Strange Brigade – PS4 Review

 

As a review site we play an abundance of games. But every so often a truly wonderful gem of a game takes us by surprise. Strange Brigade is one of those games. A third person adventure game that will no doubt be likened to Uncharted or Tomb Raider. As soon as you start up Strange Brigade you are in no doubt you are in for a unique experience.

Story

Egypt, 1930’s. Erased from ancient history and buried in a nameless tomb for 4,000 years, Seteki the Witch Queen has risen once again.

Only one troop of daring heroes can stand against the fearsome power of Seteki and her army of mummified monstrosities: The Strange Brigade!

Explore remarkable ruins, solve perilous puzzles and uncover tantalising treasure while blasting your way through an array of undead enemies in thrilling third-person action that’s certain to bring out your inner adventurer!

Gameplay

The first thing you notice in Strange Brigade is its amazing humour. The narrator really brings joy to the game and is as central a character as four members of the Strange Brigade.

Strange Brigade can be played solo or as a 2-4 online co-op multiplayer. With each character having their own beautifully crafted personalities and individual special moves. The choice of character is a real one.

The levels themselves are fairly big. Even when I knew most of the puzzles and ran through a level. It still took over an hour to do so. Each level is filled with puzzles, locked doors, hidden items and traps to discover. The traps are worth mentioning too. The levels are populated with traps that if you are canny enough you can use to your advantage. For example, there is a point on the first level where you can choose to fight about a dozen mummies or with a single pistol shot to release a spiked filled log and wipe them all out in one go.

One of the main game mechanics in Strange Brigade is the puzzles.  Whilst certain types of puzzles are repeated in every level. There is such a variety of puzzles that they never get boring. In fact, sometimes the familiarity of a puzzle is welcomed.

 

The main issue I had with Strange Brigade was that starting out the controls felt extremley loose. This is something I got used to over time and it became less of an issue. To begin with, it was a taxing experience but I soon adapted.

On top of all this outside of missions, you can buy new guns. Upgrade the ones you have with magical relics found in levels. These relics add massively powerful attributes to your guns such as freezing monsters, setting them on fire, breaking armour and life steal.

As well as the story mode of the game there is also Horde mode and Score Attack. two modes I have admittedly not tried by the time of writing this review simply because I have been so absorbed in the story.

Overall Thoughts

Strange Brigade is a breath of fresh air in a time of dark, serious games. Not only is it fun but there is a fantastic and complex game beneath the humour which is rare to find.  Every aspect of the game is beautifully crafted.

The Story is intriguing and feels like a real archaeological adventure. The characters are well defined with there own unique traits. Level design is so big, sprawling and twisting that you can easily get turned around. One thing I loved was when playing a level back through. I often forgot how to open a door to get to a certain puzzle because there was that much to remember.

Strange Brigade allows me to relive all those childhood Indiana Jones fantasies with my dry adult humour intact. There isn’t a single aspect of Strange Brigade that fails to deliver. Quite simply when I have a free moment to play, I play Strange Brigade!

Overall Score – 9/10