Breakdown

"Excellent and immersive hand-to-hand combat marred by some poor design choices"

I just finished Namco's Breakdown after about 10 hours of (mostly) enjoyable gameplay.

Had Breakdown been any closer to a standard First-Person Shooter, it would have been a mediocre-to-poor title. Let's look at the negatives first:

The graphics are definitely sub-par, with a few exceptions. Texture quality is poor and environments are simple, though character models are decent. So, technically, the game is graphically mediocre at best. However, the art design of some of the areas is pretty interesting which brings the score up a bit. Besides these interesting areas (later in the game) you'll spend most of your time running around drab white and gray labs and offices.

There are some questionable design decisions that really bring the experience down. You'll have to repeat a pretty decently-sized portion of the game due to a plot device. After getting through this area, you'll be sent back to the beginning after a certain plot twist and have to go through the same exact stretch of game with no differences whatsoever. This is important for the plot, but was detrimental to my enjoyment of it.

The game also devolves into platform hopping later on. Luckily, since you can actually see your character's feet, jumping isn't difficult.

Now for the good stuff.

The immersion factor is out of control. Everything in the game is from your point of view. When you open a door, you actually will see your yourself opening it. When you use a ration bar (the equivalent of a med pack in this game) you will see yourself tear it open and eat it. There are no third person cinemas... like Half-Life everything is from your point-of-view.

The gun combat attempts to be somewhat realistic. You have to steady yourself and choose your shots carefully. Your automatic rifle is an inaccurate mess if you don't get into range, kneel, and stay still. Firefights are difficult but satisfying.

The hand-to-hand combat is simply excellent. There are seemingly dozens of moves (many of which are undocumented within the game), and each move has its use. Throughout the game you will "power up" several times; you'll gain more moves each time, and it's extremely satisfying to use new moves you've learned in combat. Punches and kicks impact realistically, and you'll even find yourself being knocked to the ground or turned around if you're hit with something powerful enough.

There's an auto-target system that is really useful, though it makes it difficult when fighting several enemies at once in hand-to-hand situations. I found myself turning off the auto-target during hectic multiple-enemy fist fights.

The game is ultra-linear, but it works for a story and scene driven game like this. It's quite an experience going through the first time, but there aren't multiple solutions to puzzles or obstacles, so replay value is limited.

Overall, it's a great game (the first time through)! Although there are some frustrating parts, the checkpoint system almost always will auto save before a difficult section, making it simple to retry if you do fail. And the immersion really pulls you in!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/07/04