User Rating: 8.8 | Brute Force XBOX
I picked up the game last night around 7pm, and my wife and I have completed about 5-6 missions. Here are my preliminary "findings". I'm typing this at work, and being interrupted rather often, so if the review is not cohesive or jumps around, my apologies. One thing is this: The first mission is more of a training mission. You'll get intermittent "heads-up" displays ala Halo that show you things to use in coming moments, such as how to disarm land mines, using the s****er, etc..... Controls-- 9/10 The controls are "spot-on", although I need to revisit the edit screen and see if there's a way to turn down the sensitivity. You can invert the Y-axis, and it is relatively easy to give commands to your comrades. It reminds me a lot of Halo 2 (left trig-grenades and such, right trig is fire, reload is X Y swaps guns, click left stick to crouch, click right stick to zoom, A button jumps, etc.....) Graphics-- 9/10 Let me remind you that I've only played co-op so far. I have not delved into the single player aspect. The graphics so far are really good, but not fabulous, while in actual gameplay mode. This may have been because I was playing on split screen. However, I'm playing on a 55" HDTV, so it shouldn't make that much difference. As mentioned somewhere above, there is some minor choppiness when playing 2 player co-op, but it is VERY minor. But it is there, really only when the action is REALLY intense. The environments are really cool, however, they seem just a little dark. Not bad, but just a little on the dark side. The "rage" effect or whatever you call it when utilizing Brutus is fabulous. I love the filter or effect that they used. The cutscenes are the best I've ever seen, as far as sheer graphic quality. I plan on getting some single player time in later today, that will probably change my impressions somewhat. We were sort of "flying by the seat of our pants" while playing co-op last night, but I did notice some pretty cool stuff. Like the death animations of your opponents. They're pretty good, and not the same every time. I especially loved this one time that I blasted an alien off the top of a cliff with a grenade. He flew through the air, landed on top of a small shack-like structure, then rolled off the edge. Pretty cool. Gameplay -- 9.0/10 No, this is not a Halo killer, but it's probably one of the better games I've played in a while. The pretense of the game is that it concentrates more on strategy. I was really worried about this during initial gameplay, because my wife and I just charged in and wiped everyone out in one fail swoop. Around mission 5 or 6, this just does not work anymore. You have to start strategizing (sp?) your way through the levels. The gameplay aspect is really easy to pick up. Finish the first part of a mission, and you're mission commander will pipe in and assign another waypoint with another aspect of the mission to accomplish, until you've finished the "level". The radar works really well. Around the radar is a pic of your comrades, their health condition, and such as that. You can easily on the fly give out commands, or just "change" to that particular character. There are neat little nuances in the gameplay as well. There are certain guns that each member of the party cannot utilize. Also, each character has a couple of special abilities that the others of course do not have. The enemy AI has not really impressed me that much, yet. Everything just seems....so random. That is the best way I can put it. Nothing bad, but nothing spectacular. There doesn't seem to be any "teamwork" being utilized by your opposition, but they will duck and jump behind structures when they are highly threatened by your gunfire. I especially liked utilizing Brutus. He seems to have a sense for things before they happen. Last night, we were on level 3 or 4, and our radar was clear. Brutus piped up and said, "Hold here, we're being hunted". A minute later (and about 10 paces forward) we were ambushed from about 3 different angles. Kinda cool. Sound-- 8.8/10 The sound really didn't make that great of an impression on me. Maybe it was because I wasn't paying a lot of attention to it, or it just isn't one of Brute Force's "strong points". I will say this: Each weapon has a distinctly different sound, which is welcome. Also, I love the "one-liners" that the different characters emits every once in a while. I seem to remember a couple from Tex when I went into "rage" mode...I think once, as I was mowing aliens down he said, "That's going to leave a mark"... or something like that...hehe. Also, they do warn you when they're hurting. Tex would pipe up and say (at around 40% health), "I may need one of those healtkits soon". As he got closer to 10%, he stated, "I'm on my last set of legs here", with a painful voice. It's also cool to hear the aliens/enemies yell "incoming" and attempt to scramble away from a grenade. Pretty cool. The game seemed to utilize the surround sound rather nicely, but nothing really groundbreaking. Lasting ability-- 9.0/10 With multiplayer options such as co-op and deathmatch, and unlockable DNA canisters as you play throughout the campaign (that unlocks more multiplayer characters), as well as the general campaign and downloadable content, this game should stay in your library for quite a while....why oh why can't this be playable over Xbox live??? Overall (not an average) -- 8.8/10 The production value is definitely there, although the story does seem a little fragmented. Not bad, just not as cohesive as say, Halo. This game is not a Halo killer by any means, but can definitely hold it's own with any other Xbox title to this point. I'll post more impressions as I get more gametime. Updated: I played the single player campaign last night, and I must say that I'm even more impressed now than I was before. I love the use of tactics... Sure, you can just "run-and-gun", but what's the point of that? It is very rewarding to flank your enemy, while your s****er sits perched on a clifftop...throw in a grenade, then watch the s****er pick off several enemies... pure tactical bliss. BTW...Gamespot, you ranked these games with close to the same score as Brute Force... 1) New Legends-7.0 (what???) 2) Serious Sam -8.5 (???) 3) Total Immersion Racing -7.5 (you have to be kidding me...there were better car physics in the Atari 2600 game "Night Driver", and others.... Please. You cannot tell me that you rank BF along the same lines (or worse!!) than the games listed above. I know there was quite a bit of hype for this title, and it may not have TOTALLY lived up to the hype, but it didn't fall THAT short. Maybe it's customary to dock Xbox titles now...what... 1.5 points or so because they're not "Live Playable"? Sorry, I just don't get it.
