Strange Brigade - Xbox One

Strange Brigade is a third person shooter with some elements of adventure games. In short, this is a modern day Left 4 Dead game. You can team up with up to 3 friends and fight mummies and other monsters, as you try and find all collectibles and complete missions. It sounds good enough on paper, but is this game worth it?

Breakdown
Left 4 Dead in 2018?
I wouldn’t be surprised if you thought this was a remastered version of the classic game series in third person perspective. Although it isn’t by the same developers, it does have that same fun factor, especially when played in co-op. Although it doesn’t have the same mods and is in third person, I am certain that any fan of the Left 4 Dead games, and even those who aren’t, will enjoy this game.

Game Modes and Loadouts
Strange Brigade has a campaign of around 10 missions with each taking somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour to complete, depending on your skill and difficulty setting. I recommend playing this game on medium or hard difficulty, and avoiding easy altogether. There is also a horde mode where you just try to survive for as long as possible, which is pretty standard in these kind of games.

As for loadouts, you have a choice between 3 characters. Each one of the characters have a unique primary, secondary, grenade, and special ability. You can unlock more special abilities and weapons through the collection system and by bringing back gold from the end of each game. I will touch on these systems more later on.

Also an adventure game?
I did call this Strange Brigade an adventure game at the start of this review, and I will explain why I said so. While it isn’t as much of an adventure game as Tomb Raider or Uncharted games, it does have some elements that make it an adventure game. For one, there is a puzzle system. While most of these puzzles are quite simple and won’t really challenge you for too long, they do freshen things up in the game and break the monotony of shooting hordes of monsters. There are also various items to collect, each of which make you stronger.

There are also a variety of monsters and bosses for you to discover in different locations. All of these one behave slightly differently, which, again, keeps the game fresh to play and enjoyable even for long sittings.

Collect ‘em all!
As mentioned before, there are a lot of collectibles in this game. It’s a relief that they are nothing like those trivial collectibles found in other games. Usually, there will be 6 collectibles of a set per level/mission, and collecting all of them will give you access to a treasure room which rewards you with a lot of gold. There are also hidden relics that you can find. You have this scrapbook of relics. Every time you finish a page of the scrapbook, you are rewarded with the ability to purchase an amulet. Now, what this is amulet? It is basically a new super ability for your character, and there are some amulets with really cool bonuses for you to choose from. You can also get more weapons for your character with unique abilities like a gun that freezes enemies, and such.

Bang for your Buck?
Overall, this game has a lot of things that keeps it fresh and is great fun, especially with friends. At full price, I can understand why you may be on the fence, as this game is quite expensive. What I will say is that if you are planning on playing with friends, don’t worry about getting your money’s worth back, because you will. Nonetheless, you could pick it up when it is on-sale if you are still on the fence about getting it. Definitely recommended!

Reviewer: Emma UG

Simply awesome game with a setting of a 1930s horror movie. There is everything: mummies, minotaurs, golden mummy assassins, royal guards of the evil queen :D you can play the campaign alone or with other players. its a bit empty now, but its a really fun game.