I have been eyeing The Spell Brigade for some time, waiting for the right moment to strike. That moment arrived yesterday, when I jumped into the latest press build of Update 12 and took an advanced look at the new Astral Riftlands biome, which stands as the centrepiece of the new content drop.
But first, what is The Spell Brigade?
This Early Access action-roguelite is one of the more promising new auto-shooters out there. If I were going to elevator pitch it, I’d say it’s Vampire Survivors meets Magicka.
Now, Magicka is an interesting one. The first game was made by Helldivers 2 dev Arrowhead Game Studio. If you’re not directly familiar, you’ve probably seen it around and know that it’s a spell-powered action-RPG with a focus on super-charged abilities and accidentally zapping your friends in the butt.
It is this friendly-fire element that defines The Spell Brigade, and separates it from the horde over other auto-shooters out there. They still have a lot in common, and much like Vampire Survivors and all the rest, your attacks are automated and you’ve got to run around, dodge damage, and level up your character with increasingly powerful spells.
The game through the lens of Update 12
I was jumping in cold, so I launched into the opening levels and started to find my feet. The first thing that struck me was the quality of the presentation. The Spell Brigade is up there with Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor at the top-end of the scale in terms of audio-visuals. The whole thing is brought to life with a really sweet hand-painted art style, and I just love the way the whole thing looks.
After sampling the first three biomes and levelling up my overall character stats for a couple of hours, I turned to the new content. The new stage is called Astral Riftlands and it’s an otherworldly playground with a sweeping river that twists through the landscape. There are also portals that pop up from time to time, and they’re a most useful way of getting out of trouble when it finds you.
There are three new enemy types (Stinky Crabs, Void Hoppers and Rift Sentinels), but the standout gameplay addition is the new Light the Braziers challenge. One of my favourite things about The Spell Brigade is the tactile nature of the challenges, and this one is no different. There are five braziers to illuminate in the correct order, but getting them in the wrong order will reset the sequence.
I must admit to having played this co-op game solo, and as such I didn’t get to experience the true anguish of getting nuked by a supposed friend. I did, however, hoot in delight when I discovered that I could injure myself with my own abilities.
In fact, while there wasn’t any new ones in this update, there are already 13 different wizards in the game. However, with shared meta-progression, it didn’t feel too grindy to start putting my own stamp on the stats.
The Spell Brigade’s release date
According to the presser, this is going to be one of the last updates for The Spell Brigade before it leaves behind its Early Access tags, however, it’s already in good shape after just over a year in EA.
The most important thing for me, however, is that the game continues to lean into what makes it different. There are so many auto-shooters out there right now – really good ones, too – and if The Spell Brigade is going to make a splash, then I want to see more physics-based chaos.
It helps that it’s shaping up to be one of the most environmentally-focused and tactile auto-shooters out there, and the new biome takes things even further in this regard, with even more interesting kinds of interactivity. While you don’t burrow through stone and so on, you can use the landscape tactically during combat, kiting your enemies and using choke points to thin the chasing horde.
After trying out Update 12 of The Spell Brigade, I’m definitely going to return and do a full review when this one leave’s Early Access. When that will be has yet to be confirmed, but as soon as there’s a release date I’ll let you know here!
