Brute Force has been out for out for about 1Ѕ years - released during a time I was not buying a lot of console games so it managed to slip under my radar. While looking for something new to try and being a fan of shooters I decided to pick it up and give it a whirl. The game takes place in the year 2340, the human race has spread out amongst the galaxy settling dozens of star systems now know as the "Known Worlds". Several of these Colonies and some alien planets have come together to form an organization known as the Confed Republic. Like all governments, it protects its peoples and watches out for a variety of threats. That is where Brute Force comes in.
In this squad-based third person shooter you control the four members of the elite commando unit of the Confed Republic know as Brute Force. Initially the squad only starts with a single member - Tex a grizzled assault specialist is as close to a leader as the squad will develop. As you progress deeper into the game you add the other members of the team. The next member of the team is Brutus, the feral alien lizard man. A bit further into the game you're introduced to the Fiery Redhead, Hawk, the team's stealth and close combat specialist. Finally, you'll meet the team's sultry sniper - a cyborg named Flint. Each of the members has a unique power and specialty that makes them well suited for the different missions faced by the unit. Hawk can use her stealth skill to become invisible and with her close combat capabilities you can use her to sneak up on sentries and take them out. Brutus has the ability to see in the infrared and heal himself - this can come in particularly handy when trying to find that last hidden enemy or when out of medpacks and low on health. Flint has an advanced targeting capability that not only helps you find those targets hiding in the weeds but makes it so that she rarely misses with using it. Finally, Tex has the ability to fire both of his weapons at the same time, packing a large amount of firepower that can take down even the most heavily armored targets quickly.
The game is easy to learn and you pick up the nuances of the character at a fairly rapid pace. The AI is fairly intelligent so you rarely have to worry about your comrades in arms getting you into trouble - though there are occasions that it can happen if you're not careful. The game has an easy feel and is very forgiving if you get in trouble as your characters can take a lot more damage than your enemies and then there's the extra health provided by medpacks.
You have several options that affect how the others characters react when you're not directly controlling them. These commands are fairly simple and include "move to", which allows you to set a point for that character to head to such as a bunker to assault or high point to take; "fire at will" where the character will follow along firing at targets of opportunity; and "stand ground" where they will defend a area of ground and cover you while they guard the players back. These commands allow for a lot of customizability for each mission and objective. The enemies' AI is fairly smart throughout the game. How strong depends upon the difficulty you choose.
One of the features that I found useful was the ability to re-clone if you suffer a total wipeout taking only a minor penalty. The game has a lot of variety in its weapons featuring over thirty types of weapons, grenades, and other types of equipment to outfit your team with. With six worlds to explore in various scenarios and several plots being woven together the single player campaign can feel a bit random at times. This is to be expected as most of the world's Special Forces don't usually follow a single plot - they go where they are needed. The cinematic cutscenes between missions tell the story and act as a mission briefing for the player. These are really the only break in a nearly constant action and it is this good fast-paced action that makes up for the randomness of the plot.
The game's multiplayer has two modes: a system link mode that supports up to eight gamers in death match and co-op play via a system link. Due to the lack of another Xbox I was not able to try this beyond two players. I did however try the split screen multiplayer and found that while fun, the experience was not as enjoyable on the whole as the single player campaign. Disappointingly the game does not include any Xbox live multiplayer capabilities this could have made a fairly lackluster multiplayer something special. It does include some Xbox Live capabilities in the form of content download with several maps currently available.
While the lack of Xbox Live capabilities, other than content download hurts this game's replayability, it does not diminish the game's extremely enjoyable single player content. The games visuals, AI and backstory combine to make a game with a lot of staying power now and in the future. I highly recommend those to anyone looking for a fun, fast, squad-based action shooter. It's a fabulous value as Microsoft has added this to their platinum hits line.
Raised in Massachusetts and made move to south of the Mason/Dixon line to the lovely state of MD. I have been working Desktop support for the last 2 years for Games Workshop. When not working for the Galactic Toy Company I am playing any one of 8 MMOs or Numerous console games.
