The Spell Brigade
- September 16, 2024
- Bolt Blaster Games
- 21h median play time
Get on Steam"The Spell Brigade" is an online co-op survival game for 1-4 players where you and your wizard friends battle hordes of dark creatures and complete team-based objectives. With a friendly fire bullet hell feature, stepping on each other's toes can either lead to teammate's demise or a powerful revival. Master and upgrade your spells to create overpowered synergies and increase your chances of survival.
PC
Steam Deck
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Unique co-op experience in the bullet hell genre, allowing for fun interactions and chaotic gameplay.
- Engaging spell mechanics with elemental infusions that create interesting combinations and strategies.
- Regular updates from developers show commitment to improving the game and adding new content.
- Friendly fire mechanic often leads to frustration, as players are incentivized to avoid each other rather than cooperate.
- Limited content currently available, with only a few maps, spells, and enemy types, leading to repetitive gameplay.
- Balancing issues with spells and upgrades, where some abilities feel underwhelming or ineffective compared to others.
- gameplay131 mentions
- 34 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by its fun, fast-paced rogue-like mechanics that are easy to grasp, making it enjoyable for both casual and cooperative play. While the friendly fire mechanic adds a layer of challenge and chaos, some players find it limits teamwork and can lead to confusion. Overall, the game offers a solid gameplay loop with potential for future updates to enhance depth and variety, though some mechanics feel underdeveloped and repetitive at times.
“Great gameplay loop, amazing art style.”
“The gameplay loop is crazy fun with friends.”
“The gameplay is lackluster, with minimal sense of accomplishment and poor growth feedback, compounded by a lack of guaranteed rewards.”
“There’s literally one boss (across three worlds), and it's disappointingly simple with just one mechanic.”
“The friendly fire mechanic adds a unique challenge, although it can sometimes limit cooperative interactions as players often end up staying in separate areas to avoid hitting each other.”
- graphics82 mentions
- 61 % positive mentions
- 35 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have been widely praised for their unique and vibrant art style, which enhances the overall gameplay experience. Players appreciate the smooth performance across various settings, making it accessible even on less powerful machines. While some note that the visuals are not the primary focus, they contribute significantly to the game's charm and immersive atmosphere.
“The graphics are gorgeous, with a unique, vibrant art style that instantly draws you in.”
“Absolutely love this game, the art style is so cute and the gameplay feels very immersive.”
“The graphics are unique and visually appealing, adding charm and personality to the game world.”
“If you play single player it is just vampire survivors with slightly better graphics - not worth $10 in my opinion.”
“This is where gameplay is more important than aesthetics.”
“I was a sucker for vampire survivors, and here comes another monster swarm game with modern graphics.”
- music64 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many players appreciating its pleasant and catchy nature, while others criticize its repetitiveness and lack of variety, noting that hearing the same track for extended periods can become tedious. Some users express a desire for more diverse soundtracks that change with different maps or stages to enhance the overall experience. Overall, while the music contributes positively to the game's atmosphere, it is clear that improvements in variety and engagement are needed as the game continues to develop.
“Absolutely love this game, from the characters and their little backstories, to the OST (honestly have spent hours on the main menu just vibing to it).”
“The music is pretty nice too, and it definitely adds to the whole laid-back vibe.”
“The feel, art, and music of the game are great, and I love the overall vibe.”
“Depressing music with a boring game.”
“The music that is in the game never changes while you're playing it.”
“The game world is boring, the music is boring, and overall it feels like a waste of time.”
- story29 mentions
- 10 % positive mentions
- 79 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its lack of depth and variety, with many players noting the absence of an overarching narrative and repetitive quests across the limited levels available. While some enjoy the small missions and character unlocks, the overall experience feels tedious due to the minimal quest diversity and simplistic boss mechanics. Players express a desire for more engaging story elements and improved quest design to enhance gameplay.
“The quests to add more characters, costumes, and play areas keeps it interesting.”
“While there’s no overarching story, I didn’t find it to be an issue.”
“The quest and bosses are fun.”
“The amount of quests is fairly low currently.”
“With no real story as of the time of posting (2024-09-24), which could change in the coming future.”
“Same half dozen quests on all the maps.”
- replayability20 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players find it highly enjoyable and appreciate the randomized spell builds that create unique runs, others criticize it for becoming repetitive and lacking diverse content, such as unique maps and playstyles. Many reviewers suggest that the game needs more modes, challenges, and character differentiation to enhance its longevity and replay value. Overall, the potential for replayability exists, but it is hampered by a lack of variety and depth in gameplay.
“It's easy to get into, and very replayable for at least the amount of time that I have been playing it (13 hours).”
“Each run feels unique due to randomized spell builds, which adds to the replayability.”
“If you're looking for a new game that's not too expensive, and that also has a lot of replayability from unlocking new upgrades, characters, and maps.”
“The game gets boring after a while and there's no replay value since the game is pretty much static after a certain point.”
“Game lacks real replayability.”
“The eight wizards also lack unique playstyles, differing only in starting spells and minor stat changes, which reduces replayability.”
- humor18 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is largely derived from its chaotic co-op gameplay, where friendly fire leads to hilarious mishaps and unexpected team kills, creating memorable moments among friends. Players enjoy the absurdity of unique situations, such as negative movement speed and comical spell combinations, which enhance the overall fun and laughter during gameplay. The combination of cooperative challenges and lighthearted trolling makes for a consistently entertaining experience, especially in multiplayer settings.
“Go in, have fun with a friend or two, and try conquering hardcore with a right-only build and endless mode with friendly fire off; you are up for a very frustrating and funny game with your friends.”
“Bruh, get three friends and this game is hilarious; friendly fire is mandatory for maximum trolling.”
“These wizards are funny little guys, and the friendly fire makes for a fun twist!”
- grinding12 mentions
- 8 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 92 % negative mentions
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be a mixed experience. While the initial unlocks and upgrades are engaging, many feel that the later stages devolve into tedious grinding for permanent upgrades and achievements, often lacking meaningful challenges. Suggestions for improvement include implementing more skill-based unlocks and reducing the reliance on repetitive farming, which could enhance the overall enjoyment and replay value.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“You're essentially enduring 20 minutes of grinding for a fleeting 5 minutes of gratification.”
“The game has a lot of potential, but right now the replay value is only grinding for the unlocks like other wizards and such, but some challenges are, as mentioned below, 100% RNG dependent, with the worst ones being the two cosmetic challenges that require 4 augments for a character's main weapon.”
“It would be cooler to have a system where the character unlocks actually require you to do something related to them that isn't just 'farm for a while'; they each have a signature weapon so why not have something like 'have +$some_percent spell damage on $weapon' which is less grindy than killing a number of enemies but also accessible enough for players to easily unlock the characters.”
- stability6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is praised, with users reporting minimal bugs and glitches, leading to an enjoyable experience. While some minor issues persist, the optimization and lack of significant graphical problems contribute to a solid performance, especially compared to earlier versions.
“No bugs, no glitches, just pure fun, and that's it.”
“Lots of content, good optimization, almost bug-free, and most importantly - fun.”
“So if your spell heals and freezes, congrats - you're healing your friend but now they can't move and will die shortly.”
“Little buggy sometimes, but besides that, better than the demo and bug fixes from the demo, so a very good start.”
- character development5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The character development in the game is highlighted by its stunning art and appealing character designs, which are a major draw for players. Users appreciate the variety of unlockable outfits and weapons, enhancing the overall gameplay experience. The combination of beautiful visuals and engaging mechanics contributes to a positive reception of character development.
“One of the standout features is the character design.”
“Super beautiful art and great character designs drew me in.”
“I like all the weapons and especially love the character designs and outfits you can unlock; they're so cute!”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game receives mixed reviews; while some users criticize it for lacking coherence, others praise the visuals, music, and color palette as top-notch, contributing to an enjoyable overall vibe.
“Amazing game, really enjoyed its vibe and atmosphere.”
“Visuals, atmosphere, and music.”
“No atmosphere, no coherence.”
“The music, atmosphere, and color palette are all top-notch.”
- optimization4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been criticized for performance issues, particularly an fps lock that requires attention, as the default setting allows for "unlimited" fps. Users are calling for necessary fixes to improve overall performance before they can provide positive feedback.
“The FPS cap or optimization fix is needed to prevent such issues, since the game defaults to 'unlimited' FPS initially.”
“There might be a performance issue; I'm not sure, but this absolutely needs to be fixed before I can give the game a positive review again.”
“Performance issues, such as the FPS lock, are not a huge problem but still need to be addressed.”
“Performance issue – FPS lock (not a huge issue, but still needs to be addressed).”
“FPS cap or optimization fix is needed to prevent such issues, since the game defaults to 'unlimited' FPS initially.”
“Might be a performance issue, no idea, but this absolutely needs to be fixed before I can give the game a positive review again.”
- monetization3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization of the game has received mixed reviews; while some players appreciate the absence of intrusive ads and pay-to-play mechanics, others feel it ultimately devolves into a cash grab despite initially promising gameplay.
“Was a decent bullet hell survivor game, ended up as a cheap cash grab.”
“Just like the mind-numbing (in a good way) games I play on my mobile without all the annoying ads and pay-to-play nonsense.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviewers suggest that enhancing characters' emotional depth and their connection to the narrative could significantly increase the game's immersive experience.
“Giving characters more emotional depth and connecting them to a narrative could add an extra layer of immersion.”
“The emotional journey of the characters left a lasting impact on me, making the story feel incredibly personal.”
“I was genuinely moved by the emotional moments in the game, which made the experience unforgettable.”
