Phantom Squad Review (PC) – Gone In A Flash

I’m going to caveat my review of Phantom Squad from the off. While the frantic and tactical action developer CTRL Freak have spawned is perfectly playable solo, it’s clearly designed for cooperative play. Unfortunately, I was only able to take on its gruelling military scenarios on my lonesome for review. As such, I’d heavily encourage you to bear this in mind when reading through my thoughts.

With that out of the way, let me introduce Phantom Squad for what it is. The most apt comparison I have for you is if Hotline Miami stumbled into a bar, had a few drinks with Ready or Not, and they proceeded to make this intense top-down shooter a reality for the world at large. 11 missions precariously nestling on a hair-trigger, rigged to a disaster, up to four players must venture in and diffuse a variety of breach-and-clear scenarios by force.

Is This Just Phantom-sy?

From the jump, Phantom Squad wastes no time getting you straight into the action. There is some background lore surrounding how you’re an elite response squad, sent in to deal with hostage situations, bomb defusals and eliminating terrorist gangs. You can read up on it more if you so choose, but you’ll need to seek this out separately, as the game does very little to contextualise your missions outside of the briefings themselves.

The tutorial does a good job of laying down the mechanics, teaching you that being wary and cautious is both recommended and necessary. You and your squad get access to a variety of main and side weapons, as well as gadgets such as flashbangs, drones and ammo or med crates. You unlock more as you complete missions and optional objectives, but I largely discovered that the opening arsenal does the job. This is an issue that comes up as part of the solo vs group experience, which I’ll delve into more later.

In the hub area, you can select from one of the 11 available missions (once unlocked by completing each in turn), tinker with your equipment loadout, and practice your skills at a rudimentary shooting range and mock set-up area. As a starting point, it’s solid and proficient, if somewhat on the minimal side. I had little reason to spend time in it, but I appreciate its inclusion for those who want to maximise their skills.

Hotline Squady

Once you’re decked out with weapons and equipment, you and your elite squad of bumbling mates (probably) will be dropped into a mission. Phantom Squad can be best imagined as the stylings of Hotline Miami’s frenetic-paced top-down gameplay, with Ready or Not’s SWAT aesthetic and tactical focus. Enemies die in just a couple of hits, but so do you. Everything and everyone in these level sandboxes is fragile.

In solo, that creates a lot of frustration. Bust through a door and be met with a heavy? Guaranteed damage or death. On your own, you have two free defibrillator revives, while in co-op, you and your squadies can pick each other up. The same issue applies to the level design and enemy composition setup. Rooms often have multiple foes patrolling. With a group of four, that makes for an awesome, cinematic opportunity to breach and wipe them out in sync. Or a hilarious gaffe where one person misses the cue and gets blasted with a shotgun.

Which is what makes reviewing Phantom Squad on my own a tough scenario – the glaring problems with playing as a loner (there’s no matchmaking feature, only invite friends) are most likely the game’s greatest strength in a team. Even so, I still found substantial enjoyment in breaching a stacked room with a flashbang before 2-tapping every criminal in the room with a suppressed rifle.

Breach and Fear

Of the 11 missions on offer, I will commend Phantom Squad’s mission structure. Levels are often large, expansive and multi-layered. Objectives vary significantly too, from rescuing hostages, diffusing explosives, evading capture or clearing all hostiles, each one feels unique. A particular highlight was saving hostages from an art museum heist, while trying desperately not to destroy all the said artwork in the process.

Each level has optional sub-objectives, completion of which will award up to three stars, offering some nice replayability for completionists. They tended to be pretty challenging too, including one to diffuse every trap on one massive map, for example. In co-op, this should provide some much-needed incentive to practice and hone your crisis situation skills with your buddies and come away feeling like badasses.

Unfortunately, a couple of levels perpetrate far more frustration than others. One stealth orientated mission, for instance, effectively requires superhuman patience to get through. It can be a 10-20 minute slog to just get to the fun part of the mission, only to die and have to replay all of it all over again, as there are no checkpoints, even on solo. As such, there were moments where Phantom Squad felt abrasive, and I struggled to maintain motivation to keep going.

Ghost In The Hell

Again, I really do want to reiterate that with a couple of like-minded buddies, all of this frustration likely dissipates. However, I doubt those particular level setups become that much better, even with friends sharing in the pain. The other solo-related problem I ran into was that I couldn’t get value from the extensive equipment and weapons on offer. I basically had to run flashbangs and the under-door camera or alternative surveillance. As such, I didn’t get to really appreciate the situational benefits of the other options.

The interactive map and planning system you can utilise to mark enemies, draw out routes and take stock of notable points of interest is a very good inclusion; however, it promotes further tactical planning and consideration. I can totally picture a friend drawing a phallic diagram all over it in intricate detail, but that just adds to the banter.

Performance-wise, Phantom Squad runs superbly, and I had next to no issues on either Steam Deck or PC. The framerate was consistent, while the visuals worked nicely, especially the effective use of lighting and darkness. Those night-vision googles are a god-send in some scenarios. Enemies splatter into a puddle of gore once eliminated, while maps are full of small details, nooks and environmental objects, which help flesh out the spaces you skillfully clear.

Phan-tastic, In A Squad

It’s fair to say that all of this leaves me rather conflicted about Phantom Squad and my perspective of it. On the one hand, it’s an intense, frantic and tactically engaging title that’s both challenging and rewarding, if you’re in a squad of buddies to sync up those perfect “hell yeah” moments. On the other, it’s a frustrating, poorly balanced and uneven experience if you’re tackling it alone.

I can’t help but wonder whether bots would have been a real lifesaver to Phantom Squad. The lack of matchmaking means you’ll either need friends or a community you can communicate with to play the game at its very best. That’s not to say I didn’t have moments of real satisfaction during my time breaching doors, subduing hostiles and racing against the clock to disarm bombs, but the other irritations dampened them.

If you’re thinking of buying the game, do so with a friend or with a community format already in mind. I’m saddened I didn’t get the opportunity to experience Phantom Squad at its best, but despite my issues with the solo experience, I can see the vision. At times, I even felt it. But, do yourself a favour, and rope in a couple of friends so you can live out those John Wick moments of breaching and clearing in style.

Phantom Squad is available from July 18th on PC via Steam (review platform).

Developer: CTRL Freak
Publisher: Super Rare Originals, Gamersky Games

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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