Broforce

For a long time I hesitated about buying Broforce. I liked the idea of an over-the-top eighties action movie themed game, but I wasn't sure if it was like, ironically hyper-american or just pro-military masturbation. The emphasis on “bros” was enough to make me put it down until it was on sale for quite cheap.

My first impression of the game was surprise, really. For a game about being big tough action heroes, it immediately goes against theme and makes your characters die from a single hit. It's not too difficult though, you get a lot of lives. There's an interesting mechanic there though, each time you pick up another life in the game, you switch characters. I admit I didn't like this at first. By the end of the game...well, I was used to it at least. It does give you a chance to play through a lot of different characters, which might not happen otherwise.

Speaking of characters, one of the highlights of this game is that you get to play as cheap knockoffs of all your favourite 80s action heroes, plus a few from the 90s and later as well. One second you'll be Dutch from Predator, the next you'll be Neo from The Matrix, then Predator from Predator, then Conan. It's madcap.

There's women, too, something I wasn't sure about with the name Broforce. It's not super progressive,

(the men are bros and the women are bros, too) but it tries. They included Cherry from Planet Terror, even though that's a relatively modern film, because they wanted more women in the game.

Oh and as for a final judgement on whether the game is being ironic in it's pro-war pro-America stance, I think yeah. It's pretty harmless fun. It doesn't get too political either way, aside from a few tongue-in-cheek comments about “liberating” countries. However you feel about America, terrorism, etc, you can probably pick this game up and not be too offended. It's more a commentary on action movies than anything in real life.

So, is the game any good? I played through the whole thing before sitting down to write this review and I feel pretty confident saying “Yeah, it's not bad.”. It's separated into small, easily digested sections. Four or five 2-min levels and then a boss, then it saves. I liked that I could play for fifteen minutes, make some progress, and then go do something else. The gameplay is not exactly revolutionary, you basically just run around spamming the kill button, but it's suitably visceral and fun. I give it 3.5/5 stars.