Back in 2015 Rebellion released Zombie Army Trilogy – a spin off from the Sniper Elite series with a focus on the infamous CoD Zombies style co-operative undead slaying in a more level based narrative trapping. Three years later the team are back with a more refreshing take on the genre with Strange Brigade, but is it any good?

Set in 1930’s Egypt, you and up to 3 other players are tasked with taking down hordes of undead, mythical creatures and beasts, in a battle against the magical Witch Queen, Seteki.

Strange Brigade Review 1

Strange Brigade features 9 base levels, each of which will set you back around 45-60 minutes to complete. There’s 4 different characters (with another set to be added for free at launch) who offer unique amulet abilities and voice overs, but are otherwise roughly the same. There’s no statistical benefits, distinctive roles or major reasons to play one character over another here.

Players navigate down a linear path through the environments, battling enemies, utilising traps, uncovering secrets, solving puzzles and doing a whole lot of killing along the way. If you’ve played Zombie Army you know roughly what to expect here, Rebellion’s co-op mould certainly feels familiar.

There’s a number of era appropriate weapons on offer, which you select before jumping into a game or throughout your time in the level at various restock points. Limited use power weapons can be found in the world via chests for a small in-game fee. Further weapons can be unlocked with gold coins earned throughout playtime.

Strange Brigade Review - Weapon Unlocks Runes

You’ll also come across runes from various hidden chests in each level which can be socketed onto your weapons to provide bonuses such as life steal, fire damage and more. If you uncover enough of a level’s hidden relics to complete a ‘full set’ you’ll unlock a skill point as a reward. These skill points can be spent on new charged amulet abilities.

Each character has a few different amulet abilities on offer. As you battle the hordes of enemies, holding RT/R2 will suck up the souls of fallen enemies, charging your amulet in the process. Once fully charged you can unleash a unique ability such as a freeze blast, plague of locusts, damaging tether beam and a bunch more. Unfortunately though this is about the extent of Strange Brigade’s progression.

Each of the levels are filled with puzzles in an attempt to break up the action. These puzzles tend to be fairly straight forward – it was rare that I actually struggled with any during my playthrough outside of the odd one or two. Whilst they are a welcome touch, and certainly help double down on the treasure filled tomb raiding aesthetic of the game, it feels like Rebellion played it a little too safe. Almost all of the puzzles involve shooting something, rather than interesting gameplay mechanics. It just ends up feeling a little too ham-fisted.

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Aesthetically however the game looks great. There’s some really nice lighting and environments on show here, which are a treat to take in particularly when played with HDR. Image quality is sharp on the X version tested here; running at 1800p on the X and 1440p on the Pro.

Popular culture is heavily at play here with the game nicely doubling down on the slightly cheesy 1930’s aesthetic. There’s a bunch of little stylistic touches that give off the campy old-school vibe. From text streaking across the screen when a new enemy appears to the game’s narrator. Never laugh out loud, but sure to put a smile on your face.

That said, sadly Strange Brigade feels like a real missed opportunity in the gameplay department. Rebellion have played things too safe here, only slightly progressing from their enjoyable but fairly ordinary time with their previous title, Zombie Army Trilogy. Whilst Strange Brigade has evidently given the team more creative freedom with the environments and aesthetic style, the gameplay remains all too familiar.

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The game’s story is a largely forgettable backdrop to the cooperative horde slaying focus. Our only real dose of narrative is provided by a highly skippable intro reel at the beginning of each level setting up the Strange Brigade’s adventures. Each of the four members of the Strange Brigade are also just as forgettable. Throughout your adventures they’ll make various quips after battles, but they serve as little more than a skin for the player to embody. There’s certainly no Bill or Ellis here.

This isn’t helped by the fact that the game’s characters barely gel with one another when it comes to a gameplay perspective. Whilst the game is certainly more enjoyable in co-op, there’s no roles or major synergy here, simply extra bullets to help destroy the hordes of enemies. This feels like a real missed opportunity, especially with the game’s amulet abilities – most of which just cause damage in some form or another. Sure, they can be loosely combined but it never really feels by design.

The game’s gunplay itself doesn’t feel as tight as it should. For a game which is basically all about shooting things, I was hoping for better here. Many of the game’s weapons aren’t particularly fun to shoot, with some feeling (and sounding) like peashooters. Whilst the occasional powered up prototype weapons do remedy this somewhat, it’s a shame more of the base weapons weren’t more enjoyable to use. And no, Zombie Army Trilogy’s delightfully gratifying slow motion bullet cam is nowhere to be seen this time around sadly. The gunplay isn’t terrible by a long shot, it certainly works well enough, it’s just not great.

Melee combat is also oddly janky. Players can bash away enemies which get too close and proceed to finish them off when downed. However, the melee hitbox is extremely fiddly with the camera suddenly jerking forward upon attacking in melee. Each character has a slightly different melee animation, but the mechanic otherwise feels a little unpolished.

Strange Brigade Review 5

Environmental traps do lead to some satisfying kills however, with numerous spinning blades, fire traps, spike traps, explosives and more scattered around the levels. These areas have clearly been designed to help you funnel enemies towards their amusing destruction. Seeing tens of foes sent flying from a well timed spinning blade trap never gets old.

Despite the 1930’s campy setting allowing the developers much more creative freedom over Zombie Army’s Nazi undead backdrop, the enemies of Strange Brigade are still mostly lumbering undead. Sure, it’s often mummies or skeletons instead, but the base fodder feel just like zombies. That said, some of the enemies are more creative, e.g a charging bull or teleporting fireball wielding foes.

It would have been great to see more depth given to Strange Brigade’s gameplay throughout. Dynamically spawning enemies rather than the linear hordes present here. A deeper progression system with a range of hooks to keep you coming back for more, as opposed to the basic rune slotting and handful of unlockable weapons we got instead.

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The game’s Horde Mode provides Strange Brigade’s take on the basic CoD Zombies formula – survive against waves of enemies, starting with a pistol, purchasing stronger weapons and unlocking new areas as you progress; it’s a solid enjoyable formula. Score Attack mode drops you into short linear areas from the campaign, with numerous bonus objectives, and asks you to rack up kills as quickly and stylishly as possible. Both are certainly fun, especially with other players, but outside of reaching higher scores offer little to keep you coming back.

Strange Brigade is just that – a missed opportunity. On the back of the team’s solid previous titles, the game feels like it has one foot forward in the aesthetic department with one foot stuck in the last generation from a gameplay perspective. Whilst there’s still plenty of enjoyment to be had, it just feels like something is missing.

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Zombie Army Trilogy felt like it could provide a decent base to build upon, the world could always use more great co-op shooters after all. Alas, Strange Brigade doesn’t feel like the team took enough risks to evolve their solid foundations. There’s so much more that could have been done here and it’s a downright shame.

Strange Brigade provides a co-operative campy romp for folks looking to blast their way through some Egyptian tombs. There’s fun to be had here across the game’s 3 modes, particularly when played with others. But a terribly weak story, banal characters, mediocre gunplay and minimal progression let the game down. Strange Brigade could have been so much more, instead it’s simply a decent but mostly forgettable co-op shooter.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Overall Score
VIAGame provided by publisher for review
Charles is the editor of Gaming LYF. Self proclaimed industry news addict, currently researching ways to feed Twitter, Reddit and other news sources straight into his veins.
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