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Everyone has been waiting for a good shooter on Xbox ever since Halo. The wait may just be over. After all the lengthy delays, and all the waiting, Brute Force is finally here. Was it worth the wait? Read on faithful reader.

”Brute Force” is your team of four special ops members, each one with his/her own unique style and personality. Tex is your basic sarcastic, dry personality gun totter. Brutus is a lizard-like creature with a taste for vengeance. Hawk is a slick-bodied female, and Flint is a cybernetic female sniper. Each character plays very differently, and the game allows for utilization of each character to their full potential in different situations. This makes for a varied gameplay experience that can be played differently every time you pick the game up.

Brute Force could quite possibly be the most visually impressive game on Xbox’s current line up to date. Beautifully detailed, well thought out environments and stunning character models make Brute Force an impressive showcase of Xbox’s graphical capabilities. Each level of the game is amazing to look at, with numerous types of plant life, rocks and buildings littered around the landscape. The graphics reach levels that very few games, Xbox or otherwise, have been to. Each of the games characters are rendered with the utmost attention to detail, making for a very impressive graphical display.

The sound in Brute Force is also just as impressive, consisting of various explosions, gunshots and well acted voice-overs. The voices of each character in the game really help bring them to life, may it be the harsh, monotone voice of Tex, the smooth, low voice of Hawk, or the furious grunts of Brutus. The characters voices never seem to get old, even during the game when they make small quips as they go about their ‘business’. The games enemies also have well done voices, although they did fall victim to some repetitiveness at times. The games soundtrack is pretty well put together, adding some nice atmosphere to the game, but there’s nothing super memorable to speak of in those regards.

Brute Force hold some very nice gameplay, with the ability to play each level with numerous strategies - Brute Force almost never gets old. The game allows you to switch between any of the teams 4 characters at any given time. As you control your current character, some very impressive AI will control the other three. While you control any one given character, you can give out any one of four commands (stand ground, cover fire, follow, and move to). The game’s AI follows each order with an acceptable amount of success. The games developers promised AI that would be indifferent to another human player, but the final product is far from that. Saying that is really shooting yourself in the foot because until someone actually invents some sort of REAL, self-aware AI, that statement will never be true. This is not to say that Brute Force has horrid AI, because that is indeed not the case. Brute Force features some of the best AI seen in a shooter to date, but it falls short of the hype built up previous to its release.

Each character in the game has his/her own unique abilities. Tex has an ability that allows him to wield 2 guns simultaneously. Brutus has an ability that turns the world black and white, while making characters and enemies bright red/yellow. Hawk has the ability to cloak herself and Flint has an auto aim technique. Each ability is limited by a stamina meter, which refills itself over time. One of Brute Force’s coolest features is the ability to have a new player enter the one player campaign with the simple press of a button. At any point during a single player game, a second, third and even fourth player can enter the fray very easily. At that point, the character is entered directly into the level, without any load times and without having to exit the game or any additional setup. Players can also leave the game as they like by simply unplugging their controller. At this point, the games AI will simply take back over the specific character. This feature adds a large amount of convenience to the game and is the first such game to implement said ability. Enemy AI also behaves very realistically. Enemies will ambush you and work together, dive out of the way of grenades, snipe you from unseen distances, amongst many more intelligent acts and behavior. This makes for a challenging gameplay experience, even on the games easier setting. Brute Force’s multiplayer is fun and easy to pick up.

Throughout the campaign, you will obtain DNA canisters; these canisters will unlock extra multiplayer models. The game supports up to 8 players via system link, which is a nice feature, but one thing the games multiplayer is missing is Xbox Live support. Many gamers were patiently looking forward to being able to take Brute Force online and play on Live. This, however, is not the case in the final product. Brute Force shipped without any online multiplayer, which in the long run, limits the multiplayer appeal. The game does, though, have downloadable content via Live.

After all the waiting and all the hype, Brute Force stacks up pretty well. The lack of online multiplayer may turn some gamers off, but the game is still worth a look, if not only for its unique gameplay. With so many ways to play through the game and the ability to have new players come and go as they please, Brute Force stands proudly among Xbox’s impressive list of shooters. Lately Xbox seems to be hurting bad for some high caliber AAA titles and Brute Force fills the spot quite nicely.