Strange Brigade

Review

It’s the year 1930 and the place is Egypt.  Professor Harbin has released an ancient evil, Seteki the Witch Queen; a name which had been removed from history and hasn’t been mentioned in four thousand years. Now only The Strange Brigade can put an end to her devious plans in this third-person adventure game from Rebellion.

Upon starting the game up, a window will open in which will tell you about any updates or new content out or on its way, along with popular media links, forum links etc. You also have the choice of launcher, either Vulkan or DX12; which one you choose is up to you and your requirements. There are options to set up the game, but this can also be done while in the game.  Finally, there’s a link for support, if you should need any.

Once you’ve chosen which launcher to use, it’ll load to the main menu screen. From here you’ll have the option of choosing the type of game you want to play, from either Play, Quick Match or Browse Games. Pressing Play will allow you to choose your game type from either Campaign, Horde or Score Attack. Not all horde or score attack destinations will be available to you right away and they will have to be unlocked by playing through the campaign (or at least, that’s how they became available too me). Can you play horde or score attack and unlock them that way as you progress through them? I’m not sure; send your answers on a post card if you know the answer!



Choosing to play campaign will take you to a screen where you’ll be able to select game setup, character setup, inventory, continue a previous game from the last checkpoint or from the start of a level, and multiplayer options. There are nine campaign levels for you to work your way through, and these can be shown on a map in the game setup. You can also set the difficulty here, and if you wish, you can go and replay any of the destinations at any point, once unlocked.

Now you’ve set your game up it’s time to choose which of the four characters you’d like to play as. To help you make up your mind there’s a biography on each character. The characters on offer are Nalangu Rushida, born in Africa and raised by her people to protect them from supernatural threats. Gracie Braithwaite, a northern lass from England who is tough with a no-nonsense attitude to match. Professor Archimedes De Quincy, a noted archaeologist and scholar who loves digging up the past and its secrets. And Frank Fairburne, a man who’s been described as having the “coldest eyes in the empire”, a quiet but calculating veteran sharpshooter.

Next, it’s onto your loadout in your inventory. There are eleven main weapons to choose from, although to start with only a couple will be available to you. As you progress through the game, you’ll collect gold which will allow you to buy the weapons if you have enough gold at the end of a level. You can also upgrade your main weapon and sidearms with gems you’ll find in random treasure chests; there are nine different types to find, and they can give an extra wallop to any weapon!

The gems are perks, and depending on the weapon, can only hold so many gems at once. These gems have many different benefits; the Quickfire Gem will let you fire and reload with greater speed, which is great for slower reloading and firing weapons. Sekhmet’s Healing Gem will heal you with every kill you make, and Neith’s Stabilising Gem will reduce a weapons recoil. You can change these gems as you come across more of them, but if you do decide to change one gem for another, then the gem that is already attached to a weapon will be destroyed upon adding the new one, so bear that in mind.

There are also four different sidearms and four types of grenades (normal, molotov cocktail, sticky and decoy). Landmines and dynamite are also available to purchase if you have the gold. You can spend some of the gold (five hundred to one thousand) that you’ve collected in-game at certain chests for weapons with greater power, but they have limited ammunition so use them wisely.

As well as the weapons, you have an amulet in your loadout; these are different depending on the character you choose. There are four in total to collect for each character; you’ll have one to start with, but to unlock the others you’ll have to complete a set of relics (more on relics later), upon doing so you’ll be granted a skill point. These skill points are used to unlock an amulet of your choosing. You don’t have to use a skill point on your current character, it can be used on any of them but it’s probably best to use it on the one you’re using more than most, at least for now. There are enough relic sets and skill points for every character to unlock all their amulets.

To use an amulet, you must first charge it with the souls of vanquished foes; you can either run to collect these souls (small blue lights) or you can summon them to you, and once fully charged you can use the amulet’s abilities. A fully charged amulet can come in handy when confronted by a horde of enemies; how they will help is down to which one you currently have equipped. The Divine Poultry Punishment, for example, will turn your foes into chickens, or Set’s Cruel Pleasures will unleash the violence of a lightning storm.

Now you’ve sorted your loadout, it’s time for your adventure to start! You start at Harbin’s Dig Site where Professor Harbin has awoken an ancient evil, Seteki the Witch Queen, erased from the annals of history and buried for four millennia in a nameless tomb, has risen again. You haven’t a clue what else Harbin has been up to. So, you set off in search of clues and answers while making your way through the dig site and the ancient ruins.

As you make your way through the game, you’ll have to solve puzzles, dodge traps, giant scorpions, hordes of mummies and skeleton pirates as well as Seteki’s champions. Things aren’t all bad though, as there are plenty of traps for you to take advantage of, like spinning blades, fire traps, explosive barrels and pots, so use everything around you to get one over Seteki and her undead horde.

Keep your mince pies open for lovely hidden loot to bolster your bank balance, so you can buy those extra weapons and grenades. You may come across some relics here and there; collecting a set of four relics will give you a skill point for you to unlock an amulet. A catalogue of any relics you’ve discovered can be found in your Journal, as well as any letters you may have found, helping you get a better picture of the sinister deeds going on. There is a total of sixty-two letters and 48 relics to find scattered around the game.

There are six blue cat idols which popup now and then on each destination. When near one, you’ll hear a meow, so clean your tabs out, listen for them and then shoot the blighters when you spot one! Collecting all six on your current destination will allow you to enter into the cat temple near the end of the level, which is full of lovely loot and a golden cat statue. Also scattered around the place are canopic jars, so look high and low for these.

The other two game modes are Horde and Score Attack; you set Score Attack up in the same way as you would for campaign. Any weapons you’ve unlocked already will be available to you. In Score Attack, you’ll have to kill all the enemies and reach the end as fast as you can, trying to reach the highest score possible on the leader boards.

In Horde you’ll start with a pistol and grenade, so you’ll have to get some kills for gold and then you will be able to buy main weapons, pistols and grenades. You’re able to resupply your weapons at ammo chests but these lock after so many uses and will take gold to open them again. You can also open gold doors for various amounts of gold, as you may find some lovely loot to help you combat Seteki’s minions. All three game modes can be played with friends or randoms.

In the options you’ll find the usual: Game, Display, Audio, Controls and Interface. There’s plenty of options to tweak for your perfect setup, with options like subtitles, size of subtitles, aim assist (the master race doesn’t need aim assist), hold to aim, resolution, render scale, graphic details, v-sync, reduce mouse lag, narration, master, music, effects volume, mouse sensitivity X and Y, key bindings and much more.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Strange Brigade; nice graphics, sounds are good, I loved the narration of the game, and it ran as smooth as a Johnson's baby’s bottom. I did have one issue when the game was first released, but the developers sorted that out and I haven’t had any problems since. Great game overall; give it a try and if you’re one of those saying, “the price is too high blah blah blah”, then wait for a sale; simples!

 

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!


Positives

+ All game modes can be played alone or with other players
+ I love narration in game
+ Graphics are nice, runs smoothly
+ Achievements
+ Has cards

Negatives

- Not many random players online

Review Summary

Travel around the world from dig sites to long lost caves and ancient ruins all harbouring malevolent monsters as you track down Seteki to stop her sinister plans once and for all.

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Zeepond Rating: 9/10

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