REVIEW – Our next free game for March of 2016 is Broforce, a game developed by Free Lives, and it is another nostalgia trip for the player… though I could consider it a nightmare.

What would you think about a game that has this sort of trailer for its launch?

Welcome to another month of PlayStation Plus Free Games. While most of you have been probably dreading the constant onslaught of pixelated indie games, it looks like we are still not out of the woods yet. Our two new PlayStation Plus games for March are Broforce and Galak-Z: The Dimensional.

After the trailer for the announcement, I saw most people yelling: OH MY XBOX IS, AT LEAST, GETTING LORDS OF FALLEN. To which I say: Meh could be worse. Don’t get me wrong I could use maybe an AC: Black Flag for free or a Killzone Shadowfall, but I guess we need to wait for those a bit. Still after playing both Galak-Z: The Dimensional and Broforce I have to say…. the line up is not horrible, but it barely reaches average regarding quality if we look at the bundle as a whole. This is mostly due to Broforce, but we’ll get to that later.

Bro? Really?

You probably thought: „Oh cool a new game from the creators of Shank, that spoofs the 80s action movies.” Boy, I wish this was the case, but unfortunately, instead we get a game that spoofs the 80s but looks worse than an NES game. Sadly Klei Entertainment seems to have only assisted in the marketing of this game, as Broforce is another video game where the hype is gigantic, yet the budget was so thin.

The story is that you are Broforce, an elite unit made up of fake 80s/90s action heroes that combat terrorist, evil villains, and the devil itself. Though in my opinion we only combat pixels and trying to figure out what is happening on the levels during a shootout.

Please Don’t Be Back

The roster of characters in Broforce is … well, every 80s and 90s action hero you can think of from those times. From the Terminator to Robocop, and beyond such as The Blade. The only difference (to avoid copyright strikes) is that they have the word Bro added to their name. So instead of Terminator, you get Brominator, or Brobo Cop etc. you get the idea.  You unlock extra characters throughout the game by saving prisoners of war. After you save a certain amount throughout the levels, you get a new character added to your roster. The idea is neat, but the execution is lacking because as soon as you save a POW you’ll switch to a new character from the roster. So while you may like Judge Dred with his enemy seeking missiles, do not go near that POW, or you might get The Blade, who can only use his sword and nothing else.

It is really neat to unlock new characters since we get a drawn quick look of them because in-game they are put together with tiny blocks. While we may unlock the guy from Die Hard or Ash from Evil Dead, not much can be said about them, they just look like two or three pixels meshed together.

The gameplay is okay, nothing specially, every character has its weapon and super attack which is neat. However, it still boils down that even those look lackluster. All of the characters have their signature weapons and moves, which is great, yet at the same time, I was hoping for more. Maybe the Brominator could have used a motorcycle to throw at enemies, instead of just having a metal skeleton to absorb damage. The game sells itself on the idea that it is a CRUUUAAAZZZYY game, and outrageous, but, in reality, the game plays it safe. There’s not much challenge besides the occasional mini-boss or normal bosses. Enemies die in a few hits, and health is easy to pick up since when you save a POW on the map you gain an extra health.

The only outrageous thing about the game is its graphics which, to be honest in 2016 can we just finally knock it off with the pixelated games. It was fine for games like Nuclear Throne, or Hotline Miami where there was some style or substances that would make me look past the graphics, however here there is nothing that entices the player to look past it. Go forward and shoot, and maybe get a laugh out of the funny references that are made during the game.

One more from the start

Broforce is a fun game for five minutes… until you realize that other games have already done this type of action better such as Mercenary Kings, or Shank 1-2. Avoid this game if you do not want to feel insulted.

-Dante-

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Developer: Free Lives

Genre: Shoot-‘Em-Up, Action

Release date: 1 Mar, 2016