Capital

STRANGE BRIGADE belongs in a museum.

- Ian Birnbaum

Deep in the bowels of a sacred temple, my buddy has been stabbed to death. An angry mummy—completely and rightfully pissed off that a bunch of dicks are stealing their gold—is chewing on his face until his corpse disappears. He reappears in a sarcophagus near me. I open the door, and out he pops, good as new, back into the fight. He shoots the mummy that had previously killed him before the undead sap can climb off the tiles.

When it comes to making exciting combat moments, an instant-respawn sarcophagus isn’t ideal. Any other co-op shooter would have players fall wounded to the ground, unable to get up until a friend fights their way over and applies a bandage. This forces players to stick together. It’s exciting, it mixes things up, it forces players to stay moving.

The sarcophagus, by contrast, teleports a dead teammate out of trouble and into the back of the room. I was standing next to the sarcophagus, shooting zombies and casually hitting a button to bring friends back to life. It’s a weak way for a game to encourage teamwork. Then again, that’s how Strange Brigade handles most things.