Gather your party and pick up your weapons, it’s time to show your Bravery and Greed. Developed by Pekka Games and Published by Team17 is a rough and tumble game of pushing your luck to attain mountains of wealth. Venture alone or team up with friends, or enemies, and roll the dice. Inspired by Castle Crashers, Gauntlet, and Super Smash Brothers, get ready to slice and shazzam your way to riches.
You All Meet in a Tavern
Bravery and Greed is a rogue-lite dungeon brawler with a very simple objective: Get filthy, stinking rich. You do this by delving into dungeons and clearing them out for all they’re worth. Do this alone, as a team of up to 4, everyone for themselves, or team versus team. Controller play is recommended but it can also be played with keyboard just as easily. You have four classes to choose from, the Rogue, the Warrior, the Wizard, and the Amazon. Each have their own unique playstyles, however they all handled differently enough to where it doesn’t feel like the same thing four times over. There are also multiple color schemes for each class, so if you do have multiple people on the Rogue it doesn’t feel confusing.
The art style and music of Bravery and Greed is beautifully done. As an action platformer, the environments feel robust and unique, the foreground and background complimenting each other nicely. Each area you visit feels well-thought-out and designed and never comes across as repetitive.
Know When to Walk Away, Know When to Run
Combat in Bravery and Greed is very straightforward. You have directionally focused base attacks, as well as directionally focused special attacks. While the Rogue might use a bow and arrow, the Warrior will raise a shield to defend himself as a special. All characters have a dodge roll that grants a certain amount of invulnerability. It is definitely needed because the longer you go in the stages the harder the enemies get. All actions require energy, which refills overtime without use.
You’re not totally doomed to fight in a weakened state. There are various ways to upgrade your play experience. You have four equipment items: gauntlets, boots, a necklace, and wands. Each item has different variations, and some can have more than one bonus when wearing them. Wands are also unique in that they can be an alternate form of attack with a cool down. You can also find altars that give you perks from the Gods, and these perks can synergize with your artifacts.
Beyond the power-ups that you find in the dungeons, at the end of each run you will earn unlockables. These can range from points of interest appearing in the dungeons, new weapons or artifacts becoming available, and most notably the acquisition of tarot cards. These cards can be activated before a run, augmenting the game in many various ways. Some grant you an extra life at the cost of gold, others have the Grim Reaper chasing you, and some make enemies hit harder in exchange for treasure being more powerful.
Concluding Thoughts
Bravery and Greed is what I would consider a rouge-lite party game. It’s simple to drop in and out. the difficulty can be easier or harder depending on how you set it up, and the options for cooperative and competitive make this stand out. With a delightful art style and tight controls, I would easily recommend this if you’re looking for a break between bigger titles, or settling in for a long session. It’s honestly just a good game to have around.
Review code provided by Team17.
VERDICT
GOOD
GOOD
Bravery and Greed is what I would consider a rouge-lite party game. It's simple to drop in and out. With a delightful art style and tight controls, It's honestly just a good game to have around.
