Oh look, another action platformer with pixel art – yawn, right? WRONG! For starters, have you ever played a game with fully destructible terrain… in 2D? Somehow I doubt it and no, Terraria doesn’t count – I said destructible, as in explosions or gunfire, not a shovel or a pickaxe! That’s not the only way in which BROFORCE differs from the norm either: how about playing as pop culture action heroes, like Rambo or Judge Dredd? aha! Got your attention now, eh?
The game had barely started before I was blasting away at them, so I could watch bad guys plummet to their death below – it was fast, furious and no-nonsense action and I loved every minute of it. Even the ‘raise an American flag to create a checkpoint’ mechanic was entertaining, though I suspect some might raise an eyebrow or two (some, as in, those who read far too much into it). Everything about this game – even in its current state – screams chaotic, crazy, simple, and above all else, fun!
The playable version that is up gives a fair indication of what the core gameplay will be like, although we plan to wrap that up in some juicy narrative with upgrades and unlocks and other environments and such.
Although after playing it for a bit, I started wondering why so many developers seem to think that lengthy cut-scenes and tutorials are such a great idea; BROFORCE has neither and is definitely better for it – everything is going at a constant 160mph! Did I mention there’s also co-op multiplayer, both local (with a few extra controllers) and online? Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to test either, as I’m currently online through a connection that’s unstable on a good day, and local is also a no-go since I don’t have a gamepad right now. The less cooperative and more competitive haven’t been forgotten either, as such modes are on the drawing board according to this forum post – one can only imagine how chaotic that’ll be!
So… Demolish bad guys as one of many action heroes, blast huge chunks to oblivion in each level, with guns, dynamite, rockets and other weapons, free hostages to change/unlock additional characters and raise flags to create checkpoints. That just about sums up the Brototype demo. In case I hadn’t made it clear already, it’s a ton of fun! How about taking it for a spin right now?