|
|||||||||||||||
Platform: Xbox Genre: First Person Action Adventure Number of Players: 1 (2-10 players via System Link) First person games have offered little in the way of new experiences in gaming over the years. Until recently, with the release of excellent titles like Counter Strike, Medal of Honor and Halo, the genre seemed to grow stagnant, offering only rehashes of the same “pick up the weapon, flip the switch, shoot everything in site” kind of gameplay. Yet even these titles still followed a pretty rigid set of standards. It has worked well enough for what it set out to do, but now, Namco has attempted to evolve the genre with the release of Breakdown.
You begin Breakdown when you wake up in a government facility with no recollection of who you are. Very soon, the voice of an unseen person instructs you to get your ass out of bed and go do this and that. Now, I don’t know about most people, but if this were me in real life, I would have a few questions- like, who am I, who are you, where is this place, ect. I guess I’m just a pain in the butt that way. But the hero of our story, Derrick, seems strangely uninterested in these apparently mundane subjects, and so off you go, happily following the orders of the nice disembodied voice. This first scene is a training level, of course. You will quickly learn how to fire a gun and punch and kick and flip about like a ninja. Keep in mind, all of this is from a first person perspective. You will never actually see the character you play unless you stand in front of a mirror, and when you do side or back flips, the screen spins around all quick and crazy, slightly disorienting the player for a brief period. Considering that the spinning and flipping (and yes, getting knocked repeatedly to the floor) is a major part of the game, players with weak stomachs take note- this game will make you dizzy. After your training, you return to your room, and there find a cheeseburger and a can of juice. Food and juice restore health in the game. As with the other items in the game, like weapons, ammo, and clipboards, you use them by hitting the X button to reveal your hand, hitting the X button again to grab the object (unless you are standing and facing the desired object in exactly the right manner- in which case, you skip one press of the X button), and then hitting the X button to use the item. Many other actions, such as climbing ladders or opening doors, use the X button as well. Overall, the control scheme is kept simple and intuitive.
From time to time, there will be instances where someone will ask Derrick a question- you will be given two choices of answers, or questions of your own to ask. However, there are not many of these, so the player inevitably feels a disconnection from the character. Breakdown is more of an adventure title than action, so there should have been more story revealed through these types of interactions, rather than through simply being told bits and pieces as the game moved along. One of the more interesting features of storytelling is when Derrick experiences hallucinations. This is a lot of fun. In one instance, as you and Alex are making your way through the facility, Derrick suddenly acquires X-Ray vision. You’re staring at your boney hand as you run for your life, thinking, “What the HELL is this all about?” Later, you will exit the burning floor of the building through a door and run right out into a surreal desert landscape, filled with wrecked out cars and funky little creatures that try to kill you as you run over the burning sand to another doorway. These tripped out interludes a certainly a high point of the game- too bad there are not more of them.
The hand to hand is how most of the fighting takes place. I don’t want to reveal too much of the story, but suffice it to say, Derrick comes to be all that and pair of sap gloves when it comes to fisticuffs as the game progresses. Punching and kicking are handled with the left and right triggers and the left thumbstick- pulling a trigger while moving the thumbstick in various directions will produce different combos and kinds of attacks. This combat is a mixed bag. While first person hand to hand fighting has been tried before, it has always roundly sucked. In Breakdown, it is pulled off very well, and it is a real blast knocking bad guys to the floor with a well-timed combo of punches and kicks. On the down side, if you encounter more than one enemy at a time (and you often will), this combat breaks down to a rather tedious game of run and punch, as trying to stand toe to toe with two or three enemies at once will quickly send you to the retry screen. And if your enemies’ attacks are synched right after knocking you down, you will find yourself getting pummeled to death before you can even get up off the floor. Though these things can be frustrating, I need to reiterate that Breakdown manages to make hand to hand fighting from the first person perspective workable and fun- I have never played another game that had this feature that even came close to pulling it off, and Namco deserves a tip of the hat for getting it right. Hopefully, we will see this put to use in future games.
In the end, Breakdown is a game that reaches for a brilliance that seems just outside its grasp. Having said that, I do definitely recommend this game to those who are great fans of the FPS type games. It can challenge, frustrate, and intrigue you, and that’s what we play games for. It is different in its approach to the genre, and does pull off some of its innovations very well, and had it featured more of what makes it unique, it would have been a stellar achievement. Still, FPS heads will find a good deal to like about Breakdown, so go pick it up. There is no reason not to add it to your collection. For the more casual gamer, or those who have little experience or interest in FPS games, I recommend you rent it before you buy. You might find the slower pace and different combat system not what you were expecting, but I’m sure you will have fun with it, nonetheless. It is great to see a company like Namco rise to the challenge to innovate in a genre that far too often suffers from the “me too” syndrome. -Ed- |
|||||||||||||||
The
first noticeable difference between Breakdown and FPS titles that
have come before is that everything in the game takes place from the
player’s perspective. The story is moved along with intros
and cut scenes woven seamlessly into the action, designed to make
you feel a Zen like oneness with the character you are playing.
The effect works quite well most of the time- you will be a little
disgusted when you see vomit spilling out into a toilet, you will
feel a little humiliated when you get knocked on your butt by a an
enemy, and you will empathize with John Rambo as you go crashing down
headlong through tree branches before thudding to the ground.
It is an interesting way to present the game, but it would have worked
a little better had the story been less generic.
At
this point in the game, eating the cheeseburger will make you sleepy.
Your fun friend on the other side of the mic has drugged it, it seems.
All to help you sleep better, he says. As the drug takes effect,
control of your character becomes sluggish and difficult. You
have a hard time standing, you move about in ways you don’t
want to, and camera control becomes useless. After a time, Derrick
will slip onto his bed. A woman named Alex will appear from
literally nowhere, you will put on body armor and steal weapons and
ammo from some newly dead soldiers, and then off you go, on your quest
to get the hell out of wherever it is you are. It's a very basic
storyline that will be all too familiar to viewers of anime or sci-fi
gamers. 
Combat
is handled by way of hand-to-hand fighting and gunplay, using weapons
like a pistol, a submachine gun, grenades, and a rocket launcher.
Oddly, the pistol seems a more potent weapon than the machine gun-
you will at times find yourself emptying an entire clip into an enemy
with the machine gun, while Alex puts her man down with just few pistol
shots. The game features an auto target system that is a great
help in pinning down the bad guys, so hitting them is not much trouble.
Either weapon seems to have a very limited range, however, so a good
strategy seems to be to use Alex as a shield while you get close enough
to kill your foes. The woman, it seems, is bullet proof. 
The
graphics of Breakdown have the high quality look Xbox gamers have
come to expect, but there is simply not enough variety of surroundings
to really make you take notice. One could say that the textures
are bland and repetitive- however, since you spend a great deal of
time running around these government facilities, they look exactly
how they should, so one can't really complain. Character design
and animation is similarly middle of the road. The level design,
on the other hand, is completely linear. Although you will pass
many, many, doorways on your journey, the only ones you will ever
actually be able to use are exactly the ones you need to progress
through the levels. Again, Breakdown is supposed to be an adventure
game, as well as an action game, yet there is zero chance to explore
your surroundings and figure out different ways to go about completing
your tasks. Some more options would have been a nice addition
to the gameplay, and would have added much to the replay value of
the game. As it stands, once you’ve been there, you’ve
done that, so the only replay value will come for players who wish
to challenge the game at a higher difficulty setting. As for
the voice acting and dialog, it is somewhat above average, in my opinion.
I have heard better in a few games, but I’ve heard far, far
worse in many more.