Why Brute Force Was A Complete Flop Despite The Hype
The original Xbox birthed many of the franchises that still hold up Microsoft's console brand to this day.
Halo is the quintessential first-person shooter IP that is most closely associated with the Xbox family of consoles. The Fable series found its beginnings on the original Xbox and soon transformed into one of its main pillar franchises. Then there are other original Xbox games, such as Forza Motorsport and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which did a fine job of raising the stock of the classic console even more.
But much like every other console, there's a collection of games that arrived on the Xbox that simply didn't live up to their lofty expectations. When it comes to the OG Xbox, one of those titles is the oft-forgotten squad-based shooter known as Brute Force. Prior to release, the hype surrounding Microsoft Game Studios/Digital Anvil's squad-based shooter was through the roof.
But once it finally hit the shelves, the overall response to Brute Force was a little less joyful. Here's why it fell flat on its face, despite being propped up as the next big thing in gaming.
Brute Force's pre-release push as a "Halo killer" simply didn't come to pass
Brute Force launched on the original Xbox back in 2003. In the months preceding its launch, the game earned a ton of attention due to it being hyped up as a potential competitor or successor to Halo.
Unfortunately, it was unable to reach the highs that the original Halo provided for millions of gamers across the Xbox platform. Miguel Lopez of GameNow was none too fond of the game and made it known in his review. "Brute Force was being hyped for a while as a Halo killer," Lopez noted. "Guess what? It ain't." He also went on to lament the game's uninspired campaign: "Despite some hardcore A.I., the single-player experience is unlike Halo's; it's pretty repetitive and unimaginative, so you won't feel the urge to play it through more than once."
Even though Brute Force disappointed many due to its generic sci-fi plot, mundane characters, and rote gameplay, the hype it garnered before release helped it surpass Halo's first-week sales. Even still, Brute Force failed to become one of the OG Xbox's must-play IP's.
The game's current Metacritic score is shockingly high, however, indicating that there's still a lot of love for Brute Force — at least from the folks who remember it.