The Spell Brigade Review

The Spell Brigade is an online co-op bullet heaven developed and published by Bolt Blaster Games. After releasing on Early Access back in 2024, its fabled 1.0 release date is fast approaching, and I got the chance to check out if it was worth the wait.

There isn’t much of a story to speak of here. Rather, the lore is in the character descriptions, which give you a little insight into every wizard who is part of the Spell Brigade. They’re nice and explain why their gameplay is what it is, which I always appreciate.

As for the graphics, it’s done well without making all the insanity hard to keep track of. The various areas you’ll be fighting in call to mind League of Legends in a way, which surprised me since I refuse to touch that toxic swamp. It’s cartoony with a touch of realism that makes it fairly clear what the difference is between your player character, your enemies, and magic. Despite all the chaos you’ll regularly find yourself in, you never get lost in it. Actually, you’re more likely to get trapped in it, because the maps are pretty small and they have all those obstacles and walls in your way that will get you cornered if you aren’t careful.

The soundtrack, meanwhile, is fairly good when you can listen to it, because it will soon be drowned out by magic and explosions flying everywhere. Each biome has a different track, ranging from adventurous to all-out rock. I’d give it a listen in my own time out of the game if I could.

But enough about that, let’s sling some spells and hope no one friendly gets hurt. The gameplay is what you’d expect from every game of this genre. All you have to do is move around as your spells automatically aim and fire, allowing you to focus on collecting mana (or EXP) and levelling up so that you’re strong enough to take on everything the game will throw at you… and it will throw everything and the kitchen sink to stop you, which includes filling up the screen with so many enemies that lesser PCs will cry out in anguish trying to render everything. If you’ve played Vampire Survivors, there shouldn’t be a big learning curve. However, there are some unique mechanics and events that add more spice to a run.

Spells (which are only obtained at certain levels) are your main defence against the various bugs that seek to swarm you. Although starting off weak, they can become great with enough time and effort. If you upgrade one of your spells enough, you can infuse an element into it, like fire, acid, lightning, ice, or dark. Upgrade it even more, and you can either make that element more powerful or fuse it with another to create something new and possibly even more insane. There are combinations for every element, and they all function differently from one another. It really encourages experimentation, especially since you won’t always get the elements you’d like.

As for dealing with enemies, it can quickly go from a bullet heaven to bullet hell as you’ll constantly need to run and dodge from everything, and no place is ever safe for long. Just when you think a path is clear, there will be bugs right there to make your life harder. You can gather enough power to be able to take your hands off the controller and let the game do all the work, but it will take a specific build to do so.

At certain points during a run, a random mission will spawn on the map: cleaning up soul sludge, collecting mushrooms, destroying statues, and so much more. Although they are optional, doing them will earn you an Augmentation upgrade that makes your spell do more like casting in bursts or splitting on contact. However, I’d like to remind you that you’ll have to do them while surrounded by hordes of enemies. Some of these missions feel too difficult to do while swarmed or spawn in awkward spots that require taking damage to complete. I should point out that The Spell Brigade encourages you to play with others, so it’s much easier to manage if you have some buddies to back you up.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone available to play the game with on co-op, so I can’t accurately describe the experience. However, you and your friends aren’t immune to your own destructive powers. Friendly fire is on by default, and while you can turn it off, it’s through a gameplay modifier called Covenants, and if you want to use one of the others, you’ll have to risk hurting yourself. Don’t worry if you die in a hilarious explosion, as Revive Cores will get you back into the fight… before you are inevitably blown to bits again. These cores are in limited supply, though, and one will regenerate over time once you run out.

Quick word of warning: you can play with random players if you don’t have the right social circle, but since teamkilling is a thing (and I have plenty of experience in HELLDIVERS 2), you might want to set up your own lobby where friendly fire is turned off. Be cool and be friendly, my fellow wizards.

Between your attempts, in the lobby, you can switch or purchase new wizards (who each have their own starting spell and strengths) and upgrade your overall abilities using the gold gained based on your performance. Ranging from stat boosts to more money earned and extra Revive Cores, you will eventually beat whatever challenge is in your way. Plus, if you dislike your current build or you want some extra cash to buy wizards, you can refund your upgrades at any time at no extra cost. It’s always great to have options.

Speaking of, your options expand more and more as you play the game and take on tougher challenges. Earning achievements will unlock new characters, outfits, spells, additional mechanics, and gameplay modifiers to play around with, so it's worth looking at the Challenges tab to see what you can do to get something new. That means no matter how bad an attempt goes, there’s always something you’re working towards… even if the achievement is to die 30 times.

That being said, this is all pointless if the game doesn’t run all that well, but thankfully, throughout my playthrough, I didn’t run into anything too bad. I have an Nvidia RTX 2070 Super, and without changing any of the settings other than turning on Vsync, the framerate didn’t drop from 60 FPS.

I don’t really have many criticisms of The Spell Brigade. It’s just a fun game that’s enjoyable both by yourself, friends, or completely random people (provided you set up your own lobby). It definitely requires dedication to unlock everything, but that comes with all survivors-like games. Be prepared to waste hours upon hours of your time on becoming the greatest wizard to ever live.