Strange Brigade
PC, PS4, Xbox One
Playing Strange Brigade is a little like emptying out the contents of the British Museum on your floor. It’s packed with gilded artefacts, monuments to the majesty of Ancient Egypt and, if you’re so inclined, uncomfortable reminders of Imperial colonialism. All of this is in service of the game’s cheery 1930s pulp-inspired aesthetic. It borrows from the Saturday matinee serials, as well the Indiana Jones movies they inspired, with a side helping of Victorian adventure fiction in the style of H Rider Haggard’s Allan Quatermain novels.
This means two-fisted explorers plundering exotic tombs, zeppelins nosing their way through the clouds and a narrator who speaks in over-the-top Queen’s English, cutting in with dramatic announcements, puns and light ribbing of the plot. Games have had their share of Indiana Jones analogues, from Lara Croft to Nathan Drake, but by leaning into the archetype’s historical roots – with tongue firmly in cheek – Strange Brigade finds itself in a surprisingly fresh setting.
Playing solo, however, these pulp trappings are the only remarkable thing about the game. It’s a perfectly serviceable thirdperson shooter with a smattering of puzzles. Combat offers your fairly standard-issue arsenal – your choice of machine gun, shotgun or rifle, plus sidearm and grenade – to dispatch endless hordes of shambling enemies.
There are brighter spots – the roster of enemies does broaden as the game continues, throwing in everything from grenadiers to charging minotaurs, and guns aren’t the only way of dispatching them – but this core remains oddly dissatisfying even as the pace and stakes ramp up. The sheer number of enemies makes any weapon with a low rate of fire unsatisfying, especially as landing headshots requires a pixel-perfect precision that, at least on a thumbstick, isn’t really supported by the gunplay.
Fortunately, Strange Brigade has another trick up its dusty shirtsleeves. The game is designed to be played online, with four archaeological adventurers teaming up to rob tombs together. It’s perhaps obvious to say the experience is better with friends, but it’s true nonetheless. Cooperative play imbues the bare bones of these mechanics with new life, causing the game to rise from its tomb and grab hold of your attention.
Nowhere is this reinvigoration more obvious than in the puzzles scattered around each level. The most common requires you to find a hieroglyphic passcode, then shoot the corresponding panels on a door elsewhere in the level to access the loot hidden behind it. Playing online, this becomes a way of encouraging communication and giving the action some muchneeded humanity. Unless you’ve an Egyptologist on the squad, one player ends up describing strange shapes down a microphone to their teammate, who then has to discern which of these glyphs is “pot on legs” and which is “well-endowed pharaoh”. There’s also the odd puzzle set-piece, upping the complexity a little.
Throughout, the game rewards players for talking to one another. It’s just a pity that, when teamed with strangers you don’t fancy holding a conversation with, there’s no replacement method of communication. A few canned lines – ‘over here!’ or ‘watch out!’ – would be invaluable. The constant quest for loot can send players down different spokes of each level, leading to fruitless retreading of each other’s steps or suddenly turning a corner into a swarm of enemies you have to face alone. Having someone to help chew through the mobs can open combat up a little and create room to play with its more interesting elements, such as the traps tactically positioned in each arena: spinning blades at waist height, pots of flammable oil and, of course, our old friend the explosive barrel. It’s a simple case of luring enemies nearby, making sure you’re out of range and then shooting them to activate, but it’s a satisfying way to dispatch a dozen enemies at once rather than picking them off individually. Likewise the amulet powers, which are charged up by collecting orbs from fallen foes. The abilities vary from character to character, but for the most part just produce different kinds of explosions.
Traps, amulet powers and grenades combine to make a game of creating and managing bottlenecks, which again rewards communication. Picking a corner of the level to defend, drawing enemies through an almost tower defence-esque string of traps, taking it in turns to scoop up the resulting orbs and unleash your amulet powers – in such moments the game feels great, even if the shooting itself lacks a sense of weight. The Horde and Score Attack modes in particular trade on these moments, with levels built specifically to funnel enemies into tight corridors.
These modes help to bulk out an otherwise slim package. Longevity is a vital part of any multiplayer-first game, and it’s clear that Strange Brigade knows this – but many of the methods deployed to stretch out its central campaign feel forced. Levels have the odd branching path, or collectibles that seemingly require foreknowledge to access, while puzzle doors lock after three failed attempts. The game has a fairly shallow pool of unlockable weapons, but this is artificially bolstered by prices that jump hugely in the higher tiers.
Rebellion already has plans to extend the game post-launch, with a mix of free and season-pass content such as new characters, weapons and levels. But it remains to be seen whether Strange Brigade can hold players’ attention enough that they’ll stick around for these additions. It’s the curse of ‘better with friends’ – if any member of your own personal brigade loses interest, it could quickly end up a dusty relic.
By leaning into the archetype’s historical roots, Strange Brigade finds itself in a surprisingly fresh setting