Iron Brigade is IMHO very similar to Fortified in the sense that it's wacky, or at least it tries hard to be (tbh, the humour wears out after a while), and has a TD aspect with well-varied turrets and enemies, in addition to being able to run around shooting at the swarms that will converge on whatever you're trying to protect. However, due to the difference in theme, Iron Brigade has something more special in its arsenal - not only does it let you pilot your own mech, you'll get to customize it as well, which comes in handy when figuring out which chassis and legs to use, which turrets to bring, or which guns to equip... the variety is simply amazing here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Au4_ocmugU


Besides the typical "defend a structure" from waves of enemies, Iron Brigade will also have you on the offensive at the end of every map where you'll get to battle a big bad "boss". Bosses have different abilities and will, usually, spawn different enemies so you'll really have to be on your toes constantly.

Now, the game seems to be designed around co-op play and perhaps due to this, I find the game to be, at one point (after the Egypt boss), too difficult to continue solo. It is also possible that the previous levels are intended to be "farmed" for "loot" like better turrets and weapons and stuff, making headlong progression (no backtracking) too tall an order for most solo players.

As some reviewers have mentioned, Iron Brigade is a pretty old game and I do notice that the game tend to crash fairly consistently whenever I alt-tabbed out of the game and then tried to bring the game screen back up. I also have a bone to pick with the game for not adding in a "skip cutscene" option, forcing me to rewatch the same cutscene whenever I have to repeat a level due to failing it of course, or that I can't skip the end screen of each level where the score takes quite some time to fully load.

+ Challenging boss battles where you'll get to go on the offensive
+ Fun TD levels that get increasingly difficult, more so if you're trying to play the game solo
+ Can play with up to 3 of your friends in co-op
+ Customizable mechs where you can change basically everything from the paint job, to the guns and the chassis.
+ Incredible variety of turrets, weapons and enemies
+ Humorous storyline with wacky characters

- Personally, at one point, I don't find the game very solo player-friendly. Best if you can grab a few friends to play the game with you.
- The humour wears out pretty quickly for me. I think younger players might enjoy the humour more though!
- Some issues with the game crashing without any warning or errors - Don't tab out of the game and you should be fine!
- Old game so it lacks some features that I value like being able to skip cutscenes that I've seen before.

If you like this review and would like to follow me for more, please feel free to drop by my curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33780629-The-Midcore-Gamer/