Terminull Brigade is a free-to-play roguelite co-op shooter from PewPew Games and Level Infinite. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth playing.
Terminull Brigade Review Overview
What is Terminull Brigade?
Terminull Brigade is an action FPS roguelike co-op shooter where players take their Rogueteers for a spin across a cyber world, collecting perks from its gods and taking down viruses across a fast-paced, run-and-gun combat loop.
Terminull Brigade features:
⚫︎ Six playable rogueteers
⚫︎ Expansive upgrade tree
⚫︎ Hades-like perk system and synergies
⚫︎ 2 playable maps, with 3 major game modes
⚫︎ Ramping difficulty after every run
 Steam |
 Epic Games |
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| Price | Free-to-Play | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Terminull Brigade Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Good Build-Crafting Potential Great, Layered Game Design Solid World-Building |
Low Variety in Characters and Maps Poor Matchmaking Weird Input Delay and Stuttering Absolutely Riddled With Bugs Not Another Battle Pass |
Terminull Brigade Overall Score - 74/100
Terminull Brigade feels like one of those rare free games that you almost want to spend money on—not out of necessity, but out of appreciation. Beneath its rough exterior is a rock-solid gameplay loop packed with wild scaling potential and some of the most entertaining co-op shooting I’ve experienced in a long time. Sure, it’s a bit of a technical mess, with bugs and performance hiccups that constantly get in the way, but the core of it is genuinely that good.
I’ve honestly considered grabbing the battle pass just to throw a few bucks at the devs in hopes they’ll patch things up and maybe expand the roster and map selection. But honestly, for a game that asks for so little, it’s hard to be too upset.
Terminull Brigade Story - 6/10
Terminull Brigade didn’t necessarily need a story, but I’m glad it made the effort. While the narrative definitely takes a back seat to the gameplay, there’s something to appreciate in its inclusion. That said, it’s nowhere near the level of background storytelling found in something like Marvel Rivals, so at best, the story earns a middling score.
Terminull Brigade Gameplay - 7/10
Terminull Brigade’s core gameplay nails a winning blend of roguelike build-crafting and co-op shooter chaos, delivering some seriously fun moments, especially with friends. But that momentum eventually stalls thanks to a lack of variety and a heap of technical hiccups. It’s an absolute blast while it lasts, assuming the glitches and stutters don’t wear you down first.
Terminull Brigade Visuals - 8/10
Credit where it’s due, Terminull Brigade does a decent job of carving out its own space within the visually overdone “sleek modern shooter” aesthetic by leaning hard into its cyberworld and glitchpunk themes. It gives the game a bit of identity, but even then, it’s not the most unique or visually engaging style out there.
Terminull Brigade Audio - 7/10
Terminull Brigade’s audio is surprisingly solid when it comes to music and sound effects, with some well-crafted tracks and satisfying in-game cues. It’s the voice acting where things fall apart a bit—dialogue reads fluctuate wildly in both quality and frequency, which ends up dragging down the overall soundscape. Still, it feels like something that could definitely be polished up over time.
Terminull Brigade Value for Money - 9/10
Free-to-play is a tough deal to argue with, especially when the game is as solid as Terminull Brigade. The fact that it’s a multiplayer experience only sweetens the pot, since the value scales with however many friends you can rope in. It’s not without its flaws—Gaben knows we don’t need another battle pass cluttering the market—but when you consider what’s on offer at no cost, it’s hard to find much to complain about.
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Terminull Brigade Review: Broken Fun and Just Plain Broken
Ever get a taste of something—just a sample—and fall in love with it, only to finally get the full thing later and realize the memory was better than the reality? Like grabbing a free sample at Costco that blew your mind, but by the time you actually bought the product, it just didn’t hit the same? That’s exactly how my experience with Terminull Brigade played out. I loved the demo. I couldn’t wait for more. And then the full release landed... and it wasn’t what I remembered.
Now, to be fair, it’s not a total letdown. The game is still decent and far from unfixable, but the gap between what I expected and what I got was wide enough to leave a lingering, if tolerable, bad taste.
That’s the last time I’ll lean on that free sample metaphor, I promise—especially since this game’s all about cyber realms and glitchy programs. Still, it’s more accurate than any software analogy I could’ve gone with.
Save the Nullverse as A Rogueteer! (Yes, That’s What They’re Called)
Let’s start this review with what Terminull Brigade is conceptually, because it both ties into the game’s identity and somehow doesn’t, which’ll make more sense in a minute. The premise has you playing as a member of the titular brigade, a group of digital freedom fighters trying to purge the “Nullverse” of corrupt shadow programs.
You take on the role of a Rogueteer (yes, really), embarking on missions to track and destroy these corrupted threats across various locations like the Ringed City or the Wastelands.
As stylish and capable as you and your fellow Rogueteers may be, you’re not doing this alone. Throughout each run, you’ll pick up and upgrade perks granted by the “Gods of the Program,” known as Arbiters. Imagine the Olympians from Hades, but swap out the smooth-talking divinity for more overt digital theming. You choose a starting loadout from one of them at the beginning of each run, then continue to run into the others as you fight your way through each level.
Eventually, you’ll hit a boss, take them down, score some major buffs, and then rinse and repeat until you reach the final boss, who changes from run to run. Beat them and, congrats! Your perks and upgrades reset for the next run, but you do get to carry over some meta-game progress to boost your base stats. You’ll also build proficiency with your chosen Rogueteer, which helps unlock new passives, abilities, cosmetics, and weapons for future attempts.
That’s basically the gameplay loop in a nutshell. As for the story and characters, I’ll go ahead and cover that now, since the rest of this review leans more into the technical side of things. To keep it short: the narrative is mostly pointless world-building.
What’s there serves as background lore and doesn’t do much more than flavor the environments and dialogue. It’s not necessarily a bad fit for a game that’s all about stylish digital shootouts starring conventionally attractive characters, but it does mean a lot of the game’s more interesting ideas stay unexplored.
This could very well be a case similar to Marvel Rivals, since Terminull Brigade is still in its Season 0 phase. There’s a chance future seasons might dive deeper into the world and its lore, but for now, it’s mostly superficial—inoffensive, sure, but not exactly impactful or meaningful in its current state.
Creative, Ingenious, Layered
Moving on to the circuitry of Terminull Brigade’s gameplay, let’s talk about how Pew Pew Games took a roguelike shooter concept that’s undeniably Hades-inspired and still managed to make it feel like its own thing. The most immediate difference is in perspective—it’s a third-person, over-the-shoulder shooter, which already gives it a distinct feel and helps break up the formula. But make no mistake: this game is a roguelike through and through, and it never lets you forget that.
It’s got the verticality and chaotic energy you’d expect from a hero shooter, with constant dashes, acrobatic flips, and screen-wide ultimates going off in every direction. And just like any good roguelike, there’s a solid layer of build-crafting underneath all the visual noise. The Arbiters grant unique perks and abilities that shape each run in significant ways, but they’re far from the only factor in how you play.
Each Rogueteer brings a different base kit to the table, acting as your core playstyle anchor. Colonel is your straightforward FPS archetype, armed with an assault rifle and built for simplicity, at least until the Arbiters start layering things on top. Blade, on the other hand, completely shifts the tempo with a high-mobility, SMG-and-sword combo that turns firefights into a dance of death. Prefer explosions? Max is your guy. Want to flood the field with minions? Gloria has you covered. It’s a strong spread of playstyles that only gets better as you factor in Artifacts.
Artifacts in Terminull Brigade act as trinkets dropped by enemies during each run, each offering minor effects and varying in rarity, which naturally impacts how often they show up. Where they really start to matter, though, is in their set bonuses. Collecting multiples of the same artifact type triggers bonuses at thresholds of 2, 4, and 6. Since you can only equip up to 8 artifacts at a time, part of the strategy comes down to deciding which sets to prioritize as your build takes shape on the fly. The best part? Artifacts support highly specific playstyles and drop frequently enough that getting a build online rarely feels like a chore. Simply put, they’re both well-designed and well-implemented.
As for the Arbiters themselves, the Hades influence is obvious, but they’re distinct enough to stand on their own. Each Arbiter comes with a unique visual identity and thematic concept that informs their gameplay perks. For example, the Arbiter of Fortune—who revolves around crit-based builds—is a Daruma Mecha, because, of course, he is. Whether you’re looking to spam abilities, electrocute enemies in wide arcs, manipulate the game’s currency, exploit status effects like burn, freeze, or rebound, or just outright demolish enemies through raw damage, there’s an Arbiter tailored for that playstyle.
There are even duo perks you can unlock between Arbiters, but only if both are present in your build—which adds a fun layer of strategy as you plan out your synergies mid-run. On top of that, there are cornerstone perks not tied to any specific Arbiter that often define your entire build. These offer extremely powerful, often game-breaking effects, but they’re only worth chasing if you commit fully to their niche. It’s the kind of high-risk, high-reward system that makes each run feel unique and intentionally crafted.
All of that, of course, is temporary and resets at the end of each run. So what about metagame progression? Terminull Brigade has that base covered too. Each run earns you a currency that feeds into a sprawling upgrade tree where you can improve base stats and unlock new utility options. The game’s generous with its rewards, but the tree is massive, so expect to grind through quite a few runs before making any serious progress.
Overall, the game’s design is genuinely excellent. It gives you tools to shape your experience at every step—whether you're deep in a run or theorycrafting between sessions. There’s always something new to try, always another path to explore. So with all that said... where does the disappointment come in? As fun and well-designed as the systems are, Terminull Brigade is fundamentally flawed in a few key areas that make it tough to fully appreciate everything it gets right.
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There’s A Glitch in the Matrix, and It’s Making the Game Unplayable
See, the heart of Terminull Brigade’s issues doesn’t lie in its gameplay—that part’s solid, as I’ve already mentioned. The real problem is the technical execution, which puts a serious damper on the experience. It’s like painting a masterpiece on a cheap, fraying canvas. The art may be brilliant, but the flaws in the foundation keep you from appreciating it the way you should.
Take the engine, for example. Unreal Engine 5 gives the game a distinct visual flair, letting the graphics and map design shine. But in practice, it’s an optimization nightmare. The game suffers from noticeable server-side stutters, and even on high-end hardware, it’ll freeze at random for no clear reason. It’s not game-breaking all the time, but it’s enough to disrupt the flow, and for a game that thrives on momentum and reaction speed, that’s a big deal.
And that’s assuming you even get into a match. The matchmaking is a mess. Sure, some of it can be blamed on low player counts or regional availability, but the game regularly just gives up and asks if you’d rather play solo. That’s how long the wait can be. It’s frustrating, especially for a title that leans so heavily on co-op gameplay. It’s not even a huge ask considering each run only has three players against a computer opponent. At least League of Legends can make the excuse that it needs ten players to accept at the same time.
We also need to talk about this game’s bugs, because there’s quite a few. It’s happened once or twice that my character was stuck in their standing idle pose even if I was walking, shooting, or otherwise using abilities. There was another time when I was stuck in a portal because the boss cutscene played as I was entering, so my team was a player down the entire fight, and lost. This game is unoptimized as hell and has enough bugs to make it a target for takedown by the brigade itself.
Lastly, there’s just the input delay and latency between players. I appreciate that the game has enough regional servers to cater to most players worldwide, but the delay between players is sort of hilarious. You’d be attacking enemies that died 2 seconds ago, not that you’d know, or you’d be helping out allies that jumped 50 feet that way a while back.
Combine the delay with the server-side stutters, bugs, and the poor matchmaking, and you might be surprised I was able to play this game at all to critique it.
Forget a Running Start, This Game Crawls
Another major gripe I have with Terminull Brigade is just how little variety it offers, even with all its stacked gameplay mechanics. The standard mode gives you a grand total of two—count 'em, two—maps. Sure, they shuffle around and ramp up in difficulty, which helps a bit, but still. Two? For comparison, Marvel Rivals launched with eight distinct maps, and here we’ve got two chopped-up locales trying to carry the whole experience. That’s pretty underwhelming.
And the roster? A measly six Rogueteers. That’s barely enough to form a basketball team, let alone something you’d confidently call a “Brigade.” It’s just not enough variety to keep things feeling fresh, especially when you’re encouraged to grind through run after run.
Now, I’m sure more maps and Rogueteers are coming down the line—but as it stands, this isn’t exactly an inspiring start. To make matters worse, one of those six Rogueteers is locked behind a lootbox system (more on that later), and unlocking the remaining five—aside from the starter—is a slow crawl. For a game with this much promise, it feels like it’s launching with its hands tied behind its back. Throw in its shafted technical execution, and you can add “hopping on one leg” to that imagery.
I’ve Had It With These Battle Passes on These Live Service Games
Free-to-play co-op shooter on Steam and Epic Games with marketable characters? Oh no, you know what that means—it’s battle pass time!
Sarcasm aside, yeah, Terminull Brigade has a battle pass. Am I thrilled about it? Not even remotely. And it’s not the kind where you’re at least guaranteed what you’re paying for. Nope—this one goes full lootbox, because fairness clearly wasn’t part of the equation.
I’m honestly tired of this model at this point. I wish I could say it was all cosmetic fluff and you could just ignore it, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. One of the six Rogueteers is locked behind the pass, meaning you can’t even try out the full character roster unless you’re willing to cough up some cash. So much for “free-to-play” meaning “free-to-experience.”
Not What I Expected, But Not Unsalvageable
It’s pretty clear Terminull Brigade needed more time in the oven. The buggy code, lack of content, and general roughness around the edges all point to a version that could’ve seriously benefited from more QA testing—and maybe a few more bright ideas tossed in for good measure. I haven’t even brought up how it was taken down for maintenance, barely an hour after launch. That’s not necessarily a knock on the game’s overall quality, but it does say a lot about how the release was handled.
What we’re left with is something that’s both broken and fun, and just plain broken—a frustrating duality where I’m torn between wanting to keep playing and being completely fed up with what the game just can’t seem to get right. Hopefully, with a few more months of updates, polish, and added content, this will become the game I was hyping up back when I played the demo. For now, though, it’s more of a promising mess than anything else.
But hey, at least it’s free.
Is Terminull Brigade Worth It?
Can’t Really Complain When It’s Free
Despite my less-than-glowing portrayal of Terminull Brigade’s technical issues, it’s worth remembering that this is a free-to-play game—and there’s genuine merit buried beneath the noise. Between its PvE co-op focus and well-implemented roguelike mechanics, there’s clearly a solid game trying to push through the static of its rough performance and lack of polish.
If you’ve got nothing to lose but a bit of time—and maybe your friends’ trust in your game suggestions—then this one’s absolutely worth a try. Don’t like it? No harm done. But if it does click for you, you might just uncover a chaotic gem in the making. Emphasis on “in-the-making”.
| Steam |
Epic Games |
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| Price | Free-to-Play | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Terminull Brigade FAQ
Who Are the Arbiters in Terminull Brigade?
The Arbiters are major consciousnesses that represent important functions in the Nullverse, acting as pseudo-divinities that control specific facets. These facets include: Fortune, Music, Security, Wealth, Desire, Energy, Lightning, and Gaming.
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Terminull Brigade Product Information
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| Title | TERMINULL BRIGADE |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 29, 2025 |
| Developer | Pew Pew Games |
| Publisher | Level Infinite |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam, Epic Games) |
| Genre | Action, Shooter, Roguelite, Multiplayer |
| Number of Players | 1-3 (Online Co-op Multiplayer) |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Terminull Brigade Website |
