Breakdown

"Love it or hate it"

I was super-uber-ultra hyped up about this game when I saw the E3 demo. Sure it wasn't a showstopper like Halo 2, but exciting none the less. The game seems to has a gimmick to it. You play in first person all of the time. Even when drinking a drink it is done in first person. Luckily it isn't just a gimmick used to sell the game. The game isn't selling that well anyways. Breakdown seems a lot like Half-Life actually. That is a good thing because for its time Half-Life was great. Breakdown is a really good game, but even with similarities to Half-Life it still is nowhere near as groundbreaking as it was. This is a perfect example of one of those games that you will either love it or hate it. I am a FPS junkie so obviously I had a blast.

STORY:9.5
Man this game has a good story. This story is so good that it won enough praise so that Official Xbox Magazine claimed it to have the greatest story of any Xbox game out there. First it is really hard to believe. I do agree that the game has a very compelling narrative, but I wouldn't go as far to say that it has THE best story. The reason I say this is because the ending leaves more to be desired and there are a lot of things that go unexplained. For instance(SPOILER WARNING!) there is this boy that your partner, Alex, sees in a room separated from her by glass. Later you he is mentioned again, but there is his significance. There are other things, but this is a good example. Another thing is this very mysterious cat whose significance is also unexplained. Having said those things, I really do have to give props to Namco for actually making a game with a story this good. It starts with you, Derrick, waking from amnesia and you have to go through some basic training. Once you go back to sleep and wake up again there are these soldiers who come to kill you. Within seconds of their arrival your Trinity-esque partner, Alex, comes in and kicks the crap out of these guys. You eventually run into these super-human soldiers that can deflect bullets and you have a strange reaction to their presence in which your arm starts glowing. After that everything gets wierd and all hell breaks loose. It really is a great reason to play the game even if you, for some reason, don't like the game.

GRAPHICS:8.5
Namco has always done a great job with their presentation in games. This definitely looks like an Xbox game. Breakdown runs super smooth and the framerate never drops. The animations are really good looking. No ones actions ever seem jerky or unrealistic. Well, maybe not ever. Derricks side stepping looks like he is dancing or something. Everyone else looks good though. All of the character models are beautifully rendered with details galore, but some facial features could be improved on. It is nitpicking, but there has to be something to complain about. The environments are really good looking. It sucks that if you shoot something there is no visible damage. So if I throw a grenade and it explodes near a soda machine the thing still looks shiny and everyhting. The only other complaint that I have is that there are some PS2 textures here and there. Some stuff looks really good. Don't get me wrong, but some things just look downright drab in places. I could keep nitpicking, but that still wouldn't change the fact that the graphics in the game look really good.

SOUND:9
The game has really good sound. Usually in games that have a music test option I never go back and listen to the game's music, but in this I thought that the music was actually good enough to go back and listen to again. The sound helps give the game a creepy and mysterious mood in places of the game. I am not saying the game is in the survival/horror genre, but the game sure does have its moments. The first time you ''time slip'' you will probably ask yourself what the hell is going on. The game also boasts some really good voice overs. I thought that they were done quite well. Some of the critics say they are sub-par, but I completely disagree. I only have one complaint for the sound. That is the sound effects. Some are good, but others sound very cheesy and sometimes even laughable. The sounds of guns and artillery all sound very nice. Other things like lasers sound like they were ripped right out of a super nintendo game. It is pretyy sad at times. This game seems to be missing perfection by just a small amount. It is a shame too.

GAMEPLAY:8
Some might consider Breakdown ''Just another damn FPS'' and others will say it revolutionizes the way people will look at first-person shooters. In some ways both groups of people are right. The shooting is pretty generic with a mandatory lock on feature that makes sniping damn near impossible. There are also only about six or seven weapons if you count grenades. I like to be packin'! I need about nine or ten weapons to be satisfied. I can see why there aren't many guns because the main focus is on the hand to hand combat. It isn't just some little on hit punch thing. There are tons of combos and the game actually takes some skill to be good at. Now I can also see how some folks will say it revolutionizes the first-person shooter genre. 1.) The fighting is really well done despite there are no moves that can really help you fight multiple enemies at once. 2.) Everything and I mean absolutely everything is in first person. If you pick up armor it just doesn't appear on your health bar. You put it on in real time. It is really cool. There are no cutscenes. All first person all the time. And 3.) Impressive story. I haven't been drawn into a game this much in a while. Seriously, it is good, really good.

CONTROL:8
The controls will seem very unfamiliar at first. They do take some getting used to. You have to do things like actually do a series of button presses to put on a vest or somethings. The same goes for picking up ammo and health. You pick the ammo up. You put it into the clip. This is a change from most FPS. Where the controls are mapped to is pretty standard stuff. That is all fine and dandy, but the vertical looking sensitivity is so fast that I actually felt like throwing up at times. It is insane how fast you look up and down. You can take off auto-lock, but trust me you do not want to. It is much easier to play the game with lock on. Playing without it makes the game a lot tougher than it already is. The game did not need the auto lock feature. Normal controls would have been way more accessible to casual players, but if you can get used to the controls there is lots of fun to be had.

PROS:
+stunning storyline
+innovative gameplay
+great audio/visual

CONS:
-NO MULTIPLAYER!
-''different'' controls
-difficulty

OVERALL:9
Like I said earlier you will most likely hate this game or have a blast. If you are the one of the people who like this game you will find one of the best stories in recent video game history. Breakdown has a small flaw for every great thing in the game. This game barely missed perfection. If the game was easier or if those missing parts of the story had been filled in the game could have got a ten. I was extremely impressed with Breakdown and it lived up to every expectation that I had. If you are in to first-person shooters you will really like Breakdown. But if you are a jaded gamer you may put the game down fairly quickly. Breakdown may seem overly ambitious, but the failures leave room for an improvement in a sequel.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/15/04