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Quick Look: Brut@l

With the power of ASCII driving them, Brad and Jason brave a dungeon to loot letters.

Sit back and enjoy as the Giant Bomb team takes an unedited look at the latest video games.

Aug. 12 2016

Cast: Brad, Jason

Posted by: Jason

In This Episode:

Brut@l

33 Comments

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hassun

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I'm liking the look of that thing in the bottom left.

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Vaeng

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Is...is this Dwarf Fortress?

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BBAlpert

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Man, I should get back into Nethack...

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BeachThunder

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Brutatl

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deactivated-64ba3d2213a4d

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Is that the old TNT music I hear? Or is it just really similar?

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OurSin_360

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Well that is a nice, creative art style.

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gunflame88

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I just started watching, and wow, this looks weird.

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jacdg

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I totally don't want to play a rogue-like or anything close to it, but man, I think this looks really nice.

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burncoat

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This looks awesome, but I have to ask, if it wasn't for the art style would this be a good game?

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Honkalot

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Edited By Honkalot
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AMyggen

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This looks awesome.

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sparky_buzzsaw

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Wishing this had some Rogue Lrgacy-inspired progression that carried over run to run, but then I guess it would be a different game. This one's not for me, but it sure does look neat.

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Subscryber

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Edited By Subscryber

The aesthetic is cool, but it's a big gimmick and makes sacrifices in its commitment to it. Does it make the game more fun, or better? Not so sure.

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jagehtso

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That is a ballsy, creative art style and I absolutely hate it. I wish I wouldn't, but I totally do.

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Kill3rPastry

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Edited By Kill3rPastry

Do they not need to spend skill points?

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Nightcrawlah

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For a second I thought this was Drawn to Death, which I forgot was a thing until just now.

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veektarius

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Neat idea. Seems like updating the mechanics of Nethack in a graphically pleasing way might have been an adaptation with more legs, though?

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Homelessbird

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As someone who still plays an ASCII game every now and then, I am simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by this artstyle. I probably will have to try this.

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JoeDangerous

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Man that art style. I love the map look but everything else I can't stand. This really feels like the art will make or break your purchase for this title.

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Jensonb

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@joedangerous: that's where I wound up too. The way it shows the run in the ASCII art map at the end of each level is cool, but the art in the gameplay is neither one thing or the other and it's often pretty confusing to look at

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dreiszen

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Edited By dreiszen

I try not to be the person who gets far up their own ass about "true roguelikes" or what have you, but this game looks like it has zero in common with games that use the graphical cues it's pulling from. The fact that it's not even using ascii characters, but loosely applying them as textures to 3D models in a kind of generic looking brawler, feels like a perfect metaphor for how this game was designed.

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VooDooPC

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Edited By VooDooPC

@jagehtso said:

That is a ballsy, creative art style and I absolutely hate it. I wish I wouldn't, but I totally do.

Yeah, it really looks like shit.

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chrisbob

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@dreiszen: Well, guess what, today you are that person. Personally, I think all you really need is permadeath, a run-based gameplay loop, and randomized elements that encourage exploration and experimentation. I'm curious to know what primary element of rougelike design you feel is missing regardless of this game's overall quality.

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Ulong

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Brutatl.

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jb_pdx

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Anyone know a PC release date for this??

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dreiszen

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Edited By dreiszen

@chrisbob: The reason I added that preface was because my complaint had little to do with the actual qualifications of roguelikes, because "what is genre" is neither the discussion I was trying to have nor one worth having. My complaint specifically is that the kinds of non-graphical terminal-based dungeon crawlers historically associated with the ascii graphics this game attempts to pay homage to- namely Rogue and Nethack, from which the deliberate use of the @ symbol draws significance- are methodical turn-based games. By contrast, this is a 3D Gauntlet-like beat-'em-up where the characters incidentally carry around black objects with white letters and symbols printed on them.

Quality isn't a consideration here- this game tries to evoke a very specific, very small subset of games and put them forth as inspiration, but the extent it goes to in drawing that connection is literally a skin worn over a completely unrelated product. Swap a few textures around and it could "harken back to" anything.

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mrbubbles

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This game looks cool as fuck. I'll wait for the PC release though since it has made it through greenlight.

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rox360

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This is where being a shameless pedant becomes useful! How many times was Brad about to say "roguelikes" in this quick look, in reference to Rogue, Nethack et al. but had to stop himself and go with "Rogue and those kinds of games" or just "these games", because the word "roguelike" doesn't apply to the specific genre he was trying to talk about anymore?

It demonstrates the value of preserving the integrity of a word or phrase, no matter how niche. One day you just might want to talk about the very specific thing it used to solely refer to, only to find you have to make semantic roundabouts to get to the point because the word has been thrown about so much it doesn't mean what it was supposed to mean anymore. Let languages evolve, but save the words that are still useful!

With that out of the way, this looks totally rad and I adore the art style something fierce. Just might get it once it hits PC.

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AV_Gamer

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This is not the remake of the furry fighting game. These people should get sued ;)

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Onemanarmyy

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Rogue minimap

Dark Souls equipment D-PAD

Doomguy face

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HighPriest

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Watching this thing is making my eyes tear up. I think the art looks pretty cool when the camera is stationary but all those neon white dots moving around like they do would probably make this game impossible for me to play.

Which I guess is the point of quick looks. Now I know this isn't for me, and I might not have otherwise. Thanks.

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ShaggE

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Fuuuck, I adore the aesthetic of this. Looks pretty shallow gameplay-wise, but I still want this.

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rayne117

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Coming back to this after the Rogue series commenced