Darwin
10-01-2003, 03:02 AM
Whoa, simma down now. Don't everybody log onto Live at once to get your Brute Force downloadable single player and multiplayer maps. Glock, MaskedGamer, I know you guys are gonna turn your PC's off the minute you read this so you can get yer new maps.
Well, for those of us who are fans of Brute Force (there are about 5 of us and we're growing, I assure you), we can have one new single player mission to play in addition to the two multiplayer maps released 3 weeks ago.
The multiplayer maps are roughly 400 and 600 blocks each, but the single player map packs a meaty 1600 blocks. For that size, you'd think you get a nice lengthy mission. I mean, SOF2 and Wolfenstein maps are like 50 - 75 blocks each, so 1600 blocks must be something really substantial. Nothing could be further from the truth. The new single player mission for Brute Force, named "Lockjaw", is a mission that can be finished in a mere 5 - 10 minutes. Of course, the game designers compensate for this by making the mission really, really hard, so that you have to retry several times till you figure out the few neunces. But once you've actually got the tricks down, the whole thing is over in 5 - 10 minutes. Hey, it's just like sex.
The downloadable map is actually well designed. In fact, it would make a kickass deathmatch map. Unfortunately, the game designers took this well designed map and crapped on it with a bad mission setup. (Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, as my friend would say.) The whole premise of Lockjaw is that you are bombarded with non-stop, respawning Shrike. There is no ability to get a tactical advantage because the shrike dropships (which incidently look a lot like those Covenant dropships) will continously bring in fresh enemies and will come in from all directions. Combine this with some technical flaws (in certain areas of the map, your teamates won't go to the marker that you tell them to go to. They also fall off ledges frequently in this map), and you've got something that completely counteracts the strengths of Brute Force. Play Lockjaw in Hard or Brutal mode and your teamates will be dead within 10 seconds of being attacked, and that's no joke. Overall, it's a very dissapointing downloadable map. For 1600 blocks, I could have ripped "She blinded me with science" 5 times over, and still got more enjoyment out of my 1600 blocks.
On the other hand, the downloadable multiplayer maps are actually quite good. (Of course, none of this really matters as my friend from work and I are probably the only persons on the planet who play system link Brute Force.) I really like the team deathmatch map where you can control a turrett. Unfortunately the team-deathmatch downloadable map has one bug: if near the turret, your AI teamate will tend to target the gun turrets, even if an enemy is also by. So Brutus will be expending his damn ferral cutter ammo at this fortified turret (by which he will never destroy it), all the while ignoring the the Seer on the other team that is firing at him from 20 feet away.
Which brings me to my next point: Brute Force is in need of a serious weapons overhaul. There are tons of weapons, but they are not well ballanced. And too many are just like each other. THAT is what really needs to be downloadable: new weapons, and ones that we can use in the campaign. How about some chargable weapon? How about giving Brutus a weapon that doesn't suck. Why is the shotgun in BF the weakest weapon even at close range?
Now I know why the Ferral collonists are becoming extinct. Their ferral cutters couldn't fight off a cockroach infestation let alone a group of Seers.
Well, for those of us who are fans of Brute Force (there are about 5 of us and we're growing, I assure you), we can have one new single player mission to play in addition to the two multiplayer maps released 3 weeks ago.
The multiplayer maps are roughly 400 and 600 blocks each, but the single player map packs a meaty 1600 blocks. For that size, you'd think you get a nice lengthy mission. I mean, SOF2 and Wolfenstein maps are like 50 - 75 blocks each, so 1600 blocks must be something really substantial. Nothing could be further from the truth. The new single player mission for Brute Force, named "Lockjaw", is a mission that can be finished in a mere 5 - 10 minutes. Of course, the game designers compensate for this by making the mission really, really hard, so that you have to retry several times till you figure out the few neunces. But once you've actually got the tricks down, the whole thing is over in 5 - 10 minutes. Hey, it's just like sex.
The downloadable map is actually well designed. In fact, it would make a kickass deathmatch map. Unfortunately, the game designers took this well designed map and crapped on it with a bad mission setup. (Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, as my friend would say.) The whole premise of Lockjaw is that you are bombarded with non-stop, respawning Shrike. There is no ability to get a tactical advantage because the shrike dropships (which incidently look a lot like those Covenant dropships) will continously bring in fresh enemies and will come in from all directions. Combine this with some technical flaws (in certain areas of the map, your teamates won't go to the marker that you tell them to go to. They also fall off ledges frequently in this map), and you've got something that completely counteracts the strengths of Brute Force. Play Lockjaw in Hard or Brutal mode and your teamates will be dead within 10 seconds of being attacked, and that's no joke. Overall, it's a very dissapointing downloadable map. For 1600 blocks, I could have ripped "She blinded me with science" 5 times over, and still got more enjoyment out of my 1600 blocks.
On the other hand, the downloadable multiplayer maps are actually quite good. (Of course, none of this really matters as my friend from work and I are probably the only persons on the planet who play system link Brute Force.) I really like the team deathmatch map where you can control a turrett. Unfortunately the team-deathmatch downloadable map has one bug: if near the turret, your AI teamate will tend to target the gun turrets, even if an enemy is also by. So Brutus will be expending his damn ferral cutter ammo at this fortified turret (by which he will never destroy it), all the while ignoring the the Seer on the other team that is firing at him from 20 feet away.
Which brings me to my next point: Brute Force is in need of a serious weapons overhaul. There are tons of weapons, but they are not well ballanced. And too many are just like each other. THAT is what really needs to be downloadable: new weapons, and ones that we can use in the campaign. How about some chargable weapon? How about giving Brutus a weapon that doesn't suck. Why is the shotgun in BF the weakest weapon even at close range?
Now I know why the Ferral collonists are becoming extinct. Their ferral cutters couldn't fight off a cockroach infestation let alone a group of Seers.