone age. The red guys in phantom brigade feel like, well, bad guys in a video game. They have the personality of a wooden popup in a shooting range. They're malicious like a cartoon villain (if they actually DO anythingat all instead of just saying "we hate hope and the phantom brigade!") Also, none of the awesome tactical-strategic feedback loop from xcom! The two layers only barely interact, and that's just a damn shame. Liquid fix was so close to being really, really cool. The whole "assist the home guard in a war that's bigger than you" thing was close to being really, really cool. All in all, :/
Finally someone made the game I wanted to make for years and made it. Thank goodness I don't have to learn more programming now. (The only difference being I wanted to use 10 seconds instead)
Have to say that you nailed everything on the head with this review. I saw this game for the first time at the penny arcade West expo back in 2019, and thought that it looks so cool. What I find funny is that the game barely changed from then, if anything incredibly fine, tuned the combat mechanic. I played the absolute crap out of it when it came out on steam. Even changing the settings to decrease the heat rise, so I can play the game like a full Gundam. But after I took the capital, all desire to play it completely went out the window. They said they were going to put in mods, but they also told me that they were going to put in a cinematic system, which obviously did not come to pass. Either way, great review!
@@hihosilver1234 for me I put about 22 hrs into it and then came dead stop. I've been trying to motivate myself to play it again from.the beginning but that has not yet come to pass
Yeah but here's the thing guys, game devs would have to hire a writer to fix these problems, and most writers would volunteer for free so as you can see it's completely outside the budget. It's what we call an unfixable problem with no easy solution. (Leans on door holding back thousands of writers who would love to fix this problem.)
great review, i feel the same. i dont even need a good story but theres no variety. so youre up to your own devices to make the combat as fun as possible yourself. great system tho, maybe bandai nabs it up and we get a gundam game just like this one
The review feels exactly on-point with the problems the game has right now.
Pilots are cut from the same cloth (with some differences in HP and looks), which even adding something as simple as a level/skill system would give it much needed uniqueness.
Map/areas could have specialized modifiers in them, but just ends up with the same village/base locations to attack.
You could research specific parts to create... but instead they "randomly" give it to you after some time of gameplay.
Game wants to be combat and action oriented, but the fact that it's main game is not really a campaign (more like a sandbox) means that it doesn't really have much happening during the playthrough to the goal.
I think this game will probably get a lot of workshop support from the community, much like Mechwarriors, but like mentioned it's still a playable game as is. Just not quite to the potential that it could have.
I had a recording issue I didn’t notice til after I beat the game, so all footage is 720.
Game doesn’t look grainy like the footage may suggest.
I thought it was YT compression lmao
I would love to see this kind of system with many units where all the units are given ai generated turns that you can modify and optimize. That way the out of combat layer becomes more about designing and supplying an army, and the combat becomes more auto-completable with optimization tweaking in more dangerous or important scenarios. It would also be cool to see pvp with simultaneous turns where the projected information is partial and can be enhanced or spoofed by abilities. I really like this tech and I want to see it refined.
Good take. The core gameplay is so good it begs for expansions, I really hope the developers release HBS Battletech 'Flashpoint' type campaigns or modes. Imagine 2-4 missions strung together with a boss fight at the end with no repair in-between, in exotic locations/biomes with temporary control of exotic mechs/vehicles. Some stealth mechanics would be cool too.
I'm really hoping for *at least* some good modding support, if not continued development. The skeleton for a game to rival X-Com is there. I don't think I've been as enthralled by a gameplay system as this for quite some time, but you're right to say that's about all it has going for it.
Side note, the UI could also *really* benefit from some improvements. Trying to decipher what all the different perks/parts do is a nightmare. There isn't so much as a simple comparison pop-up for currently equipped slots vs. whatever you're highlighting, and it makes trying to craft the ideal mech more of a pain than it feels worth doing. Even when it kind of exists for weapons stats, you have to keep jumping between which one is highlighted to see how big the number change is.
I feel this review in my soul. I only hope that the modding community can fill many of these gaps, but I'm not holding my breath.
Solid review! I had a lot of the same issues with the game. Love the combat but after liberating several areas it felt so samey. It's a game begging for more story and challenges (i.e. maps that limit the number or type of mechs you can bring, strongholds or base fights, protect or kill VIPs, ect.).
Good ass review I think, again nailed what I think was good and bad in the game
It's interesting how much personality the progression of new fucked up alien types in XCOM gives to the aliens. You feel like they're malicious beings, come from across the stars to kick your uppity human ass directly back into the stone age.
The red guys in phantom brigade feel like, well, bad guys in a video game. They have the personality of a wooden popup in a shooting range. They're malicious like a cartoon villain (if they actually DO anythingat all instead of just saying "we hate hope and the phantom brigade!")
Also, none of the awesome tactical-strategic feedback loop from xcom! The two layers only barely interact, and that's just a damn shame. Liquid fix was so close to being really, really cool. The whole "assist the home guard in a war that's bigger than you" thing was close to being really, really cool.
All in all, :/
Finally someone made the game I wanted to make for years and made it. Thank goodness I don't have to learn more programming now. (The only difference being I wanted to use 10 seconds instead)
Appreciate the honesty
Have to say that you nailed everything on the head with this review. I saw this game for the first time at the penny arcade West expo back in 2019, and thought that it looks so cool.
What I find funny is that the game barely changed from then, if anything incredibly fine, tuned the combat mechanic. I played the absolute crap out of it when it came out on steam. Even changing the settings to decrease the heat rise, so I can play the game like a full Gundam.
But after I took the capital, all desire to play it completely went out the window.
They said they were going to put in mods, but they also told me that they were going to put in a cinematic system, which obviously did not come to pass.
Either way, great review!
So it's worth playing then? How many hours did you put into it?
@@hihosilver1234 for me I put about 22 hrs into it and then came dead stop. I've been trying to motivate myself to play it again from.the beginning but that has not yet come to pass
Yeah but here's the thing guys, game devs would have to hire a writer to fix these problems, and most writers would volunteer for free so as you can see it's completely outside the budget. It's what we call an unfixable problem with no easy solution. (Leans on door holding back thousands of writers who would love to fix this problem.)
Yup, that how i feel about the campaign map...
How much of it did you play, and did you enjoy it?
Only question is, is the game that succeeds using this basic combat model going to be Mechs, or a different genre?
It is more video than a game
great review, i feel the same. i dont even need a good story but theres no variety. so youre up to your own devices to make the combat as fun as possible yourself. great system tho, maybe bandai nabs it up and we get a gundam game just like this one
performance in this game is really shit for some reason
i had to turn my settings down for sure
The missile spam is atrocious in this game.