Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 04/Oct 00:01

The Spell Brigade – Preview

It seems to be Survivors-like season with many different releases lined up. We recently took a closer look at Jotunnslayer, but there’s also the full release of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, and we’ll soon be covering a cute Capybara-infused Survivors-like release on PS5 as well. Today, however, we’ll go back to medieval times for The Spell Brigade, a multiplayer-oriented Survivors-like that is currently in Early Access. We personally already liked what the game had to offer, even if the content was still a bit limited. There’s currently no real story present in the game, but all playable characters (and there are many) come with their own little lore text. This small bit of information is simply a bit of flavoring, but it’s still nice that some effort was put into this. The same can be said about the graphics, as The Spell Brigade is a good-looking title. The 3D character and enemy models look cute, and the soft colors make everything very pleasant to look at. Enemy diversity is still somewhat limited, but we reckon more enemy types will be added in the future. The only thing we didn’t like about the audiovisual presentation was the music. Don’t get us wrong, however, as the music is decent, but it’s always the same track on repeat, and this gets old really quickly. At this point in time, the game offers a fairly standard Survivors-like gameplay loop. You’ll be treated to a very polished experience, where you choose one of the available wizards and try to survive until the timer runs out. When the timer runs out, you’ll have to defeat a boss. As time progresses, you’ll also be presented with different objectives, which will give you power-ups. You’ll also get more power-ups each time you level up. It’s a fairly standard formula for the genre, but we didn’t mind this. We were very impressed by the very accurate hitboxes, even though we really missed a dash button. Sometimes, when you’re getting surrounded, there are no escape routes possible, and without a dash, you might take a lot of damage to find a clear spot again. The focus of this title is, of course, multiplayer play, which is not that common within the Survivors-like genre. You can play stages with up to three other players, and you’ll be matched depending on the stage you choose, the difficulty level, and other settings. The matchmaking works rather smoothly, and the game’s objectives get adjusted to the number of players in the session. Depending on the settings, you might also have to deal with friendly fire, which also adds a new challenge to the mix. All in all, it’s a fun twist on the original formula, and with the different passive bonuses of the different unlockable wizards, you can create an interesting team of wizards. At the time of writing, the current gameplay loop is rather limited. While there are many wizards you can unlock, the spells on offer feel a bit basic, there are only four stages to play through, and even the wizard rank-ups don’t do anything yet. Don’t get us wrong, the game is an absolute blast, but there is simply not that much content to keep players invested for a really long time yet. It will take you quite a few sessions to unlock all the wizards and beat all the different difficulty levels, but even then, we are looking forward to future updates to add some meat to the otherwise solid foundation. Luckily, the developers have also shared their current roadmap, where they show you what content they have planned and what content they are actively working on. Conclusion The Spell Brigade is currently already an amazingly fun Early Access project that offers polished gameplay, a lot of playable characters to unlock, and cool multiplayer fun. It sadly still suffers from a lack of content, but as the developers are really invested in their project, it’s clear that more content will be added in the near future, and even the current roadmap shows us this. We are expecting great things from The Spell Brigade, and while the number of levels on offer may currently be limited, if you’re a fan of the genre, we suggest checking this one out, especially if you’re looking to play this type of game with friends.