Brute Force is a squad-based shooter starring four cloned soldiers who fight on behalf of a 23rd century military organization known as the Confederation. Players begin the operation as Tex, a skilled mercenary who shoots first and asks questions later, but will reunite with other members of the team as the game progresses, including feral alien Brutus, the beautiful scout Hawk, and a synthetic female named Flint. Campaign mode, which can be played solo or cooperatively with up to three friends, consists of 18 missions taking place on six planet surfaces. Players will seek out hostile aliens and mutants from volcanic and desert wastelands to lush jungles and ancient ruins. Each warrior can pick up and use two types of weapons at any given time as well as carry a limited number of grenades. Characters also have one special skill that can be activated for a limited duration of time. Tex can wield both weapons at once in a berserker state; Brutus can pick up heat traces to see enemies or sense traps in otherwise poor conditions; Hawk can camouflage herself to become invisible to others; and Flint automatically isolates enemy targets from afar so she can pick them off with her sniper rifle. Missions are composed of both primary and secondary objectives, which earn players money used to purchase additional cloned soldiers whenever teammates are lost during an expedition. Brute Force also features two separate multiplayer games. In addition to co-op play in Campaign mode, players can set up Deathmatch or Squad Deathmatch scenarios where up to four players (up to eight using an Xbox System Link Cable) can select different teams to battle each other on a choice of maps and victory conditions. Although the game does not offer online competition, Xbox Live is supported for downloadable content, including new multiplayer maps and single-player missions. Players can also unlock additional characters for use in multiplayer games by finding DNA canisters hidden somewhere within Campaign missions.