Brigand series

[Konjad]

Screenshots of Brigand: Oaxaca look like a turd and give impression this game is a low quality indie trash.

But the first impression couldn't be more wrong. This is actually a well developed game akin to some old classics.

Graphics are terrible, so is the audio, but the gameplay is incredible in a way. If you liked Deus Ex sneaking, combat and multiplicity of approaches, this is exactly how it works in Oaxaca. The world is structured as a multiple hubs, and it opens more and more along with the story. The story has multiple branches, you can certainly choose quite early in the game between two factions, perhaps more but I haven't got to that. Quests often have multiple solutions and the world makes you feel you are open to do what you want, not what you should, though there is obviously the main story to follow.

The world in the game is wicked and fascinating. I don't want to say much to take away your own exploration of it, but I did not thing of any aspect of the game world as it was copy-pasted or incompetently done. From factions to monsters, it was all done with dedication and fit the post-apocalyptic primitive setting with some low fantasy.

The player can develop character by appointing points to various skills which in consequence will affect the gameplay a lot. Focusing on stealth, hacking, voodoo, agility, combat and more allows for replays having a different game styles. Limited amount of equipment and the fact that weapons deteriorate and ammunition around is scarce adds to the challenge. Do, however, put some points in range weapons as unfortunately some parts of the game have unavoidable combat and with far away targets, so carrying a rifle to use at least sometimes is probably almost a requirement.

Overall, this is one of the better RPGs released in recent years. I was completely hooked on it, despite that the game can be quite challenging and required multiple attempts, sometimes a lot, to pass some parts of it (and I still haven't finished it at this time). If you like challenge, wish to explore an interesting setting, and enjoy RPGs with gameplay of late 90s/early 2000s, then this is a game specifically for you! Even if it looks extraordinarily ugly and sounds like farts.


Brigand: Panama isn't as good as Oaxaca though. It is an inferior product when compared to Oaxaca. If you enjoyed vanilla you might still want to give it a try, but if you decide to skip it you won't miss much. It's a smaller more concise game with straightforward story, a couple of NPCs and fairly few side quests. Unfortunately, I had a frustrating game breaking bug and had to restart the game. The developer claimed to have fixed the issue later in a patch though, so it might not be as broken any more.

There aren't many interesting location, and the ones present have worse design than in Oaxaca. There seems to be way more focus on combat than anything else (while Oaxaca focused on combat, there was plenty of other stuff to do).

This expansion is rather average overall though, unlike the base game, I wasn't sucked into the setting much and just completed it because why not.

If you never played Brigand at all, get just the base game, if you have played Oaxaca already then know Panama is rather mediocre and I'd recommend it only if you crave more and have no other RPGs to play at the moment.

[Konjad]

I'd like to add that the developer is a bit odd, so to speak

[GothGirlSupremacy]

Based developer, bought the special edition so he gets more money and can hopefully hate women more comfortably.

[ERYFKRAD]

Could actually ask the dude to join us.

[Tweed]

This guy's patch notes are hilarious. When he made the "final" patch for Brigand it went something like: "There comes a time when you have to dump your kid in the dumpster and wish it all the best."

Of course, he went on the fix the game up for almost a year afterwards.

[gerey]

I'd like to add that the developer is a bit odd, so to speak

I am now very, very glad I paypigged for the Gold version of the game with all the DLC.

[rusty_shackleford]

Pretty sure the dev is a libtard just so you guys know

[agentorange]

One of the biggest surprises I've had in gaming. Someone bought me this game as a joke because it looked so bad, and I agreed to stream it for them and try to play as far as I could for as long as I could stand it. After an hour or so of getting used to it I start liking it and ended up loving it. By far one of my favorite games of the post-2010 era, along with Prey, AoD, Darkwood.

It's a genuine unique game, with a setting I can only describe as tropical post-apocalypse, where every character is a vagabond, bum, or drunk, or all three. Going in I was expecting a sort of ironic, post-ironic retro game which is a fad I absolutely hate, but it was 100% sincere and felt like the guy tried to make the best possible game he could make with his very limited toolset. Closest game I can think of in tone would be the english translation of Gothic 1, where the game takes its setting seriously but also has a very laid back, humorous style to all the dialogue.

[rusty_shackleford]

How action oriented is the combat? Do you guys think someone who isn't a fan of FPS games would enjoy this?

[agentorange]

Hard to say. I play a lot of fps so it's hard to see something from the perspective of someone who doesn't. I'd say it's around the same amount of action as Deus Ex/System Shock. Depending on how you build your character you can mostly snipe people from far away and use grenades to clear rooms before entering. Kalin managed to beat it and liked it and I never thought that guy could handle a game that wasn't turn-based.

[Konjad]

How action oriented is the combat? Do you guys think someone who isn't a fan of FPS games would enjoy this?

Gameplay-wise this game is basically like Deus Ex. If you were okay with DE, you will with this.

[Mr.Wonderful]

I'm more interested if anyone has made any scenarios by themselves? World editor seems pretty easy, someone can make something with grave robbing and dead children

[Konjad]

I'm more interested if anyone has made any scenarios by themselves? World editor seems pretty easy, someone can make something with grave robbing and dead children

I made one small mod to learn how to use the modding tools. It's quite easy, actually, but not very convenient. Unfortunately, Steam workshop is not supported, so you have to upload to brigand nexus:

https://www.nexusmods.com/brigandoaxaca

[gerey]

I'm more interested if anyone has made any scenarios by themselves? World editor seems pretty easy, someone can make something with grave robbing and dead children

I made one small mod to learn how to use the modding tools. It's quite easy, actually, but not very convenient. Unfortunately, Steam workshop is not supported, so you have to upload to brigand nexus:

https://www.nexusmods.com/brigandoaxaca

bruh

Brigand Oaxaca Steam Workshop

[Konjad]

I'm more interested if anyone has made any scenarios by themselves? World editor seems pretty easy, someone can make something with grave robbing and dead children

I made one small mod to learn how to use the modding tools. It's quite easy, actually, but not very convenient. Unfortunately, Steam workshop is not supported, so you have to upload to brigand nexus:

https://www.nexusmods.com/brigandoaxaca

bruh

Brigand Oaxaca Steam Workshop

Yeah? So show me how to upload there.

[Konjad]

Can't upload files or set mod visibility, so it's always hidden:

[gerey]

I can see two mods that have been uploaded, by different users, so obviously mods can be added.

I'm not sure if a developer can set the workshop to only display approved mods? Then again, both mods are from 2020, so it may just be that the developer made all uploaded mods invisible by default?

[Watser]

How action oriented is the combat? Do you guys think someone who isn't a fan of FPS games would enjoy this?

I don't know how viable stealth is, but there are several sections which are quite combat heavy where you don't have access to companions to do the work for you (and companions are clunky as anything, mostly useful as mules tbh). As others have said it's mostly similar to Deus Ex and you are better off taking things out from a distance rather than engaging in a drawn out firefight where the odds of getting yourself killed increases exponentially. For this reason getting access to a rifle early resulted in the most painfree experience.
I found melee to be utterly useless because enemies will always be able to hit you first in melee range if they are following you, but it may be viable if combined with stealth. If any of you found a viable strategy with melee I'm eager to hear it.

[Maggot]

This is very much a game about shooting lots of shit and if you make a character not focused on shooting you will have a bad time. I wouldn't approach it like Deus Ex even if there are obvious inspirations in the mechanics.

[Konjad]

I can see two mods that have been uploaded, by different users, so obviously mods can be added.

I'm not sure if a developer can set the workshop to only display approved mods? Then again, both mods are from 2020, so it may just be that the developer made all uploaded mods invisible by default?

[SharkClub]

This is very much a game about shooting lots of shit and if you make a character not focused on shooting you will have a bad time. I wouldn't approach it like Deus Ex even if there are obvious inspirations in the mechanics.

Eh. Deus Ex is also extremely combat heavy and pretty much requires investment into a weapon skill to progress without a headache. You can utilize stealth in Deus Ex but you can't exactly avoid every combat encounter with it, you can talk people down occasionally but still 90% of the encounters in Deus Ex require combat of some sort to resolve. Yes there are non-lethal options like the baton, prod and tranq darts but playing the entire game like that is more of a novelty than it is the intended way to play.

Don't get me wrong, Deus Ex is obviously great and one of my favorite games of all time but it's not even a perfect example of what it itself strives to achieve, the second half of the game is very slapdash in comparison to the first half and a lot of it is undercooked. Yes, Brigand requires a lot of combat (especially towards the end), but Deus Ex is really not that far off with its own combat requirements.

[Maggot]

It's incomparable. Deus Ex's AI is very barebones but you can go around nonlethally bashing people in the head with the prod, tranq and stun baton or avoid them altogether. You will be shooting everything in Brigand and a certain point what little stealth there is will go away completely when all the enemies get true sight.

[agentorange]

You can get through Deus Ex avoiding all combat and never having to do anything particularly exploity. Yeah the game forces you into hostile areas where enemies will attack you if they see you, but you still have enough stealth options at your disposable to not have to kill or hurt anyone. And I don't agree that the non-lethal options are just a "novelty." Your non-lethal options are limited in a logical way later on when you are facing mechanized enemies that self-destruct, but by then you also have more stealth options through augmentations and items.

Brigand is closer to VTMB where there areas that will allow you to bypass all combat encounters, but in other areas, basically dungeons, you are going to be fighting and killing no matter what.

[SharkClub]

In gameplay terms to me non-lethal and lethal in Deus Ex is only differentiated by how NPCs react to it (i.e. Paul/Carter/Alex/etc. when you're murdering or sparing NSF terrorists in the first 1/3 of the game, right up until you are forced to kill Anna Navarre to escape UNATCO HQ without glitches).

After that stops happening it's basically just larping. What's the actual gameplay difference between stabbing someone in the back with the Dragon's Tooth sword and knocking them out with the Baton? Also worth noting that as soon as you have passed the part of the game where non-lethal gets recognized by the story there is no new non-lethal weaponry provided to the player, just ammo for what you already have. You play the final 2/3 of the game with the same weapons you beat the first 1/3 with instead of experiencing any of the other content, the non-lethal playstyle also extremely limits which augmentations you are allowed to install and use.

To me the non-lethal larper route in Deus Ex for the final 2/3 of the game is very much comparable to how everyone says you should ghost Thief or that they have ghosted Thief. The game was clearly not designed with those sperg rules in mind and most people who talk about how cool ghosting is in Thief have either never actually followed the "ghost rules" they're a fan of or have never attempted a full playthrough within those conditions. Non-lethal Deus Ex larping definitely isn't as bad as ghosting in Thief in this regard but it does just remove half of the gameplay that the developers hoped you would interact with, in the same sort of way that ghosting does.

I do see your points on the avoidable combat being significantly more avoidable in Deus Ex than in Brigand, the AI in Deus Ex is quite a bit more advanced than Brigand's. I will concede that it is more apt to compare it to VTMB or some other imsim/RPG hybrid than to Deus Ex itself.