The title of this dungeon crawling action game sums up its feel and aesthetic fairly well. Brut@l is a dark, violent, aggressive and challenging game. The ground shakes and shatters when you enter a new dungeon level, enemies explode into a splat of blood when defeated, and like so many games nowadays, Brut@l has a rogue-like element in that death is final. The game emits a harsh atmosphere, and while not quite as challenging as many other titles that sport permadeath, gameplay can be a very unforgiving affair if you’re unlucky.
Why unlucky? Because so much of Brut@l relies on random generation. Each play through features 26 randomised dungeons (the last may or may not be randomised, I never got that far) with a variety of enemies, traps, rooms and loot. Get an easy dungeon and you might breeze through, collect some swag, kill a few monsters and hop down the dungeon door to the next area. Get a difficult one and you may find yourself stumbling in the dark, walking over poisonous floors, getting blown up by suicide enemies, or falling off the edge of a shear drop.
Given the perma-death nature of the game, the random generation was a good call – with levels staying relatively fresh on repeat plays – and there’s generally a fair variety of objects, enemies and other such stuff so that the levels don’t look too similar. There is an issue in the game when it comes to variation, which I will discuss further later, but the ‘randomness’ of each level is impressive.
For this dungeoning adventure we get to pick between four different characters. They cover mostly the usual variety of fantasy classes, so we get a warrior, a ranger and a Wizard – in addition to an Amazon, though to be fair, she’s basically a female warrior. Each come with their own stats, from health points to abilities, and they are uniquely animated – the Amazon, for example, utilising kicks effectively in unarmed combat.
Once you’ve chosen your character, you will be dropped into the first level to begin your descent. Everything in the game world is super stylised in this black and white, symbol/letter based aesthetic – it’s difficult to describe really, but you’ll get it if you look at the screenshots. The dungeons are made up of multiple rooms, each containing objects such as pots and boxes, which can be broken for a small amount of XP and the potential for some loot; hazards such as poisonous floors, eel filled areas of water, and the occasional missing floor; and, of course, a variety of enemies.
To take on these challenges your selected character will have a unique set of stats. The wizard can use magic for example, the warrior has more health than the wizard, and the ranger has the base bow related abilities unlocked from the start, so you can start pinging arrows as soon as you find a weapon to do so, and so on. In actual fact, and this was probably the most disappointing part of the game, the wizard is the only really unique character of the bunch. Yes, they have different amounts of health and start with different abilities, but soon enough you will be earning XP, levelling up and able to unlock everything anyway. A warrior can still use a bow for example, and a ranger can still use heavier melee weapons.
Whoever you decide to go for though, you will start off virtually unarmed – apart from the Wizard who has a staff. In order to gain new abilities and get weapons, you’ll have to explore. Gaining XP is a simple affair, basically if you can hit it, it gives you XP. So boxes, pots, chairs, tables, rats, spiders, monsters…you get the picture. Once you reach enough XP points you can level into a few rows of abilities. One row will cover more general stuff like additional health, the ability to craft more easily; and others offer weapon skills. For example, upgrading the row which allows use of clubs and heavier weapons will offer a ground smash special move with that particular set of gear, and so on. It’s fairly standard as far as abilities and levelling goes. To make an educated guess, I’d say it was possible to acquire all the abilities by the end of the game, assuming you get there.
Objects also sometimes contain items such as food, which heals and refills your hunger meter (being hungry has a detrimental effect on your stats), ingredients which can be combined together with empty vials to create a variety of potions, crafting books, which unlocks the ability to make particular weapons (so finding a crafting book for a sword), and letters, which bizarrely is what is used to craft those weapons.
The crafting and brewing systems are an interesting touch to the game, though also a tad simplistic. Potions are initially unnamed, requiring you to either drink or attack an enemy with it to discover its use. Each playthrough randomises the potion colour so you don’t get the same set up every time, though there will always be the same set of potions – healing, protection, poison, blinding, and so on. It adds a little bit of risk and discovery to proceedings, but also seems a bit shallow. Ingredients and vials are not in short supply, and the effectiveness of potions isn’t high enough to make risking an unknown potion on yourself that much of a danger. In two of my playthroughs I just stocked up on potions until I had each of every kind, then drank them all one after the other to discover their effects – it’s not nearly as engaging as it could have been.
The crafting suffers from similar issues, in the sense that it comes across as a bit shallow – you get a book which allows you to craft a weapon, then you find the correct letters and the game makes one for you – however, the ability to enchant your weapons as well alleviates this somewhat, and though simplistic, the process is still enjoyable. There’s no particular order to the letters, you just go around gathering them, then when you have the right ones you can make a weapon. As for enchanting, you will need to find enchanted letters. These cover a range of effects, from poison to fire to ice. Not only do these give you buffs when fighting enemies, but can also be used to break into locked doors and chests – an orange door or chest can be unlocked with a flame weapon, for example. It adds a little bit extra to the combat, and also a level of unpredictability to the exploration – it’s a randomly generated game, so be prepared to miss some loot on the odd playthrough due to not having the correct enchantments.
The combat itself will be easy to grasp for pretty much everyone. Again, it’s a very simple affair. There’s one button to attack, one combination of buttons (L1 and L2 in this case) to use your special move, a block button and a button to throw your shield like a boomerang (or in the Wizard’s case, shoot magic with his staff). You can also dodge and jump, providing a bit more of a defensive tactic.
It’s a pretty solid system. Fighting is impactful and bloody, and taking on groups of enemies – especially bigger ones – can provide a good challenge, though I feel more could have been done to add depth to the combat. There’s only one combination, achieved by spamming attack, and after a few hours it all starts to get repetitive. It’s also a shame that elemental effects on your weapons, while generally making them more powerful, don’t actually seem to have differing effects on enemy types. Fire doesn’t seem to do more damage to ice enemies, and vice versa (though zombies can only be killed by fire, and I must admit, I haven’t played every dungeon level of this game). This is even more of a shame due to the fact that the game actually has an impressive variety of foes.
I also took issue with some of the situations that led to my character’s death. Don’t get me wrong, the random generation and elements of challenge generally work in the game’s favour, however there are the odd moments of frustration born from oversights in design. For example, the jumping isn’t the best it could be, and death being final is a rule that covers EVERY death, so imagine how you would feel on a good playthrough when you slightly misjudge a jump over a hole in the floor and fall to your death. Yeah, it sucks. As a general rule, if death carries such a penalty as starting the whole game from the beginning, it’s not a bright idea to implement cheap hazards like that (you can offer loot at alters for extra lives, but that doesn’t quite make up for it, especially as it’s a luck based system meaning you can offer a bunch of gold at an alter and walk away with nothing). Another situation saw me spawn in a dungeon with poison grounds AND poison enemies, meaning it was pretty much inevitable that my character would experience constant health loss in those areas. You might think there are ways around those situations, but often that’s not the case – particularly with melee focussed characters, they’re at an inherent disadvantage, which can make the game frustrating – you might think you’re playing skilfully and having a good session, but then you get caught out by something simple and it’s game over.
I’ve feel like I’ve said more negative things about the game than positive, but Brut@l is still an enjoyable and unique experience. Its main issues surround a lack of depth and some repetitive design, but while also a little irritating in places, the gameplay is solid and engaging. The aesthetic, sound design and premise are top notch, and I think if you’re interested in a simple dungeon crawler, then Brut@l can provide a great time for you. There’s also a co-op mode and level creator, which I’m sure will result in some fun experiences.