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0 The Spell Brigade is an Action Rougelike Survivor game from Bolt Blaster Games. The game gives me the mix of Vampire Survivor and a dash of Deep Rock Galactic” Survivor for the mobs. The one aspect that makes it different from those two is that this game starts with Co-op. In fact, they encourage you to play with others. Thankfully, Bolt Blaster kindly gave enough keys to play with others to fully experience the game. So, I’ll be giving my full thoughts and opinion on the game.
Now everyone, pick your wizard, collect the mana and let’s fight the final boss known as this review.
See…when you give me a game like this with wizards, I’m hoping a reference of Ball Wizard can one day be reality.
Gameplay
We start as just a normal orb wizard. Destroying creatures we know aren’t friendly and completing objectives. Which after some time, a creature from the realm of R’lyeh. Wondering why I make such an assumption? Because the bosses that we face literally have names that make it seem that it came straight from Lovecraft’s head!
To be honest, I love the Lovecraft mythos and feel like this was a brilliant choice. Because when it comes to bringing magic to the table, we can’t just leave Cthulhu out now can we? Since you can never have one without the other somehow. Like look at warlocks in Dungeon and Dragons. They have patrons, one of them is literal The Great Old One.
However, that’s not the main focus for this game when it comes to everything. Oh no, we play to make some crazy and potent combinations of magic spells that help you get more mana. Which then becomes fuel to level you up, which then helps you grow your spell. Now, this game does have friendly fire if you’re not careful. Or you can activate the patron to keep everyone safe from you.
Now we have a large selection of wizards with unique spells under their robes. However, that’ll cost a lot of rounds of collecting gold to unlock. Which I was given a way to go straight to end game levels of power. But, once I spent 2 hours doing some runs, I decided against it. This game was just hitting some kind of primal urge for me to do it right and man did I go crazy!
I didn’t put this game down for a couple of days and played with random people and my partner. Which thankfully that it’s controller friendly because once she heard me utter that she was on board. We spent a couple of hours before she had to go to bed. Her comments to the game is that she loves how easy it is to play. She even loved the creative spells like the moon-a-rang being an actual crescent moon shape.
Then there’s the objectives you get while waiting for the big bad. Some are reasonable during certain frequencies of waves while others are undoable alone. For example, there is an objective that has you light up 5 torches in an order that you’ll need to figure out. If you get this first or second on your run, it’s doable. But, having this during the third or final objective starting out is very undoable.
Luckily, alone or not we have a revival system makes up for this madness. When alone is amazing to have and having it in Co-Op and adding everyone’s lives together is genius. Though I will say that my favorite wizard so far is the Star Wizard for making them fall on enemies. Now, if Bolt Blaster Games is reading this, please add Ball Wizard or a Cosmo Wizard that throw mini galaxies at enemies. Just saying.
Graphics and Audio
The moment you boot up the game, I hope you have your headset or steam deck on a low volume. Because this game will yell at you. The time I spent running around the 4 maps available at this moment is actually well made and creative. For example, the moment you go to the third map which has lava, it affects everyone. And I mean EVERYONE! Which is a great touch since the only way I’ve been clearing waves was using a specific mob that blows up on you if you get close. Or kill it if you’re using range spells.
Then there’s the fourth map that has a river coursing through the entire map. Which look beautiful to look at with the purple atmosphere, but it can make or break your run. The reason I say this is because if you don’t focus on the direction of the water you’ll be sped up or slowed down. From that to the small to large patches of sheets of ice in the second map that has you and mobs lose momentum if you turn around. Which is great, next to the different mobs that reside in each environment come out to attack us. Like the one eye buffalo stampede or the pufferfish body slams in other areas.
Honestly, Bolt Blaster put a lot of attention on the maps, the creature living there, to even the wizards and their spell.
Longevity
Now the game on your own can be done in just 3 to 4 sittings of sessions if you’re that determined. However, if you have a group of people you love playing games like this, it has a long shelf life. Honestly, I’m replacing my old fix of playing the survivor game with this one since I can play with my partner and I love wizards. I have been playing with my steam deck with a pair of glasses that I’ll be putting a review on in the future. However that’s enough spoilers on that, the game is a great way to play with others. If they’re close by or far, this will be a blast to play with others.
Final Thoughts
The Spell Brigade is a surprising game to come across our board to review and I’m glad I picked it. It’s a fun survivor game to pick up and invite others to play with. If you have a controller, this game allows people to use either control stick. You don’t need to explain yourself, just know you have the option to make that choice. So pick up a copy and see if you get assistance from a celestial wizard like myself popping in to rid the forces of Cthulhu. Or you can do it yourself.
I give The Spell Brigade the Thumb Culture Platinum Award
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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