At first look, Spell Brigade reminds you of the typical roguelite, where you run around while trying to avoid being overwhelmed by a mass of enemies. But as you dive deeper, you start to notice the fine differences and unique elements of this game that other similar titles don’t have.
Even though it’s still in early access, this game has plenty of challenges to offer players, and its frequent updates make you stick around and explore further just when you thought you got the hang of the game. Like any game, it has its ups and downs that we will analyze thoroughly while going through our first impressions. So, put your wizard hats on and check out Spell Brigade from our point of view!
No Pixelated Graphics
If we’re being honest, the first thing that popped into our minds when we tried out Spell Brigade is that its graphics are quite good, and that it is one of the areas where developers have put their time and focus. Not to say that looks make the game, but for a while now, we’ve been getting used to pixelated graphics in popular roguelite titles such as Vampire Surivors, Halls of Torment, or 20 Minutes Till Dawn. It was a breath of fresh air to see pretty spell animations while a horde of monsters is chasing you.
Even though stronger graphics are at play here, we didn’t notice any bugs or stuttering during the game on our system. With updates coming regularly, some of the game’s looks are changing as well, so this might change in the future. For now, it’s running smoothly and efficiently. We are running the game on the following system:
Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12650H 2.30 GHz
RAM 16.0 GB
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop
Grinding Required
In-game progress is relatively slow when compared to some other roguelites, but it’s not terrible. You’ll unlock new things in a variety of ways. For example, sometimes you’ll need to survive a map for 12 minutes, and other times you’ll need to level up 360 times (in total, across more matches), which means that not all unlocks are behind lengthy gameplay, but most of them are.
Some of these grinding achievements can push you towards being a bit bored, where you need to play a couple of games in a row on the same map with the same wizard before you get new things to explore.
Limited Choices (For Now)
Spell Brigade only has 3 maps (realms) that you can roam around, each more difficult than the last, bringing an unfriendly environment that you have to deal with. There are 16 different spells and 13 unlockable Wizards. It’s important to emphasize that this is all at the current stage of the game and that we can’t know what the final number of any of these things will be when the game reaches its full release.
Having only 3 maps available can make you feel limited because you will unlock them early on and then proceed to unlock things that affect the game less (like wizards and spell infusions). Even though we’re aware that some roguelites like to have only a few map choices, we feel it would be better to create more unique environments and make them bigger for a more spacious battle. Vampire Survivors is one game that did an excellent job with that.
Wizards
Wizards are central figures to the game, and the one you choose can affect your gameplay in the upcoming round. Each one has a unique starting spell and a perk that helps you build them in a certain way. For example, Aldric has increased healing for himself and allies and revives quicker, Sun Mage has increased Dodge and a smaller hitbox for easier maneuvering, while Moon Mage gets XP faster and gets new spells and infusions quicker.
The main thing to understand here is that the choice of Wizard can affect your gameplay, but it doesn’t have to. Your survival will mostly depend on your individual dodging skills and choosing the right spell upgrades. The perks that Wizards bring can help, but don’t have to be decisive in the run.
Fun Quests
One amusing aspect of the game is the quests that pop up during a match. A couple of times while you’re in a run, you will get a pop-up message giving you a quest and a countdown marking how long you have to complete it. Quests are diverse and quite fun, so I hope the developers expand on these in the future and give us an even bigger variety.
Not knowing what sort of challenge you will get keeps the game exciting, especially because a successfully resolved quest gives you a powerful spell augmentation.
Riding Solo or In a Team
Most of the time, we were looking for online teammates we got teamed up with one other player max. We’re not sure if there isn’t a big enough player base now or if there are some other problems that restrict a 3 or 4 player matchmaking, but it seems for now, you’ll need to team up with friends if you want to go for a full 4-player run.
If you’re playing alone, we advise you to start with solo matches (you can do that by turning matchmaking off) to get a feel of the game first. Playing with other people puts you in a position of having a bigger responsibility because, besides killing enemies, you’ll have more challenging quests and an obligation to revive your teammates when they’re down.
When we first tried out the game, we had to shamefully admit that we didn’t notice when our teammates died and left them hanging for a while. There are plenty of things to learn when you first play the game, so it will be much easier when you’re riding solo.
Conclusion
To sum up, we can say that Spell Brigade is certainly not an early access game in its starting phases of development, as it has plenty of content going on as we speak. From our point of view, a few tweaks and upgrades are needed to make the game shine, but that’s us.
Also, we have no idea what the team behind the game has in store before the game’s full release. Maybe they are planning on some updates that will make the game more fun, challenging, or both. Until we see the full release, we won’t know for sure, but now the game is standing solid among its peers in the genre.
Photo credits: Bolt Blaster Games
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