The Spell Brigade Review - Premature Materialization

ScrambledAshton
2 hours ago
6 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vHN-6VgDl0

Survivor-like games are all the rage right now. You know, the games where you don’t really have to think very hard because they do the shooting for you? Where huge waves of enemies chase you down, and the core gameplay involves running for your life, finding XP, and boosting stats, attacks, and modifiers with every level you gain. Well, The Spell Brigade doesn’t break that mold, but it does add a few fun new mechanics to the formula that may spice things up for genre fans, or perhaps they’ll put them off.

The Spell Brigade has been in Early Access since September 2024 and is finally dropping into its version 1.0 this week. It is a magical survivor-like game that can be played alone or online with up to 3 friends and tasks you with playing as one of 15 unlockable wizards, all with their own spells, who must battle through hordes of enemies across 4 biomes, finishing objectives, fighting bosses, and earning gold pieces that can be spent on boosting your wizard stats or unlocking new wizards to add to your roster. Every few levels, you’ll get a new spell, choosing from 3 options, eventually equipping 4 spells that’ll help you fight to survive. Every level, you’ll get the choice to bolster your wizard or your spells. Beef up your spells enough, and you’ll gain access to infusions, giving your spells extra damage and zip zapping the enemies.

I like a mind-empty kind of game, one that you can stick on while you’re listening to a podcast or the like, and survivor-likes are sort of the perfect genre for that, and The Spell Brigade is no exception. Every run is the same, with the variations truly only being which spell you start with and in which order the objectives appear. For the first few hours of the game, at least in the 1.0 version, you’ll probably only have access to two or three of the wizards, so choice is limited, plus with the new unlock requirements to gain access to new biomes it did feel a little monotonous.

On that, as it exits early access, it appears one of the biggest changes is the unlock system, one most specifically of note being the way in which one can expect to gain access to new maps and areas. Where previously you gained a new biome for surviving 15 minutes in a run, now you must complete a full mission in each area, including fighting the boss, which if successful will probably take a lot longer than 15 minutes. When playing alone, I didn’t manage to beat a mission; in fact, I never got to the point of seeing the boss. It wasn’t until I enlisted the help of a second player that I even saw a boss, let alone beat one. Playing solo was fun at first, but this game is most certainly better played with friends, not least to help actually make some progress.

The game feels aimed towards playing in co-op, with many of the core mechanics being friend-support forward. You’ll get a lot of stats that help boost your revive window, boost health for friends, and in general make playing with someone else a lot more fun, so if you’re thinking of picking this one up, I highly recommend gifting a copy to a pal or playing online if you’re only friends with people who like to, ew, go outside!

Progress is slow going outside of the matches as well, as earning gold takes such a long time. Even defeating the bosses feels insignificant when you earn such a tiny amount of gold once you’ve finished. There are ways to increase the gold earned (i.e., once you’ve unlocked 3 wizards, each run will have a gold-boosted wizard, and there is a skill you can eventually boost to earn a bit more gold), but with so much progress stuck behind earning gold, it feels like a slog. Each new wizard can be paid for with the cost incrementally going up per wizard, and every skill (which you will need in order to make any progress) also costs not insignificant chunks of money, so you’re really having to choose between upgrading the one or two wizards you’ve got, or taking a punt on a new wizard that you may enjoy the powers of more.

My core issues with the game aren’t in the main gameplay; the rounds are fun, and if the RNG goes your way, you can become an unstoppable killing machine. I think fans of games like Vampire Survivor may find it a little bland and slow to start, but hopefully the charm of the magical world may keep them playing for a little longer.

During each run, alongside leveling up from mana gains, you’ll get the chance to add to your wizard's skills or aid your run by completing objectives. Each run normally has about 5 different objectives before you get to the boss, all of which are randomly picked from a selection of unlocked activities and placed randomly around the map. There are a few different types: slime cleanup, sacrificial altars, mushroom collection, Golden Crab hunts, and my personal least favorite, kick all the spell orbs into the circle. Once completed, you’ll get to choose between a few augments for your spells, which can add some much-needed variety to your playstyle.

One issue I had with the objectives, which seems to be an issue that had already been raised during Early Access, is that occasionally these circles would spawn on lava, ice patches, or in the middle of some tricky geometry, which made for some pretty annoying moments. Also, throughout the game, you might encounter chests; do damage to open them, and the scroll inside will give you the choice of 3 buffs or gameplay changes that might help keep you fighting for longer.

There are currently (and I assume permanently) 4 different realms to play in: a green one, an icy one, a fiery one, and a rocky one, most of which come with their own annoying set of challenges. Our Ice realm has slippery plains of ice that send you skidding about the place, as well as red vines that slow you down. Lava in our fiery level deals damage, and rivers intersect your path on the Astral Riftlands. Each area does have a few distinct enemies, but early mobs are pretty much the same spiders and chompy slugs you see in the footage, as well as many of the later stage enemies as well.

On that, the level of variety is lacking in every sense. There aren’t that many spells, there are only 4 locations that do not vary in layout from run to run, and enemy type isn’t very diverse either. Plus, in the few times I did manage to reach the boss in 2 different realms, I encountered the same boss, so I struggle to tell you much more about what you could face as I never got to see it.

I unfortunately did NOT like the music in Spell Brigade. There isn’t enough of a selection of music, and it felt repetitive, especially given that you’ll find yourself running headfirst into a bunch of spiders over and over. There is one music sting that can best be described as sounding like an out-of-tune guitar playing slightly out of time with the rest of the music, and every time it played, it really got into my soul… in a bad way.

While it doesn’t feel like there is much variety in the enemies, the vast majority of them do look great, as do the wizards and their various skins. They’re suitably whimsical and colorful and all unique in their own rights. That, plus the various locales, spells, and UI design, all speak to a distinct creative voice that the developers have created.

As you would hope for a game that has been in early access for so long, the game runs well on both PC and Steam Deck and would most certainly make a fantastic handheld game for those long train journeys.

The Spell Brigade is another Survivorslike that shoots for the moon and, I feel, misses landing amongst the stars. It is, in general, totally fine. For the few hours you’ll play it, you may have some fun, especially if you’re playing with a friend, but I feel its longevity and replayability are limited with how much content is in the game at present.

The early game is for sure more difficult now than it was in early access, so while the developers suggest wiping your early access save once the full version releases, I would say it is best to stick with what you have done, lest you find yourself grinding through run after run just to make back any progress you already had.

MEDIOCRE/TABLE LAMP