Brawlhalla is a free-to-play fighting game. It’s available on most platforms, and for a game that doesn’t cost anything, it’s super engaging and high quality.
Still, is it worth your time overall?
This review will give you an inside look into what Brawlhalla is all about. You will learn the good and bad of the game and whether it’s worth spending time on.
Let’s get into it.
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Our Verdict
Brawlhalla Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✩
Bralwhalla is a free to play game that offers a wide range of modes and many characters. As a free game, it’s quite a lot of fun.
Pros
- Available on a wide range of platforms
- Free to play, including free Gold Coins earned through gameplay
- Wide range of modes and legends
- Crossover characters
Cons
- Community of players can be toxic
- Matchmaking in ranked competitive mode can sometimes be a hit and miss
- Random software glitches may occur
Brawlhalla: Gameplay Review
Brawlhalla involves fighting. It supports both local play, with up to eight players, and online play.
You don’t need to pay anything. It’s free.
There are different modes in Brawlhalla. Generally, you will need to knock your opponent into one of the blast zones located outside the edges of the map.
Your goal is to knock your opponents into the blast zones while avoiding getting knocked there yourself. If you do get knocked there, you will get respawned on the stage, but you will lose a stock in the process.
Let’s get into more of the gameplay mechanics.
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1. Modes
There are several modes in Brawlhalla, and they are too many to list here. Still, let’s go through a few of them, just to give you an idea of what is possible.
There is Morph, which allows you to make combinations of several weapons. It’s quite fun and a twist on the traditional weapon play system of many fighting games.
If you like throwing and dodging bombs, Dodgebomb is a fun game mode to try out on Brawlhalla.
Another twist on what traditional fighting games offer is Brawldown. It’s a literal brawl, using chairs and tables as weapons, in a wrestling-style ring where there are ropes that you can bounce off of.
If you want something very chaotic, you can try Free For All, which is utter chaos. Everyone tries to knock everyone else out, and while highly stressful, it is also quite fun.
For testing out new features coming to the game, you can try Experimental 1v1.
There is also Ranked, a competitive game mode in which you play against others. While you have a starting ELO rank of 1200, you can increase your ranking by winning.
All in all, Brawlhalla offers a decent range of game modes.
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2. Legends
Brawlhalla has a wide range of legends – over 50 of them, in fact. However, not all of them are available for free; only a few are at any given time.
Let’s go over some of the Legends, just to give you examples of what you will be playing with.
There is Bodvar, who comes equipped with a battle hammer and a sword. Orion, the mysterious stranger, on the other hand, comes with a spear and a rocket lance.
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There is Cassidy, a former US Marshall, who became famous at the age of 15 for defeating outlaws. Now wanted for a reward of $5,000, Cassidy, who is equipped with blasters and a grapple hammer, is alleged to have committed crimes such as harboring a fugitive slave.
Finally, there are crossover skins, which are crossovers from other games.
These are great if you have played other games like Adventure Time or Assassin’s Creed and would like a taste of those games in Brawlhalla.
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3. Monetization System
While Brawlhalla is free to play, it operates under a freemium model. That means that it monetizes the game by introducing in-game purchases and other upgrades.
You can purchase Mammoth Coins, named after Blue Mammoth Games (the developer) through in-game purchases. Then, you can use these Mammoth Coins to unlock skins for characters and weapons as well as various other upgrades.
You can even buy characters with Mammoth Coins. While you can’t usually get Mammoth Coins for free, there are sometimes giveaways in which you can get them for free.
Mammoth Coins are purchased with real currency but Gold Coins are not. Instead, they are earned by playing the game.
While not premium currency like the Mammoth Coins, you can use them to unlock legends, buy skins, and unlock other cosmetics.
So, there is a chance to get upgrades even without spending money.
There are some other ways to earn free rewards, such as by ranking high in competitive play.
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4. Battle Pass
To make things a bit more fun, Brawlhalla has introduced something called Battle Pass. Like the rest of the game, it offers both free and paid progression paths.
You can get Battle Pass for free and progress through the ranks, unlocking limited rewards such as some skins, simply by playing the game. Again, potential rewards are limited. They only include:
- Four avatars
- Three emoji skins
- Two emotes
- Fourteen color scheme rolls
- One weapon skin, title, and sidekick
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However, the Gold Battle Pass option, which costs money, will give you access to all potential rewards.
For example, with the Gold track, you will see special mission trackers to track your Podium and Skin progressions.
You earn gems by finishing missions. The gems indicate how close you are to the next level of the Battle Pass progression.
In total, there are 85 tiers of progression in Battle Pass, so there’s quite a lot to aim for.
There are three kinds of missions on Battle Pass. Every day, you get a new mission, and you can have three of your daily missions queued up at once.
You also get weekly missions every Wednesday. If you complete at least four missions a week, you will unlock bonus gems as well.
Finally, there are 100 BPXP missions to complete.
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The Good: What I Liked About Brawlhalla
Let’s talk about the good parts of Brawlhalla.
Free and Cross Platform
In all honesty, if Brawlhalla were a paid game, I wouldn’t rank it so high compared to other paid games.
However, as a free game, it excels. While there are, of course, premium upgrades, you can play the game entirely for free without paying and still enjoy it.
In addition, it is cross platform. You can play it on mobile (both Android and iOS), PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
Both local and online gameplay options are available, as mentioned.
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Lots of Modes, Characters, and Progression Opportunities
In addition, there are a lot of modes and progression opportunities. Not everyone will like every mode, but there will usually be a few that appeal to you, regardless of your personal gaming style.
There is also a very wide range of legends, and while only some of them are available for free at any given time, you can unlock others through earning Gold Coins just by playing the game.
Also, the crossover characters make the game even more exciting.
Battle Pass is awesome, and it changes every season. That keeps things more interesting, and I also appreciated that I could join and progress in Battle Pass for free, despite it being limited.
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The Bad: What I Didn’t Like About Brawlhalla
Brawlhalla has some cons.
First of all, the community on Brawlhalla can be quite toxic sometimes.
You will find players who taunt you – in fact, there are taunts built into the system. You can send taunts to other players if you want to make fun of them while you are winning.
One of the worst decisions the developers made, in my opinion, is removing the chat feature. Now, you can communicate primarily by sending taunts.
It just makes the community more toxic.
Another thing I did not like was that in competitive play, you often go up against highly skilled opponents who have been playing much longer than you.
That can be difficult, because it makes it very challenging to win, and the fact that you can receive taunts in the process can make the entire experience even worse.
Yes, there is an ELO rating. Theoretically, it should prevent such cases, but realistically, it doesn’t, because ranking scores don’t always correlate over different game modes.
There is also the toxicity in the gameplay, as I mentioned. Some people will kill themselves to lower their score, despite having a better skill level, just so they can go against lower skilled people, destroy them, and feel good about themselves.
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Conclusion
I recommend Brawlhalla if you are looking for a free to play game. For me, Ranked is the best, but be aware that you can sometimes get matched against higher skilled players.
Don’t let the ELO scores fool you, and don’t let losses in Ranked get you down.
Focus on improving your skills and learning different combos.