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Brigador

Brigador

Mechs + explosions = a good time.

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Brigador is a futuristic isometric action shoot 'em up where you play as a group of tactical weapons specialists and take control of a variety of vehicles of mass destruction. When piloting these these machines you're out to liberate civilians and generally save the day.

To progress in Brigador you simply need to complete each mission (which isn't always that simple), and as you can imagine it will usually involve blowing up buildings and destroying a bunch of enemy vehicles. It's not rocket science, but there are rockets.

You get a brief summary before starting, and this tells you what the mission will be like, although the description is more story than guidance and it may take a few attempts to find the right tactics. This is where planning comes into the game. As the missions get more difficult you will find that a plan of attack is crucial and knowing which weapons to use and where to use them can be the difference between success and failure. There are so many different vehicles, which means you can play each mission in a different way should you wish. There are smaller, faster mechs that allow you to be sneaky and tactical, or you can use something like the "Killdozer" which takes down everything in its path. Finding your own play-style really helps with each mission.

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The story that underpins the game is almost too in-depth. As stated, you get a bit of insight at the beginning of each mission, but to get the bigger picture the player really needs to dig into the lore. However, knowing the extra details really doesn't affect the game too much and one can still enjoy running around blowing stuff up without knowing the ins and outs of why you're doing so.

The gameplay is fairly simplistic, but the challenging difficulty adds a layer of complexity. During each mission you will be given targets which need to be eliminated. These will show up as blips on your map and it's your job to find the best way of taking them out. Each mission follows pretty much the same path: blow up the target, don't die, then head to the exit. However, in each mission (there's 39 all told) you do encounter new enemies who attack in different ways, this means that you probably won't complete each mission first time.

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Brigador
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The controls are very standard and intuitive. WASD has you move around and you use the mouse to aim both weapons. Each vehicle has a set of weapons which do a variety of different things, like smoke bombs and mini-guns, and these choices will impact the way in which you tackle each mission.

The artwork has something rather nostalgic about it. The isometric grid type maps were familiar to see and the retro, almost grimy artwork worked well to accentuate the feel of the game. The style wasn't so much shiny Star Trek-esque future, but more gritty and militaristic, which meant the artwork and graphics worked very well together. Along with this there's quite dramatic music to build the tension and decent sound effects; lots of metallic clanging and powerful music adds to the feel of battle.

There are two types of mode in Brigador. The first is the Campaign, where you will work through a mission completing objectives as you go. Each mission is different (there's 21 to get through) and naturally they increase in difficulty, requiring more planning as you progress. With each mission you will be presented with various loadouts to choose from. These differ in speed, armour and weapon types. The other game mode was Freelance. This is where the player is meant to buy new gear, pilots and mechs, then go on other missions (18 this time). This main issue we found was that there wasn't a huge difference between the modes. The gameplay was still largely the same, they're just different missions with different equipment and nothing really sets them apart.

We found that the repetitive gameplay loop got boring after a while. Before the end we lost interest in completing missions and had to push through the campaign, with level ending up feeling exactly the same as the last, albeit with slightly different things to blow up. However, up until the lustre wore off, we had a great time blasting away at things thanks to satisfying on-screen action, with debris flying all over the place with every pull of the trigger.

Brigador is crying out for an online mode where you can either battle other players, or work as a team to complete missions. With friends this game could be exciting, but without it Brigador just doesn't have the legs to entertain for long. Overall, we had a good time. You blow stuff up with a big gun, and really, when it comes to mech games, what more could you ask for!

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07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
Great art style, quick to pick up and fun to play.
-
Can get a bit repetitive after a while.
overall score
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Brigador

REVIEW. Written by Matthew Dixon

"You blow stuff up with a big gun, and really, when it comes to mech games, what more could you ask for!?"



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