Breakdown

"A quality peice of work."

Namco's Breakdown is A FPF (first-person fighter) where the player assumes the role of Derrick Cole; a recently woken coma victim shrouded in mystery. The game is played totally in a first-person perspective, even the cinematics. The game does such a wonderful job on immersing the player in it's world. It was quite a refreshing game to play, it's a wonder why this game fell under the radar.

GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay is great, allowing you to basicly create your own combos and move about as you wish, think of it as a first person 3-d fighting game. The aspects of the game is simple enough, advance the story while beating the crap out of enemies. The environment is static and can't really be manipulated unless scripted. The puzzles included are good and fresh but you either get it or you don't, or you stumble upon it by accident.
The game starts off as a tutorial teaching you the basics, and while the game is easy to learn, it's dificult to master. For some, even on Normal the game can be quite difficult. Your main attacks are your bare hands, and although you do get weapons throughout the game, you'll most definately rely on brute force. The weapon selection is small but serves it's purpose. My main gripe with the weapons is that they aren't very good, the machine gun really sucks at hitting anything even 10 feet away, and at that range, fists are the way to go.

Graphics:
While certainly not ground breaking in appearance, alot of work was done with this game. The textures although somewhat bland, mainly seen in the lab parts of the game, capture what it would really be like inside an office facility. The character models weren't all too great, but it is what you'd expect from namco, no more, no less. The character and shadows act in real-time. The real gem in the gfx department is your vision, your head bobs as you move, and your view recoils as you're hit by the enemy. You experience things through his eyes and sees what he sees, you can even see his feet!

Sound:
Great quality, the musical score did it's job very well, from setting the tone of disappointment of sadness, to dark forboding industrial music. The effects of the game are done well, often times you'll hear people screaming or little aliens creeping around, really setting the tone of the game and adding suspense, yet in certain places in the game, a single sound effect can start to annoy you as it is played over and over with no diversity, such as the sliding door sound. Over all, the game does a good job of capturing the environment.

Story:
The story is what some might call one of the best parts of the game. The game sucks you in and takes you for a ride, unfolding slowly as it's adding twists and creating a plot full of mystery yet complete in it's own right. The whole game leaves out some details that you only get in your second time through, and requires you to fill in the blanks yourself. It's an original plot and the characters have their own identity and the hallucination sequences are a work of art.

Pros:
Innovative gameplay (not entirely original but a game like this has never been made)
Great story
Immersive
Easy to learn
Great cinematic sequences
Good musical score

Cons:
Not enough enemy models
Textures can be trite
Little replay value
Sound effects can be annoying
Hit or miss puzzles
Little weapon variety
Bad weapon physics

Summary:
Over all this game is great, the story is amazing and sucks you in. The gameplay is enjoyable and none of the cons really take away from the game. The game offers so much in terms of immersion, though there's alot of things that are left unknown if you they are overlooked, you really get what you put into this game. It's easy to pick up and play and has a certain charm that makes you want to keep coming back.

Rent/Buy:
I'd go buy it, seeing as how it's only 20 dollars at Target right now, although you might be able to beat this game on rental only, it's really a diamond in the rough that every x-box owner should have.

Overall I give it a 9 out of ten.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/29/04