The Survivors-like genre has become increasingly crowded over the last few years, with countless games trying to replicate the addictive simplicity of Vampire Survivors while adding their own twist to the formula. Bolt Blaster Games approaches that challenge from a cooperative angle with The Spell Brigade, a chaotic multiplayer-focused spin on the genre that leans heavily into teamwork, magical experimentation, and just enough friendly-fire frustration to keep every run unpredictable. Released on PlayStation 5 alongside its full 1.0 launch after a successful Early Access period on PC, the game immediately understands what kind of experience it wants to be: fast, accessible, loud, and designed primarily around having fun with friends rather than delivering a deep narrative adventure.
There is very little story holding the experience together, but that ultimately feels intentional rather than incomplete. Players take control of customizable wizards battling through enclosed arenas filled with increasingly overwhelming enemy hordes, all while collecting upgrades and completing random objectives mid-run. The streamlined structure keeps downtime minimal, allowing matches to jump into the action quickly, and that immediacy works in the game’s favor. At the same time, the lack of meaningful worldbuilding or long-term narrative hooks can make the experience feel somewhat disposable after extended sessions, especially for solo players looking for a stronger sense of progression outside of simply unlocking more upgrades and characters.
Combat is where The Spell Brigade finds most of its identity. Like many games in the genre, attacks fire automatically while players focus on movement, positioning, and build management, but Bolt Blaster Games adds enough mechanical variation to keep the formula engaging. Spells can be infused with elemental properties like fire, poison, ice, or lightning, and those combinations often create explosive synergies that dramatically transform how a build behaves by the end of a run. Watching the battlefield dissolve into overlapping storms of magical chaos becomes consistently entertaining, particularly once upgraded abilities begin triggering chain reactions that tear through entire enemy swarms. The variety of spells and upgrade paths encourages experimentation without becoming overly complicated, which gives the game a satisfying balance between accessibility and build depth.
The cooperative mechanics also help separate The Spell Brigade from many of its contemporaries. Shared progression systems, randomized objectives, and persistent friendly fire create an atmosphere where communication and awareness matter just as much as individual damage output. Objectives that appear throughout stages – whether activating structures, defeating enemies in designated areas, or completing smaller map-specific tasks – help break up the standard survival rhythm and add welcome pacing changes during longer matches. Friendly fire in particular turns combat into controlled chaos, often leading to accidental deaths and frantic recoveries that become some of the game’s funniest moments. Even without voice communication, the co-op design encourages players to naturally coordinate through movement and positioning.
That said, the game does begin to show its limitations after several hours. Enemy variety is somewhat limited, objectives eventually start recycling themselves, and maps do not evolve enough structurally to maintain a constant sense of discovery. While the early hours feel energetic and fresh, repetition becomes more noticeable once players realize they have already seen most of what the game has to offer. Runs can also stretch longer than expected, occasionally making progression feel slower than ideal, especially when a session drags on without enough new enemy types or gameplay modifiers to sustain excitement. The core gameplay loop remains enjoyable, but it rarely strays far enough from genre conventions to fully escape near-constant comparisons to its inspirations.
Visually, however, The Spell Brigade leaves a stronger impression than many similar indie projects. Its cartoon-inspired art direction gives the game a colorful personality that contrasts nicely with the overwhelming destruction happening onscreen, while spell effects remain flashy and satisfying without becoming entirely unreadable. Enemy designs have charm, bosses feel visually distinct, and the presentation overall benefits from a polished sense of style. Audio work is similarly effective, with impactful spell sounds and energetic music reinforcing the chaos of combat, although the soundtrack itself can become repetitive during extended play sessions.
The PlayStation 5 version does encounter some technical frustrations, particularly during later stages of runs when the screen becomes flooded with enemies and layered spell effects. Frame rate drops can become noticeable enough to impact gameplay in especially chaotic moments, and small bugs prevent the experience from feeling entirely stable in its current state. While some of these issues may improve through post-launch patches, they are difficult to ignore given how reliant the game is on precision movement and awareness during high-pressure situations.
Even with those shortcomings, The Spell Brigade succeeds because it embraces exactly what makes cooperative games enjoyable in the first place. It is messy, loud, mechanically approachable, and constantly capable of generating unscripted moments between players. The familiar foundation means it does not radically reinvent the Survivors-like formula, but the combination of multiplayer chaos, creative spell synergies, and charming presentation still makes it one of the more entertaining recent entries in the genre. Players searching for a deep solo grind may eventually run into repetition, but as a co-op-focused magical party game designed around short bursts of chaotic fun, The Spell Brigade delivers exactly the kind of disorder it promises.
Score: 7.1/10