BRUTE FORCE (VIDEO GAME)

'''Brute Force''' is a video game released for the Xbox by Microsoft in 2003. The game is a squad-based third-person shooter that uses of four members of a team which fight in numerous battles. These members in the squad include Flint, a sniper, Brutus, a shock trooper, Tex, a heavy assault trooper, and Hawk, a scout. Each character on the team has their own strengths and weaknesses. The story is of a science-fiction setting where humans spread throughout the galaxy. Tension arises with the threat of a hostile alien race that appears. The squad, ''Brute Force'', is sent in to confront the enemy. Additionally, each character has their own backstory. ''Brute Force'' began as a PC game in 2000, but was soon after turned into a first-party title for the Xbox, following the buyout of Digital Anvil by Microsoft.

Contents

Story and setting

Characters

Gameplay

Enemies

Enemy Leaders

Development

Reception

References

External links

Story and setting

''Brute Force'' takes place in the year 2340, when the human race has spread out across the galaxy and settled around 50 star systems, which are collectively known as the "Known Worlds". The major colonies and some alien races are governed by what is known as the Confederation Republic (usually referred to as the "Confed") . They patrol borders, protect their people, and keep watch on hostile alien races. The playable characters in ''Brute Force'' are a team of elite operatives that work for the Confed. In the game, the idea is that a new, hostile alien kind is beginning to attack the fringes of the Republic. The team is thus sent out to the frontlines to confront this enemy.Leigh, Violet. Known Worlds. (URL accessed July 19, 2006).

Characters

There are four main characters in the game, who together comprise the Confederation's elite team of special operatives known as Brute Force. Members of this squad have been chosen and moved out of normal military service into this top secret unit. They have been highly trained, and should they die will simply be cloned and returned to the battlefield. Tex is a well-respected and highly-decorated veteran soldier. He is described as being gruff and surly, is not subtle in his actions, and in a sense he is a typical soldier. He has been in numerous encounters, many of which he has died in. Tex has fought for the Confederation for years, and during that time has seen their darker side, with a slowly crumbling faith in their acts. He has also become jaded by constantly being ordered into suicide missions and seeing his comrades die on the battlefield. Nevertheless, his devotion to the larger cause has made him a relentless warrior, who will go into battle with little regard for his own safety. Tactically, Tex prefers straightforward operations where he can just go in shooting. He prefers heavy weapons and armor and can soak up a lot of damage. Another character is Brutus. He is of a mysterious reptilian race known as Feral. The secrets of his race is something he prefers to keep to himself. However, they possess striking physical abilities which add to his skill as a warrior. He also avoids technology due to ancestral superstitions. His fighting style is more deliberate than that of Tex, and knows when he is outmatched and when to retreat. He shows a fierce loyalty towards his comrades and will not leave them when they are under fire on the battlefield. He prefers larger weapons like Tex, and the two together are responsible for taking most of the team's damage.^[1]
A third main character is Hawk, who grew up in the military moving from one base to another. She has a deep devotion to the chain of command, and was quick to enlist. She chose to become an operative rather than join a conventional unit, as it felt like a more important role. Tactically she is very different from Tex—she believes in quick operations with thorough planning without blind aggression. She has seen combat a few times during her career but not nearly as much as others on the team. Once in battle, she will use her scouting abilities to gather intelligence before using stealth to go for a surprise attack. The last of the team members is Flint, who was created at the end of the Machine Wars that took place 30 years prior to the game. Created by InnoMation Industries, she is of the most advanced type of prototype cyborgs. Like other cyborgs created during this time, she uses ruthless efficiency to kill without remorse. She was purchased by the Protectorate's Special Weapons division and was made part of their combat force. Most of the Protectorate's army is now made up of genetically engineered soldiers, which are much cheaper, but Flints amazing abilities still allow her to show her worth. However she also seems to require a near-impossible standard from her teammates. She prefers a sniper rifle and has deadly accuracy in sharpshooting. Together with Hawk, the two provide a needed element of surprise and planning.^[2]
The first level of the game acts mainly as a tutorial. It consists of a simple raid on a small "Red Hand" base. The player can only use the character Tex. After taking the first Red Hand base the character meets up with two marines and they combine to take on a larger Red Hand base. In the next level the player has to rescue Brutus from an "Outcast" cage, and then avenge his family, Hawk is unlocked at the end of the second level. Her Stealth ability can be extremely useful if used correctly in the next few levels—particularly against strong opponents who Hawk would not normally be able to defeat. Two levels later, Flint joins the team and her sniper abilities can be used to devastating effect on the more open battlefields of the later game.

Gameplay

Brute Force was developed to be a third-person squad-based shooter. This is important in going through the campaign where the player is meant to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various characters. This allows for both open-ended type gameplay and adding a strategic component by playing the characters according to their abilities. This could range from stealth to sniping or simply a head on attack. There are four characters, each with a special ability. Flint is a female cyborg warrior who is best for sniping and accuracy. She is a fast reload and favors sniper rifles and ranged-weapons. Her special ability is Auto Targeting, which gives her a targeting reticule that locks on to any enemies that her in her field of view. Another is Hawk, who focuses on stealth and is fast in game allowing her to sneak up on enemies. She is able to turn invisible for brief periods of time. Brutus is a balanced soldier and has the special ability Spirit of Vengar, which enhances his sight, allows for a one-hit kill charge, and regenerates his health faster. Finally is Tex, a slow character who uses heavy armor and specializes in the heaviest armaments. With his Berserker ability he can wield two guns at once. The player switches between these four characters by holding one of the four directional buttons on an Xbox controller which brings up a menu.^[3] No online gameplay is offered with Brute Force, however there is cooperative play, where another player may at any time control another character during the campaign. Up to four players are supported this way.Kasavin, Greg (May 28, 2003). Brute Force review. ''GameSpot''.
After the mechanics of the squad-based gameplay, AI was perhaps the most important parts of development. This was actually to complement the team-based system, which would allow the enemies to act intelligently and allow your team to support the player and work together as a team. The gameplay has four different command modes to which the AI reacts differently. The characters are also aware of the environment in finding areas for cover and sniping, as well as going to heal themselves.
The single player campaign missions are composed mostly of a series of battles where the player attempts to fight their way to the end. They consist mostly of objectives such as disabling structures, eliminating a target, or collecting an artifact. These missions take place on six different planets with different environments — a desert, a swamp, a volcanic planet, and an alien lair.

Enemies

There are 5 main groups of Enemies that are encountered during the game. These include:

★ 'Red Hand': Mercenaries. Recruited by someone (hinted to be either Seers or Shrikes) to fight against the Confederation.

★ 'Feral Outcasts': Exiled Ferals that are being directed by the Seers to destabilize their homeland to distract the Confederation.

★ 'Mutants': Deformed humans led by a "Supermutant" who is working for the Seers. Their tactics are extremely suicidal and they will not hesitate to risk collateral damage if it means the end of their enemies.

★ 'Seers': Humanoid creatures with psychic abilities. Led by Shadoon, they are being played against the Confederation by the Shrikes.

★ 'Shrikes': Aliens from the edge of the known universe who are plotting to take the Confederation after it has been weakened by the Seers. After the death of Shadoon they try to use the Red Hand as a replacement but soon give up and begin the invasion themselves.

Enemy Leaders

There are several enemy leaders encountered during the course of the game, some of these include:

★ 'Shadoon': The leader of the rogue Seers. Assassinated by Brute Force.

★ 'Edward Kingman': The owner of a huge company, secretly funding the Red Hand. Assassinated by Brute Force, disguised as bandits.

★ 'Gunthar Ghent': A traitorous Confederate who was selling weapons to the Red Hand. Killed by Brute Force.

★ 'Ty McTavish': A traitorous synthetic who had begun to send vast amounts of data to the Shrikes with a captured military relay station after the death of Shadoon. Killed by Brute Force.

★ 'Super Mutant': Leader of the mutants, a glowing mutant with more hit points and a special attack that has the same effect as a "Bio Grenade". Killed by Brute Force.

★ 'Hunter Lord': The leader of the Shrike invasion force. Killed by Brute Force.

Development

''Brute Force'' was developed by Digital Anvil, one of Microsoft's internal developers. The team had previously worked on games such as ''Wing Commander'', ''Strike Commander'', and ''Starlancer''. ''Brute Force'' was designed to be a first-party game for the Xbox and begun in March of 2000, before the console had launched. However development had begun before the takeover of Digital Anvil by Microsoft, and the title was originally meant for PC. Microsoft promptly turned it into an Xbox exclusive title.Thorsen, Tor (December 1, 2005). "Digital Anvil melted down". ''Gamespot''. The core team of developers was composed of 30 people, but counting testers and other outside contributors more than 100 people had worked on the game. Only three months were spent on the concept stage of development, but would spend the next two years on the prototype cycle of development.^[4] Numerous influences on the game were cited. During the beginning of the project the developers looked toward ''Rainbow Six'' and ''Counter-Strike'', stating that they wished to reach a level of intensity that fell somewhere between these two games. The also wished to implement a strategic element to the game, which was influenced by ''X-Com'', where a team-based system was used to overcome obstacles. ''Halo'' also had an impact on the game, but according to the developers only to a minimal extent, mostly in terms of interface design and combat balancing. Some aspects were admitted to being similar to Halo for the sake of making the game accessible to those who had played Halo before. (The controls are, for example, almost identical.)
Digital Anvil was known as a developer of space combat games, and with ''Brute Force'' they set out to try something new, specifically a ground-based game. They also wanted to attempt a team-oriented game that would put the player in control of a squad of characters set amidst numerous environments. The game was conceived from these few core ideas. Development should also be looked at in the context of a first-party Xbox game following the enormous success of Halo. For one the game was meant to attract gamers who were fans of Halo, but also sufficiently different enough. Secondly the developers wanted the game to be a showcase of what the Xbox hardware was graphically capable of. However the team did admit that they had no idea what the system was capable of when they first started developing for it.
The game was first officially unveiled in October 2001 at Microsoft's X01, and shown in more detail later at E3 2002 and X02, where according to the developer much of the speculation was that the released media was not actually in-game. Although it was also said that the technology was one of the biggest challenges of development, and had not received final development kits until mid-2001.^[5]
''Brute Force'' has the distinction of being the last game developed by Digital Anvil, as the studio was closed down officially on January 31, 2006. The staff was integrated in to Microsoft Games Studio in Redmond.

Reception

There was a great amount of hype for ''Brute Force'' leading up to its release. The game broke Xbox sales records of both first day and first week sales, beating out even ''Halo''.^[6] However there were quite a few complaints concerning the gameplay, many criticisms stemming from a 2001 video that was included with many of Microsoft's first-party launch titles, in which the four characters complete a mission by using their unique skills in unison to achieve goals. The final game, however, included very few of these instances, instead resorting to a more action-based shoot'em-up where individual traits were unessential to victory but could certainly make a level much easier. This hurt the gameplay, as the entire game was developed to be a tactical shooter. The various characters were also seen as being unbalanced, many noting Hawk to be the least useful on the team.

References

1. McLain, Alex. The Cast of Characters, Part 1: Meet Tex and Brutus. (URL accessed July 19, 2006).
2. McLain, Alex. The Cast of Characters Part 2: Meet Hawk and Flint. (URL accessed July 20, 2006).
3. Staff (May 20, 2002). "E3 2002: Brute Force". ''IGN''.
4. McLain, Alex. Breathing Life into Brute Force. (URL accessed July 18, 2006).
5. Staff (August 30, 2002). "Brute Force Q&A". ''GameSpot''.
6. Varanini, Giancarlo (June 20, 2003). "Brute Force sets Xbox sales records". ''GameSpot''.

External links

★ Official ''Brute Force'' webpage