Breakdown

By: Shawn Smith
Xbox Advanced would like to thank GCA Editor Shawn Smith for his time, energy and continued support.

Have you ever been so immersed in a game, that you actually feel like it is you that you are controlling on screen? I know I have. I feel it is a sign that you have a great game on your hands. In Namco’s latest, you don’t really have a choice. You are in the game, playing as a mysterious man named Derrick, in constant first person view. Every move you make, every drink you take, everything looks as if you are doing it. Even during combat, every time you get hit, you’ll cry out as if it were actually you getting punched. Despite a lot of little problems in this game, Namco has brought an exciting title to your Xbox that is surely worth a look-over.

Gameplay
Is it real or is it all in my head?
Your name is Derrick Cole, and you don’t even know that until somebody tells you so. You wake up from a deep sleep only to see blurred images a woman who feels familiar, but you cannot remember who she is. You are a lab rat, with scientists all around you, telling you what to do. You are hunted by military officials who “shoot firstand ask questions later.” Yet, you hunt T’lan warriors and a mysterious entity called the Nexus.
The word “you” is overused to describe the basic premise of the storyline because quite frankly, it feels like you are actually Derrick Cole. In an interesting approach to gaming, Namco has made a game that is not a first person shooter, but a first person adventure. As Derrick Cole, you are the chosen one who will combat through time and space to destroy what threatens your world. The story is a bit sketchy, but we’ll get to that later. What’s important is the fact that you are placed right into the center of this bizarre yet captivating tale. You decide the fate of the world.
Gameplay begins just as stated above, with you waking up only to find yourself under observation by a group of scientists. The first 10 minutes of the game allow you to explore your first person surroundings and get a feel for what it’s like to be truly inside the game. The controls cater to your every whim so fluidly, that everything runs together successfully. A word for the wise though, I suggested you lower the sensitivity on the joystick. Initially it is set pretty high, which is unfortunate because gamers who are unaware that they can alter this level may be deterred by how fast the camera works. Other than that, controls are good and responsive and allow you to pull off some pretty interesting moves in combat. In terms of combat, after your 10 minutes of vacation time are up, the entire base is suddenly alive with action as it gets stormed by military personnel. They raid your room and are just about to off you when a mysterious woman comes to your aid. Now things start to get interesting and from here on out, expect lots of action.

Armed with fallen soldier’s gun, you begin your journey. However, when it comes to holding a gun, you must’ve forgotten how to use one while asleep because you are horrible with it. As stated above, this is not a first person shooter, and it almost seems like the development team didn’t want you to use the gun. Doing so is a painful chore. For starters, the gun always targets an enemy for you, giving you very little control over where you want to shoot. It’s basically “aim right here, and nowhere else.” Headshots aren’t possible unless your bullet spray randomly pierces some unlucky soldier, and even then it might still take two or three bullets to down an enemy. Sometimes, you can be locked on a soldier and be firing like crazy, but they won’t get hit. It’s as if every bullet you shoot has a random trajectory regardless of aim. I highly recommend you use your gun only when there are no other options, because using the guns will hurt you more than it will hurt them.

The shooting sucks, but in Breakdown, there’s actually a reason it sucks. They don’t want you to use your gun in the game, they want you to use the unique hand-to-hand combat system designed for the game. This is made apparent by the fact that your main enemy in the game is immune to bullets, and in the later 1/3 of the game, you’ll never once pick up an assault rifle. From your first actual battle with a T’lan soldier until you finish the game, you will not get tired of the hand to hand combat. It is very unique and very well implemented.

The left trigger corresponds with the left side of your body and the right trigger controls the right side of your body while the L3 button is used to block (this is a most problematic control element, but you get used to it). It’s that simple, except by combining which side of the body you attack with and which direction you push to correspond with the attack will determine what kind of attack Derrick will do. This allows you to string together tons of combos and find different attacks that will not only counter or disrupt your opponents attack, but also send them flying. For example, if you push up on the joystick while hitting the left trigger, you’ll do a high kick that is one of your most deadly attacks. However, pushing up along with the right trigger will do a powerful uppercut that lifts your opponent off of the ground. The sheer sensation of watching your fists fly fluidly into your opponent is enough to make you giggle with glee, but it’s almost more fun getting hit! Many hours of motion capture were used in the production of this game to ensure that when you got hit, it looks like you got hit. Each time you get your ass kicked, your screen will blur slightly and the camera will tumble depending on how you fall. You’ll see yourself fall to the ground backwards, to the left or to your right depending on how you are attacked, and you’ll finally know what it’s really like to get knocked on your face only to turn your head and see the feet of your opponent as he towers over you.

Thankfully, this hand-to-hand combat will be your best friend through the majority of the game, which is about 10-12 hours long. Considering the linear structure of the game, 10-12 hours can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. For starters, this is one of the most linear games in the history of linear games. Throughout the entire game you will be able to access one, and only one, room that you do not necessarily have to be in. Despite the fact that you are in a huge complex for the first half of the game, in each hallway there are two doorways that are open: The one you came in through, and the one you will be leaving from. In the same spirit, the only objects you can interact with are the ones that you need to use. They don’t even try to hide the fact that the game is linear, because only the green doors will ever open, and only the odd looking buttons ever need to be pushed. There are no puzzles to try to find this or that key to unlock this or that door, you just keep on going down your merry path. The good thing about this is that the game is still an action packed 10 hours. There is not a lot of downtime trying to explore and find stupid key items. The bad thing about this is that the game is only 10 hours and there is no exploration whatsoever. How are all the doors open without finding key items? Basically, it depends on your tastes. In addition, the story that accompanies the linear gameplay is complex and confusing. To be honest, it would be impossible to even try to spoil the story for you, because it’s pretty vague. However, the ending is very well done and leaves room for a sequel, which would be very welcome.

Also, the game itself is actually pretty difficult. It isn’t mind numbing hard, but you feel like you’ve accomplished something by beating it. One of the last boss fights in particular is so bittersweet in its difficulty, that you’ll be wiping the sweat off your brow while doing a victory dance after winning. In that particular fight (I won’t spoil anything) you are relying on your hand-to-hand combat skills to overtake your opponent. However, there is another difficulty you will face that is more cheap and annoying than genuinely difficult. As you can imagine, being in first person mode makes it very hard to see if you are getting attacked from the front or the back. Well, there will be quite a few times when you will be surrounded by lots of enemies, and you won’t have a chance if one swings at you from behind. Even more annoying is when you have a group of enemies in front of you that all seems to attack in cycles that make it impossible for you to release your guard, because if you do, you’re screwed.

All linearity and cheapness aside, Breakdown is actually a pretty good game that’s simply plagued by a couple annoying problems. It’s almost as if you could break down (rim shot please) the game into two sections: Hand to hand combat, and the rest. One is so much better than the other and could fly by itself, and the other just happens to be there.

Graphics
“That’s not a coca-cola can! It says JUICE!”

Namco put a lot of work into making Derrick movements as realistic as possible from the first person perspective. Many hours of motion capture were used to make sure that the camera was always in the right place at the right time. Throughout the game, you’ll see Derrick run, jump, fight, climb, eat, drink and fall over: all executed perfectly. During dialogues, you’ll even have Derrick showing hand gestures as he talks. Also, each character model is detailed and well done. The T’lan warriors are good, but it would have been nice to see even more models and more T’lan types throughout the game.
Unfortunately, it seems that all of the effort in this particular category was placed into the first person perspective accuracy and the character models, because the rest of the game is rather bland in comparison to most next-gen titles. The textures in the game are flat and, in some portions of the game, even non-existent. It would have been nice to see better textures and even environmental reactions to getting punched or broken. Another problem is the sheer lack of variety in the environments. For the first part of the game, you go through hall after recycled hallway of a large building, for the middle part of the game you’re in another place that is much more detailed, and the last part of the game takes place in another complex type that is just as recycled as the first one. Throughout the entire game, there are maybe 4 or 5 different environments. The lack of textures did help the game significantly by limiting load times and keeping a smooth frame rate, however. The game runs smooth through the entirety of the game with the frame rate rarely, if ever, dropping.

Sound
Can practically hear yourself think.

The sound for is another place where Breakdown shines. The soundtrack consists of over 20 different tunes, each with a particular feeling and mood to coincide with it. Also, the voice acting is superbly done, even if the script is pretty bad at times. The actual sound effects themselves were very first person intensive, much likes the graphics were. You can hear Derrick breathing heavy as he runs, and you can hear the snap of his fist as he swings into thin air. One of the best sound effects is simply Derrick popping open some juice to drink it. The pop of the can opening and his loud, thirsty gulps will instantly remind you of a coca cola commercial.

Overall
This is a game that innovates, which is somewhat rare these days. It seems like more and more sequels are coming out on each system, but only a few new innovative titles ever really make it to the shelves. Breakdown is one of those few, and like all first-of-its-kinds, it has problems that can be worked out by the time it makes its way to the shelf. However, the few problems aside, this is a very solid title that is worth at least a rental.

Favorite Moment
Finally, after nearly 10 tries, defeating one of the last bosses in a hand-to-hand intense combat match that lasted about twenty minutes. He was a very satisfying boss, and he wasn’t even the last one!

Forgettable Moment
Anytime someone asked me to summarize the plot for them, I got a very bad headache. To be honest, I’m not even sure what the plot was, entirely. All I know is that the ending was good, and a sequel is possible.

Breakdown’s “breakdown”

Graphics: Everything from the first person perspective looks phenomenal, but the environments are unfortunately bland and repetitive. Not much environment interaction or effects, either.

Control: Control can be broken down into two parts. Shooting, and hand to hand combat. Shooting controls horribly and should be avoided, while hand to hand combat controls rather well, and should be savored.

Sound: Crisp quality, lots of detail. Soundtrack is huge and conveys a wide range of emotions.

Gameplay; Very linear, but very solid gameplay. The game lasts about 10-12 hours and for the majority of that time, you’re actively kicking some T’lan tail. The story is difficult to understand, however, and using guns sucks. A lot.

Replay: There really is nothing that makes you want to play this game again. Its fun the first time through, but considering the linearity of the game, you really won’t want a second play through. Unless you want more cool hand to hand combat.

Overall: In case you haven’t figured it out already, the gunplay in this game sucks. However, the hand to hand combat is so good that it makes up for gunplay’s faults. Overall, the game is a solid title and as the first 1st person adventure title of this type, it’s worth a rental.