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Video Game / Brute Force

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Brute Force is a Video Game released for the Xbox by Microsoft Studios in 2003. The game is a squad-based third-person shooter that uses four members of a team which fight in numerous missions. 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, as well as special abilities that can turn the tide of battle.

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.

Not to be confused with the comic Brute Force.


Brute Force contains examples of:

  • Action Girl: Hawk and Flint.
  • Alien Invasion: The Shrikes.
  • Arch-Enemy: Ty McTavish is this for Flint.
  • Big Bad: Shadoon, initially. The Shrike Hunter-Lord takes over towards the end.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Shadoon and Kingman have almost nothing to do with each other, beyond McTavish being a spy for the Shrikes.
  • The Big Guy: Tex. He is the strongest member of the team, the only one who can carry two heavy weapons at the same time.
  • Big "NO!": Tex and Hawk sometimes shout this when they die.
  • Cold Sniper: Flint, whose robotic temperament and lack of nerves to steady makes her the perfect sniper.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Edward Kingman.
  • Crapsack World: Caspian. It has lots of abandoned military bases and lawless areas, populated by either bandits or mutants. There are also literal pools and rivers of toxic waste.
  • Cult: Sword of Shadoon.
  • Degraded Boss: An Outcast Shaman is fought at the end of mission 2 as a boss. After that, Outcast Shamans are Mook Commander enemies.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Shadoon is the Big Bad for most of the game until his death in mission 12. The rest of the game has you dealing with his "masters": the Shrikes.
  • Elite Mooks:
    • Feral Meancasts.
    • Seer Followers.
    • Caspian Militia.
    • Shrike Heavies.
  • Escort Mission: Chapter 3 of the fourth mission, which involves you escorting a Seer spy to safety.
    • Chapter 2 of the second mission is also this to a certain extent, as the game will fail if Brutus dies.
  • Faceless Goons: The Red Hand mercenaries. Various other human opponents count, too.
  • The Federation: The Confederation of Allied Worlds.
  • Guns Akimbo: Tex's special ability allows him to pull out both of his equipped weapons (which are often heavy weapons, mind you) and start blasting away.
  • Killer App: invoked At least, promoted by Microsoft as a "Halo killer". It didn't happen.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Orisis and Singe. Some of Estuary too.
  • Mook Commander: Outcast Shamans and Seer Priests.
  • Mission Control: Commander Bratton.
  • Mutants: One of the enemy factions in the game.
  • Noble Savage: The Ferals. Lampshaded by Tex in the intro to mission 2.
  • No Body Left Behind: When someone is killed by a bio weapon, they disappear in a green explosion.
  • Oh, Crap!: A Feral Meancast does this during Brutus' introduction cutscene after said character takes a shot to the shoulder.
  • Private Military Contractors: The Red Hand. The mercenaries who serve Edward Kingman count as well.
  • Redshirt Army: The Confed Marines. Many levels have dead marines strewn throughout, others have them needing to be saved by Brute Force.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: Flint. McTavish, as well.
  • Rogue Soldier: Colonel Gunthar Ghent.
  • Samus Is a Girl: Tex is surprised to find out that Hawk is a woman.
  • Sassy Black Woman: Flint, being a synthetic with the likeness of an African-American woman, shows traits of this at times.
  • Shout-Out: When a Red Hand mercenary is killed, another may react with "They killed Kenny! I'll get those punks!"
  • Slave Mooks: The aptly-named Seer Slaves.
  • The Unreveal: It is never revealed exactly which planet Shadoon received the ancient alien technology from. It is implied to be Outpost.
  • This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Hawk is generally considered Awesome, but Impractical due to her stealth focus and incredibly low durability; but then comes the optional battle at the Ferguson Base, which is filled with extremely tough enemies that can murder your squad easily - if not for the fact that Hawk's Back Stab kills them in one hit.
  • Unusable Enemy Equipment: The Molotov Cocktail that the mutants use can not be used by Brute Force.
  • Zerg Rush: In the missions where you fight the mutants, the ones with molotovs will often run up to you and blow themselves up.


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