I say, it’s a jolly good time, old boy.

I’ve always enjoyed what Rebellion did in their games. Sniper Elite had that wonderful bullet camera, Zombie Army Trilogy had some really fun co-op action, and let’s not forget they even did the Alien Vs. Predator games back in the day. Usually when I play a game by them I know what I’m getting into and usually don’t have many surprises even though they make some quality titles that are fun. Cut to Strange Brigade, a game that I thought I knew what I was getting into and for the most part, I was correct, but was pleasantly surprised to see some pretty great attention to detail.

Strange Brigade is a third person shooter set in the fantastical world of a supernatural 1930’s. An elite group of ragtag adventurers and mercenaries known as The Strange Brigade are commissioned by the British secret service in stopping an ancient evil known as Seteki being resurrected. They go on missions through old jungles and temples to find the expedition that has uncovered her tomb and hopefully stop her before taking over the entire world, that, and gathering treasure (for research purposes, of course.)

Platforms: XB1, PS4, PC
MSRP: $49.99
Price I’d pay: $49.99

Players will venture through a level where waves of undead enemies will attack them. Using their weaponry fitting for the 1930’s setting, they will blast their way through with shotguns, submachine guns, and special explosives. On top of their modern weaponry, they also have use of a special amulet that gathers souls to charge up. When charged, they and unleash a massive attack that can kill multiple enemies at a time or a number of other useful things depending on the skill that is equipped.

While it all sounds like a standard Rebellion game, the surprise comes in the form of how elaborate the levels and missions are. Each level can take upwards to an hour to complete with the environments being diverse and massive. While it’s not an open world, there are constant branching paths that usually lead to secret areas full of treasure and puzzles. The amount of puzzles in this game really took me back. Most are simple enough and never very difficult, but every time I stumbled upon one, I got a little excited. Many of them lead to small rooms with treasure while other more elaborate puzzles revolve around an arena where players will have to focus a bit more to complete, and in co-op, the game scales the puzzles and encounters for the number of players in the game at the time so playing level solo will be different if playing with three other players.

The enemy variety is also a welcome with each new level introducing new enemy types into the mix making players have to adapt to the even more frantic action. Some stagger to the players, some rush them, some attack from afar while others are teleporting around the area. It keeps players on their toes and obviously more enemies are around when playing co-op. Strange Brigade is most certainly viable in solo or in co-op. It never feels overwhelming, but it’s never a cake walk either.

Players collect treasure in the form of both gold they can spend in between levels unlocking new weapons, gems they can equip to their weapons that offer up better stats and special abilities like regenerating health on kills or burning bullets, or artifacts that, when completing an entire set in a level, will give the player a skill point that allows them to get a new amulet ability. They can also use gold collected to purchase powered up weapons in certain locations in the levels that have a limited use, but can really turn the tide in a massive battle.
Each level has multiple collectables to gather that add to the replay value of the game. It can get slightly annoying when I found all but one artifact in a level and have to redo the entire level just to get that sweet skill point. On top of that, the game doesn’t remove the previously collected artifacts so I’m never sure if this was the one I missed or not.

The presentation is what really sells Strange Brigade. It plays out like an old radio show from the 1930’s complete with an announcer narrating the entire thing. This guy is hilarious and really adds a lot of charm to the overall experience. He really seems to hate cats too. In fact the entire game seems to have a complete tongue-in-cheek nature to it that really nails the comedy.

Visually, this game is quite the looker. The vibrant jungles and great lighting effects in caves and temples really show off the game’s power. I never once had any slow down while playing either. Mix that with a ton of enemies on screen getting torn to shreds by activated traps and explosions, that it’s quite an impressive feat.

Co-op is the way to go and it works really well here. Granted, loot isn’t shared so players will have to keep playing or at least take turns opening treasure chests if they’re wanting a decent amount of gold and gems, but the way the game scales both the combat and the puzzle interactions is well done and really makes this an impressive co-op action game.

I really enjoyed my time with Strange Brigade. It was both fun and exciting to see what the next level had in store for me, and having some buddies to play it with made it even more fun. Even if you don’t have friends to play it with, the random joined player can’t really mess you up and playing solo isn’t a bad deal either. While some of the levels can get a little long in the tooth, it was a fun ride that I think any action shooter fan will enjoy and get a lot out of even for only 8-10 hours. Give it a shot. You may even chuckle at some of the narrator’s jokes.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.