The delightfully brilliant mechs-and-tanks shooter Brigador is a very good game. Brigador is the lovechild of Hotline Miami and Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun that was raised entirely on cyberpunk space stories. However, in early concepts it was supposed to be an RTS. What we got was a sweet shooter with mechs, tanks, and tactical stealth, and I’m not complaining, but one can’t help but wonder what could have been. One modder has taken the RTS concept and run with it, successfully getting the game working and seemingly playable as a multi-unit RTS with buildings and such.
As you can see in the video, the player is able to control units, order them around, use their abilities, and call in new units using money earned mid-fight. It’s not yet available to the public, but the work is truly impressive for a game that’s not actually very easy to mod.
The feat of modding drew surprise from one of the game’s principal developers, Hugh Monahan, on Twitter:
A community modder has successfully converted #Brigador into a RTS and I am astonished https://t.co/oKaNM8N4u9November 9, 2020
It’s a deeply underappreciated gem of a game, one which due to no fault of its own had a notoriously-unnoticed launch back in 2016. Not screaming more about it then is a great regret of mine so I will take this moment to tell you to play it. Developers Stellar Jockeys were undeterred, and spent time rebuilding and expanding Brigador into the glorious Brigador: Up-Armored Edition, now complete with mod tools and the like. The result is some of the best explosions, gaming, and music you can get. Did I mention the music? It’s very good.
The game has since been appreciated enough that it’s at least going to get a sequel, Brigador Killers, which has a giant stompy robot lady statue with a gun for a head. You can find Brigador on Steam for $20.