Frank’s power of crash-tackling an enemy and throwing them into a group is difficult to aim and hard to use, while Gracie’s auto-targeting “Thoth’s Angry Automaton” turret feels like a must-pick for all situations. Some feel more useful than others, however. Each character has four unique powers to unlock, and these range from AOE explosions to, erm, turning enemies into chickens. As you mow down waves of interchangeable zombies, mummies, and skeleton pirates they’ll drop souls which, when collected, slowly charge a devastating amulet power. It’s in Strange Brigade’s Amulet system, though, that each character’s personality shines through. Likewise, their movement and basic abilities feel similar – Gracie’s melee ability is a brutal uppercut, for example, but it doesn’t feel any different to Professor Archimedes’ facepalm.
There’s an element of competition too, you’ll want to be the first to grab the spoils from the numerous gold packed chests as the booty isn’t shared across players.Įach of the four characters in Strange Brigade share weapon unlocks, so you’ll never have to worry about switching from your favourite character to use a particular weapon. When played solo this is a simple path, but in co-op the path is split so that multiple people need to complete it in order to progress. One such puzzle early on, for example, requires you to walk across certain symbols in a particular order.
The levels change depending on how many players you have in your party, with more enemies to fight and twists on existing puzzles to solve. It’s when you rope in friends that Strange Brigade really shines. One particular mission has you exploring an ancient pirate cave that feels like the video game version of The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Playing alone is just that there are no AI teammates to help or hinder you, and this gives you time to take in the expansive vistas and intricate theming of the levels. Team and CrumpetsStrange Brigade’s labyrinthine crypts and forgotten, overgrown cities are explorable solo, or in four-player co-op. Levels have smatterings of collectable letters and diaries that flesh out characters and the world, but the moment-to-moment action doesn’t slow down for any of it.
#PHANTOM BRIGADE MULTIPLAYER MOVIE#
The few cinematics take the form of pre-mission vignettes, styled after old-school movie teasers and complete with a delightfully over-the-top narrator. It’s all very hackneyed and camp and there’s not much else to Strange Brigade’s story. An accident at a North African dig site sets the story up and, as is often the way with video games, you’ll resolve it by shooting lots and lots of undead. Reminiscent of Rosie the Riveter, seeing her uppercut a teleporting demon after telling them to “leave it out” in a thick Northern English accent quickly cemented her as my favourite.
#PHANTOM BRIGADE MULTIPLAYER SERIES#
There’s Nalangu Rushida, an African tribeswoman Frank Fairburne, sharpshooter and relative to the protagonist of the Sniper Elite series the mild-mannered scholar Professor Archimedes De Quincy and a Manchester-raised boxer and factory worker by the name of Gracie Braithwaite. The four playable characters from the secret arm of the Department of Antiquities feel ripped from the pages of a 1930s pulp novella. Rebellion may have made a name for itself with the realistic ballistics and gruesome, testicle-popping kills of the Sniper Elite series, but with Strange Brigade, it feels like the Oxford-based developer has found its over-the-top, tea-swilling, alliteration-obsessed voice.Colonial British sensibilities are the order of the day for this third-person co-op shooter.
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