Bravery and Greed (PC) Review

The roguelite genre has been taking the world by storm in the last few years. With huge hits like Dead Cells and Hades, indie developers have been creating some games that are up there with major studios. The general appeal is easy to understand - a tough but short road ahead of the player, and each time they die they get a little something extra to make the next time easier. Bravery and Greed follows this same formula, and while it is a fun, short romp, it lacks the punch of these others titles.

Players can choose one of four classes, then head out to short randomised dungeons. In each room players beat down several enemies, then get a reward that is often a piece of equipment or a boost to abilities. It's pretty standard fare, and for the most part it works pretty good. After all, it's what these other games used - and they are tremendously popular. There is the knight with his defensive shield, a warrior with her big blade, a rogue with his fast daggers, and a wizard who controls an element.

Bravery and Greed is supposed to be mainly designed for multiplayer, although it can be beaten solo. You are given various allies along the way, with the best being the wolves. They are just cool and cute when you pet them. Unfortunately, the online is next to dead as far as finding someone short of coordinating through Discord or some other means.

The real problems are certain things like the attack patterns being very stiff, and upgrades between runs being useless. Especially aerial enemies can be far harder to deal with than they really should. Characters like the wizard or the warrior feel like worse versions of the knight in most cases. It is little things like this that drag the experience down.

By far the most disappointing aspect is the way upgrades between runs and gold works. For being a game about grabbing all the gold, it does very little. Short of a few things to buy mid-run, it essentially is a tally that, at certain intervals, unlocks new equipment that can drop next run. This is a majority of the only "upgrades" between runs. This was such a huge, huge missed opportunity. Because it just folds the new gear into everything else, it makes runs more unpredictable, and often the gear is outright worse. It could have been so much better to have the player pick what to unlock, or to modify what is currently droppable.

A run or two through Bravery and Greed is enough to see all there is to offer. Really, it is a framework that could have been used for a game that has far higher potential than it lived up to. Sometimes it is hard seeing games like this, where they were so close to being very good, and just missed the mark so thoroughly. Did no one during the process ask some questions that really could have put them on the right path?