Xbox

Brute Force was touted as being a “Halo killer” when it was announced. This is a real shame as it sets it up for a huge fall. Luckily Digital Anvil, creators of the also over-hyped Freelancer for PC have created a solid game with superb graphics, excellent sound and some unique gameplay ideas that will see this game get a big following, if not as big and hyped as Halo.

Begining the game as Tex, a no-nonsense muscle marine type guy, armed to the teeth with massive weapons, you proceed to blow everything to smithereens in your first few missions. As you progress, you get introduced to Brutus, a lizardman with huge strength and ability to detect nearby enemies, and in the next few missions you’re introduced to Hawk, the sneaky spy, and Flint, the eagle eyed sharp shooter. You control these characters one at a time in the intuitive style of Halo, but with extra functionality added to the controller to help team situations.

The D-Pad is used to change character. You may be controlling Tex and see an opportunity for Flint to take out a distant guard, so a simple press in the direction of Flint’s portrait will switch you seamlessly to her. Incredibly Tex will usually do something smart like duck and hold his position! If you hold the D-pad, you can issue commands to your squad. The game pauses, and using the coloured buttons you issue commands such as Hold Postion, Cover Me, Attack at Will, Move To, Heal and Use Special Ability.

This gives this game a tactical edge, as you can move your teammates into position and set up the next sequence of events. For example, you can send Hawk into an area invisible, and then move your squad around for the best angle of attack, or just become visible and lead the enemy back into an ambush.

All the characters have special abilities. Hawk’s is the ability to turn invisible for a short period of time. Tex’s is to wield two guns at once. Brutus’ is “Spirit of Vengar”, which allows him to heal himself and detect hidden enemies, and Flint’s is to Automatically target any enemy in her extended range of sight. These used in conjunction with the move orders, plus the ability to seamlessly move from one character to the next make this one of the most interesting FPS games on the Xbox.

Unfortunately the Campaign Missions let this down, as you can in most cases run in guns blazing and simply win the game. The single player missions comprise of going through checkpoints and doing various things along the way, such as retrieving objects, destroying objects and killing things. It gets repetitive. Whilst the landscapes are expansive and destructible, the missions are too linear and it is too easy to get through and find the objectives you need. Stealth and sniper shots are good tools, but seem wasted on the whole, as they aren’t really essential to winning any missions. Another let down to this is that they seem very disjointed. The story is a bit thin and seems strung together, especially compared to games like Halo and Half Life.

That’s only a minor irk though. Something really incredible about this game is the multiplayer function. You can have up to 4 people playing the single player Campaign Missions, controlling one of the four characters of the team. If someone has to leave, the game reverts to controlling the character. You can have one person playing the game, have another two join, and then the original person leave with another, and the game continues without skipping a beat. The AI of the computer-controlled players is pretty good, and because you’re always playing with a team of 4, the game isn’t thrown out of balance.

In some cases the AI goes a little silly – my team stood up in the middle of a fire fight to shoot at opposing forces and got their heads shot off, but on the whole it’s not too bad. The AI of the enemy isn’t too great, especially on the easiest level, but it’s not the dumbest either as they leap away from grenades and use teleport devices to devastating effect on some levels. Multi-player can also be head to head, with one on one deathmatch or squad-based deathmatch. As to not make it boring, scattered around the Campaign Missions are “DNA canisters” which unlock a variety of extra characters you can control in deathmatch, each with different strengths, weaknesses and special abilities. Unfortunately it’s not Xbox Live enabled, so you have to use system link or xboxconnect to play online.

The graphics are gorgeous. The backgrounds and the cut scenes are very reminiscent to Halo, and the lighting and character models are top notch. The weapons each have a different look and feel, having different firing effects that look great. The landscapes are generally good looking, but I found them to get just a little repetitive. The sounds are equally well done, with weapons sounding dangerous, and atmospherics that are just plain creepy. The voice acting is well done too, with some genuinely funny dialogue at times. All in all this is a fantastic game that’s well worth the purchase, especially if you’ve got a few friends to play with, but those who like in depth single player games may be a little disappointed.