Brigador: Up-Armored Edition

One of the best games I have ever had the joy of playing. Unlockable vehicles, weapons, pilots and areas, a procedural "dungeon" mode with missions (destroy this, survive, go to the nearest exit) and a excellent world-building make this a must buy. Also, THAT SOUNDTRACK. Also, fully destructible everything. If you have the ammo and the firepower. It's just absolutely glorious.

Brigador is really cool. It's one of those games that deserved way more attention than it got. I've been playing it for a long time and it's gotten better and better. the 'Up Armored Edition' has some massive graphical improvements with lighting and explosions, and has just made a good game better. It's a great looking game with tricky but well crafted controls (that you can change if you hate them), and strong, intuitive mechanics. A lot of work has gone into making it hard without making you hate it or want to quit. This isn't a roguelike, but you will need to cultivate true roguelike spirit to play Brigador: you will die often, it will always be fair and your deaths will come from your own mistakes or overconfident actions, and the only good response is to roll up a new brigador and try again. There are more vehicles and guns than ever and the combinations lead to pretty wildly divergent playstyles. You can't talk about this game without mentioning the magnificent soundtrack by makeup and vanity set, either. It's up there in the all-time greats of videogame music, this driving, Escape from New York, neon techno sound perfect for stepping on cars and blowing up civilians. It's indescribably perfect. Make sure you buy the soundtrack. The 'setting' and 'lore' are almost all under the surface. There's an actual book on Amazon that is really unusually good and fun, of course. And there is purchasable lore in the acquisitions screen, but mostly you'll get a feel for the world from the experience of playing in it and destroying your home city and everyone you ever cared about or knew for a fat stack of cash and a ticket offplanet. The tone is really dark without being whiny or grim, more like Syndicate than anything else. You're a selfish murderer wading into a civil war in a single night of absolute carnage. You're out for a big payday and a ticket off planet. If that sounds fun, then welcome, Brigador. Solo Nobre must fall.

Like Syndicate crossed with Mechwarrior, an art style reminiscent of Tiberian Sun and a fantastic soundtrack. There's a decent length campaign with difficulty determined by a choice of 4 load-outs for each mission but the real meat of the game is in the freelance mode where you can unlock a huge range of mechs, tanks and antigravs along with a similarly large selection of weapons and use them fight your way through a string of maps with fully destructible everything.

Syndicate invited Crusader: No Remorse/No Regret & Desert Strike over for a game of Battletech, but ended up having a threesome instead while listening to 80's synthwave. Almost Three decades later, Brigador was born. I honestly can't find a single thing to complain about in this criminally overlooked game. It's grainy visuals, tone, lore, completely destructive enviornments, underlying level of strategy and music (the music!) should set an example for other developers.