Broforce Reviews
Brash, solid, run 'n' gun goofiness that's a tad too underwrought to be truly brilliant.
A bombastically endearing tribute to classic action movie excess that is occasionally too chaotic for its own good.
Beneath Broforce's hyperbolic chest-thumping action movie-inspired silliness lies an extremely polished run 'n gun platformer. Simple and reliable but nuanced and ever-changing (thanks to the constantly rotating characters) Broforce is testosterrific. If you could watch Commando on a SNES, this is what it would look like.
Maddeningly difficult and seemingly unfair at times, but so much fun I didn't want to stop until I was victorious
While the mechanics are not as tight as they could be, and there still is a bit of rust hanging around from Early Access, this that shows us that giving an in-development title your hard-earned cash isn't always a bad call. Perhaps with future content updates and tweaking, Free Lives can elevate Broforce from the good game it is to the great game it can be.
Forget your Just Causes, your Uncharteds, your Battlfields and your Call of Duties – Broforce comes closer to capturing the beautiful chaos and heroic misadventures of a big budget action movie than any of them.
Broforce is a hilariously explosive 2D action-platformer with a memorable catch-'em-all cast of action movie caricatures. The action may be a little one-note, but when that note is as big and bold as it is here, you'll be all-too-willing to disengage your brain and engage your trigger finger. After playing through the seemingly unending series of critically-acclaimed, high-brow 2D action titles on Switch, this is the perfect way to unwind.
An incredibly fun and action-packed experience, perfect for local co-op.
Imagine Contra meets Kid Chameleon via Super Meat Boy, with a touch of Sensible Software's irreverence, and you're there. One the most enjoyable couch multiplayer games I've played in quite a while.
Broforce is like a summer blockbuster: popcorn action, entertaining, with a lot of humor, that catches from beginning to end and entertains without major pretensions. It's best enjoyed in short sessions, especially if you don't play with friends. To some palates, its action can be repetitive after the first few hours, but that has not been my case...
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After finishing the too-long campaign, there's an Ironbro mode (where each Bro only has one life) and a level editor to tinker with. It seems robust, but I didn't spend much time with it. This all adds up to a decent amount of bro-time if you really want it, but I'm fairly certain whoever you play this with will end up being a not-bro for a little while. Broforce could have been a fun "Hoo-rah 'Murica" romp, but it comes with artificial difficulty and bugs that aren't worth dealing with. You're better off watching First Blood again and pretending Satan is going to show up at the end.
Carving your way through a level in Broforce is chock full of muscle flexing carnage, and it's brilliant for it as explosions rock the screen and you tear through the scenery. Though inventive, some of the boss fights halt that fun, and the way co-op deals with lives is too unforgiving, but it's always throwing out something new, whether it's a different looking environment to blow up, a new type of enemy to blow up or another new bro to add to the team and blow things up with.
Technical issues aside, Broforce is a delightfully chaotic love letter to the brightly-colored excesses of 80's action movie carnage and coin op shooters.
Broforce is everything awesome about action films amplified to a satirical degree that will leave you grinning non-stop. The tight run and gun gameplay never outstays its welcome with a steady stream of fresh bros, locales, and challenges. Fine-tuned visuals and audio serve to make its patriotic bent all the more entertaining, and even though performance issues knock the game down a peg for now, there's not much else that keeps this guilty pleasure of a game from resounding triumphantly like fireworks on the Fourth of July.
From the opening game logo with a screeching American Eagle with bulging biceps that barks out Broforce to the Army chopper that transports you to the start of a level and returns to pick you at the end, the game practically reeks of testosterone.
Broforce finally explodes into its final release. The old-school difficulty might shock more casual indie players, but the pitch-black absurdist humor and deep, dynamic gameplay will keep you coming back for more.
Whether you take the "Bro" elements for what they are, which is to say a daft gimmick to add an extra layer to a fun, challenging, carefully crafted love letter to the 80s, is up to you, but nothing about Broforce is serious bar the difficulty and dedication to the bit. If you're the type to roll their eyes at a bad pun while others around you snigger, you might still enjoy the shooting, but this is a full on mickey-take on the Team America generation that will be like nails on a chalkboard to some.
Broforce is an ode to gamers that were raised by action movies and 16-bit consoles. Broforce looks the part and plays the part of a run 'n' gun freedom simulator featuring Rambo, Indiana Jones, and Robocop parodies. The technical defects of the PS4 version, however, give the PC original the clear advantage.
With a fully-fledged single player / co-op "story" mode, online play, deathmatch, level editor, and more, there's a ton of content for the cost, and it's all a ton of fun to boot.
Broforce is, simply put, a love letter to every action movie ever made. Free Lives have taken the heroes we've all seen on the silver screen, thrown them into a 2D pixel environment, and created an insanely addictive, if not a little-too-difficult action game that can be enjoyed alone, or with friends. If you've ever enjoyed the likes of Contra, or even Metal Slug, you really shouldn't miss out on this game!