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Brute
Force
Score: 7.8 / 10
Brute Force, the new squad-based tactical
shooter for the Xbox, was supposed to be the greatest Xbox game since
the magnificent Halo, with many of the same great gameplay features seen
in the Master Chief masterpiece. But as is usually inevitable when
anything is compared to a legendary predecessor, gamers expecting Brute
Force to be as wonderful as Halo will be mightily disappointed. That’s
not to say that the game isn’t good. Many gamers will definitely enjoy
playing Brute Force. But a horridly underdeveloped story, too short
campaign mode, sometimes weak AI, and no Xbox Live multiplayer support
at a time when Microsoft has proclaimed that every first-party Xbox game
will have Xbox Live support adds up to a much-less-heavenly-than-Halo
experience.
Brute Force’s storyline starts out with some promise. Brute Force is a
collection of super-soldiers for the 24th-century Confederation, the
23rd Special Forces Unit. The team is the best of the brutally best
killing machines. Apparently, the future is even more corrupted than it
is today, where even open assassination is an
acceptable means to dealing with leaders
not in line with your particular governmental agenda.
It’s also a new age with quantum leaps in genetic technology. Cloning is
second nature, and all beings can be cloned easily, as long as their
genetic imprint is saved or in the case of fallen soldiers, recovered
from the field of battle. All the four Brute Force members are long dead
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in
their original form and at this point are simply cloned versions of a
great warrior. This part of the story actually makes a lot of sense,
because it helps to reconcile how a character can reappear in the game
after they were killed in your gameplay adventures.
In the first few missions of the game you’re shown how each member is
recruited, which serve as not only an introduction to the story but a
tutorial for the gameplay. You start out as the brash and tough Tex, the
squad’s unofficial leader and heavy assault trooper, who sounds and acts
a lot like he’s a futuristic relative of Duke Nukem. Tex sets out to
rescue Brutus (you just know it took about two seconds to come up with
that name) a member of the huge, mutated Komodo Dragon-like Feral
species, and Brute Force’s shock trooper. From there it’s gathering the
final two recruits, the female fighters impossible to differentiate
between: the human synthetic sniper Flint and Hawk, a human who serves
as the team’s scout.
Okay, so far so good Brute Force’s potentially awesome story goes. But,
alas, it then goes quickly downhill from there, with zero story
development for the rest of the game. Brute Force goes from possibly
being a memorable blend of great story with great gameplay (along the
lines of Halo or Splinter Cell) to just another video game that’s all
action, no story.
Characters display a large amount of naiveté in accepting everything and
anything their leader tells the Brute Force to do. There could have been
an opportunity for a good plot twist here, having the leader taking
advantage of the team’s almost complete and blind trust for some type of
nefarious undertaking. But instead, every cut-scene throughout the game
has the four characters on the bridge of the spaceship, just standing
around listening to a talking head hologram of the leader explaining the
next mission, before departing for the actual mission on one of the
game’s six planets. This happens over and over. By the last mission, any
attempt at story development has been surrendered to simply beaming down
to a planet and shooting anything that stands in your way of the level
goal.
Fortunately, Brute Force’s actual gameplay saves it from the coaster
pile. It’s not totally perfect, but any fan of games such as Halo or Tom
Clancy’s Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell will be drawn to the blend of
heavy fighting and use of combat strategy contained in Brute Force,
including the squad-based tactics your commandos have at their disposal.
Using squad-based tactics can definitely create a more rewarding
experience. In single-player action, you take control over any one of
the four characters. That character then becomes the “leader” for the
time span you control him or her. The strategic elements that come into
play are the commands that the “leader” can issue to the remaining three
characters. Depending on the circumstances of the current skirmish, you
can have the other team members stand their ground, fire at will, move
to a desired location, and cover you. I found that I gravitated to using
the cover command the most, while moving my squad was the least used
order, because if the rest of the squad is already covering you, they
will follow behind you and usually be in good position during
firefights.
You can also switch to one of the other characters and change the
current tactical order quickly in the heat of battle, which can be the
difference between completing the mission and getting your squad totally
annihilated. Just be aware that even if you don’t employ the squad-based
tactical approach to playing Brute Force you can still successfully
complete the entire game, even so far as using the same character for
each mission.
Co-op gameplay is the best type of battling in Brute Force. The
single-player campaign suffers because of how the weak story unfolds,
but playing with up to three other players in co-op fighting can cause
you to quickly overlook that. This is one of the better co-op games
available on the Xbox. Inexplicably absent is Live gameplay, though. I
can’t believe that a game that seems so natural for online play doesn’t
have online support, especially since Microsoft is pushing their Xbox
Live gaming so hard as the wave of the gaming future. Supposedly there
will be new downloadable single-player missions, but sadly with a game
like Brute Force, that just doesn't compensate for a lack of full-blown
Live support.
If you stick to playing single-player, however, Brute Force is a short
game. It records the amount of gameplay time spent, and I was able to
complete the entire game in just a tad under 12 hours on the normal
difficulty level. There are two harder difficulties and all those goals
to meet that could extend the game hours spent with the game, but a
one-time run-through doesn’t pack much gameplay per hour punch.
Controls are very similar to Halo, only Brute Force uses a third-person
perspective instead of Halo's first-person perspective. Having a good
control schematic really helps make playing under the duress of combat
easy, especially if you are trying to issue squad commands, avoid
attackers and their serious attempts to destroy you, and go on the
offensive within a short decision-making span.
Each character has a special ability that helps them stand out from the
others, but it can only be used in a certain time limit before it must
be rejuvenated. Tex can use two weapons at a time, one for each hand.
Brutus has the spirit of Vengar, which gives him a Predator-style sense
of where opponents are based on their heat signature. Flint’s special
ability is on-the-fly auto-aim sniper targeting. Hawk has the best
talent, going invisible with her cloaking ability to sneak up on foes
and kill them before they even know what hit them. Also lying around the
various levels are plenty of health and weaponry-related power-ups. You
can swap one or both of the weapons you are carrying for weapons of
killed enemies.
Visually, Brute Force is in the upper echelon of snazzy-looking Xbox
games. Although there are only six planets to visit in Brute Force, they
have been given a quality graphical treatment and are varied enough that
you won’t keep on getting that case of the déjà vu’s. The characters are
just as nicely pleasing to the eyes. Brute Force may be shamefully short
in the story department, but it certainly doesn’t come up short in the
visuals. And even though most levels are pretty huge, expect to run into
your fair share of invisible walls, a minor inconvenience.
Most clashes with the AI enemies provide a challenging and engaging
gameplay experience. Keeping your trigger finger happy while under the
stress of possible defeat by tough opposition is one of Brute Force’s
biggest strengths. But it’s not completely problem-free. The AI enemies
display some boneheaded fighting tactics at times when you are able to
breach their line of fire and get behind individual foes. You can stand
literally right next to or behind them and get off at least three good
shots before they even react to your attack, if they react at all.
The story (or more precisely, lack of a story) puts a damper on the
better-than-average action and unfortunately really stops Brute Force
from attaining any semblance of instant classic status that it might
have garnered if there was indeed a better story scribed and full Live
support.
There are redeeming qualities as evidenced by Brute Force becoming the
quickest-selling Xbox title to date. Brute Force hits its high notes
with generally challenging gameplay, an interesting squad-based tactical
approach to combat if you elect to use it, and a very sharp graphical
presentation. Instant classic? No. Good game, despite its faults? Yes.
It’s an enjoyable ride while it lasts, but don’t expect much more than
that.
