Posted on: June 2, 2017

MischiefMaker
Games: 818 Reviews: 66
The spiritual successor to Crusader: NR
Brigador is an isometric vehicle-based tactical shooter with light stealth elements and a color saturated 80s cyberpunk aesthetic where you play a soldier on a soon-to-be invaded world who's been bribed into turning traitor and doing as much damage as possible to the planet's defenses before jumping onto a shuttle and escaping rich. Gameplay consists of being dropped into a battlefield filled with unsuspecting military units. Generally speaking a head-on assault is suicide in this game, you need to take careful consideration of the (destructible and occasionally explosive) terrain to take them apart piecemeal without raising the alarm. A big part of this involves flanking foes by smashing through buildings like the Kool-Aid man, guns blazing. At the moment there are 37 campaign missions and 18 freelance campaigns with randomly generated enemy forces. You get 56 vehicles to choose from and 42 weapons to arm them with. Vehicles include mechs, tanks, and hovercrafts (agravs). Thanks to the sim elements piloting a heavy mech almost feels like a completely different game than a light agrav. Suffice to say you get a lot of bang for your buck with this game. On the flipside, this IS a game with a learning curve. The biggest challenge is the aiming system which uses laser sights to track your weapon's trajectory in 3D and requires you to intersect the line with the enemy instead of just pointing your cursor at them. Also this new version of the game defaults to a simplified control scheme, but if you want the best controls change movement to "relative" in the settings menu. There are lots of games where you pilot a tank or giant mech through a city, few model the kind of brutal destruction that would result with the aplomb of Brigador. Couple that with an excellent synthwave soundtrack and this is the best game for blowing off steam since Crusader: No Remorse. Highly, highly recommended!
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