...and that thing is YOU, THE PLAYER
Do you like HEAVY ARMOUR?
Do you like THE EIGHTIES?
Do you like URBAN WARFARE and CIVILIAN COLLATERAL DAMAGE?
Then the game for you may be BRIGADOR!
BRIGADOR is an isometric shooter pitting the player player on a one-mercenary mission to guide the city of Solo Nobre through its cluster**** of a regime change into the control of your client. Your tools for this are an
impressively varied selection of mechs, tanks and antigravity skimmers, from tiny bikes and powersuits to towering hulks that would need a large cliff to go hulldown. IT FEATURES:
- A 25-mission campaign
- A ridiculously configurable freelancing mode
- Dozens of vehicles and dozens of weapons to fit to them
- A deep combat system allowing for a huge variety of tactics as you sneak, weave or trample your way through its fully-destructible cityscapes
- A lot of great writing which nevertheless stays out of your face
- A groovy retro electronic soundtrack
It does not feature an effective marketing and publicity strategy, which is why you've never heard of it and why it was a disastrous sales flop.
You should absolutely give it a shot if you like mech games or action-packed, stylish shooters. It has some of the best production values I've ever seen in an indie game, better than a lot of publisher-backed efforts.
BONUS: Here are some of the unit descriptions! I love these things, they're so varied and creative:
Loyalist mech 'Praetor': It’s the nature of military engineering to take things too far. The Praetor represents that limit, at least as far as Loyalists are concerned. Touro’s stouter younger brother, the Praetor is a command variant with major firepower and the ability to take a little more on the chin. Pays for it in tight corners though. Praetors are slower and can’t turn for ****, but you can ride the thing straight through an enemy line and out the other side. Design Bureau laughed at Chief Engineer Halleck after that “maneuverability is for cowards” rant, but Praetors have plowed through walls and even minefields without a dent before, so who’s to say? Besides, Halleck is second only to the Founders in the Praetor driver set. — MB
Corvid tank 'Treehouse': Normally—if there is a “normal” for a siege engine made out of old jalopies—you’d expect the cars to be stripped out entirely for something like this. Instead, Corvid engineers keep all the horns and headlights and link them up to the main cockpit controls. When one of these comes rolling in, blaring and blazing like the angels on judgement day, the Treehouse goes from silly to terrifying in seconds flat. Fortunately the thing itself doesn’t have that kind of acceleration—keep your distance and don’t let the bastards surprise you. — MB
Spacer AGRAV 'Vex': Spacers come in two flavors, cruel or dead. And the Vex is cruel alright, in the proud Spacer agrav tradition. Dual Main mounts, low profile, moves better than it looks like it can. Nasty business. Mainstay of Spacer ground operations, crew of at least two judging by the hatch configuration. Probably dual pilot/gunner duties, advanced combat jack stuff? One of the rare Spacer vehicles you can find decent footage of in action, if you know a guy.
(You don't want to know that guy. I'm that guy.) — MB
Corvid Tuk Tuk 'Lineman': Exactly what it looks like. A Varlet three-wheeler with a crow’s nest bolted into the cargo bed. I wonder how often these things have to be propped back up after taking a turn too fast. Insanely vulnerable to sniper fire, the Corvids just don’t care; they know they need the extra lead time on engagements by making sure they see a fight coming in advance. Sometimes the spotter gets a high-tech sensor device, usually just a pair of old binoculars. — MB