Time to Beat Main Campaign: 5 hours
There are some games, such as Star
Tactics, whose design was (and remains) so atrocious, my
brain refuses to remember its title, and every time I need to
reference it as the worst game I've played in the last two years, I
search through my Steam library typing in names like Space
Tactics and E.T. the Extraterrestrial. There are other
games, like Alien:
Isolation which will be continuously referred to as the
best game I've written about. Brigador: Up-Armored Edition
doesn't fit into either of these categories. In fact, it's difficult
to describe it. It isn't so shoddy one wonders what the developers
were thinking, yet it still manages to set itself apart from all the
other games on Awkward
Mixture. To explain it's difference, I need to briefly
explain how I write my video game articles. During a normal process,
I take notes during the game, scribbling thoughts and ideas onto a
nearby scarp of paper. At the same time, I try to take screen shots
which will reflect some relevance to the topic of the article. And
though acquiring a screenshot on Steam only requires pressing F12, it
can be difficult to snap the perfect action shot, while trying to not
mess up. Note taking exhibits the same difficulties, ideas can
surface in a tense situation, and thoughts not transcribed will be
consigned to the abyss. I forget what I thought, (and
that I had thoughts).
Unfortunately, upon completing Brigador
I was astonished to realize the paper was entirely blank. I searched
through the piles on the desk, hoping to locate any missing notes, I
had to concede defeat and accept the truth: Completing the main
campaign in five hours, and attempting a few freelancing missions,
have inspired not a word on a scrap of paper.
So we turn to my memory, that
terrifying
void, which can't recall
what I planed to write two minutes ago, and therefore can't
recollect much worthy of retelling upon this screen. Though Brigador
exceeded twenty missions (in which the player can access three
different Mechs), they were remarkably, tediously similar. Each,
maybe, required destroying a certain building, a certain enemy Mech,
or a percentage of enemy foes. But the foes fought as futilely as
Custer at the Little Bighorn, the scenery seemed to repeat endlessly,
and if the Death Star had blown up like the bosses in Brigador, there
wouldn't have been an Episode Two (or Five), and we would have been
saved the pain of Episode
Seven.
Through each missions offered the
player three Mechs to choose from, and the choices varied between
missions, the purpose of each mission seemed that the options needed
to all belong to a similar style of combat. For example, one mission
offered nothing but small, scrappy, nimble craft, while the next,
served nothing but thunderous, lumbering tanks to choose from. And
based on the towns through which these Mech were drive, one would
assume the entire planet (galaxy? Universe?) consisted of nothing but
seedy cities lined with neon signs advertising casinos, guns, and XXX
entertainment or neighborhoods with perfectly manicured lawns and
every house an exact replica of the ones next to it.
As hinted above, the information about
the plot (which was probably about a rebellion) is so sparse, one
can't be certain whether this was a global or interplanetary affair,
nor how many factions participated, or even how many I fought for. I
played as more pilots than there are fingers on my hands, but I don't
know anything about their biography, couldn't explain their motives,
and would fail to recollect any faces to assign to their stories, if
I remembered them.
If one does discover some enjoyment in
the bland gameplay of the “story”, Brigador offers plenty
more to learn and then forget. Completing missions provides a cash
bounty, from someone... and this can be spent to unlock little
biographies about enemy soldiers, mysterious organizations, and
whatever else I didn't bother to read. It was so unconnected to the
gameplay, hidden five menus deep, and not helpful. For instance,
once can unlock detailed information about every enemy Mech, but they
all did the same amount of damage (none) and died from the same
number of attacks (one). And though earning the maximum bounty
should have been an incentive to play a certain way, it seemed that
no matter how a mission was won, the bounty received was always the
same. Maybe this was intended, but each mission ending screen
included a payment list of how it'd been earn, and the final result
never seemed to change.
In addition to useless information, the
player can also use this cash to unlock an unfathomable variety of
pilots, Mechs, primary weapons, secondary weapons, and auxiliary
systems, and different maps on which to utilize them. There are so
many, it's hard to imagine trying them enough times to develop
preferences (especially as it feels as if there are only two types of
maps ((close quarters fighting and long distance combat)) and three
types of enemies (ones that don't hurt, ones that don't hurt much,
and ones that only hurt if they're a dozen of them). If the
freelance missions are of no interest, one can always return to the
story missions and complete them with the additional Mechs. This
would triple the time spent playing a story without any purpose.
In conclusion, readers might
determined, after this article, I recollect more than I'm willing to
admit. But it was all that, a recollection, instead of a recitation
from the notes normally recorded during a playthrough. And while
there is one thing I can be certain of amidst all this uncertainty
is, I'd not recommend Brigador unless one is looking for an
experience without any memory, in which case may I recommend Lacuna,
Inc?
Recent:
Relevant:
Comments
Post a Comment