Brigador: Up-Armored Edition

Brigador is a very special game that I can't wait to see iterated on. There's simply too much to talk about in this one review, so I'll stick to the stuff that really landed for me. - The visuals are dripping with love and detail. Solo Nobre is an interesting place and I dig the choices of environments- graveyards, industrial complexes and even gated communities to name some. Environments are extravagant, vehicles look functional and unique, the lighting is nice and moody and EVERYTHING explodes. - The weapons look and sound great and are very fun to use - all have specific advantages over certain defense types, so you can get really creative even with just a couple of weapon slots. - The levels start off easy and let you get accustomed to alerting enemies, making traps or testing your firepower. Later levels are some of the hardest, most fun challenges I've had in recent memory, the final 4-6 missions will likely push you to your limit. There is a unique rush this game gives you when you set off a big trap in a level crawling with enemies, watch them funnel and then nuke them in a hail of gunfire and poison gas. You have to make rapid-fire decisions that are constantly life or death, having no sure way to know if you're about to eat lead or make it out the other side. Winging it and succeeding is supremely satisfying in Brigador like nothing else I have played - Even Synthetik 2 doesn't come close. - The vehicles at your disposal are really fun to use and can be diverse or specialised in their design. You have some familiar ones like mopeds, bikes, tanks and hovercars and then you've got other stuff like mechs, a bunch of cars stacked on top of each other, floating heads and a death toilet to name a few. You can always practice in Freelance mode to get familiar with what each vehicle is capable of. - MT Foxtrot is a playable character. The only thing this game lacks is Coop mode. Otherwise, an outstanding home run of a game. Can't recommend it enough.

The music is great and the sound design made me appreciate how sounds can completely change and elevate the experience. Thr large caliber gatling gunmakes my pickle tickle, and was a big reason for be buying some nice speakers.

Simple, stylistic and music is awesome.

Great and challenging mecha fun! Controls do take some getting used to.

Game is a lot more tactical than you'd expect from a top down vehicle shooter with heavily descructable environments. You have tons of heavy ordinance, but splash damage also affects you, so you need to be tactical about how you deploy it, using cover and lines of sight to keep from being overwhelmed. Solid game with lots of gameplay options. Story is mostly incoheret and delivered via textwall.