Game Review #4

 

Title screen

Title: Battle Brothers
Genre: Tactical RPG
Developer(s): Overhype Studios, UG Limited
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: April 27, 2015

About the game:

Battle Brothers is a sandbox SRPG. Travel a medieval-fantasy world with your very own mercenary company. Increase your company's renown by taking on quests from kingdoms, towns, villages, etc. or killing enemies. You can become the scourge of the world by attacking innocent caravans, kingdoms, towns, etc. or play the nice guys which is totally up to you.

World screen

Town screen

Character & Inventory screen

Gameplay:

Almost everything can be customized on Battle Brothers, your character's appearance, equipment, skills as well as your guild's banner, name. This is the game for people who are heavy not only on customization but also on the gameplay.

Skill Tree screen

Battle screen

Random Event screen

Battle Brothers is heavy on Random Number Generator (RNG) which can somewhat be infuriating at the beginning but it also makes the game challenging and fulfilling at the same time. Even the world map is randomly generated. One of the challenges of the game is rationing your supplies. Gold, Food, Repair Tools, Ammunition, Healing Kits are all limited. You can purchase a limited number of those on kingdoms, towns, villages, etc. Another challenge is keeping track of the world, brigands, monsters, other kingdoms will attack and it's totally up to you if you allow them to destroy each other or interfere. Attacked places may be converted into an undead base or be completely destroyed. Once a place is destroyed, chances are it never gets rebuild or the rebuild process is long,while roaming the world map, food is consumed and your company's gold also decreases due to the salary of your mercenaries, both of which are very vital for morale which greatly affects your mercenary's performance in battle, random events can also happen while you're on the world map, your company might encounter other travelling caravans, companies, monsters (which you can attack), some events will make you choose your moral alignment, some will affect your company's morale, items might be gained on some. There are a multitude of these events and the possibilities are almost endless. Once you're in a populated area (Kingdoms, towns, villages) you can resupply, take on quests or increase your company's number (maximum of 20 mercenaries). Mercenaries vary from every location and their appearance, equipment, statistics are random. Stars are displayed on the mercenary's stats to denote if a mercenary is talented on that area (1 for lowest, 3 for highest) which greatly affects the stat gain that a mercenary will get when a level is gained. The battle itself is complex since many factors can affect a mercenary's performance. Morale, fatigue, vision (depends if it is a daytime or nighttime battle), equipment weight as well a mercenary's innate trait (some of which are negative traits). The game also allows you to become an enemy or a friend of factions which will affect your visit to areas under said factions.

Verdict:

Gameplay: 5/5
Story: 1/5
Aesthetics: 4/5
Audio: 3/5

Battle Brothers is an amazing and well thought game. The battles are complex since it factors almost every aspect of a real battle, from surrounding an enemy unit to lessen it's morale (making it flee if morale becomes too low) to the character's equipment affecting the fatigue level and vision. It also accounts for the terrain and your positioning as well as the time the battle happened (day/night) but once you've played a few battles, you'll surely enjoy the game. The game itself doesn't feature a story. The only constant thing that happens when you start a new gameplay is the first scene where you'll be instructed to do your very first battle against some brigands while most of your "brothers" die, after that, you'll be in total control of everything. The game design is unique and the "chess piece" aesthetic for the characters looks good. The music is somber and doesn't really take too much attention away from the game. It compliments the game's mood and the sounds used in the battles will make you feel totally immersed. As of this writing, the developers have released a couple of Downloadable Content (DLC) which adds some enemies & equipment. The game also utilizes a fog of war mechanic. Random rare equipment as well as challenge, quest locations and even boss monsters are scattered throughout the world. If you're looking for a complete SRPG experience, Battle Brothers will surely meet and exceed your expectations.