Game 133 - Brigador - Week X - May 24

rigador is a game I'm not sure how I came by. I watched Mandalore's video and it looked fantastic. The gorgeous level of detail and surprising amount of depth in a game where your vehicles had two weapons and one special ability. But that was well into my challenge where I'd promised to only buy games that called to me like no other. As cool as it looked it certainly didn't fit that criteria so I can only assume it was among one of the several humble bundles I bought last year when I "relapsed" for a period. I can say without a doubt, at least in Brigador's case I have no regrets, the game was an absolute joy. 

My god the detail in the art is like nothing I've ever seen. Every individual voxel, it's just so much on one screen but yet not messy. The world is completely realised, a cyberpunk dystopia run by the classic greedy corporations. You're play as the various freedom fighters and mercenaries, fighting the good fight. I didn't really dig too deep into the lore but there's a lot there, each mission having an extensive dossier. The faction art is really slick with some very cyberpunk looking insignia. I only read a few so I can't comment on a plot I not little about. The world itself is vibrant and varied with carparks, docks, industrial areas, junk yard, houses, and more; often all compiled into one map giving a sense of a larger city and planet. The detail is hard to describe; people are tiny little dots that explode into meaty chunks when you step on them. There are areas with hundreds of abandoned cars. Fuel stations and depots go up in flames if you blast them. And best of all, it's all destructible. 

Mechs are typically a turn off for me. I've never been into Gundam or Armored Core. I suppose you could classify Brigador as a mech game but its so much more. And not just because you can play a variety of vehicles from tanks to hover vehicles, cars, floating cars, cars stacked on top of cars cleverly nicknamed the "Treehouse". When playing the turning circles are essential to winning an encounter. Slow for both you and an enemy, if you can blow a hole in the terrain and flank them or camouflage and reposition, you get 2-3 shots in before they get you in their sites. Quickly levelling the playing field or ending it before it even starts. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a contender for best mech game but it's hard to call it such when the game supports so many different play styles and is so unique. I've never played Armour core or any for that matter but they seem like straightforward mobile gun suits.

Treehouse is one example of how creative these mechs get...

Sure you can go straight aggressive; load up on firepower and extra health (which is your hull). You're also rewarded for powering through enemies in the form of lapsed ammo and orbs, giving you shield and even over shields, taking a page from Doom and encouraging push forward strategy. But then you have stealth, which is incredibly viable with multiple avenues to avoid patrols, camo tech and opening shots to assassinate loyalist mechs. Line of sight is essential as you flank or use Camo to reposition behind a tanks weak point. There are many more and the further I play the more I notice they mix and match; hover vehicles that can easily turn and shoot, making backpedalling viable and requiring hit and run tactics or tanks and artillery for long range fire power. The more difficult missions make more obscure loadouts that you would never opt to play; creating interesting challenges. There's also a lot of mechanical depth you can exploit as you play. Pick the class with howitzer, find an alley and create a choke point. Start firing artillery at the mobs and lure them into your kill zone. Mechs and tanks are often fast forward and slow to reverse. So I'll have the guns to the back ready to open fire and the front pointed away from the enemies ready to reverse at a moments notice. 

Some of my favourite feels include Arlo, a mobile hover craft with powerful guns. Broodmare, the perfect mid range bruiser mech with camouflage perfect for flank and reposition. Touro, classic mech with a cannon and MG. Buckler, a slick triangular hovercraft with high mobility, burst damage and camo to boot. Zed Prime, one of the weird floating face towers repurposed. They have Otomos scanning ocular laser beams that obliterate everything, from the Zed eyes. I actually read the lore on this one and they're used as scarecrows to keep the space farmers in line. Which makes the idea of repurposing one to put the fear back into the oppressors all the more epic. Last but not least is the Buckmaster, my absolute favourite. It's not the strongest, but the howitzer travels in an arc making terrain, positioning, stealth and opening shots everything. If you're swarmed, you're done. Or just use the camo, reposition fire a shell and beams, repeat. It's even better if you can sneak up on a cluster of dormant enemies and lob a shell or two. A variant similar mech basically has the same weapons but EMP instead of stealth; and doing the one two combo of shell; EMP; shell before they can react is also fantastic. 

The last special mention for this gem of a game wold have to go to the soundtrack. There's nothing flash about it and it's perfectly ambient. The electronica soundtrack sets the perfect background to your mercenary funded rebellion and many of the tracks are just downright hypnotic. After playing Fallout 2 which is weirdly absent of music (this could have been a bug come to think of it), it just goes to show much of a different a banging soundtrack makes in a game.