This review was originally written on March 29, 2019.

Technical Information

Developer: Zanardi and Liza
Publisher: Zanardi and Liza
Release Date: April 22, 2017

Simple and casual, your goal is simply to kill everyone who appears in front of you.
But don’t be fooled by the lack of complexity, because piles and piles of corpses start to appear on the screen, leaving the terrain completely irregular and making it difficult to aim and move around.

Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole

Graphics and UI

I really liked the rough art style, even though it looks crude at first glance.
The only thing that really bothered me was the mix of 2D-style graphics with a 3D environment, resulting in a strange 2.5D visual.

The menus and HUD are functional and clean.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

I liked both the sound effects and the soundtrack, they didn’t become annoying during gameplay.
They blend very well with the aggressive tone of the game, you don’t even have time to think about whether the music is good or not.

Gameplay

Unfortunately, Battle Bruise doesn’t have any background story to keep players hooked between missions, but you can be sure it will keep you glued to your PC like it did to me. The intense difficulty is the real charm of this game and will certainly warm the hearts of hardcore gamers.

Experienced gamers will quickly realize that the control scheme is mouse + WASD. To select another weapon, you use the number keys from 1 to 5. Super intuitive, but potentially frustrating for casual players who aren’t familiar with this setup (and unfortunately, that’s a downside).

Every time you die, the terrain starts to deform, creating small depressions and plateaus. This gradually makes it harder to move around and escape enemies. That’s basically the game.
Explosions occasionally occur and create holes (which look like puddles of water). When you walk through them, your movement speed is greatly reduced. Leaving the combat area has the same effect.

The game is structured in waves that become increasingly difficult. Between waves, a helicopter descends, allowing you to buy new weapons or upgrade the ones you already have.
One positive aspect is the automatic save system, so if you die (and believe me, it will happen frequently!), you can restart from the last phase you reached.

I was a bit disappointed that the game doesn’t offer any kind of story, as I think that would help enrich the experience and give more context to the constant violence. Unlockable characters would also be a nice addition, even if they were purely cosmetic.

Replayability and Game Retention

After every death, there’s a strong urge to try again, do everything right, test new strategies, and use different weapons.
At the same time, there’s also the urge to break your mouse because you’ll feel clumsy and terrible at fast-paced games! hahaha
Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the gameplay or the visuals—this game is addictive as hell!