Brigador: Up-Armored Edition

I just rage quit playing the final campaign mission on my twitch stream. I won't spoil it here. My score for the game is a 3, but if you don't have a problem with BS, then it is a 4 out of 5. There are two main ways of playing the game, one is the campaign in a series of missions and another mode which I didn't touch. Is it fair to review the game having played only one of the modes? That's up to you. The game is a birds eye view of you controlling a single vehicle which changes depending on the mission. For each mission after the first few, you have a choice of 4 different vehicles with different types, hovercraft, small agile, fast wheeled, huge wheeled, huge mech, etc. Each of them comes with a set pair of weapons and special ability. For each campaign mission you have to pick only from the 4 given to you for it, even if another vehicle you have already played with would be a far better vehicle. Artificial difficulty? Maybe. There are several ways to control your vehicle and in the settings you can pick your favorite. None of them felt perfect for me, but apparently I am alone in this. If you find one to suit you, great. If not, you are going to fight the enemies and the controls for the duration of the game. Each mission has destroy X targets (specific or not) and exit the map. The destruction and shooting is great fun, though the handling of the aiming is tiresome, especially for small targets. Also the long range weapons like mortar and howitzer are about half the screen, shorter than direct fire weapons...yeah. The gfx & sfx & music are fantastic. The whole atmosphere is very good even though there are no cutscenes. When everything (controls and missions) align, this is one of the best action games ever made with almost full environmental destruction. When. Changes I would make, better aiming system/reticule. No BS spawning enemies at certain missions. Better controls. Freedom to choose any vehicle for campaign missions.

To say this game has a soundtrack is selling it short by miles. Brigador has an awesome 80s-ish synth album as its BACKBONE and every nerve, tendon, muscle and ounce of meat in the game is an enhancement and articulation of that backbone. The soundtrack is so good that I find myself making bold choices in the gameplay because it feels like I am betraying the game by playing it safe. I definitely recommend spending more to get all the music with the game and that isn't something I usually recommend. Another thing I appreciate about this game is the love of ridiculous, behemoth tanks and mechs. So many games favor quick, mobile play styles over slower, heavier play styles (even though they claim to treat both equally). This game is in love with monsterously ponderous tanks and mechs and I love it for it.

We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams.

Thanks Mandalore!

Give yourself time to get used to the controls and the aiming and you can have a lot of exploding goodness as you pick your way - and sometimes rampage - through 80s inspired futuristic 'dungeons'. The skill ceiling is high, and I'll never get to it, but what I have played kept me coming back for more.