Choosing to attack an enemy with one of their two weapons will show you their effective range. The bar works like a timeline, displaying the next five seconds. With the exception of the movement command, you’ll need to place their commands on a bar. Selecting a friendly unit will allow you to issue orders to that pilot. So, if you scrub through time and see a unit that’s going to be fired upon, make sure to move. There’s no percentage counter to go by and other things in the environment, like trees and buildings as well as the distance, alter the effectiveness of the weaponry in the game. The cone exists as a way to show you where the bullets may go and there’s no guarantee a shot will land in any one specific area depending on how wide the cone is.

Unlike games like X-COM, how an enemy intends to attack is displayed as a red cone. Enemies are displayed by a red hologram that will move around the map. Phantom Brigade requests that you decide carefully and examine each encounter from every angle. The game will briefly show you what the enemies plan on doing and you’ll want to work around those movements. While you’re planning out your next turn, time is frozen and from there, you can interact with your team.

Those things include visibility, terrain, unexpected consequences, and even physics. While playing the demo, it felt like there is quite a lot that factors into combat situations. Almost anything can happen to alter the course of those next five seconds. The game offers players a look at what MIGHT happen over those next five seconds but it’s not guaranteed. During combat situations, players must plan out their next 5 seconds of the engagement. The representative who showed me the game told me the enemy force didn’t have a name, so we’ll just call them the Red Team. Phantom Brigade is a hybrid turn-based and real-time strategy RPG where players are on a mission to liberate their country from an invading military force. Thankfully, all is not lost as Brace Yourself Games had something lovely in store for fans of hot, steamy mech on mech action with Phantom Brigade at PAXEast. It’s even better when you can be a part of it and honestly, we don’t have ENOUGH mech-based action games.

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