Octopus Overlords

http://www.pcgamer.com/phantom-brigade- ... -strategy/

Designed as a spiritual successor to games like Front Mission and Armored Core, Phantom Brigade is a modern interpretation of tactical, turn-based mech strategy. With a clean UI, destructible buildings, and pilots that remember how you treat them (like a simple Nemesis System), Phantom Brigade is shaping up to be one of the more exciting tactics games on our radar.

Oh, yeah! Watching this one...

Interesting. Makes me think of an older game called Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2.

Turn-based giant robot combat with a strategic management layer? Sign me up!

First Battletech, now this? It's like I hit a frigging pinata and games that I like came out!

Dont tell the big publishers or they'll put a stop to it.

It reminds me of the good old days wit ha good amount of new and totally diverse titles to choose from. Only then it was main companies that made them and today its smaller indies that put a lot of love into them.

NickAragua wrote:Turn-based giant robot combat with a strategic management layer? Sign me up!

First Battletech, now this? It's like I hit a frigging pinata and games that I like came out!

Yeah, this is almost a no brainer. As a gamer with decades of experience now, I know that even the best laid plans can fall down hard on execution. Very interested. Taking my normal wait and see approach.

I don't pump up games here as often as I used to, but this game seems to be slipping through the cracks a bit, and it's fantastic.

The combat system is WEGO, but they chop it into 5 second "turns". Your squad of up to 4 mechs have devices that can accurately predict the enemies moves over the next turn and you can move back and forth in the timeline of the next 5 seconds to plot out your movements and attacks, trying to get behind cover when the enemy is shooting, and maneuver to the optimal range of your weapons to hit them back.

The interface for this is almost in the style of editing software where you can add an attack or movement order to different tracks in the timeline, see their effects, and click and drag it around to get the accuracy and timing of the attack just right.

It takes a little getting used to, and the tactics take a little bit to learn, but it's a very rewarding system where you get the benefit of turn based combat, but can still see some good real time mech on mech violence as well.

The campaign is also very interesting. You play a small special forces squad trying to retake your homeland. You sneak into enemy provinces with your mobile base, try to attack patrols and enemy weak points to weaken the enemy and bring the province into conflict, then you can call in the main forces of your faction to contest the province. In this stage, you can help allied forces in battles and conduct other missions to aid them, and finally assault whatever the main facility of the enemy in the province is to take it over.

The cherry on top is the loot/salvage system where you can get parts and weapons of fallen enemy mechs of various qualities to slowly improve your squad of mechs over time. The mech parts feel a little cookie cutter, but they do have some different properties. The weapons vary drastically and all have a number of different qualities that effect damage, heat buildup, re-fire rate, etc. Items include machine guns, shields, sniper rifles, missile launchers, swords, beam cannons, etc. Good variety and all the weapons have their strong and weak points.

I'm a few provinces in and it's a blast so far. The battles can be a lot to hold in your head at once, but when I'm in the right mental state, they are an incredible amount of fun and it's a system they clearly spent a lot of time polishing and perfecting. I've found the campaign fun so far, although I've heard others say it gets a bit stale as you get farther in.

On the whole though, this definitely gets 2 tentacles of approval from me.

....boughtened!

Update: oof, this isn't an easy game to grasp. The whole timeline thing is confusing the heck out of me. Guess I'll need to look for some tutorials.

ChristopherOdd, a youtuber I've watched do a lot of xcom stuff has vids on this. I watched the first half of this video to get an idea of the combat mechanics and they look pretty awesome.

Thanks, that’s helpful!

Missiles are a bit broken right now. Devs said that they are working on fixing it, but many people are finding it very bad when multiple enemies spawn with missiles

Wishlisted. I love WEGO systems.

I loved until I grew tired of it and I grew tired of it pretty quickly. The combat mechanics are interesting, but they are also pretty close to all there is to the game. I feel like I am doing the exact same thing over and over, sometimes with more tanks, sometimes more mechs, sometimes turrets. I don't know if things get changed up as you get deeper in. I was only exploring the adjacent area after you capture the first territory. I cleared a few locations, raised the awareness bringing in an elite patrol and it already is feeling like a grind and then I look at the size of the map and... I'm not sure I'm up for it.

added to my wishlist for an eventual deep discount buy