Brigador Killers

I've spent 28 hours in the Steam demo version, had lots of fun and consider the demo was worth the money spent on the early access version. I think the game now needs some tweaking and balancing, which surely will arrive in the future. Now the game is in a bit weird state regarding balance. But I am really excited about the strong parts of the game, such as whole world building and story, weapons, vehicles, other objects in the world, strange characters, explanations for vehicles and ammunition, and music of course.

love the art, the difficulty is really challenging (which is good in my opinion), mission design is okay. I feel dissapointed with garage is now integrated with the story instead of its own (like freelance mode in first Brigador).

The last time I was this hyped for an upcoming game was probably 20 years ago.

Alright, I'm gonna preface this by saying I wish I could just give a "mixed" review but Steam won't let me. This game needs more time to be excellent, but currently it's not bad. Let's go pro's vs con's with the caveat that I've only played the demo (but spent a decent amount of time FOR a demo actually playing), and haven't kept track of anything regarding the game otherwise. Pros: 1. The game is a great blend of extraction/looter shooter, vehicular combat, and growing an arsenal from nothing. 2. The style of the game, while a bit niche, is the right kind of indie art direction I like to see. Not anything crazy in regards to fidelity, but enough attention to detail that it's immersive, and flashy where it matters. 3. While there needs to be more content (it's early access so I *hope* it's coming) the amount of stuff to find and do right now can keep you entertained for a good while. Cons: 1. Difficulty, while not bad overall, spikes in weird and frustrating places. The most obvious ones in my experience are the "Terror" missions in the second staging area. The issue in my eyes stems from there being fewer good places to run for loot leading up to them as compared to the demo (which those mission types didn't even exist in) to allow you to prepare. Additionally, there are a couple of missions later on that jump WAY up back to back, being "Posadochny Bend" and "Vinton Villas" having much more difficult enemies than even in the demo. And you yourself aren't able to get your hands on anything stronger than an APC up to that point. 2. There's a lack of content that was present in the demo, namely higher end weapons, and vehicles. Now I'm sure that those things were pulled in the full game (in it's current stage) in order to re-tool/re-balance them for later missions that I'm sure will arrive, but it needed to be mentioned anyway. 3. While certain models and sprites were improved over the demo, there's still a LOT of items and vehicles that don't have a proper sprite, and even things that aren't able to be viewed in certain menus (namely merchant windows) to get an idea of what they actually are before purchasing/taking them. (This is a minor gripe that I know will be fixed at some point, but again, needs to be stated) All in all, it needs more time. I think the loot availability/difficulty spikes earlier on need to be addressed first in order to smooth out the progression (especially IF the devs plan to expand the missions out a LOT more) But i have no idea what their development plans look like, so I'll simply wait patiently and hope this game turns out to be what I really hope it will be.

Stellar

It's a shame that in the current build, actual mechs (any walkers, including powersuits) are disabled. I understand that with the limited amount of playable missions, it would break progression and balance to have them there, but I think almost everyone agrees that the Brigador IP is built around walkers, and that completely leaving them out of your first EA build feels like a misstep. It must also be noted that EA is REALLY early right now, and I wouldn't suggest this as a purchase unless this is exactly the game you've been looking for. With that out of the way, I really like what we have here and I'm really exited for the release version. The combat, be it on foot or in a vehicle, feels great. The graphics, vehicle designs and ambiance are on point and the world building is even better than the previous title. Gathering loot, using it in your garage to make all sorts of scrappy death machines and using said machines to wreck havok upon your enemies is a great gameplay loop. I know it was not the style of the previous game, but I must say that combined with the fact that you can exit vehicles and fight on foot, it just takes the game to another level of fun for me. I truly believe it will be one of the best games of the year it releases on.