This game, truly is the definition of an acquired taste.
Brian Lancaster aka Laughing Coyote, part-time game dev, full time mad lad, managed to make this absolute gem of a game. I know nothing regarding the development of this game, so I will keep this introduction brief.
I can count in one hand the amount of times the game crashed on me, which are far less than what I expected going into it.
And, yes that’s about it, let’s get on with the game.
Story & Setting
100 years have passed since the end of the world, WW3 came, and so the world went, in a nuclear blaze.
You, the brigand, have been traveling through post-apocalyptic Mexico for reasons unknown, but, your luck has turned rotten, framed for murder, your journey has been brought to an abrupt end, with you rotting within one of Uncle Bob’s jails.
Yet, some things never change, conflict is on the horizon for Oaxaca, UBNS (Uncle Bob’s National Security) and the Eleggua Tribe, have been engaged on an ever escalating conflict, the future of the Mexican Wasteland depends on it. But, there is far more than meets the eyes, there is not only war, but many conspiracies a foot.
It is up to you brigand, to decide the future of Oaxaca.
You, the brigand, have been traveling through post-apocalyptic Mexico for reasons unknown, but, your luck has turned rotten, framed for murder, your journey has been brought to an abrupt end, with you rotting within one of Uncle Bob’s jails.
Yet, some things never change, conflict is on the horizon for Oaxaca, UBNS (Uncle Bob’s National Security) and the Eleggua Tribe, have been engaged on an ever escalating conflict, the future of the Mexican Wasteland depends on it. But, there is far more than meets the eyes, there is not only war, but many conspiracies a foot.
It is up to you brigand, to decide the future of Oaxaca.
Presentation
Do you like Morrowind? Cause it sure looks like it, only more barren, post-apocalyptic, and indie of course.
This game is made in DarkBASIC Pro, an engine over 20 years old, it is a feat that it manages to run at all on modern systems, with HD resolutions. There are times in which it has noticeable freezes and slows, but, those were pretty rare all things considered.
The graphics look as old school as the engine, even though he has to work with quite a lot of limitations, the Dev did manage to give the game quite a lot of personality, and some areas have quite the vibe when looked from the right angle.
Sure, it reminds me a lot of Morrowind, but it also has quite a lot of identity to still be itself.
Characters are surprisingly recognizable, even though they all pretty much share the same core models (including player character), factions can be identified at a glance, and relevant characters show their personality and standout, while still making use of the same models as most regular fodder NPCs.
It is impressive, that a game made in an engine this ancient, has enemy bodies stay in the world after dead, including items dropped by them, although bodies can be destroyed with explosives (with 0 fanfare), and it not only does that, but it also does it while maintaining a stable performance.
This game is made in DarkBASIC Pro, an engine over 20 years old, it is a feat that it manages to run at all on modern systems, with HD resolutions. There are times in which it has noticeable freezes and slows, but, those were pretty rare all things considered.
The graphics look as old school as the engine, even though he has to work with quite a lot of limitations, the Dev did manage to give the game quite a lot of personality, and some areas have quite the vibe when looked from the right angle.
Sure, it reminds me a lot of Morrowind, but it also has quite a lot of identity to still be itself.
Characters are surprisingly recognizable, even though they all pretty much share the same core models (including player character), factions can be identified at a glance, and relevant characters show their personality and standout, while still making use of the same models as most regular fodder NPCs.
It is impressive, that a game made in an engine this ancient, has enemy bodies stay in the world after dead, including items dropped by them, although bodies can be destroyed with explosives (with 0 fanfare), and it not only does that, but it also does it while maintaining a stable performance.
The most notable slowdowns happen when there is a lot of particle effects, or when the game is loading multiple entities at the same time.
When it comes to enemy design, there is the obvious Fallout inspiration, with the ghouls pretty much as is, even sharing the ghoul name, while its all over the place when it comes to the “demons” which are mutated creatures, going from dinosaurs, to deep ones, to big Isopods, etc.
The same can be said for the themes of each faction, some following a standard military design, others being ninjas, other being either street gang or mad max inspired, etc.
For locations, there is quite a lot of variety, with some impressively expansive and populated areas, not just for combat, but for exploration as well, sure the illusion can break, once you notice that most buildings and areas are solely for aesthetics, the atmosphere of the game is still pretty good.
Although I wasn’t a big fan of the low visibility areas.
Keep in mind, this is all true for the base game, and all the DLC, with Brigand Panama being a complete improvement upon the core of Oaxaca.
As for the sound department, the game has some voice acting, with some important characters having some of their lines read. When it comes to the voice acting, both mic quality and performance are all over the place, many of the voices are clearly by the Dev (with a self-insert companion), and maybe his friends and/or family, professional voice actors they are not, but although it leaves a lot to be desired, their performances do fit the game, and give it far more charm.
Music wise, it does the job, enhances the atmosphere and helps maintain the vibe of each area, nothing much really, the DLCs bring more music, which is pretty good, its helps on maintaining the identity of the game.
Most enemies and firearms have easily identifiable noises, although I did notice some audio issues when it came to sounds like water flowing (especially with waterfall), and the sound the isopod demons made when rolling around.
There isn’t much to say on the presentation department, the games does an outstanding job, once you take into considerations the many limitations it had to get around, but, limitations build creativity, and this game does show it, albeit quite rough around the edges.
When it comes to enemy design, there is the obvious Fallout inspiration, with the ghouls pretty much as is, even sharing the ghoul name, while its all over the place when it comes to the “demons” which are mutated creatures, going from dinosaurs, to deep ones, to big Isopods, etc.
The same can be said for the themes of each faction, some following a standard military design, others being ninjas, other being either street gang or mad max inspired, etc.
For locations, there is quite a lot of variety, with some impressively expansive and populated areas, not just for combat, but for exploration as well, sure the illusion can break, once you notice that most buildings and areas are solely for aesthetics, the atmosphere of the game is still pretty good.
Although I wasn’t a big fan of the low visibility areas.
Keep in mind, this is all true for the base game, and all the DLC, with Brigand Panama being a complete improvement upon the core of Oaxaca.
As for the sound department, the game has some voice acting, with some important characters having some of their lines read. When it comes to the voice acting, both mic quality and performance are all over the place, many of the voices are clearly by the Dev (with a self-insert companion), and maybe his friends and/or family, professional voice actors they are not, but although it leaves a lot to be desired, their performances do fit the game, and give it far more charm.
Music wise, it does the job, enhances the atmosphere and helps maintain the vibe of each area, nothing much really, the DLCs bring more music, which is pretty good, its helps on maintaining the identity of the game.
Most enemies and firearms have easily identifiable noises, although I did notice some audio issues when it came to sounds like water flowing (especially with waterfall), and the sound the isopod demons made when rolling around.
There isn’t much to say on the presentation department, the games does an outstanding job, once you take into considerations the many limitations it had to get around, but, limitations build creativity, and this game does show it, albeit quite rough around the edges.
Mechanics
Although the game has difficulty settings, they don’t actually impact things like damage done, or enemy spawns. Instead, they impact healing, and amount of food necessary.
Wimpy (easy), lets you heal to full from sleeping.
Normal, lets you heal up to 20 from sleeping, afterwards you need to use healing items to cap your health.
Hard, adds a nutrition need, if you don’t eat after a certain amount of time, you will starve to dead, while also having the same healing restriction from normal.
No matter the difficulty, you can only use beds to save your game.
That’s it, that’s all that difficulty setting touches, the game is pretty difficult, getting used to the jank is part of the experience, and, especially in the Oaxaca and the non-DLC game modes, it relies a lot on memorization of enemy placement.
Since its an RPG, you will be spending points to build your character, there are 14 different skills, some more useful than others of course, not even to play style, some skills become flat out worthless by the end game, or their usefulness depends on your difficulty setting.
Most skills also provide special abilities once you reach certain thresholds, but, you do need to unlock those abilities, many of which can be game changers.
Most skills have a softcap of 50.
Some skills can also have a massive impact on gameplay, like the pistols and rifles skill determining how quickly your crosshair locks in, as well as how good your accuracy is, or agility making it far easier to outrun enemies, as well as making your jumps better, etc.
After character creation, training skills works in a very special way, you don’t earn xp nor level up in a conventional manner, instead, you earn points by either completing missions, interacting with special objects, finding easter eggs, or with some special abilities. You don’t need nor have to fight every enemy, they don’t give points, they only take your resources, running away is always an option.
You use those points to level up your skills, and, in order to unlock a special ability, it costs 3 points. But, there is a caveat, you need to find a trainer, it isn’t too difficult, most named NPCs have the “Please train me,” dialog option, and you can only level a skill up to the same level that specific NPC has that skill, you can unlock special abilities with any NPC, regardless of their skill levels.
But, active special abilities require you to have enough maximum meta (mana) in order to cast it, otherwise, the game won’t let you unlock them.
When it comes to special abilities, there are 2 special cases, Cybernetics, and Voodoo, the former is simple, just have enough money and find a cybernetics station no points required, the latter requires you to find Voodoo books throughout the world, and, then you must translate them by playing a word guessing mini-game, in order to translate a book you need a certain level on Voodoo, once done, you have unlocked the spell, and no longer need the book.
Meta slowly recharges, and besides active special abilities, its also used for jumping.
Keep in mind that casting Voodoo spells slowly gives your character insanity, which can become a problem once it reaches high numbers, this can be cured by finding altars, and making sacrifices.
You only have 10 inventory slots, that’s it, most consumables and miscellaneous items stack, you will have to get used to the limited inventory. The game also has a durability system for almost all weapons.
Hacking also has a mini-game, which is similar to mine sweeper, and, gambling has a dice guessing mini-game.
A lot of lore is obtained the Deus Ex way, by reading emails, as well as Morrowind style, with a bunch of books written in-universe.
You can have companions, but, do be careful, as they can die permanently, and the AI of both friend and foe likes to be suicidal. Companions get a slight boost to their stats each time you end a chapter with them in your party.
When it comes to status effects, this game doesn’t mess around, they can very easily force a load save.
Wimpy (easy), lets you heal to full from sleeping.
Normal, lets you heal up to 20 from sleeping, afterwards you need to use healing items to cap your health.
Hard, adds a nutrition need, if you don’t eat after a certain amount of time, you will starve to dead, while also having the same healing restriction from normal.
No matter the difficulty, you can only use beds to save your game.
That’s it, that’s all that difficulty setting touches, the game is pretty difficult, getting used to the jank is part of the experience, and, especially in the Oaxaca and the non-DLC game modes, it relies a lot on memorization of enemy placement.
Since its an RPG, you will be spending points to build your character, there are 14 different skills, some more useful than others of course, not even to play style, some skills become flat out worthless by the end game, or their usefulness depends on your difficulty setting.
Most skills also provide special abilities once you reach certain thresholds, but, you do need to unlock those abilities, many of which can be game changers.
Most skills have a softcap of 50.
Some skills can also have a massive impact on gameplay, like the pistols and rifles skill determining how quickly your crosshair locks in, as well as how good your accuracy is, or agility making it far easier to outrun enemies, as well as making your jumps better, etc.
After character creation, training skills works in a very special way, you don’t earn xp nor level up in a conventional manner, instead, you earn points by either completing missions, interacting with special objects, finding easter eggs, or with some special abilities. You don’t need nor have to fight every enemy, they don’t give points, they only take your resources, running away is always an option.
You use those points to level up your skills, and, in order to unlock a special ability, it costs 3 points. But, there is a caveat, you need to find a trainer, it isn’t too difficult, most named NPCs have the “Please train me,” dialog option, and you can only level a skill up to the same level that specific NPC has that skill, you can unlock special abilities with any NPC, regardless of their skill levels.
But, active special abilities require you to have enough maximum meta (mana) in order to cast it, otherwise, the game won’t let you unlock them.
When it comes to special abilities, there are 2 special cases, Cybernetics, and Voodoo, the former is simple, just have enough money and find a cybernetics station no points required, the latter requires you to find Voodoo books throughout the world, and, then you must translate them by playing a word guessing mini-game, in order to translate a book you need a certain level on Voodoo, once done, you have unlocked the spell, and no longer need the book.
Meta slowly recharges, and besides active special abilities, its also used for jumping.
Keep in mind that casting Voodoo spells slowly gives your character insanity, which can become a problem once it reaches high numbers, this can be cured by finding altars, and making sacrifices.
You only have 10 inventory slots, that’s it, most consumables and miscellaneous items stack, you will have to get used to the limited inventory. The game also has a durability system for almost all weapons.
Hacking also has a mini-game, which is similar to mine sweeper, and, gambling has a dice guessing mini-game.
A lot of lore is obtained the Deus Ex way, by reading emails, as well as Morrowind style, with a bunch of books written in-universe.
You can have companions, but, do be careful, as they can die permanently, and the AI of both friend and foe likes to be suicidal. Companions get a slight boost to their stats each time you end a chapter with them in your party.
When it comes to status effects, this game doesn’t mess around, they can very easily force a load save.
This game is one of the rare few which tracks the amount of ammo enemies have, they can in fact run out, and have to reload, they can even run dry completely and will just try to melee you, its the same for spell casters, they can run out of meta. A game in an ancient engine can do that, yet most AAA games can’t.
There is a lot more I could talk about, but, this is a RPG, its more fun to find things on your own. So, I will briefly talk about the other game modes and DLC.
Besides Oaxaca which is the main game.
There is Fortress, which takes place after the main game, and its a wave defense mode.
There is Panzy, which is super easy mode…
Then, there is Squirrel, which takes place after the main game, and the Panama expansion, its a challenge mode in which you have to go through an island filled with traps and enemies, using whatever you scanvenge.
Moving on the DLC, we got Battles, which expands the lore a little bit, this is a purely combat mode, with a set objective to accomplish, with a new soundtrack to boot.
Additionally, there is Extras, which is a free DLC filled with community content.
Then, the biggest DLC, Brigand Panama, this is one of those expansions which feel like complete standalone games (remember when that was a thing? Pepperidge Farm remembers), it adds a lot of new gameplay elements, a new story which takes places after the main game, a completely new map with a lot of new areas to explore, a lot of improvements to visuals and AI, although this is more linear and difficult than Oaxaca, its a massive improvement on the weaknesses, while also being a best of for the strengths, if you are going to buy 1 DLC, it should be Brigand Panama.
Finally, Brigand Nightmare, which takes the improvements of Panama, and puts them in the main game, while also making a lot of changes (to make it more difficult, and to throw off people who already beat it), new enemies, visuals, music, etc. Nightmare doesn’t replace the main game, its just added as an extra mode to play, its intended for those who think they have mastered the main game.
And, that’s as much as I am willing to spoil, there is a lot more to explore in this game, but I don’t wanna ruin the surprise.
Did I mention that the game is very mod friendly?
There is a lot more I could talk about, but, this is a RPG, its more fun to find things on your own. So, I will briefly talk about the other game modes and DLC.
Besides Oaxaca which is the main game.
There is Fortress, which takes place after the main game, and its a wave defense mode.
There is Panzy, which is super easy mode…
Then, there is Squirrel, which takes place after the main game, and the Panama expansion, its a challenge mode in which you have to go through an island filled with traps and enemies, using whatever you scanvenge.
Moving on the DLC, we got Battles, which expands the lore a little bit, this is a purely combat mode, with a set objective to accomplish, with a new soundtrack to boot.
Additionally, there is Extras, which is a free DLC filled with community content.
Then, the biggest DLC, Brigand Panama, this is one of those expansions which feel like complete standalone games (remember when that was a thing? Pepperidge Farm remembers), it adds a lot of new gameplay elements, a new story which takes places after the main game, a completely new map with a lot of new areas to explore, a lot of improvements to visuals and AI, although this is more linear and difficult than Oaxaca, its a massive improvement on the weaknesses, while also being a best of for the strengths, if you are going to buy 1 DLC, it should be Brigand Panama.
Finally, Brigand Nightmare, which takes the improvements of Panama, and puts them in the main game, while also making a lot of changes (to make it more difficult, and to throw off people who already beat it), new enemies, visuals, music, etc. Nightmare doesn’t replace the main game, its just added as an extra mode to play, its intended for those who think they have mastered the main game.
And, that’s as much as I am willing to spoil, there is a lot more to explore in this game, but I don’t wanna ruin the surprise.
Did I mention that the game is very mod friendly?
Final Thoughts
Brigand Oaxaca, is a game which expects a lot from the player, its challenging, and obtuse, if the player isn’t willing to meet the game on its terms, they will bounce off quite badly.
Its a great game, with a clunky execution which you either love or hate, no in-between.
It has quite a few annoyances, like having to fight difficult spawns using memorization as the only counter, or how the AI can easily get stuck in geometry (which can be both exploited, and a massive hindrance), or how some skills are a waste of points and there is no way for a 1st time player to know until is too late, or how the dark areas are absolutely horrible to navigate, etc.
Yet, at the end of the day, it isn’t so bad, it knows how to have fun with all the absurdity of its setting, its fun to simply go along with it.
The game is jank, but its fun jank, the game isn’t for everyone, and that’s 100% a plus.
Its a great game, with a clunky execution which you either love or hate, no in-between.
It has quite a few annoyances, like having to fight difficult spawns using memorization as the only counter, or how the AI can easily get stuck in geometry (which can be both exploited, and a massive hindrance), or how some skills are a waste of points and there is no way for a 1st time player to know until is too late, or how the dark areas are absolutely horrible to navigate, etc.
Yet, at the end of the day, it isn’t so bad, it knows how to have fun with all the absurdity of its setting, its fun to simply go along with it.
The game is jank, but its fun jank, the game isn’t for everyone, and that’s 100% a plus.
Pros
- + Labor of love.
- + Very engaging gameplay.
- + Filled with charm and personality.
Cons
- - Very jank.
- - Acquired taste.
- - Unforgiving difficulty.
7
Gameplay
It is janky, and obtuse, but, once it clicks, it just works, there is a lot to explore, and a lot of systems to learn and exploit, it encourages the player willing to engage with it.
8
Graphics
Taking into account its an engine from the early 2000s, its an impressive feat what the Dev managed to accomplish, areas have some really good atmosphere, and models ooze personality.
8
Story
Its pretty good, but its easy to get lost in the myriad of text in emails, and lore books, there is quite a lot of freedom of choice to the player, with multiple endings.
7
Sound
The music is good, when it isn't drowned by gunfire, or creature noises, the voice acting is charmingly amateur, and sound effects can have problems on occasion, all in all, its alright.
6
Replayability
There is quite a lot of variability for possible builds, as well as routes for the story, experimentation and exploration are encouraged, there is also the mod support.
8
out of 10
Overall
Brigand: Oaxaca is an acquired taste which won't click with everybody, it has a lot of janky execution, and its visually stuck in the early 2000s, yet, when all clicks, its an experience, the game respects the player and expects a lot from them, and if the player isn't willing to meet that sincerity, then the game isn't for them. The gameplay is difficult, and will require multiple to squeeze the juice so to speak, yet, the game is structured in such a way, that roadblocks can be beaten with creativity and ingenuity. This game is filled with charm and personality, and its a lot of fun, but, its only for the player who's willing to tolerate its quirks and jank.
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