BROFORCE: Saving the World with the Bros

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Brofroce Cover. On the top center is an Eagle flexing their muscles with a large star emblazed over its chest. The Title "Broforce" is written and beneath that is four muscular men with the left corner showing a man with a knife in camoflage with a four barreled rocket launcher, to the right at the bottom is a sniper in a ready to fire position. Above the sniper is a dark-skinned man with a flame thrower and a short mohawk and to his left is a man with a rifle with a underbarreled grenade launcher in one hand and the American flag being planted in the other
Broforce, developed by Free Lives Games, is 2D side-scroller platform shooter with the option for up to 4 players co-operative play. 

The premise is that you play one of the characters from Broforce: An American funded initiative that sends highly trained "Bro / Bros" into combat against its enemies.

It features a solid roster of 41 (as of last update - Broforce Fandom Wiki - Bros) characters that are famous from the 1980's and 1990's action movies and TV series and can be analogous to the movies of The Expendables fame ( even having their own spin-off in the same vein). 

Each character embraces the running theme of Broforce - by their names all having some form of Bro worked into their moniker for example : RamBRO, or BROmmando. 

Apartment Block. On the top middle is a large billboard displaying scantly clad women lying back with a balaclava holding a automatic rifle. Below that is a Bro standing underneath it. To their right an explosion is going off and in the apartement building below the Bro stands a group of three armed hooded enemies with one wearing an explosive body strap standing between the other two enemies armed with automatic rifles
Added to this zaniness, every character has their own flavour by each using weapons and abilities that is symbolic of the character they are parodying.

In addition to their weapons and abilities, Bros can also pick up single use items or abilities from crates which increase in variety by completing special operations - which are usually trickier shorter missions that rely more on a specific Bro's speciality than the usual Shock and Awe.

Bro's are inserted into missions zones, that consist of between 3 or 4 missions on average per zone, via helicopter and the main gameplay loop is to get to the end of the mission, causing as much chaos and destruction as you want and it concludes with an extractration in a extravagant  manner or fight a boss that usually caps off the mission zone.

Napalm Strike. A multiplayer session depicting a chaotic battle with four bros. One in the top right corner in the air with a large quantity of spotches of blood between the character and the ground. The ground on the right side of the map is burning with it being difficult to discern where the other three bros are in the pixelated carnage as the left side two enemies parachute in with one having their chute shot and in the process of falling to the ground
The game provides good mission variety as each new zone introduces either new enemies or environmental hazards. This plays into the nature of the game as the maps are near-fully destructible, even to the player's detriment. The destructibility even plays a role in boss encounter designs and there can be fun trying to figure ways to defeat bosses, although there are some that do force a certain playstyle to defeat them which can be an annoyance however these moments are few and far between and doesn't detract from to game too much.

The madness goes up a notch when playing multiplayer as one has to be aware of what the effects of allies and enemies have on terrain, although the game does have a better feel playing with others as you can experience new avenues of approaching the content. All the added volatility really adds something that feels somewhat missing when playing alone.

When one is finished with the main campaign, one can engage in one of the various other modes such as deathmatch, time attack, custom campaign or try your hand at the level editor and upload to make your own fun.

The sound and music design overall does a good job of setting up and selling the mood of the game, although the gun fire feels underwhelming in comparison to the bombastic nature of the explosions and music the game delivers on. Voice work is a stand out as it is over the top and high energy, it makes even failure a tolerable experience.

Boss Early Phase. An early stage of a boss battle where on both sides of the map sees enemies impaled on pikes. It shows four players fighting with one hiding on the stairwell in the bottom left. Another bro is onto of the stairs and has launched two missles towards to boss on the right. Above the launched missles is another bro who is firing their flamethrower to the left and has thrown three napalm grenades at the boss. The forth and final bro is on top of the boss and laying into it. The boss taking visible damage has launched a large missle towards the bros on the left

The the moment to moment gameplay can be chaotically fun as your Bros are, for intents and purposes, glass cannons and can die very easily with lives being measured in rescued prisoners that are dropped in on character death. Thankfully the same can be said for the general mooks and enemies in the game as they are equally vulnerable with some exceptions that make, in universe, sense. The bosses one fights are varied and have different approaches to defeat them effectively and drip with the inspiration that they draw from.

Boss defeated and is forcefully "evacuating" all of its occupants as it is blowing up. The last bro standing is proceeding to make the area safe by destroying the enemy's missle launching vehicle to the bro's right

Broforce is a game that knows what it is and revels in its satire and love for old action movies, for better or for worse. It is a game, best enjoyed with friends, that revels in its wanton death and destruction in service of defending freedom and peace in a world only Broforce can safeguard. It is one of those experiences one can play for a few hours, enjoy what is on display and be satisfied with a play session of some mindless fun.

For those undecided if the game is their type of thing one can always try the single player PC mission pack called Expendabros, which acts like a demo:

Steam: Expendabros

Images Sourced:

IGDB Broforce

Videos Sourced:

Broforce Level Editor Guide

Broforce Launch Trailer

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