Brigador delivers fun retro style gameplay in a very pretty package. The amount of strategy and planning that go into completing each mission elevate Brigador above being a run of the mill top down shooter and provides a much deeper gameplay experience. While the difficult control scheme and aiming system may turn some players off, Brigador will still provide hours of entertainment for fans of retro games.
In many ways, Brigador is the modern, indie progeny of classic mecha games like Armored Core. It's rough around the edges, and doesn't do much with its story or its tutorials, but distills the gluttony of the 90s action genre into an impassioned, indulgent package.
Simply an amazing game! I have long been a fan of roguelikes, such as The Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, Nuclear Throne and the like, just because I can quickly play while listening to something like a podcast or music. I can honestly say that, for the first time in a while, I listen to this soundtrack every time I play. The world and soundtrack ooze neon and synth, **** you into this 80's-style action movie.
Brigador is a brilliant retro isometric dual stick shooter with tactical systems like stealth and LoS, brilliant graphical style, with voxel based fully destructable environment and an amazing,immersive synthwave soundtrack. The dystopic futuristic scenario is very interesting too, but totally optional - you might never read a single entry and just blow stuff up if you prefer that experience.
It's an almost hypnotic experience discover the perfect gem for the Genesis era, created without any artificial limitation, fulfilling it's vision due to modern technology. I'm trully happy for finding it, and I never heard of it until they re-launched it with the "up-armored" expansion.
In our rough times where games are AAA mediocre for not trying anything out of the box, Brigador is a breaath of fresh air from the time games were made to be fun - and man, did they succeed at making this fun.
If you have ANY interest in games like this, buy Brigador. I'm dead certain you'll love the experience. I made this account just to review Brigador, for I trully disagree with the under 8.0 user score it has here. To my experience, it's a "decent" game, and I just ignore anything under 8.0 at metacritic. This game should not be ignored.
Brigador is, without doubt, a gem. And I'm not talking diamond-in-the-rough here, but a real, polished gem.
The lore, while not the main selling point, is fantastic. Through well-written pilot and equipment descriptions as well as dedicated lore and intel entries you get a glimpse into a fleshed-out universe that has obviously been crafted with love and care. Add to that the fantastic 80's-synth-inspired soundtrack and beautiful, cyberpunk-esque graphical presentation and you've already got a winner. But the real star here is the gameplay; Brigador is not just an isometric mech shooter, but a surprisingly deep and engaging experience.
The game's description in the steam store is surprisingly accurate. Here's what it says:
"Choose your vehicle, weapons, pilot, and defense.
Assault the districts of Solo Nobre, then escape or die trying.
Your choice."
This describes the Freelance mode, which is the core of the game, pretty well.
You choose from a wide selection of pilots (determining difficulty and payout multiplier), vehicles (possibly increasing your payout multiplier) and weapons/special weapons.
Vehicles come in three flavors: Mechs, tanks and anti-gravs (agravs for short). Each has distinctive characteristics and handles differently.
Weapons come in five different size classes, with 8 weapons in each class. (A whopping 40 weapons all in all!)
Additionally, you can equip your vehicle with one of four different special weapons, that can have either defensive or offensive purposes - or a mix of both.
Finally you choose a mission and you're ready to go. In order to finish and leave each district (map) of a mission you need to complete at least one of three main goals; there are also optional goals which you can complete for a better payout.
Your goal is to fulfill your mission, stay alive and finally extract via spaceport. If you fail, there is no continue, almost all of your hard-earned points will be withheld in order to cover your 'funeral expenses'.
If you don't pay attention to your surroundings and blow up something explosive while standing right next to it, you will die. (Sounds like a noob mistake, but believe me, it happens more often than you think.)
If you get cocky and rush into a large group of enemies, or trigger an alarm to have basically a whole districts worth of enemies converging on your last known location, you will die (at least if you don't **** immediately).
If you select a combination of vehicle and weaponry you are not (yet) comfortable with and decide to do a high-difficulty run, you will absolutely, positively die in the most horrific way possible.
However, how hard or easy the game plays is actually up to the player.
If you like to take it easy or simply get acquainted with the game, choose a powerful vehicle/weapon combo, and an 'easy' pilot. Or, if you want to feel miserable, you can attempt to ride a tuk-tuk equipped with shrapnel-blasting cannons (that look like they're exploding in your own face) into the depths of hell.
Speaking of difficulty, there are levels ranging from 1 to 13, and the first few of these are rather mild. Personally speaking I've been able to beat up to level 7 reliably with a reasonably powerful vehicle and weapons, but anything above is pure madness.
Another one of the great things about Brigador is its large variety of vehicles and weapons. Pretty much every playstyle is possible.
If you want to blast your enemies to smithereens from afar with naval cannons mounted to an ultra heavy tank, you can do just that.
If you love to zoom around in a tiny agrav and murder your enemies in the face with shrapnel cannons that's totally possible.
And if you like a heavy mech that stomps things that get too close and shoots lasers and gatling guns at everyone else - be my guest.
That being said, none of the above works without some sort of tactical modus operandi; simply rushing in guns blazing will quickly get you killed on anything but the lowest difficulties.
Finding out what works for you (and what doesn't) is important - and it's fun, too.
Aside from freelance, there is also a campaign mode that should at least be played for the tutorials as well as the first few levels in order to learn the ropes of the game. After that, it quickly becomes tough as nails and very frustrating, though it's not bad.
So, is Brigador good? Without a doubt. The controls are precise (but can take a bit of pratice), the overall presentation leaves an impression **** crafted with love and care, and the gameplay is surprisingly deep - much more than you would expect simply judging from screenshots or videos of this game.
The soundtrack is fantastic as well.
If you like mechs, tanks and all things sci-fi, love shooting things from an isometric perspective, enjoy tight, challenging gameplay and a game that can be tailored to your needs and tastes to some degree, Brigador may just be THE thing for you.
The mechanics of this game are very solid, simple yet deep. If you enjoy them, you will have a lot to sink your teeth into. The story campaign is 10 hours long unless you're crushing it, but the unlockable missions could keep you busy for 50.
The electro-synth soundtrack is great, but repetitive because the tracks are so short. They don't transition smoothly when looping, so you get some silence during missions.
The retro-futuristic setting is hands-down gorgeous. Must play for any cyberpunk fan. The visuals give a lot of nostalgia for certain older games (such as MechWarrior, and the little-known Metal Warriors), and that alone makes it worthwhile, to me.
Don't buy this game for the story. It's optional, and told entirely through text: item descriptions, mission briefings, and unlockable lore. There is no dialogue and no NPCs. If you want to read, it's there, and it's good, but the real meat of this game is in the satisfying and fun action.
If you've been looking at this game and aren't sure whether it delivers, just letting you know it does.
One caveat: The game is said to have controller support, however, aiming your guns with the right analog stick is so clunky, compared to the smooth keyboard+mouse controls, that it is basically not an option. I bought it thinking that I could use a controller, and I was disappointed. But the game is good enough that I played with the mouse anyways.
I get the idea. I get the nostalgia. I admire the audiovisuals. But I got bored really fast with this one and don't think I will ever get back to it. Sorry.