I have had my eyes on this game for a while and with the latest sale on this game I finally got my hands on it! The game feels so beautifully crafted; the controls for the different vehicles, the gorgeous visuals of the fully destructable cities, the fantastic score by Makeup & Vanity Set, the absolute power you possess as a Brigador... It's so hard to describe! I just recently heard that the game wasn't doing too hot and I hope this changes very soon, this is one of the greats!
Promising, but comes up short in depth and difficulty, feels unfinished
Too easy, too two dimensional, and too much of a wasted premise.
The base difficulty is too easy. Even with the pilot with the highest difficulty (Precursor James), the enemies are all too similar and predictable. It's far too easy to get them to get them to funnel into choke points because they want to come at you in the same direction instead of fanning out to come on multiple fronts. Yes you can MAKE the game extremely difficult by handicapping yourself with a weak vehicle and weapons, but that is a self imposed challenge.
This game is very two dimensional. I'm not talking about the game style of "go here, kill that, then go here to leave", I'm talking about the maps being all flat, no height differences or terrain obstacles. Think back to some of the classic Mechwarrior games, you had hills, rivers, boggy terrain, a variety of enemies from long range missiles and projectiles to close range mechs, but on this game you just have obstacles like buildings and walls which you destroy, so it's much more like a combat arena.
The story is also very weak too. Don't expect a progressive and engrossing story line like in other mech games, literally it's "evil dictator is killed, now do these missions like destroy a communication tower", it doesn't draw you into it.
The weapon assortment is varied, but you can only equip two, and there are only a few actually worth choosing. Unlike other Mech games, you only choose two weapons, all have an ammunition counter as opposed to a heat system on energy weapons. Ammo replenishment is frequent from destroyed enemies, so running out of ammo is rare unless you go around destroying every building, which doesn't result in much money gained, as you gain millions from mission objectives but only thousands from collateral damage.
Honestly overall it feels like a game that's in the development stage and is only half finished. Think of it like Raptor but with a mech instead of a jet.
Nice isometric retro graphics, matching music and high paced dynamic tank action with many ways to complete the mission. Run them over, stomp, shoot while crouching, trigger a chain reaction of explosions... The AI is smart enough to keep a distance from your corner ambush if you run out of ammo and try to stomp them. All buildings can be destroyed with lots of particle effects, unlike many games that only care about looking good on screenshots.
Brigador is one of those games that separates normies and journos from the rest of us. This is old school smash and grab fun in a new modern graphical setting. Its not just fun, its DAMN FUN!
** If the controls bother you change them. There are 2 separate and different control schemes and it is why there is an "up armoured edition". I wont spell it out here, look up the guide or better yet check out Lord Mandalores video on this game.
Oh and the music is 80's synthwave magic. Get in the damn mech and crush everything in sight!
This game reminds me of classics like Starcraft: Brood War and Diablo 2 - sprite-based isometric games that deserve decades of play and appreciation. The game is an amazing vibe, a moody depiction of a cyberpunk dystopian banana republic thrown into chaos. Mechanized warfare means that small numbers of rogue mercenaries can tip the balance of power by destroying key infrastructure, assassinating military leadership, or wiping out enemy troops. Lives and livelihoods are chewed up by the figurative and literal machines of war as conflict erupts planetwide overnight. Civilians are an afterthought.
And that's JUST the atmosphere of the game. The story is surprisingly deep for a game structured like a suped-up arcade title, and it's a better story than you get out of the average AAA title. The title introduces you to the space between arcade action and immersive sim in terms of gameplay, with sightlines, noise, weapon systems, environmental destruction, and more strategic elements allowing you to develop dozens of strategies and tactics.
There are something like forty or fifty different weapons systems to mix and match together (primary fire, secondary fire, special attack) on three different kinds of vehicles which each have dozens of distinct and niche sub-types. You can be a golf cart packing melee-ranged cannons, a mecha tall enough to fire anti-material laser beams over the tops of buildings, the floating head from Zardoz melting anything that gets too close with a wall of disintigration beams, a hover car with gatling guns strapped to the hood, the forklift suit from Aliens with a laser jackhammer for tunneling through buildings, and so much more.
It's just a great game, and well-worth buying at full price. If you ever wanted to play a Metal Gear game as a Metal Gear, if you ever wanted a real-time mecha action game, or if you ever fantasized about being a hero unit in an RTS, check this game out. It rules.
