You know a game has clicked with you, when you find yourself playing it way more than you should. That’s what happened to me and Brotato, a smashing yet simple auto-shooter about killing things with a potato.
It’s very surreal, naturally, as you would expect from a game that puts you in control of a violent root vegetable. Brotato comes with a huge number of different starting characters, which you must unlock over time. Each one of these builds has been calibrated slightly differently, to encourage a distinct play-style.
This means that that every run feels different, despite the action taking place in a fairly unremarkable arena. It’s not very big, and there’s not much to do other than dodge enemies and occasionally grab a crate or chop down a randomly spawning tree. Yet somehow, despite all this, Brotato feels like a breath of fresh air and I’ve a tremendous time playing it over the last few months (on PC Steam).
A chip off the old block
So you’ve picked your Brotato from the menu of options in front of you. From there, you’ll usually get a choice of starting weapon. Once you’ve grabbed that, it’s time to march around the arena and smack things until they go away – permanently. To that end, the controls are silky smooth, which is important as you’ll be ducking and dodging throughout, as well as lining up a few hits of your own.
It’s simple enough at first, with just a handful of low level enemies to battle. Once you’ve dealt with the beasties in front of you, it’s time to grab the XP that falls as they perish. This continues until the end of the round as shown on a countdown timer, at which point you are invited to choose your upgrades. This is where Brotato comes to life.
First there are the items that you’ve picked up in crates. You can choose to keep or reject these bonus items, but I tend to keep them. Then you can choose from a selection of player upgrades, such as increased range, damage and so on. Of course, your previous decisions will inform the choices you make. Finally, you can spend your hard earned currency on weapons.
Spud guns
The weapon system in Brotato is good. I love that you’ve got six weapon slots; you can really balance things between melee and ranged attacks. It’s all about finding the right blend of attacks to suit your play-style and chosen class.
There is a pleasingly robust selection of weapons, from magic wands to sub-machine guns. Higher level options will appear in the shop from time to time, however, you can also combine a weapon with another of exactly the same type. Doing so gives you a new weapon of a higher tier, increasing your damage output accordingly.
Thus begins a constant quest to get better weapons, fill out your inventory with powerful items, and build up your little potato-faced friend with improved stats to make them more dangerous.
While there is plenty of nuance in the gameplay, in terms of a general overview, there’s not a lot more to it; it’s a fairly simple game at the end of the day. Brotato does, however, deliver complexity and depth in all the right places. It looks and sounds great, too, with the whole thing brought to life with crisp visuals, satisfying audio effects, and plenty of humour and wit. I guess that’s why I called it one of my favourite games of 2023!
