Brawlhalla — Review

You know what's so good about Brawlhalla? How quickly you can get into a match. It takes just a few seconds to fire up the game, no matter how old your computer is. Because it's free-to-play, there are always enough people playing so you can get into a fight within 30 seconds.

So whenever you want to play a PvP game, Brawlhalla is always ready for you. In this age of instant gratification, there are many games that will be left behind, no matter how superior they are, just because they take long to load.

That's why people play it in the first place! Because it's just that easy. You can even get everything non-cosmetic for free by playing for long enough, without ever presenting pay-to-win options. The recipe for success.

But then you start playing for long enough. If you don't have that much experience with different games, you might never notice it. I did. The problem is...

You are punished for ever being aggressive

It doesn't matter how much advantage you have in a fight. If you are the least aggressive, you can get a combo in your face, effectively losing because you were trying to win.

Brawlhalla is all about the parry. At first, I thought some weapons were better suited to the parrying style, but no! Every single thing is about parrying. The act of not striking your enemy, only baiting them at striking you so you can react.

That is a huge and boring problem. You have two players moving all over the screen - more like a map because of how big it is — just trying to catch the other in a chase that feels more like luck whenever it works.

If maps weren't huge, allowing players to get away from each other 99% of the time, it would help the gameplay a ton. The other problem is how every attack has such a short range. You can never pressure from far away. Nothing you do will force the player into getting closer to you.

There is no greater virtue in Brawlhalla other than patience. If you ever get excited about fighting and actually engage, you lose. That's the kind of fighting game Brawlhalla is. A fighting game that punishes you for wanting to fight.

Look somewhere else when your PvP itch is scratching. But if playing a weird nothing-but-parry game suits your fancy, hey, nothing will best Brawlhalla in this category.

PS: It took me 500+ hours to figure this out because I was casual all the way up until a few days ago. I'm still going to play it for a while, though.

Brawlhalla now also has battle passes! Available on Steam