Unveiled in February, Pew Pew Games brought their new PvE shooter Terminull Brigade to GDC this week, and we got to play it behind closed doors.
It’s no secret that shooters, PC games, and roguelikes aren’t in my wheelhouse, but even someone like me found quite a bit to enjoy with this game.
Upon first glance, it looks just like any other live-service game. Hearing that the game is also free-to-play left me at a bit of a sigh, because you kind of know what that means and where the game is headed–especially being a Tencent property.
Customizing your build really shows how much depth the game has early on.
That all aside, the demo I played at GDC was a lot of fun. The build was responsive, and even though I’ve never been a keyboard and mouse guy, I definitely felt like the game clicked. When playing, we were instructed to play through the Tutorial before we eventually played with everybody else in the room, and I didn’t feel useless.
At its foundation, Terminull Brigade is more of a roguelike than it is a hero shooter. Though each of the characters in the game have their own strengths and special abilities, it’s the relics you’ll find as you play the game that really determine how your session will go. Relics are everywhere–you can get them from enemies, at the end of each level, or via the in-game shop. There are plenty of relics in the game, each with their own effects–the Shield Set for example will increase your character’s resistance by 20%. As you go through each round and prepare for the boss, you can setup your character however you like with the perks you find.
The gameplay loop, at least from what we played was typically three to four levels fighting quick hordes of enemies and picking up Relics along the way before fighting a boss. Along the way, you’ll also find these coins that you can use to pick up more relics, along with another currency that allows you get some new weapons and cosmetics for your favorite character. The bosses were no joke. Not only were they sponges for damage, their attacks really made you question how much distance you want to keep between you and the enemy. (And again, I’m not a keyboard and mouse guy, so I had no idea had to walk backwards, and that was tough sledding for me.)
The way the relics/perks were set up reminded me a lot of how Hades worked. Whenever you found something, you had three perks to choose from, and it’s all based on your style. All this said, when you die during a round, it still sucks. You need one of your two partners to head over to you, oftentimes being in a vulnerable state trying to save you. Still, that’s not as bad as having to start over again from the beginning.
There were six characters available for us to try, but I only really played with Blade and Aurora–Aurora being my favorite of the two. Blade seems to be “main protagonist” if there was one, as she’s heavily favored in all the marketing. Here special abilities are tied to her sword, which made her gruesome in close combat. Aurora seemed to have that cutesy nerd persona, very much like D.Va from Overwatch. She has a cool move where she hovers in the air, giving her a birds-eye view of all the damage she can wreak on the battlefield.
Another interesting bit I saw but didn’t spend too much time on was the Talents tab, which is pretty much a skills tree you can activate by spending some of the currency you’re grinding in each session.
Aurora was definitely my go-to brigadier.
While these genres typically aren’t for me, I really enjoyed what I played. My only regret as I was going through this demo session was apparently there was controller support, and the team had controllers on hand, but by the time I knew that, I was already on my way out.
Terminull Brigade is slated to launch during the second half of 2025 for the PC. The team is also planning to launch on other platforms after launch. You can play test the game now.
Unveiled in February, Pew Pew Games brought their new PvE shooter Terminull Brigade to GDC this week, and we got to play it behind closed doors. It’s no secret that shooters, PC games, and roguelikes aren’t in my wheelhouse, but…
Unveiled in February, Pew Pew Games brought their new PvE shooter Terminull Brigade to GDC this week, and we got to play it behind closed doors.
It’s no secret that shooters, PC games, and roguelikes aren’t in my wheelhouse, but even someone like me found quite a bit to enjoy with this game.
Upon first glance, it looks just like any other live-service game. Hearing that the game is also free-to-play left me at a bit of a sigh, because you kind of know what that means and where the game is headed–especially being a Tencent property.
Customizing your build really shows how much depth the game has early on.
That all aside, the demo I played at GDC was a lot of fun. The build was responsive, and even though I’ve never been a keyboard and mouse guy, I definitely felt like the game clicked. When playing, we were instructed to play through the Tutorial before we eventually played with everybody else in the room, and I didn’t feel useless.
At its foundation, Terminull Brigade is more of a roguelike than it is a hero shooter. Though each of the characters in the game have their own strengths and special abilities, it’s the relics you’ll find as you play the game that really determine how your session will go. Relics are everywhere–you can get them from enemies, at the end of each level, or via the in-game shop. There are plenty of relics in the game, each with their own effects–the Shield Set for example will increase your character’s resistance by 20%. As you go through each round and prepare for the boss, you can setup your character however you like with the perks you find.
The gameplay loop, at least from what we played was typically three to four levels fighting quick hordes of enemies and picking up Relics along the way before fighting a boss. Along the way, you’ll also find these coins that you can use to pick up more relics, along with another currency that allows you get some new weapons and cosmetics for your favorite character. The bosses were no joke. Not only were they sponges for damage, their attacks really made you question how much distance you want to keep between you and the enemy. (And again, I’m not a keyboard and mouse guy, so I had no idea had to walk backwards, and that was tough sledding for me.)
The way the relics/perks were set up reminded me a lot of how Hades worked. Whenever you found something, you had three perks to choose from, and it’s all based on your style. All this said, when you die during a round, it still sucks. You need one of your two partners to head over to you, oftentimes being in a vulnerable state trying to save you. Still, that’s not as bad as having to start over again from the beginning.
There were six characters available for us to try, but I only really played with Blade and Aurora–Aurora being my favorite of the two. Blade seems to be “main protagonist” if there was one, as she’s heavily favored in all the marketing. Here special abilities are tied to her sword, which made her gruesome in close combat. Aurora seemed to have that cutesy nerd persona, very much like D.Va from Overwatch. She has a cool move where she hovers in the air, giving her a birds-eye view of all the damage she can wreak on the battlefield.
Another interesting bit I saw but didn’t spend too much time on was the Talents tab, which is pretty much a skills tree you can activate by spending some of the currency you’re grinding in each session.
Aurora was definitely my go-to brigadier.
While these genres typically aren’t for me, I really enjoyed what I played. My only regret as I was going through this demo session was apparently there was controller support, and the team had controllers on hand, but by the time I knew that, I was already on my way out.
Terminull Brigade is slated to launch during the second half of 2025 for the PC. The team is also planning to launch on other platforms after launch. You can play test the game now.
by Danreb Victorio
