Brute
(adj.) - Savage; cruel; lacking or showing a lack of reason or
intelligence. How aptly named is Digital Anvils Brute Force
for the Xbox. After much hype and anticipation, I finally got to get
my hands on this game. After an hour, I wanted to get my hands off
this game. While playing Brute Force, I was plagued by an incessant
question, Why isnt this game fun?
Thats
not to say Brute Force is a brute failure. It just falls short of
the acclaim that Digital Anvil and Microsoft had stated. They
bolstered that Brute Force would be the next best thing to Halo, or
as some publications claimed, The Halo-killer. But with all
these references to Halo, the question I asked while playing is, if
Im looking for a Halo-like experience, why am I not playing Halo
instead? The truth is, aside from a few similarities, the
experiences of both games differ vastly.
Lets
begin with the story. In the year 2340, wars are still waged in the
name of power and peace. The Confederation of Allied Worlds barely
has unity amongst the planets in the galaxy, much less in their own
political structures. Corruption begins in the high ranks of
politicians, disbursing the plaque amongst their own allies. This
venality must be stopped, and thats where the Brute Force squad
comes in. Clones of their original counterpart, a team of four
soldiers fights side by side to unveil the truth. Like how it
sounds? Well thats as simple and intense as it gets, folks,
because only those with enough patience and tolerance will
understand the story as it unfolds. Fortunately, ninety-nine percent
of Brute Force players will not be playing this game for an engaging
Final Fantasy-like epic, but to get down and dirty with the action.
To that one percent thats left, I sympathetically apologize in
advance.
Brute
Force is an action strategy squad-based shooter. The squad of
soldiers that the player gets to control is well conceived. Instead
of grouping together four characters that have the same attributes
and abilities like most other squad-based game, there is an equal
balance of skills. The team consists of half males and half females,
the first half being the aggressive tactics soldiers, and the latter
half being the stealthier tactical soldiers. Tex, a human male, and
Brutus, a lizardlike creature, will engage in battle with guns
blazing, while Hawk, a human female, will sneak up to her opponents
with stealth as Hawk, a cyborg female, eliminates her targets from a
distance with incredible sniper ability. These unique character
skills are further enhanced with special abilities. Tex has a
Berserker ability, which lets him wield both of his weapons
simultaneously. Brutus has the Spirit of Vengar, which allows him to
regenerate health, have a powerful charging attack, as well as
increased sight to discover hidden enemies. Hawk has the ability of
stealth, which allows her to cloak herself, while sneaking up to her
victims and crippling them with her powerblade. Flint has the
ability to incapacitate the opposition with headshots using
auto-aiming.
The
Brute Force squad must successfully complete eighteen missions to
unravel the mystery. After playing through a good portion of the
game, it became obvious that missions would fall into four simple
categories: destroy, recover, protect, and eliminate. Destroying
involves eradicating a physical landmark or a significant component.
Recovering involves retrieving a briefcase before the opposition
does. Protecting, one of the more tedious chores, is to defend a
critical figure as he reaches his destination. Elimination is simply
assassinating one, if not all, of the adversaries. The first few
missions introduced are more of a slow training session, and the
intensity doesnt kick in until the entire squad is assembled. A
typical mission issues one or two objectives, and money is rewarded
with each successful completion. Before I get little boys jumping up
and down, believing theyre going to buy Flint a new bikini outfit
at the Brute Force shop, let me shatter that wet dream. This money
is for the sole use of purchasing the revival of a squad member
after they die in the heat of the battle.
The
first contrast between Brute Force and Halo is their perspectives.
Unlike Halos first person view, Brute Force utilizes a
third-person perspective. Interestingly, there is a subtle
transition where the viewpoint and the dual joystick control
configuration seemingly dont work together as efficiently. The
right joystick is used to look around, which reacts instantaneously
when used in a first-person shooter, but in a third-person shooter,
the control and response feels a bit more slow or detached.
The
rest of the control scheme is reminiscent of that of Halos.
Movement is directed via the dual-joystick configuration. Weapon and
item selection is controlled with the face buttons, while the
trigger buttons controls utilizing them. The press of the white
button can activate each characters special ability. Players can
switch characters and give them commands in real-time using the
direction pad. One flaw that I noticed was that unlike Halo, Brute
Forces controls sorely lack a melee button, save Hawks
powerblade attack. This limits the player to using guns and
grenades.
One other thing that bears mention is that
each character can only hold a maximum of two weapons. It was proven
in Halo that this limit is not a problem, but it became more of
strategic decision the player had to make as to which weapon to
carry. Yet, Brute Force furthers that restriction by limiting the
variety of weapons. This occurs frequently during gameplay where
your character stands over a weapon to pick it up, but a message
appears telling the player that this specific character cannot pick
up that particular arsenal. While it is reasonable to say that Flint
should pick up the sniper rifle since shes the most proficient
marksman with it, it shouldnt refrain another character like Tex
from utilizing it. The character should be able to use the weapon,
but perhaps be penalized for it by decreasing his accuracy and
efficiency with the weapon.
The two previously mentioned flaws became
alarmingly apparent as they combined together in one of my
run-throughs of the first volcano level on the planet Osiris. In
this scenario, the squad must protect a turncoat alien, while also
destroying power pylons that fuel their transporters. Out to murder
the trader, the aliens bombard the squad at every corner. I was
controlling Tex, and with my heavy artillery, I was mowing down the
enemy, but running of ammo quick. The only locations to replenish
ammo were these tents-like structures that has weapons that
magically appear. But a good lot of the weapons were unusable by
Tex. So it wasnt long until I found myself running around without
ammo, and no melee command to attack or defend with. I switched over
to my other squad members, but their weaponry wasnt strong enough
to knock out the power pylons, as I watch Tex and the turncoat run
around aimlessly, being pumped full of bullet holes.
My gung-ho approach is a perfect example of
how Brute Force takes advantage of each characters attributes.
Sure, its easier to run through the levels blasting everything
that moves, but that tactic will soon prove to cause more
difficulty, suck as quickly running out of ammo or taking more
damage. The proper technique in the aforementioned mission is to use
the newly introduced member, Flint. With her camouflage ability, she
can sneak up and dispatch her enemies silently. This is where using
the old noggin actually helps.
In actuality, although it is emphasized that
each mission should be approached as a team, most of the game can be
tackled by using just one character. The AI handles the other squad
members efficiently as to not get in the line of fire, or reveal
their position. The most common command that will be given during
the game will be for them to hold their ground, while the player
advances. It detracts from the fun and effectiveness of having a
squad, but focusing on each characters special ability really
shifts the focus away from team work Whether its charging in
with Brutus and then holding back for a while to replenish health,
or using Flints stealth ability from start to finish, or even
using Hawk to hang back and snipe all the enemies, an entire level
can be fought and won with just one character. So much for teamwork,
eh?
The graphics are a mixed bag. While character
animation is done well with fluid motions, and the CG movie are
nothing less than what you expect from an Xbox game, the
environments are not as stellar as the rumors may have claimed. In
fact, I thought the levels color palette were washed-out and
dull, and there were few instances where I stopped to uh and
ah. The paths that the squad must travel are quite linear,
usually from point A to point B. The environments vary between six
worlds during the eighteen missions, and after a while, the
atmosphere and the characters start to look all the same. The
enemies of a particular clan will mostly look alike as well as act
alike, while the leader of the clan will stand out with a different
skin color or perhaps a pretty hat. Even the main characters, Flint
and Hawk, are just color shades apart from looking like twins.
The sounds of Brute Force deserve little
mention. With excellent voiceovers from novice actors in Star Wars:
Knights of the Old Republic, the voiceovers in Brute Force will not
be winning any awards. And with such a phenomenal orchestral
soundtrack in games such as Halo, the ambient silence that fills the
air in Brute Force just doesnt cut it. So unless youre a big
fan of hearing guns blazing and grenades blowing up, you could
probably get away with putting the game on mute, and making your own
sound effects of Rat-tat-tat-tat and Boom, and be
convincingly happy.
The saving grace of Brute Force is its
multiplayer capabilities, and even then I wouldnt get my hopes
up. Digital Anvil decided to further emphasize the idea of teamwork
by allowing up to three friends to join in on the campaign story at
any time. This allows the player to give strategic commands to the
team members sitting right next to you, rather than barking your
commands at the AI. For an even more thrilling experience, if you
live in a luxurious home with four televisions and four Xboxs,
each player can man their own television with all the comfort of
their own screen. There is the occasional lag so beware. This option
for cooperative play can be judged in two different ways: either
this will pump more adrenaline into the game due to this being a
unique experience, or youre just bringing more friends to join in
asking, Why isnt this game fun? and therefore kicking you
off the proverbial island for bad taste in videogames.
What about competitive multiplayer one might
ask? Well, with the dozens of multiplayer shooters that are
available on the market, Brute Force doesnt meet current
standards. First of all, Brute Force is Xbox Live compatible. I
popped in the Brute Force build that I received, and the option for
Xbox Live competitive multiplayer was available. So I signed on, and
looked for a game. No games available. So I created a game,
and waited. And waited. More waiting. I bet the folks at Digital
Anvil are laughing their way home with the image of a sad game
reviewer with an the last reminiscence of the Xbox Live multiplayer
compatibility, staring at his television in great anticipation. Let
me make this abundantly clear. Brute Force is Live compatible only
for downloadable content, and NOT online multiplayer. I repeat NO
online multiplayer. The best consolation to this is to have up to
eight players on System Link connections. Yippee, A feature almost
no one will use. Because the games perspective is in third-person
view, split screen is hard on the eyes, especially when four players
are crammed into one television.
Another disappointment to add, Brute Force
only has Deathmatch and Squad Deathmatch available. Squad
Deathmatches allow competitors to pit their entire squads against
each other, which is a genuine gem in this game. But while the Squad
Deathmatch is fun, and regular Deathmatch on the par level, there
simply is no excuse for skimping out on the other great multiplayer
modes, like King of the Hill. A game of Capture the Flag would have
been overwhelmingly appropriate, where team members could
strategically use their characters to defend their flag or ambush
the opponent. There isnt even the option to put in
computer-controlled bots. While there is no available downloadable
content at the moment, hopefully there will be content that fixes
this inequity. With a great line of shooters already available on
Xbox, the lack of multiplayer modes and options simply does not live
up to todays current standards.
If expectations started off at ground level,
Brute Force might have been a pleasant surprise. But when Microsoft
has been bragging about this game since Xbox was released,
anticipating a quality game should be reasonable. Under the close
scrutiny of comparing it to Halo, there is no way this David could
have brought down Goliath. Thats just asking for a good whuppin.
Digital Anvil definitely has the roots to create a great series, but
by then itll have Halo 2 to compete with. So if youre sick of
playing Halo, or happen to be one of those poor saps that havent
experienced the wonder that is Halo, I would highly suggest renting
Brute Force before adding it to your library. For now, Ill sit
here waiting for another game reviewer to fall into Digital Anvils
tease, and who knows, maybe we could really get a Xbox Live game
going.