Considering the success of Bungie's Halo on the Xbox, it's not surprising that several other developers are working on sci-fi-themed first-person action games. Like Halo, UK studio Brat Designs' Breed lets you pilot tanks and fighters, fight hordes of armored aliens while carrying no more than two futuristic weapons, and generally try to save the human race from destruction. While the developer also has plans to release the game for the Xbox, Breed seems to play like a traditional PC shooter, and like some other upcoming games with advanced graphics engines, the game features enormous outdoor levels. From what we've seen of the beta version, the gameplay will offer quite a bit of variety as well as somewhat nonlinear levels that you can explore as you wish.

Humankind is depending on you to beat back the Breed and retake Earth.

According to Breed's futuristic story, human colonies are attacked by an alien race commonly called "the Breed" in the early 27th century, and Earth sends out a large United Space Corps (USC) fleet to their defense. While the war in the colonies is won after decades of harsh fighting, when the flagship, the USC Darwin, returns to Earth it finds that the Breed has outflanked the fleet and invaded the home planet, putting human survivors to work in labor camps. It's from this unenviable position, cloaked on the dark side of the moon, that the Darwin will attempt to do battle against the Breed and free humanity.

Breed's 20-mission campaign starts off with two tutorial missions that have a holographic drill sergeant character to familiarize you with the interface. The game has a few interface elements that aren't found in many first-person shooters but are needed because of the large scale of the levels and the fact that you'll often control a squad of troops--and you can switch characters by taking control of different members of your squad at any time. The center of Breed's HUD features a compass that indicates scripted mission waypoints, and the game also has a minimap in the upper-right corner of the screen that shows red dots for enemies and green dots for members of your squad. Controlling the squad seems easy. Along the left side of the screen are icons indicating the status of your squadmates, and at the top of the screen is a list of simple commands--such as spread out, tighten formation, stop, regroup, or change formation type--that are activated with the function keys on your keyboard. To take control of any other squad member, you can scroll through the squad with the page up and page down keys.

USC squads are composed of a mix of character classes that depends on the mission, but the ground missions we played started out with a few grunts, a sniper, and a gunner. Switching characters is a good way to vary the action or to force a particular character to do what you want. We found it useful to take direct control of the sniper, who is best for taking out enemy turrets and artillery by disabling the exposed alien drivers and gunners, though tanks can also be taken out with the rocket launcher when you have it.

Missions take place in expansive, dynamic levels, so if you take out these radar towers, you'll face fewer reinforcements on the ground.

While there don't seem to be many items to pick up in the levels, most troops start out equipped with two weapons (the maximum you can carry at once), and many weapons have alternate firing modes. For instance, the sniper carries the standard assault rifle--which also packs a grenade launcher--along with a pinpoint-accurate long-range rifle, and the grunts can carry shotguns in addition to their assault rifles. You'll also be able to recruit an engineer for your squad--a soldier who can repair vehicles and download data at key points in the game. Currently, the game is said to feature eight infantry weapons for each side.

The core campaign missions are prefaced by a short in-game cinematic that explains your mission objective and follows the mission preparations aboard the Darwin. Depending on the assignment, you'll watch as grizzled space marines board a dropship or a tank is readied for a planetside descent or a fighter is fueled up. What's unusual is that it's actually possible to fly back up into this space environment--once you fly high enough, a short transition sequence will play, and you can rejoin the Darwin. Enemy fighters may even pursue you into space.