Don’t let its woefully ordinary title fool you: Special Forces: Team X doesn’t look or play exactly like the average multiplayer military shooter. Unfortunately, not all of its shifts from the norm pan out as strengths during extended play.
While its five team-based gametypes are largely stock online first-person-shooter modes (like Control Point, Deathmatch, and Hot Zone — the last being a dead ringer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s Hardpoint mode), Special Forces’ third-person view and emphasis on using cover gives the game a slightly different feel. Its team-centric approach adds more of a unique identity, though. The 12-player battles can accommodate between two and four teams total, and staying near comrades lets you use group-empowering attribute boosts and earn extra points for each member’s actions.
Dogs are used much like grenades (just tap a bumper), and they can literally tear an opponent's head off.Elsewhere, Special Forces’ distinct features are less successful. Each map consists of three large tiles voted on before play, but this mix-and-match approach just makes each environment feel samey and generic, while the game’s muddled, cel-shaded look fails to add much-needed flair to the locales. Also, attack dogs — which players can send out to rip an enemy’s head clean off in spectacularly gory fashion — are just a bit too prevalent and easy to use for such a powerful tool.
We enjoyed Special Forces’ team-focused tweaks, even with the game’s dull maps and balance inconsistencies, but this multiplayer-only shooter doesn’t make a very strong impression. It’s a couple of ranks below the genre's best — and that’s something a $15 price can’t fix.
Stick near comrades and you can use shared ability boosts, plus earn bonus points.PUBLISHER: Atari/MicroProse • DEVELOPER: Zombie Studios • ESRB: Mature • MULTIPLAYER: 12 on Xbox Live • ACHIEVEMENTS: Time-consuming (and only 200G total!) • COST: 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15) • RELEASE DATE: February 6, 2013
+ Solid online shooter in a compact package.
+ Team-focused, with point and attribute boosts.
– Tile system makes each map feel samey; attack dogs too frequent/easy to use.
? How do they keep replacing those trained dogs?
