Brute Force has had an interesting time in the public eye. The game's announcement in late 2001 was accompanied by a batch of screens and an impressive trailer that generated a considerable amount of interest. Following Halo's blockbuster success, Xbox owners were eager to sink their teeth into a new shooter. Brute Force seemed poised to fill that need, thanks to its impressive pedigree--Texas-based developer Digital Anvil was responsible for Starlancer the PC. The game also promised a slightly different take on the console shooter, with a heavy focus on cooperative third-person squad-based gameplay. Unfortunately, the game saw some delays and slipped into this year. We recently had a chance to visit Digital Anvil and spend time with a nearly complete version of the game to see how development has been going.

Brute Force features impressive visuals.

For those unfamiliar with Brute Force's story, the game revolves around a newly commissioned Special Forces unit code-named Brute Force. The team is made up of four mercenaries "recruited" to deal with trouble spots throughout the galaxy. However, it turns out that recruitment is a little different in the future, as the four members of the team are clones. While the upside to cloning is the team's roster will always be fully stocked, the downside is that cloning the same person repeatedly can lead to potentially unstable clones. You'll be clued in to that bit of info at the beginning of the game, which introduces you to Tex, a soldier whose specialty is listed as "berserker." Although Tex is on his ninth cloning, the powers that be feel that his potential to freak out is low enough to warrant bringing him back for another round of action. Tex is joined on the team by Flint, a synthetic female sniper, Hawk, a curvy female scout, and Brutus, an alien who looks a lot like a surly crocodile. The game opens with Tex setting out to deal with a mercenary group called the Red Hand who is stirring up trouble. But, as the story progresses and the action heats up, you'll find that there's bigger trouble waiting in the wings.

Here's the gang, freshly cloned and ready for action.

Brute Force offers two basic types of games, campaign and deathmatch. Campaign is the game's story mode, and it tells the tale of the Brute Force team's founding and subsequent adventures. You'll find three levels of difficulty--standard, hard, and brutal--to test your skills with. The narrative unfolds throughout a series of missions that are set on six different worlds, and you'll start each mission with a short briefing on what your objective is. As you make your way through the environment, you'll get updates on your objectives or changes in the environment you should watch out for. You'll start the game as Tex and be joined by the other members of the team as the story progresses. The slow growth of characters on your team does a fine job of easing you into one of the game's key elements: managing your squad. Successfully coordinating your group of mercs is a huge aspect of the game that will determine your success or failure. Each character in your group possesses unique special abilities that you'll need to deal with specific situations. Tex is able to disarm bombs, which you can then add to your inventory, and he can also use two weapons simultaneously for short periods. Flint is able to automatically lock on to any nearby targets with her trusty rifle. Hawk can become invisible, à la Predator, and scout around. Finally, Brutus is able to channel spiritual energy to let him see much more clearly in poor visibility conditions than his human associates, perform deadly attacks on foes, and regenerate his health. These special abilities will be tied to individual energy bars that will slowly charge up when you're not using the abilities. In addition to each character's unique abilities, you'll find a respectable arsenal in the game. You can expect to find 30 different types of weapons, grenades, and gadgets such as miniguns, sonic cannons, railguns, sniper rifles, biorifles, mines, and homing grenades called rollers. Our personal favorites are the biorifle, whose splash damage has the useful side effect of causing enemies near your target to explode if they're too close, and the roller, which automatically homes in on the nearest enemy and detonates when it's close enough.