Part 5 (Jul 2026) · #5 of 9 in that tierWatch the moment (0:31:09)
Brutal Orchestra
- Developed by
- Talia bob Mair, Nicolás Delgado
- Published by
- Hellbent Games
$19.99
Brutal Orchestra is a Turn-Based Roguelike Strategy Game. You died, someone killed you. You are in Purgatory and you will never escape. Make a deal with the "demon" Bosch and set off into Purgatory finding all manner of demented friends and foes on your quest to get petty revenge.
Consensus
S82.9/100
Steam players97.6% positiveOverwhelmingly Positive2,103 reviews
Metacritic ↗Users: 9.1/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈63.1K copies · ≈$895K gross
What creators say
Ranked Apr 2023 · #12 of 15 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
What players say
A turn-based tactical roguelike set in a Hieronymus Bosch-inspired Purgatory, where you recruit a party of grotesque 'fools' and fight using a colour-coded pigment resource, made by Talia bob Mair and Nicolas Delgado and published by Hellbent Games.
Brutal Orchestra is a cult favourite with an Overwhelmingly Positive Steam rating (about 97.6% of roughly 2,100 reviews) and very long playtimes among its fans, some in the hundreds of hours. Players praise its distinctive art, music, dark humour, story and a pigment-based combat system that rewards planning. Critic coverage is thin: Metacritic has a page with no critic score yet and only a handful of user ratings (9.1 from 7), and OpenCritic shows nothing I could find. It is a full 1.0 release (Dec 2021), not early access, and Steam reviews say the developers were still adding free content years later, with an active Workshop mod scene. The main complaints are heavy RNG, pigment lockouts, weak-feeling items and characters, and a steep, unclear learning curve.
Players love
- Striking, grotesque art direction drawn from Hieronymus Bosch, with unusual enemy and companion designs
- Music and atmosphere: reviewers repeatedly call the soundtrack and per-enemy battle themes a highlight
- Pigment system: damaging enemies yields pigment matching their health-bar colour, which you spend on abilities, creating a dynamic puzzle of who to hit and in what order
- Positioning and enemy mechanics give turn-based fights a tactical, puzzle-like feel; many say each enemy and boss has its own mechanics
- Dark, bittersweet humour and a personal-feeling story; several reviewers call the narrative moving
- The full game opens up after the first winning run, with extra enemies, bosses, companions, difficulty and story that pull players to keep playing
- Large unlock pool (items, fools, achievements) that encourages replay without feeling like a chore, according to some reviewers
- Active Steam Workshop modding scene (40+ mods catalogued on the community wiki, including character, enemy and item packs) extends playtime for veterans
Common complaints
- Heavy RNG: random starting party members, coin-flip movement shifts on hit or attack, a roughly 40% chance for extra pigment, and random instant-kill moves on some enemies
- Pigment lockouts: if enemies do not supply the colour your party needs, you can be stuck with bad or forced abilities, or overflow pigment and take damage
- Characters have very few moves (two or three, sometimes randomly assigned) and one item slot, so builds feel limited and upgrades feel small
- Many items, especially before unlocks, are described as weak or useless, and some party members as nearly dead weight
- Only three zones and a limited enemy pool, so the same content repeats quickly (a Metacritic user notes seeing every enemy and boss by about the fifth run)
- Many enemy abilities and status effects are hard to keep track of; some players resort to guides or other players to learn the rules
- Some find the UX poor, and one Steam reviewer notes the tutorial could not be saved mid-way and lacks Steam Cloud saves
Can feel tedious
- Combat can be slow and methodical because losing HP is costly, so players feel they must be careful in every encounter
- Being 'pigment-screwed' (missing or overflowing colours) is compared by reviewers to mana screw in Magic, which makes some fights feel low-agency
- Hard-mode bosses are criticized as unforgiving, with healing transformations, repeated spawns and one-shot moves that can drag fights out (one review cites about 25 minutes on a single boss)
- Needing to read and memorise many enemy abilities and passives before each fight overwhelms impatient players
- Repeated runs through the same three zones feel repetitive to some, with less novelty after the first clear
What's unique
- Pigment economy where hits generate colour you then spend on abilities, tying positioning, targeting and ability choice together
- Bosch-inspired Purgatory setting with grotesque, humorous characters and a story that unlocks more fully after the first winning run
- Party of oddball companions ('fools') with very few but distinctive abilities, instead of a large skill tree
- Boss and enemy fights with bespoke mechanics and theme songs, described as puzzle-like
- Strong mod support through Steam Workshop and a dedicated modding API and wiki
Players want
- Reduce or give players more control over RNG (party selection, random skill assignment, coin-flip movement)
- Give characters more moves and more meaningful equipment or build customization so pigment restrictions feel less punishing
- More zones, routes and variety, with some fans explicitly asking for a larger sequel with more than three routes
- Add Steam Cloud saves (the store page lists none) and let the tutorial be saved or resumed mid-way
- Make normal fights less trivial on hard mode and strengthen meta-progression, since some players feel their team does not grow across runs
- Clearer onboarding and in-game explanation of statuses and enemy abilities, since many reviewers say it is confusing until it clicks
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
StrategyRPGRogue-liteRogue-likePerma DeathTurn-Based Tactics2DIndieDark Humor2.5D
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Tier list Part 5 (2026)
Brutal Orchestra is a turn-based, positioning-focused tragedy game where a dead protagonist travels through a weird in-between realm with a party of misfits. He loves its disturbing, distinct vibe, art, music and highly unique colored-pigment combat, and he played through to the true final boss. His main complaints are that the roguelike layer is minor, abilities and items barely change between runs, and unlocks come too slowly. He places it in low A tier.
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