Brigador: Up-Armored Deluxe

Here we have a tactical MechWarrior with a flavor reminiscent of Commandos drenched in an early 80's vision of a near-future dystopia with a side of lasers and explosions. Pick a difficulty and suit up in your choice of walker, tank, or hover-car with myriad arsenal options, then duke or juke it out with the AI. Every vehicle and weapon looks and feels unique and satisfying, from a mobile tower of derelict cars and guns to flying saucers, and even your everyday main battletanks, floating fortresses, and of course a huge selection of mechs. Dozens of masterfully crafted, fully destructible battle zones and enemies that scale to your taste for punishment let you decide if you want to play clever or loud (or a mix of both), and how fast you want to die when you muck it up. Something doesn't feel quite right? The simple controls and everything about them are customizable for your piloting convenience. Now while there's plenty to keep the Battletech enthusiast in your heart entertained for weeks on end, this is a purely solo comp-stomp joyride. There's no multiplayer of any kind, and lacking a fleshed-out freeform campaign experience with that satisfying feeling of progression one might expect from a MechWarrior game gives this inescapable vibe of 90's game design; you play it because you like leveling city blocks or sneaking past swarming regiments of deadly mecha - story, characters, and hard choices be damned. That said, the writing is top-notch and saturated with enough immersion potential to make you wish it had a companion novel or two, but you'll have to put in some time to unlock and engross yourself in it because you get none of it while you play. That would be this game's biggest crime - all that delicious lore and you can only enjoy it from the main menu. In spite of that, Brigador is the best as being what it is: a tactical mech/tank shooter. Rare breed though it may be, it would still earn all 5 of those stars for the gunplay, atmosphere and music alone.

I had this game on my wishlist for quite some time now, I was planning to buy it in this sale but I had to buy a new hard drive, imagine my surprise when I enter the page to check the offers and news and saw not only this game but the Deluxe Edition for free!!! I want to thanks to the developers and GOG for this!!! Happy Holidays!!!!

By the Power of Mandaloregaming and the Merchant Guild. Cool Game and OST. Why did I miss out on this in the first Place?!

One of the rare games with good gameplay, graphics, sound and story/lore. Recommended for anyone who likes shooters. If I go in detail, the game looks pretty but everything important, like enemies, are still clearly distinguishable. Together with the music the game has a not so often seen atmosphere, which is then improved again by the very well written lore. There is little story to the missions but the lore for weapons and vehicles make Solo Nobre feel like a real place. The gameplay looks simple at first but soon starts to show good depth. The whole environment is destructible, which allows you to flank enemies through buildings and forces you to find better position as the level gets more ruined. When you start a mission you can go stealthy, avoiding raising alarm but when you fail that you can still shoot your way out. You have health and shield, none regenerates but you can pickup shield and ammo from dead enemies. You can even be reckless if you can kill and collect shield bubbles fast enough. Enemies will investigate noise and you can choose to sacrifice ammo towers and blow them up with it. Everything you encounter in game you can drive and shoot yourself. While some weapons feel the same, most have their own niche and they are all satisfying to use, not to mention you can also ram/stomp the enemy. There is also support equipment such as smoke or invisibility and the vehicles even have a horn. The campaign missions put you into various situations and levels usually have more than one way how to complete them. You choose difficulty by picking one of four brigadors and earned money serves for unlocking stuff for Freelance mode. No leveling up, just your guns and your skill.