Rebellion Development’s latest, Strange Brigade is a charming and fun-filled surprise whose aesthetic and playful nature makes for a great time spent. Ultimately, watching the supernatural, puzzle solving and firepower take center stage is a dang joy to experience.

Rebellion Developments is the team primarily known for their Sniper Elite series as well as its Zombie Army Trilogy. While, those titles are really great and inventive in their fields, they are both voiced with a lot more serious tone. With Strange Brigade, the team seems to have exercised some of their tongue-in-cheek, fun demons, to extraordinary result.

This game is deeply rooted in the cliffhanger reliant serial adventures of the 1930s. These pictures were usually played at movie houses and were catered to kids in a double-feature format. As before mentioned, these were all reliant on cliffhanger endings that made sure audiences came back.

Both the look and charm of those serial adventures is captured carefully in Strange Brigade, right down to the bravado filled narrator and cliffhanger stapled levels.

In Strange Brigade, you take on the role of one of four adventurers (more characters available with DLC) and head out for a rip-roaring supernatural adventure in Egypt. Turns out the Witch Queen Seteki has been unleashed from her tomb and is wreaking havoc on the land with her army of monsters.

You can choose to go at it alone in single player, or team up with three other players in online co-op. It’s a lot more fun to have a go with your cast of online buddies, but single player offers just as much fun if that is your thing.

The game offers a cast of adventurers to choose from in the form of Archeologist, Archimedes de Quincey, Marksman Frank Fairburne, Maasai warrior Nalangu Rushida, and Mechanic Gracie Braithwaite. Each character comes with special abilities that they are free to unleash when they have collected enough souls on the battlefield.

Characters each have their unique feel and approach to battle. Some focusing on brute force while others choose to roll with sorcery or marksmanship. Combining character play styles is a blast with a team, and imperative in later more difficult levels.

Levels consist of lots of shooting, some rewarding exploration and some fun puzzle solving work. The combo makes for a formula that doesn’t get stale easily.

What would all that adventuring be without a bit of treasure throw into the mix? Well, folks braving traps and going that little extra distance in solving some light brain teasers, and you will be rewarded with all kinds of treasures to either aid in your firepower or assist in leveling up your character’s special abilities.

Strange Brigade hosts a nice variety of monsters along the way too. Giant scorpions, mummies, Minotaur and more await you and your team around every turn.

The narrator is a cornerstone of the age the game captures so well. This guy not only narrates the story but also lends his voice along the way to give hints if you are stuck, and even goes so far as telling you to pause the game if you step away from the controller. He is a bit hilariously bossy at times on certain matters. It’s small special moments and additives like this that make Strange Brigade as fun as it is.

Strange Brigade is proper adventure done right. All the serial adventures it is paying homage to in scope and character is done with a playful reverence for the 1930 adventures and the offbeat silliness is a nice change of pace. Gather some friends and give this supernatural title a go.

Strange Brigade is out now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.