Blast Brigade vs The Evil Legion of Dr. Cread, which from now on I’ll mention only with an abbreviation because the name is curiously big, is a Metroidvania game style, a subgenre of gamer universe focused on progression and exploration, with several puzzles and unlocked mechanics in a 2D single-player with around 20 hours of duration in a normal run.

With a recent release date for Windows, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X in the first semester of 2022, the game was developed by Alods Team Arcade, a studio founded in 2006 that gained highlight by the partnerships made with Microsoft, PlayStation, and Nintendo, giving to this equip an excellent technological level in the games, besides promoting diversification of the content. The main projects made by Alods have big names such as Warface (PS4, and Xbox One versions), Skyforge, and Armored Warfare.

Besides that, the publisher of Blast Brigate is My.Games, a VK international subsidiary that offers games, services, and products related to an online world, with a headquarter in Amsterdam, Netherlands, that was the responsible for Lost Ark, the game that was huge at the beginning of 2022 in Brazil.

The beginning

Well, first we are introduced to cutscenes that show us a part of the game’s story and what is our goal, this is a differential, especially in Metroidvania games, in which we usually wander on the map facing everything and everyone like there is no tomorrow until we find a path that makes sense. That being said, we are going to play first with Jeff, an iconic character, with funny lines and a certain charisma, that works for Blast Brigade and has the mission of eliminating a super villain that is hiding on the island, Dr. Cread, together with his friends, the name is quite literal, right?

Moving on, everything goes well in the cutscene, when suddenly the airplane that we are using is attacked by protection missiles and this end obligating heroes to be separated in the island, including, in our adventure, we are going to find some of these companions and knowing others characters. Here we’ll start the exploration, everything is quite simple to learn and phases are well elaborated, dying is normal, but in the end, advancing won’t be a big problem.

And it’s not only that, the game gives us a lot of information, pointing in the map a place where the mission occurs, besides showing the percentage of exploration in the areas, but it won’t be always easy, that is because several paths in a considerable big world will look like a maze, and this is going to be the highest difficulty, as in all Metroidvania games, finding the right path is tricky and often annoying.



Characters’ construction

One of the strongest points of this gameplay is the funny characters, especially Jeff whom I mentioned before, every character has very distinctive individualities and characteristics, for example, we find a Russian woman and make an unlikely alliance, that is because the game gives the idea that the Soviet Union still exists in the story, so one American and a Soviet will be united, it may sound crazy, but it happens.

Well, our main character reproduces funny and senseless lines all the time, as if he had been in a Hollywood movie, while the villain is a person that has at least 20 screws loose, the more we know him, the more we want to know, the construction is solid and well-produced, but nothing is well elaborated because there isn’t the goal of this style.

So, it’s important to highlight that as we advance Jeff won’t be the only playable character, we are going to play with heroes, and each one has different individualities that allow us to progress in the story, the Russian woman, for example, uses a kind of hook to move and reach difficult places.



Upgrade system

Usually, when we play this style of game, we always want to upgrade our character as we progress in the narrative, here this isn’t different, but it’s going to variate in the style, the upgrade system is alternative and interesting, besides being extremely easy to understand and to use it.

In this context, instead of upgrading skills as in other games, here we are going to see a mechanic that will have a watch, it’s possible to connect and activate collectible abilities on the map and use it as we prefer, sounds hard, right? Don’t worry, it’s complicated to explain in words, but when you play it, everything is informative and intuitive.

When we select to move this watch, it’s going to be impossible to make modifications in the normal conditions, that is because it’s only possible to make changes in specifics places, on hammocks placed on the maps with the function that allow us the players to save the game and recover energies and ammunitions, that way, you have to choose well the abilities since they can’t be changing anytime. Besides that, there is also the possibility to access the map and ammunition, we can carry two different weapons at once, but you can change them anytime and anywhere.



Mechanics combination

Well, I mentioned several mechanisms in this review, but there are a lot more that will be necessary to progress, which was really well done. I’ll explain more, the game has a considerable big map, it’s easy to see that will have paths and places with loots impossible to reach, don’t be upset, at some point in the story is likely that you’ll return to that place with new mechanisms unlocked that will allow you to conclude the phase.

I’d mentioned the Russian woman with a hook before, but there are also Jeff’s bombs that are going to explode fragile walls, for example. So, to be able to progress in the narrative, the player has to combine the best way of several possibilities, because we often find different puzzles.

In that perspective, it’s also possible to travel fast, it has a certain relief because we know how boring is to have to pass all the phases facing enemies again just to reach the mission place, so, you’ll see motorcycles spread on places, they can be easily used to arrive fast.



Impressive animation

Despise being a 2D game, the developers didn’t save efforts to make a well-produced and pleasant game for the players, it’s a fact that Metroidvania is a saturated genre in the game world, so it’s always necessary to try to change details and upgrade the technical parts to draw attention and put something new in the scenery. That said, graphics are similar to animation, to be honest, if you make a person watch only the cutscenes, this person will probably ask each animation did you take the cutscenes, because everything is colorful and has a certain charm of the 80s.

Besides that, the strong point certainly attracts the public and calls the players of this style to know more about it, especially if you want more action, and shooting in closed ambiances, but this is not all, the animations are extremely fluid and easy to follow, the game doesn’t show an exhausting screen.



And the sound?

Here it doesn’t have any highlights or any criticism, because the game delivers something well produced and coherent, but there isn’t a differential, the sound is synchronized, and each action will produce a different sound that is going to please you. To be honest, I don’t like when there is long background music, it’s not that it is bad, but is something easy to get sick of it if you want to spend hours playing, so, you can decrease the sound as you like in the system, but you have to listen at least a little to enjoy everything you can from this experience.

Is it worth it?

Here there are two opinions, the first one is for those who don’t know the Metroidvania style, because as it is something well-produced and has extremely active, it’s recommendable to get to know the style without facing huge difficulties, it’s not easy to advance, because you can be stuck in some parts if you can’t progress, besides this the game has an accessible price for long gameplay.
 

In sequence, for those who are used to this format, the game is still worth exploring, even though it’s not a masterpiece, the gameplay combined with the mechanism’s diversity is extremely pleasant and I’m sure that you’ll want to play until the end. That said, Blast Brigade is an excellent addition to this genre, with very positive points.
 

Blast Brigade vs The Evil Legion of Dr. Cread is available for Windows, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

We thank the PR team of MY. Games that provide us with the game and allow us to create this content.