Iron Brigade

Men, get ready to fight some Tubes!

AND SALUTE! Sa-ssss-sa-saaa-salu-salute! Bad analogies aside, this game has been a bad ass ride.

It's WWI, and two codebreakers, Frank Woodruff and Vladamir Farnsworth, receive a broadcast that causes them to become super intelligent. Frank, who lost his legs during a battle, goes out and builds veteran focused robot legs, and Vlad invents television and coincidentally mobile televisions to lay cables across the world to network the entire planet.

Frank has discovered a new species of Monos/Tubes/televisions that Vlad has corrupted and caused an invasion. Frank asks the help of old and new soldiers alike to take out the coming horde in the Trenches. For that to take place, the character can attach up to three weapons per side of their trenches along with up to four deployments from their ship, the U.S.S. McKinley.

You control the Trench on the field, and your soldier on base between missions. In battle, the Tubes spawn out of designated holes to a specific item, and it's your job to stop them. Taking the fight to them with your mech, you can place your deployments anywhere on the field with a few spots marked for maximum destruction. To deploy your turrets, you have to collect scrap, which falls off of destroyed Monos, along with random level specific loot. Each turret has two upgrades, one more expensive than the last, but with each upgrade the range and attack power get to extraordinary lengths. I wouldn't say that the turrets are the show stopper, because they don't really do as much as your Trench can. With weapons like the Gungnir sniper rifle, and any broadcaster, you can take out multiple Monos in seconds comparatively.

The deployments themselves are nothing but different turrets and radars to repel and destroy the invading enemies. Some of my favorite 'ployments are the ICP, Massive Shotgun Turret, and Massive Machine gun Turret. The guns are self explanatory ranging from machine gun to flack guns for anti-air and mines. But my by far favorite is the ICP. Yes. The ICP. I'll give you one guess what that does. It's a fucking miracle, that's what that is.

The customization doesn't stop with the weapons, it goes even further down the rabbit hole with being able to customize your 'Warbaby'. Hats, shirts, and different salutes make up your soldier, and I implore you to check that ish out. Tiki hats, top hats, and even RAZ'S HAT!!!1! from Psychonauts. Most hats have a specific salute which is analog controlled on the right trigger, causing oodles and oodles of fun, but some are shared. It gives another great layer to this game.

What's better than customizing your dude and weapons? Customizing your Trench! You can pick the different hulls, legs and even the paint job! Cause all your buds to be jealous with your argyle paint scheme in your heavy spider-legged Mech. Love it. Or, if it's more your style, stay classy with mid biped militaristic fox-holes!

However you want it, you can have it with all the choices from loot drops or the store. Trenched causes long bouts of laughter with mind boggling strategy wrapped up in a game that's all about love.

There were some hiccups, with some UI wasn't working and hidden rewards, but with their tight knit community and small team, they ironed it out toot-sweet. It's not a game to play by yourself, it can get overwhelming, but best played with friends enjoying the whole experience. I loved the initial rush of Trenched, but the doldrums of today make me sad. Pick it up when you can, with the controversy in Europe, or now in the States. I give 4 Deathsplosions out of 5.