Brigador Killers

pissing with the ♥♥♥♥ i got

I'd give it a 'meh' if I could, but as that'd break our algorithmic overlords, I'm leaning towards recommend- the foundations here are strong and I expect this to get better- I will certainly update my review when that time does come. However, it's exceptionally rough around the edges right now and I worry it'll prove abrasive to newcomers. Most of that is a matter of polish- or rather, the lack thereof. I -did- get stuck several times during the early-access campaign, and in a way that fell upon the game to communicate better with the player, so further playtesting is a must for all concerned. Above all though, Killers makes a marked turn from it's predecessor with the focus on a narrative campaign. I quite enjoy this, being an avid fan of the audiobooks, but that's like 3 levels of fandom deep and I need to be fair to the uninitiated. The original Brigador was essentially a narrative Souls'like in the in sense that it spoonfed you very little- you can charge right in and start blowing up the hated Great Leader without further consideration. If you started to comb through all the backstory files available for purchase (in-game money, mind- no real $$$) and you'd realize there was a whole lot more going on here than you were told. You could engage with it as little or as much as you wanted to. That's not the case here with Killers, whose entire narrative revolves around the consequences of the original, as well as the audiobooks. Let me make it clear right now: do NOT buy this if you haven't played the original and/or read (listened to?) the audiobooks. Now that Killers is all about aforementioned narrative, you will be in the dark as to what's happening. If you did, however, play the original and listen to the audiobooks, then you're already in the know- go right ahead, try not to worry about the awkward UI and instead worry about a nightmare vision of the future where Late-Stage Capitalism is not so much a malignant tumor as much as it is an actively carnivorous mole cronenburg'ing out of your back whilst your friends point at you wailing like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. PROS: -------------------------------------------- + Strong narrative in a strong setting where DoorDash has shifted from employing "independent contractors" to deliver food and instead, uh, >defend< the food. A setting where the easiest way to get on-site affordable healthcare is to ambulance your friend directly into an -ongoing mass murder site- in hopes that paramedics there will treat him for a wholly unrelated injury. It's a different kind of horror game, sure, but it definitely is one. + STRONG soundtrack. Makeup & Vanity Set did great with the OGs soundtrack, they outdid themselves here. + Great, destructible environmental design. Much like the original, Stellar Jockeys does a good job making environments that feel lived in, shortly before you level half of it with stray gunfire. +The portraits for the weapons and characters are great (assuming they have assets and not MsPaint placeholders, granted, but that's early access for you BB) I'm not actually sure who it is who makes these, but the artist has seriously stepped his game up from the original Brigador release almost a decade ago (damn) + Once you get your head wrapped around the UI (more on that later) you've got a very short, visceral and addicting gameplay loop. Suit up, shoot up, loot up, repeat. + Ruthlessly vicious blood and gore for a pixelated isometric game. You're going to be sliming so many of the boys in blue that some of them will start to flee and you'll feel a moment of exhilaration before it really registers that you just turned an entire city block into a charnel house and the doubts start creeping in. MEH: ------------------------------------------------------------------- +/- I'm conflicted about this one as I do believe you need consequences for a fail-state to feel impactful, but permanently losing *everything* on you at time of death and getting respawned back in with one bag of potato chips (that is not hyperbole) feels an awful lot like getting kicked in the ♥♥♥♥ for falling over. Even letting the player keep just a 3rd of the ammo you were carrying at the time of death would do a lot to save you from needing to grind through previous missions whilst still keeping a sense of threat in failing a mission (read: shot the eff up) +/- This isn't really an active complaint because, again, early access, but the UI is unceremoniously barebones with regard to presentation. It would be putting the cart before the horse to go all in on it the way they have the character/gun portraits because you never know when you might need to overhaul the system, but nevertheless I can't help but feel like it does cheapen the look of a game you just spent 25$ on. CONS: ------------------------------------------- - The UI, in it's current state, is atrocious. I eventually learned to navigate it naturally- eventually. I don't know if others will be quite as patient, and I hold no blame for them if it did completely turned them off. I'm not talking visual polish, mind, but even simply intuiting how to navigate it whilst guys are shooting you in real time. -The transition from "fully-destructible sandbox rampage simulator" to "narratively driven Isometric The Road" is not a smooth one and may even prove jarring for fans of the original. For me, though, this becomes most apparent with the their handling of the mission objectives in relation to actually navigating linear progression. There is nothing stopping you from 'completing' a mission beyond running you ass over to the exit sign, even if you haven't actually accomplished the objective. This will result in confusion, frustration and a lot of backtracking when you suddenly hit a wall later on (ie, running right past the fabricator you were supposed to acquire because some MIB creeps in suits with hardshields all came pouring out of the woodwork at once while you're sitting on 3 health) - Although it isn't a demo, it still feels pretty short, because it is- once you complete the equivalent of act 1 you immediately get slapped with a "TO BE CONTINUED" screen and then get dumped into what amounts to a sandbox mode. Again, this is early access, so it's not exactly shocking, nor unfair- but disappointing just the same considering you just sank 25$ on it. TL;DR ----------------------------------------- I don't regret buying my copy as soon as it dropped, but I also freely concede I am a well established fan. If you are too, then I'd say go for it. If you are NOT, however, I'd be a lot more hesitant. If you're new to the series altogether, I'd recommend playing the original first, then visiting the audiobooks, and -then- consider coming back here to pick it up. You'll have a better idea of whether it's worth it to you or not by that point, and chances are there will probably be more meat on this thing's bones by the time you're finished with those. As it is, I couldn't call this a standalone game with a straight face. Not yet, anyways.

the progression is too much of a slog(throwing rocks and cinder blocks, really? as if getting crappy Corvid guns wasnt hard already), and past the early missions, the difficulty spike is just way too insane, you're barely armed with anything more than police-tier weapons, and the enemies already swarming you in with APCs + uparmored+upgunned version of it, good luck outrunning it, and aint no way you gonna fight it with an armed vehicle of your own at this stage since you're pretty much still a bum >just flank bro yeah good luck doing that while you're still on foot, 20 hp, and theres 3 squads of policeman with 5 exo-skeleton SWAT officers swarming the area, oh nevermind, they just spawned another APC from the direction you're running towards to 20++ hrs in the demo, not only the EA release is very divisive to the one who expected more of the first game, it also betrays those that enjoyed the demo, gotta say quite disappointed, might be updated in the future

let them cook. The game is not the demo and the demo is still available if you want an easier, consequence free sandbox with all the endgame stuff to make you OP.

I haven't enjoyed a game this much in a long time. Using rocks and handmade guns to work your way up to something even resembling a real firearm, the feeling of preparation before a big mission, how much do you bring, how much do you risk, can you replace this if it goes wrong? Combat is challenging but always feels engaging. The fear of god you feel when a power suit starts hovering towards you is very fun, and encourages a lot of creativity. Luring people into IED's or watching a group scatter after you disintegrate one of them around a corner with a shotgun fulfills the insurgent fantasy they sell very very well. The game strikes a great balance of feeling under powered and weak, vs the growing power as you get better and better equipment. The progression hits just right, slow enough to make my decisions feel meaningful without ever running out of new things to show me. Moving into a new area and feeling the scope of your operation change from searching through trash for bullets to black markets and armored vehicles feels very tangible and engaging. The combat is tricky at first but personally I found turning off aim assist and not using the lock on made it both more fun and easier to understand. Just make sure you aim *past* the enemy, otherwise you're aiming at the floor. This game hits nearly every mark I wanted it to and is exactly the kind of thing I've been wanting from a game like it for a long time.

it is not fully baked, no way shape or form, needs a few more months before it can really blossom. lotta folks are peeved that "it's not like the demo." yeah, it's not like the demo because the demo had no narrative to develop. there are missing art assets for guns and equipment, that is just RAW and not a good thing. there are certainly cracks but the gameplay is solid, kinda like the oldest GTA games mixed with tarkov like elements sprinkled with a crulety squad adjacent art style. people who cry that it's not like the demo are the same kids who want candy and ice cream for dinner instead of a balanced meal.

I'm small, squishy, and poor. I'm reduced to kicking everyone to death or pelting them with rocks. I am living off of potato chips and what scraps I can find. There's a crippled terrorist I guess I'm taking care of. It's dark and everyone seems to hate me. Thankfully I have Brigador Killers to take my mind off the state of things.