Strange Brigade

Lots of fun, although co-op is pretty dead nowadays unless you link up with people via Discord or the Steam forum. A pulpy, campy adventure shooter that has some significant flaws but is still worth playing. Puzzles are fairly simple, but some you can't access unless you play one particular character. But they are well-hidden, so incentivize multiple playthroughs. Movement is SLOW, and there is no selectable sprint function. That is a simply bizarre choice by Rebellion. Instead your character auto sprints after a certain amount of time when running. Dodge is your best function, as most enemy attacks are directional and easier to roll out of than run away from Hitboxes for bosses are a decent size, but the wonky aim and absolutely dreadful "Rebellion Bounce" when aiming down sights makes them frankly an unpleasant chore. Hordes are fun, but bosses are tedious. Did I mention how slow your character is? Slow to sprint, slow to aim, slow to open gun boxes, slow to draw souls to the amulet, slow in every possible way. You can't run away to get respite from the hordes (in closed arenas, natch) so there is a frustration that you just cannot bring power to bear against them. I guess that was the aim of the game, but in seeing its reception I cannot help but think the devs' plan for how to make you play backfired badly. It works in the Zombie Army games because most hordes in that are slow. Here you get rushed, bulled, and sniped all at the same time. Since you can't tank damage, and you can't run, you generally just die until you get lucky with the gun boxes and get some OP drops. On one level end, you have to take on the soul globe amidst all of that above, while also trying to go through the unreasonably slow "pick up the health potion" animation if, god forbid, you take damage. And when you weaken the soul globe it shoots explosive bolts at you, guaranteeing you will take damage (did I mention the awful aim and lack of sticky assist, especially if you play on controller). Perhaps with a full co-op lobby these issues fade away with the extra gunpower. But if you play solo there will be moments of sheer frustration. Of some humor: when you take too much damage the screen whites out on you. And then you can't see your reticle to shoot anything. Do you think that was a good idea? This game fights itself between fascinating level design, engaging puzzles, interesting enemies (I'd play a whole game just based on the pirates!!!!), and bizarre motion, UI, and base design choices. On the whole, the game is well constructed and worth playing. It isn't a GOTY, but it deserved better than its limited-support fate. With improvements this could have stuck, but some weird design choices limited it from appealing to mass players.