Mobile Forces

Mobile Forces is a first-person shooter for Windows, released in 2002. It was developed by Rage Software and published by Majesco. The game runs on the Unreal Engine. The core team of Rage Games who developed Mobile Forces went on to become Realtime Worlds.

Gameplay

The game pits players against computer-controlled bots or each other in matches. It has two single-player modes: Missions and Skirmish. In Missions, players must succeed in various game styles to unlock new maps, with bot difficulty increasing across seven skill levels. Skirmish lets players set up custom matches.

There are eight game modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Captains, Capture the Flag, Holdout, Detonation, Safe Cracker, and Trailer. In Captains, each team has a leader, and killing the opposing leader scores a point. Holdout is similar to King of the Hill, where teams compete to hold a single beacon for the longest time. Detonation requires players to grab a central keycard and use it at a console in the enemy base to trigger an explosive.

Safe Cracker involves infiltrating the enemy base to open a safe and steal its contents, with teams swapping roles after each round. Trailer relies on vehicles, as players drive explosive-laden units into the opponent's base to earn points. Unlike games like Counter-Strike or Unreal Tournament, Mobile Forces has its own weapon system. At spawn, players see a loadout screen where they choose weapons and armor.

More powerful weapons, such as a rocket launcher or heavy machinegun, leave fewer points for armor and adrenaline shots. A full loadout also slows the player's movement. The game blends vehicle combat with standard first-person shooting, which was unusual at the time. Development began around the end of 2000 and took 18 months.

Development

The studio was new and unsure what to make, but the team had worked on many titles and wanted to create an FPS. They licensed the Unreal Engine because many good games had used it. The main inspiration was Codename Eagle, which had strong ideas but lacked balance in single-player, multiplayer, and AI. Rage aimed to avoid that mistake by keeping all elements balanced.