Breed review

The year is 2600, Earth’s population has dwindled as millions of people have left to colonise the Besalius ‘binary’ star system far, far away. All was peaceful until 2062 when suddenly, without warning, a series of terrifying attacks from an alien race that would become known as the 'Breed' devastated the colonies. With these overwhelming attacks crippling them, the colonies had no choice but to send a distress call back to Earth for assistance. In 2603 the Earth mobilised a giant fleet, comprising many thousands of United Space Corps battle cruisers. They set off on the year long journey, hoping they would be in time. When they arrived, the battles were long, many thousands died and hundreds of ships were destroyed, but the Breed were beaten back and finally driven away, the USC claiming victory in 2624. Such was the devastation that only one cruiser, the USC Darwin, was able to return to Earth without undergoing repairs. Expecting a heroes welcome, they arrived back to find the Breed had used the Besalius attacks as a diversion and had attacked Earth! The Breed were now in complete control and must be driven back into space! Can one ship and its crew of GRUNTS (Genetically Revived UNiversal Tactical Sentients) save the Earth? Only you know the answer to that!

1,2,3,4, I love United Space Corps!

Taking control of your squad of GRUNTS, it's time to wage war, but basic training awaits. Admittedly it's a lot like your standard first person shooter with knobs on, those knobs being your squad, three others each with different weapons, ranging from a sniper rifle to rockets to a minigun. Each of your team also has the standard assault rifle complete with grenade launcher on the bottom. You can take control of any member of your squad at any time simply by tapping Page Down, so if you want to take out that artillery gunner from 800 yards before he rains hot molten death on your squad, switching to the sniper and blowing the Breed gunner’s brains out is simple. Unfortunately it's also necessary as your sniper won't take the initiative and do it himself. Your squad will also respond to various orders including cease fire, fire at will, spread out, form up and a few others and you find yourself doing this a lot, especially the form up order as your squad are about as smart as two pieces of 2x4. Quite a few times early in the game I've not actually ordered them to do anything and run off, killing Breed by the dozen, only to turn round and see no sign of my squad anywhere. Tapping 'form up' I see them in the distance, running towards me to cries of "Yes Sir!" and "On the way!". At no time did I ask them to stop or cover me or stay here, they just need to be told what to do all the time.

As popular as MDF on home improvement shows

This distracts from the action slightly. I'll give you another example, early in the first mission one of your ships is attacked and you have to go and try to rescue them. There's a handy vehicle, although it only seats one person so your squad can't come with you. They just stand and wait for you. Once you've travelled a bit, killed some Breed, I asked them to 'form up' again. Now, I'd gone down the side of the lake and turned right, so what did my thick as GRUNTS do? Try to walk through the lake, straight towards me and drown of course! The strange thing is, they didn't actually drown until I had control of them! Not a happy chap was I and there's other situations where the AI could really do with some improvement. Reaching a checkpoint on top of a building, then switching to a GRUNT still on the ground, then asking your squad to follow you means the grunt on the building attempts to run straight towards you and either can't make it as there's a ladder that he doesn't use or he falls from a great height and dies. All in all, the AI lets this game down badly.

Showing promise

Graphically the game uses a unique game engine developed by Brat Designs themselves called Mercury. It looks very impressive with vast open expanses and superb detail when viewed through your sniper scope and no pop-up either. The character and vehicle models are also very good with realistic animation and movement and the sound is also very good with different voices for your squad, including a Scottish accent! The game can be quite difficult in places, simply because you're often waging a one man war with your squad doing very little of the actual fighting or killing. It's like they're there to make the game different, but actually it adds very little to the overall game experience. I ended up taking the GRUNT with the biggest weapon and wading in, leaving the other squad members away from the carnage, so should I die, there's someone else to take control of. The Breed are there in their hundreds, ripe for slaughter, but their actual AI is quite good, taking cover and awaiting re-enforcements at times, but overall the game just doesn't have the immediacy of Unreal Tournament 2004 or require the necessary skill needed to progress in Halo, for example. It's good, yes, but not brilliant. I'm not sure if Brat Designs will become one of those developers that you look out for, one of those that, when you see their logo on the box, makes you come over all warm. It remains to be seen if their upcoming games, SOLAR and Toon Army will increase their standing.