Sometimes a game has such an impact that it spawns countless copies over the coming years. Some developers try to capitalise on the hype cycle by releasing games quickly with only minor changes. Others take their time, introducing new concepts layered on top of the gameplay of their inspiration. Ultimately, however, both approaches have one thing in common. Players will always compare your work to that of others. Whether they want to or not.
Survivor-likes
In 2022, Poncle released a small game called Vampire Survivors. This spawned a huge number of similar games. Eventually, some people even started calling this genre ‘survivor-likes’. With the release of The Spell Brigade, Belgian studio Bolt Blaster Games also tries to capture the magic of this genre.
In The Spell Brigade, players control a wizard or witch on a quest to eradicate enemies from a chosen map. As in other roguelite survivor-likes, you can get permanent unlocks over the course of multiple runs. You choose a character and are dropped into vast open maps swarming with enemies. Each playable character attacks automatically, with the starting attack varying from character to character. Reginald, the wizard apprentice, for example, shoots magic orbs at enemies, while the sun mage surrounds themselves with a damaging zone, and the moon mage shoots a moon-shaped boomerang. The enemies you slay drop magical mana, which is used to level up your character. Gaining a level always gives you three choices for upgrading your character. These can be extra health, armour, or modifications for your wizard weapons.
At the 5th, 15th, and 25th levels, you can also choose an additional attack. This is necessary because swarms of enemies grow bigger and stronger the longer you spend on a map.
Completing runs, whether by failing or winning, gives you currency that can be spent on permanent upgrades. These include bigger damage output and better mana generation. You can even spend gold to unlock additional wizards. The more you play, the more player variation you are rewarded with. However, The Spell Brigade also tries to differ from the standard formula by introducing some unexpected changes.
Spellslinger
The first clear, unique aspect of The Spell Brigade is the map design. Not all maps are barren wastelands. Objects are scattered across them, making navigation more difficult. This applies to both you and the NPC enemy hordes. Take the first map, for example. The rocks and crevices let you change your trajectory quickly and funnel enemies through narrow passes. However, it also makes you more susceptible to being surrounded, as enemies can block your exits. This means you need to think more about your position on the map, and it adds a lot more strategy to the game.
Another nice addition is the mission system. At certain intervals, an objective will appear on the map. These objectives involve shattering statues, gathering mushrooms, cleaning up magic goo, or closing a portal, all of which are standard wizard tasks. Completing these objectives gives you powerful power-ups for your character, but you need to take risks to access these abilities. Are you daring enough to stand in one place long enough to close a portal? Or are you too scared of being swarmed? These mechanics kept me on my toes for longer.
However, the standout feature of this game for me is the art style. Every detail of the world is beautifully crafted, especially the wizards. I have never seen video game characters like these. The combination of golden masks and red and blue robes is a bold and unique design choice.
The power of friendship
But now it’s time to address the elephant in the room. The biggest addition to this game is the multiplayer mode, which allows you to play with your friends across the PC and PS5 versions. Joining another player’s game is simple: just enter the pass code they can see on the co-op screen. I tested this out with one of my friends to provide a more detailed review. I have to say that the matchmaking was extremely quick and stable, even before the full release. The multiplayer experience itself isn’t that different from the single-player mode in terms of structure. Both players collect mana, and every level up, chest or objective reward is received by both players, allowing them to grow together. The reverse side of the coin is that objectives are harder to complete and that revival does not happen automatically. For you to be brought back to life, your teammate must come to the place where you died to stay in a zone for a certain amount of time.
However, that’s the extent of the interaction between the two players. During the couple hours we spent playing the game in multiplayer mode, we mostly went our separate ways and did our own thing on different sides of the map. We didn’t even discuss strategy, yet we still won. I killed the boss with my own ultraheal build while my teammate sprayed the encroaching horde with arcane bullets. We thought the lack of synergy might have been because friendly fire was on by default. But even turning it off didn’t make a big difference. We just kept playing next to each other, joking around with other people on Discord. If you’re looking for a game to enjoy with friends or teach them the ropes, this one can certainly be used, but don’t expect your builds to combo with each other that much. However, it makes for a great Friendslop game because of its automatic nature, which lets you zone out and talk about different topics. If that’s the case, though, I don’t see why we wouldn’t choose an alternative game that lets us interact with each other and generate inside jokes along the way.
Safe bet
Having played The Spell Brigade for several hours, I must admit that I have enjoyed playing this game. The additions made by the team at Bolt Blaster are enjoyable, but after a few hours, the game started to feel repetitive. The objectives are largely the same, especially early on, because you unlock them by playing. Because survivor-likes have long runs, always taking about half an hour, it sometimes started to feel a bit too mindless, because I was able to predict what came next well beforehand. There is also a lack of enemy variety, as basic enemy types are present in all the different maps. Don’t get me wrong; it’s certainly a well-designed game. However, if you have played other survivor-likes, the new elements introduced, even the multiplayer, won’t help you forget that most of the choices made during the game design process were extremely safe and didn’t deviate much from genre blueprints. If you and your friends are fans of survivor-likes, then The Spell Brigade might be worth adding to your game rotation, but don’t expect any revolutionary additions to the genre.
Conclusion
The Spell Brigade offers an interesting twist on the survivor-like genre. The more intricate map design combined with the quest system adds more strategy to runs, but the slow unlocking of these systems and the lack of enemy variety make the game sometimes feel repetitive. The safe choice to not deviate too much from genre staples also adds to this feeling. Multiplayer is fun, but the lack of synergy between players makes it feel like you are just playing next to each other instead of working together. The game can be used as a social experience when you and your friends love to play survivor-like games, but don’t expect any big changes to an already existing formula.
