With enough testosterone to put most WWE wrestlers out of business (with the exception of The Ultimate Warrior), Bro Force is the blood-soaked cry of the American Eagle in video-game form. Muscle-bound pixels on a rampage with every weapon to feature in any action movie ever blast through swarms of terrorists, aliens (yes, those Aliens) and demon-spawn to save the world from the evil clutches of Satan himself.
Finally, the sweet moves and deadly skills of all the action heroes you can remember have been bit-crushed down into pixelated destructoids pit against the overlord of darkness. When haven’t you wanted to take control of The Terminator and use a mini-gun to mow down a screen-full of rabid dogs and burning skulls that want your sweet, roboty flesh? I’ll guess never, or if that’s over-estimating it then I know it’s at least appealed to you if it ever did cross your mind. Your chance to enact those messed up fantasies has arrived.
Game developer Free Lives, alongside publisher Devolver Digital, have crafted a glorious homage to the bygone era of pixellated, side-scrolling Run-‘n’-Guns that colorfully explodes the possibilities of the classic genre and style. The guys behind the Hotline Miami series and (most recently) Enter the Gungeon seem to know exactly what they want in a game and the fertile ground of video-game history to tap into to. It’s no wonder they spotted up-and-coming game jammers, Free Lives, and threw money and expertise at them. They’ve taken the classic style of Contra and Metal Slug and mixed in the all-stars of '80s and '90s action-film history. Rambo, Ellen Ripley, Mr. T, John McClane, Snake Pliskin, Robocop, Neo, Judge Dredd and of course Chuck Norris are just a few of the names (all turned into “bro” puns in-game e.g. “Rambro”) appearing in this game.
What started as a game jam in 2012 involving a bunch of "anthropomorphic turtles” in Cape Town ascended to the attention of indie-game aficionados, Devolver Digital, who backed the game and gave it all it needed for completion. Finally released in late 2015, Broforce became available on Steam and PS4 (sorry Xbox peeps). According to the Creative Director of Free Lives, there is a clause in Microsoft’s contract stating that they won’t accept any game that launches on Xbox after Playstation. Not sucking it up for their fans, it seems like.
What Free Lives and Devolver Digital have created is an explosive, fast-paced Run ‘n’ Gun that has both fluidity in movement and hard-hitting brutality in its violence. On top of that is the unique gameplay format of beginning each level with a random bro. Starting each level with one life, you find and save your bros throughout the map and gain more lives, whilst also becoming whatever random bro you saved. You also respawn as a random bro, meaning you’re never the same bro for long (unless you’re a God).
Sometimes this can be annoying, as you will inevitably find that one bro becomes your favorite. It could be their weapons, play style, or the fact that they’re your number one action hero of all time. As the Yin and Yang of this life seems to work, you will also have a least favorite that has you thinking (or shouting) “Fuck! Not you! Agh!”. This constant chopping and changing of bro does however mean that the gameplay is always changing, as each bro’s combat varies hugely. It also forces you to interact with everyone equally and with the number of bros in there, being able to always pick your personal favorite diminishes the chances of you playing with all of them.
The weapon diversity includes sticking dynamite to walls (or everything), rocket launchers (of varying types), electrical blasts from your hand, laser watches, whips, boomerangs, fists, swords, machetes, air strikes, shotguns, The Cricket, feet guns and roundhouse kicks. The dynamism of violence increases when you take into account the environmental damage you can cause, which can be the complete downfall of your enemy, or (as is very often the case) you.
This is the kind of game where you will suddenly die and sit there with squinting eyes saying, “…how?”. It could have been the explosive barrels you didn’t know were four floors up when you initiated the chain reaction of death that led to the floor beneath it being busted up, it could have been the rock you’re under accidentally being dislodged, or it could have been the single enemy bullet that scuffed your shoulder. That’s right, there’s no life gauge over here. One shot, your dead. You may be playing as the indestructible Series 800, but his power should be enough for you to remain untouched. Same goes for all those bros who’ve walked away from every explosion they’ve ever caused.
It’s not all about the weapons though. With the ability to sprint, climb walls and the nifty knack of using the corners of ceilings to flip up and double your jump, you have everything you need to end world-wide terrorism. Some characters, like Neo, have extensions to their movement that involve their fighting style. On top of the free-flowing movement is the completely (apart from checkpoints) destructible environment. Imagine a Mario where you could blow up that hair-rippingly annoying part of the level that requires you to run and slide under the tiny gap where a Goomba is strolling painfully slowly, yet unavoidably towards you. It would be too good to be true.
As well as there being multiple floors and routes already built into the stages, you can create your own smoldering path with dynamite-stuffed turkeys, flamethrowers, or your fist and avoid battles you don’t like the look of. Don’t think it’s that easy though. As you should know from all the ducts these action bros have crawled through to avoid danger, there’s always something waiting around the corner.
With multiple difficulty settings, a campaign of fifteen levels to run through and the same amount of challenge levels to unlock, there’s a lot to do as a lone wolf. If you wanted to play with friends locally or online (oh the almost-forgotten joy of being able to play a game in the same room as your friend), or other random people around the world who are also halfway through a pizza and hammering their controllers to save the world from pixelated devil-spawn terrorism, then go ahead. 4v4 deathmatch, or run through the campaign with a bro.
You can turn up the carnage and “what the fuck just happened” level to 11 and have a total of four bros on the map at once. It’s a very different experience to playing on your own, because what tends to happen is your team-bros will plow through the level with no thought to their gun’s consequences, blow up everything and throw stealth and planning out the window. The joy is that both modes are fun and feel hugely different. There are also some abilities unobtainable in single player that you have in multiplayer, like high-fiving and slowing down time, just like you do with your bros in real life.
If you want a challenging pixel-shooter to crunch on with decent gameplay time, online multiplayer modes and enough action to dazzle your eyes with in glorious side-scrolling form, then grab this game on Steam, PS4, or PS Vita. If you have an Xbox then just be annoyed at Microsoft for being so sore about Sony picking up good indie games before them.
Already played Bro Force? Love it? Hate it? Let me know what you think below!
