Breed

PUBLISHER: CDV

DEVELOPER: BRAT DESIGNS

GENRE: FIRST-PERSON TINHEAD SHOOTER

RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 2003

Years and years ago, the idea of a game that melded vehicular combat (both in space and on land) with first-person shootery was nigh-impossible to imagine. In fact, we saw a game eons ago (1998) called Rock that planned to do just that, but alas, the developer went under. With games like Battlefield 1942 and Operation Flashpoint proving that vehicles and foot soldiers can play together, the next logical step is to create the sci-fi combat game that couldn��t be done in ��98. Enter Breed.

LICENSED TO DRIVE

Breed is all about action. Sure, there��s a backstory, but all you need to know about it is, ��Breed conquered Earth, and we��re taking it back,�� or so says producer Sven Schmidt. Over the course of 20 missions, you��ll take your squad of United Space Corps minions to battle Breed aliens on missions that ask you to retrieve a data disk, assault and occupy an enemy base, or rescue space POWs. This shooter��s hook falls somewhere between Halo and Battlefield 1942. Not only can you drive around all sorts of vehicles and have a ragtag band of brothers tearing up the landscape, but some of those vehicles can seamlessly fly from the mothership in Earth��s orbit down to terra firma��and without a loading screen that interrupts you midway through.

Like in the Rainbow Six series, players can easily switch between different squad members by pressing a key. By default, you��ll usually be jumping between members of a four-man squad, but you can also directly control the dropship pilot, the dropship gunner, and even a turret gunner on the USC Darwin (the human mothership). The 20 vehicles range from jeeps to APCs to flying scouts, and they all use the same WSAD interface. You��ll need these vehicles to run across the vast landscapes, some of which take up a whopping 200 square kilometers of game space.

BREED SHOOTING

Similar to tactical shooters and Halo, Breed only lets you carry two weapons: your standard assault rifle and one specialized weapon, whether it be a rocket launcher, sniper rifle, or minigun. While there are specific classes with specialties (i.e., heavy gunners get outfitted with a rocket launcher, snipers with a sniper rifle, etc.), anyone can use any weapon; it just becomes a matter of precision. Heavy gunners have a hard time sniping, while the regular trooper has a tough time hefting a big ol�� rocket launcher everywhere he goes. So, while it��s not ideal to be using a weapon you��re not specialized in, it��s still helpful to be able to at least use it when, say, your fellow soldiers get capped in the head. Of course, you can also use weapons dropped by the Breed, but you will experience a similar lack of precision when you use their hardware.

Besides traditional Deathmatch and Capture-the-Flag multiplayer modes, Breed also features co-op and Assault modes. The co-op campaign supports up to four players and is unlocked after successfully finishing the single-player campaign yourself. The easiest way to describe Assault is to imagine the Battle of Endor from Return of the Jedi. The USC and the Breed each have a mothership, and Earth lies in the middle. The Breed mothership is protected by a shield which, conveniently, is powered by a shield generator on Earth. Both Breed and USC players can engage in outer-space dogfights in fighter craft, while a small contingent of USC soldiers can land on Earth and attack the shield generator. Once the shield generator is deactivated, USC fighter ships can swoop in, clear the Breed ship, and have a dropship deploy troops inside it to take it down.

With some proper A.I. tweaking and weapon/vehicle balancing, Breed can easily be called Battlefield 2642, and it might possibly outdo that shining Halo on the horizon come summer.

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Computer Gaming World.