Strange Brigade…Assemble!
I really enjoy team based games. I don’t think there is anything better than teaming up online with your friends and just owning that world, mission, quest. Monster Hunter World is a prime example of that. I’ve had so much fun with that game teaming up with people online. Rebellion are a developer I really respect for making very, very good games; Sniper Elite 4 is a prime example of this. Now they’ve brought Strange Brigade to the market and it’ll definitely be going down as yet another solid attempt from the team.
The main premise of Strange Brigade is that you take control of one of the four (5th available to those who purchased the game at launch or very soon after) Strange Brigade members, where you and your crew are tasked with taking down the evil Seteki, who has caused havoc across Egypt by raising the dead. You can do this campaign solo if you wish, but c0-op is definitely where the most fun is to be had, especially if you can get matched with friends or quite frankly, people who know how to blow stuff up!
This game has definitely got Rebellion’s mark all over it when it comes to the visual side of things. Sniper Elite 4 was a visual powerhouse and whilst this might not be on the same level completely, it still very pleasing on the eye. Different parts of Egypt look brilliant in the game, whilst it is also good to see a variety of different characters come to the fore in Strange Brigade.
What I will say is that I’m not too sure what I think of the voice acting in the game. The narrator who joins you and your team is really good, and makes light-hearted fun at the situations you are facing in front of you. The voice acting for the members of the Strange Brigade however feels a little odd if I’m honest. I’m not sure if that was purposely put in like that by the developers but it just doesn’t really feel like I’m connecting with those characters much. It’s not by no means terrible however. I mean, there is a trophy for you having to annoy the narrator!
Character wise, I like the fact that Rebellion have kept it really varied in terms of the style of game that you want to play. Each character has different strengths than the other, which is really good when you are deciding on which strategy you want to take with other people online and friends. These characters also have a specialty of their own. My favourite character to use in the game was Frank Fairburne. His special ability was Dynamite Dash which as a rushing attack would send enemies flying when they are hit by it. It was certainly an attack I found useful, especially when I had wave after wave of the undead coming my way. What was good however that even though each character starts off with a different weapon, you’re not locked to those weapons throughout the game. It’s only the key special abilities of each character that are locked but I definitely would recommend playing through the campaign with all of the characters available for a different experience.
The campaign is a pretty linear, standard affair. There are 9 missions all in all for you to go through. It took me just over 7 hours to complete them on my own. That would be disappointing if this was just a standard, run of the mill shooter. However, like I said earlier in my review, this game is all about co-op and it really is the best way to play it. Gameplay wise, it’s pretty much what you would come to expect from this kind of game. Follow a path, do a few simple puzzles and then end up fighting bosses. However, this is all cracked up a notch when you are playing with friends. I was able to co-op a few missions with some other people, and we actually invited each other to a party chat in order to talk what we were going to do. I mean I’ll be honest, they carried me through some of it, especially the harder later bosses but it was so much fun to play. If you liked the style of Zombie Army Trilogy then there is a huge chance you will like playing this.
It’s not just the campaign on offer either. Once you have finished each mission, you can start up either the horde attack or score attack modes. The horde attack mode was my favourite to go on, it is basically survive as long as you can. I really enjoyed playing this, it was really good to test my ability. However, if you aren’t matched with a team on the same wavelength, you will struggle with this mode.
Overall, Strange Brigade was a really fun game. I was really looking forward to it last year after playing it at EGX and a year later, I’m happy to say that Rebellion have delivered yet again another good game to add to their portfolio. I would of hoped for more content, but that may come somewhere down the line in future updates. Overall, a solid job from the development team.
A PlayStation 4 Review Code was provided by LickPR
