When it comes to combining the fantastical with the vaguely real no medium does this better than video games. Strange Brigade a downloadable title from developers Rebellion Developments accomplishes this with unusual aplomb. Unique for a video game of its type, Strange Brigade is a cooperative third-person video game that puts players in a variety of situations. It pits them against opponents drawn from the vast pantheon of world mythology.
The bottom line?
Strange Brigade is one of gaming’s most eclectic combinations to come out in some time.
How to Download Strange Brigade
To download your copy of Strange Brigade, follow the Download link at the end of this review. First, be sure to watch this awesome trailer that demonstrates what the game is all about. The game release date is 28 August 2018.
The Game Review
Available for the Microsoft Windows PC and Xbox One gaming system as well as the Sony PlayStation 4, Strange Brigade has two main game modes. They include single-player and multiplayer gaming modes in a graphical style that mixes reality with a slight veneer of comic-book style color palettes. This all gives the title a modern sheen without making it overly glossy and falling victim to the uncanny valley as so many games in this genre do.
So what the game feels and plays like?
Directed by Tim Jones and designed by Steve Bristow, Strange Brigade hearkens back to the Indiana Jones milieu of 1980s cinema. It means that it strongly focuses on an explorer from the 1930s that can, in tandem with other players, take on a range of mythological creatures and characters.
There is a kind of Universal film studios horror vibe about it to a degree that is ameliorated by the somewhat bright lighting found in Strange Brigade. The players will often find themselves trapped in a world between our own and that of an Indiana Jones. They will feel like romping through the classical films of both horror and adventure that were popular in the 1930s and beyond.
The devs were particularly keen to emphasize cooperative combat against the in-game enemies and to that extent, there is a lot of player versus environment content in the game to fulfill that vision.
Strange Brigade Characters
Though there are only four characters to select from in the game there are a ton of options for each one that makes them customizable and thus gives the player more leeway in how they choose to tackle the game. Here they are:
- Nalangu Rushida – a female Maasai warrior from Kenya
- Professor Archimedes de Quincy – a renowned archeologist and a scholar from Oxford
- Frank Fairburne – a British veteran of colonial conflicts
- Gracie Braithwaite – another Brit, a Northerner from Lancashire, she uses double-barrel shotgun and grenades as her weapons.
OK, we lied. There are more characters, or precisely speaking, more will be available after the game’s launch. Thus you can expect the following:
- Hachiro Shimizu – a guy from Japan called Unyielding Survivor
- Anjali Khan – a girl from India and a vengeful demon hunter
- Tessie Caldwell – a female African-American pilot
The Weapons
In addition, Strange Brigade also gives gamers a lot of guns to work with as well as a unique upgrade option that allows the player to improve the gun’s abilities for even further customization options.
Guns can be upgraded in the game using a workbench system. In addition to your handheld arsenal, the player can also use a series of traps to ensnare and finish off opponents.
The Puzzles
The game level layout is not linear but rather gives the players a variety of options so that no two playthroughs are the exact same. Interestingly, for those gamers that enjoy a bit of Resident Evil puzzle solving along with their mythological monster bashing, Strange Brigade also has puzzles that have to be completed in order to advance the game.
Solving these puzzles gives the player some benefits in the game including the ability to unlock what are called “amulet powers” by the devs. With so many options to customize, Strange Brigade emphasizes the variety of gameplay styles as well as the variety of gameplay in its nonlinear structure.
