Treasure Hunt: Brotato
Today I will continue to talk about interesting modern games that are not top AAA franchises, and therefore, may not always be heard. You can see my previous post in this category here.
2021 has been a phenomenal year for Vampire Survivors. The product from the Italian developer Luca Galante made a splash in the gaming industry and spawned dozens of imitators, distinguished by their views on the mechanics that have become fashionable. Vampire Survivors captivated with its simplicity and uncomplicatedness, while maintaining addictive gameplay and a fairly deep character building system. Well, I always liked projects with interesting builds, so for a long time I became interested in the game. Then he began to look for its counterparts that could lure even more than the original source. And my choice fell on Brotato.
Who
The creator of the game is a young indie studio “Blobfish”, consisting of one person. This comrade’s name is Thomas Gervraud. He started developing games in 2018 and released his first game in 2020. It was then that the author’s love for potatoes began to manifest =)
All of his games were experiments on different game genres.
Lost Potato – an unusual arcade game, the purpose of which is to defeat enemies. The problem is that your potato is not capable of inflicting attacks, but can only push enemies. This mechanic should be used when pushing enemies onto spikes or under the bullets of other opponents.
Space Gladiators – 2D Rogue-lite platformer, in my opinion, very similar stylistically to Hollow Knight. Different characters for different play styles, lots of items, monsters and bosses. The game, of course, is not for everyone, but, I think, many people will like it, and the reviews on Steam are “Very positive”.
And finally, in the fall of 2022, Brotato is released, which will be discussed further.
Gameplay
The goal is to survive on small maps while destroying or running away from hordes of enemies. Your task is to survive 20 waves, each of which will end not after the death of all enemies, but after the end of the timer. This means that you need to survive at all costs! To complete this task, before starting the race, choose the card type you like (with its advantages and disadvantages) that will best suit your play style.
You can kill enemies on your own or with the help of turrets, or you can dodge the fight by simply running away and dodging. The game is a form of Top Down Arena Shooter with Rouge-Like elements added. You only need to maneuver between crowds of enemies, and the character will attack them himself (although in the settings you can also choose manual guidance). Conceptually, the game is similar to the cult Crimsonland, but for fans of Vampire Survivors, I think there is no need to explain anything =)
There are many characters, but they open gradually, like many other items and weapons. As a reward for passing through different potatoes, you will receive things that allow you to improve them. So, by beating the game as one of the melee heroes, you can get an item that will significantly enhance the build, for example, based on turret towers.
If auxiliary items can be taken in any quantity, then with weapons the situation is different. Most heroes only have 6 slots for him. Yes, there are characters who have a different number, for example, “One-handed” is able to carry only one weapon, in return for receiving a huge boost to attack speed and damage. All game items have a certain rarity class, but weapons, unlike auxiliary items, can be upgraded. For understanding: having two pistols of ordinary rarity, you can combine them into one, but with a higher class (if we were talking about a diabloid, then an ordinary thing would turn into magic, magic into rare, etc.).
Between waves, you can buy new equipment in the store or sell old equipment. If you don’t like the items on sale, you can upgrade the assortment for a fee, but each time the reroll will be more and more expensive. The situation is similar when leveling up – it is possible to make a reroll of characteristics available for pumping.
Many people cite relatively high difficulty as one of the disadvantages of the game. In my opinion, it is just such that it is interesting to play. At the same time, Brotato throws a challenge, forcing you to think about the leveling of the character and your actions. Over and over again, trying to go through all the waves, finalizing the build and regularly losing, you get terribly angry. But what kind of euphoria do you get when you submit to previously impregnable complexity …
Speaking of her. In addition to various types of classes and items, the game can please with different levels of difficulty. They, in addition to the banal strengthening of opponents, introduce new rewards and monsters with unique attacks and behaviors, as well as additional mini-bosses on certain waves. Speaking about the bosses themselves, I must say that on the last (twentieth) level you will face the final enemy, and on the hard difficulty, not even one. They are quite dangerous for a poorly leveled hero, but a feature of the game that I didn’t understand at all initially is that you don’t have to kill bosses at all! Each of them has several battle phases with different attacks. The most important task is to survive by the time the clock shows zero! Oh, how many races have been lost without understanding this game mechanics …
Role system
The key feature of the game is its role-playing system, in which, after choosing one of dozens of character classes, you need to upgrade his combat attributes and pick up the necessary equipment and weapons. The vast majority of items in the game, in addition to their positive aspects, also have negative ones that lower your characteristics.
Each class of the game is sharpened for a certain style. Some of them greatly change the tactics of combat, others only direct the build in the right direction. I read a lot of reviews and opinions that the game does not allow you to step aside from the character leveling option conceived by the developers. It seems to me that this is not entirely correct. Yes, for some classes it is very difficult to come up with some unique version of the game, take the same character “Pacifist”. He cannot use the weapon and attack at all, which means that there are not so many options for pumping him. As for the other classes, I decided to experiment and introduced my friend to Brotato. We played in parallel, without suggesting battle tactics to each other, and then shared our impressions and options for pumping. As a result, I came to the conclusion that for most of the heroes we were swinging absolutely differently.
For greater clarity, I want to analyze the recently introduced class – Lich.
When recovering from a wound, a random enemy is dealt damage based on their maximum health – this is the character’s unique feature. Therefore, to be most effective in combat, one must have a high hit point and always be wounded.
Under this build, you can pick up, for example, a medical gun or, as I did, scissors. This is a melee weapon that features increased critical strike chance and very good healing. In my version, I tried to pump health, theft and regeneration of life. Secondly, I pumped melee and critical hit (since scissors have a bonus to crit). To give you an idea of what it looks like live, below is a gameplay video of the last two waves.
Streamer, curmudgeon, arms dealer, masochist and a lot, really a lot of other classes with a special style of play will give you dozens of hours of interesting gameplay. But with every update new ones are added!
Early Access
Since I started talking about updates, I need to clarify that the game is in early access. But to be honest, I don’t understand why. Brotato has a huge amount of content, there is not a single bug or crash (and I spent more than 70 hours in it), there are achievements. Unless there are collectible cards. Yes, the content of some finished games is several times less, while also seasoned with a huge number of technical problems!
It can be seen that work on the game is actively underway. Every month or two, updates are released that add a lot of new things to the game! For example, in one of the recent patches, they added “Endless Mode”, which allows you to continue playing even after the 20th wave! And many will ask, why? The fact is that you will sometimes have such a situation when your build will open somewhere by the 18-19-20 wave. The character will become so strong that he can kill the boss in 5 seconds, and then the game ends, and you simply do not have time to enjoy his power. Now this problem is in the past.
Plot
Do you really need a story in a game like this?
Well, he’s not here. The only thing that can be said is that an unusual potato is fighting off aliens. Indirectly, it can be assumed that our battle tuber was exposed to radiation, as a result of which it mutated. This is indicated by the ability to carry 6 weapons at once, and a certain “material” that looks like green pieces of an unknown substance (possibly also radioactive). This material is both a currency for which the potato can buy new weapons and mutations, and experience, thanks to which you can upgrade a character, and more specifically, his body parts.
Sound accompaniment
If I were asked to describe the music in one word, I would characterize it as “Pleasant”. You can’t say much about her and you won’t sing praises to her. Yes, it is good and driving, but the impression is that the game was made by one person with a clearly small budget. Therefore, over time, you realize that it is rather monotonous. But at low volume, playing in the background, it fits harmoniously into the gameplay and complements it well.
And I also like how the music is a little muffled when going to the store between waves, apparently so as not to interfere with thinking about purchases. And when you return to the battlefield, the music again plays in full force.
Chip
It seems to me that the main reason why you should try Brotato is the sheer number of classes. Many of them are really unique and certainly not typical not only for this genre, but also for the genre of role-playing games. This product is for those who like to puzzle over effective builds, who like to experiment and try different approaches.
Interesting gameplay will captivate you for dozens of hours, constantly fueling your curiosity. “What new class will I unlock if I complete this achievement?” “How will the newly discovered item affect my favorite character class?” – these and many other questions will constantly arise during the game.
Minuses
I really tried to objectively evaluate the game and find its minuses, but it seems to me that there are almost none. And those that are, sucked from the finger.
• Not always clear purpose of character parameters.
• Not very varied soundtrack. But why be surprised, the game was made by one person!
• Some may not like the visual style.
Outcome
Quite an interesting and original clone of Vampire Survivors, which dragged me for dozens of hours until the game was completed 100%. For fans of games of this genre, coupled with its negligible cost – a must-see! In addition, the game is completely in Russian!
PS: On March 28, Brotato was released on Android, IOS.
I’ve been playing games for over 25 years and remember them exactly like that: heartfelt and addictive, with fun mechanics and interactivity, no in-game currency and no attempts to be anything but a game. In my Telegram channel you are waiting for not only reviews of games, but also current news, as well as discussions about game development. Subscribe, it will be interesting!
