Score
Gameplay:	8
Graphics:	7
Sound:	7
FunFactor:	8
PlasmaFactor:	7
Overall:	7.4

Breakdown Review
March 29, 2004 by Ryan Newcomb

by RyanN - March 29, 2004

So you think you know what a first person shooter is, do you? Where you run around a game only seeing the barrel of your gun and the camera, if you're lucky, rocks up and down trying to go in sync with your steps. WRONG! The only "real" FPS I've played so far is Namco's Breakdown. Let me break it down for you...

You're laying on a bed, seeminly paralyzed, and staring at white ceiling tiles. You have no recollection of how you got there... no recollection of anything, really. You find yourself suddenly able to move, and a man (apparently a doctor or a scientist) speaks to you from an observation room above. Not knowing what else to do, you follow the man's instructions and receive a crash couse in hand-to-hand combat, aerobics, and target practice.

The next thing you know, you're eating your lunch, pass out on your bed (thanks to a sleeping drug the doctors so kindly give you), and sit paralyzed on your bed as you hear gunshots and screaming. A woman appears literally out of nowhere to rescue you, and before you know it you're on a very trippy adventure.

Breakdown's got some of the coolest ideas for a game I've ever seen. In my opinion, this is the only true first person shooter on the market. If an enemy punches you in the stomach, your body bends forward, and you're staring at the floor. If you get smacked on the right side of your face, you're head goes to the left. BACKFLIPS (yes, backflips in a FPS!!!) give you that dizzy sensation that I'd imagine you would get in real life... because this white boy just can't jump high enough to do them in real life.

There are some great cinematics in the game... a lot of them are interactive as well. Personally I think it rocks to have a first person view of your partner sticking her finger in your mouth, inducing you to throw up your poisoned lunch...

Fighting is cool and more realistic than any other game on the market. Besides the awesome camera movements when you are getting hit, the enemy is actually SMART. While you are taking on one guy with your ultra cool Mortal Kombat-style combos, two others will take advantange of your vulnerable back and will start attacking from behind. The marines with their sub machine guns will hide behind columns when reloading, chuck grenades at you if they know you're around a corner, and hide in brilliant spots for ambushes. I can't remember the amount of times I had to respawn at a checkpoint because I entered a room where a marine popped out from behind a box and pumped me full of lead.

Overall, the game leaves you with an extreme sense of awareness because you literally must know what's going on around you at all times... otherwise you're kissing the ground while some super soldier is smashing your body into the pavement.

Very smooth graphics

While the game may not have graphics up to par with Halo, they aren't bad. The best part about the graphics is the use of the first person camera. Who would have known picking up a can of soda, popping the top, and taking a huge swig would be a cool thing to add to an action game? However, as with most games, all the enemies look like clones of each other. I was wishing this would be the game to break the cycle. Sure, there may be two or three different models for the marines, but killing the same three marines over and over again is kind of dull. Same goes for the supersoldiers and the Japanese(??) private security force. The levels seem kind of repetitive... walking through hallways also gets dull for a while. I will say, though, that running through a burning building is sweet, and some of the cinematics are very, very LSD-style trippy.

I hate video game voice acting

Something has always bothered me about video game voice acting... no matter how cool the game is, the voice acting always sucks. Plain and simple. Breakdown is no exception. I'd sure like to meet the people who cast actors in the roles for video games (not necessarily just for Breakdown) because I'd have a few things to say to them.

One thing this game actually does do well with the sound is the translation to Japanese to English--- in fact, it does this better than most games.

The music for the game isn't bad either-- kinda gets you into the spirit of things. When the "eerie" music starts playing you know you can expect something strange to happen just around the next corner. Great music score.

FUN

This game is fun. Pure and simple. From eating a hamburger and buying a soda out of machine to dodging bullets from an attack helicopter to uppercutting an enemy, this game will keep you occupied for a long time for the simple reason is that it's FUN. The only thing that could make this game more fun would be a multiplayer option... imagine going head to head in a deathmatch with this game's use of the first person point of view. Wow... maybe there will be a sequel?

I hate game overs

This game makes you use your brain. Being trapped in a room with two T'lan soldiers (which you can't kill yet, but they can tear you apart in a second) that are chasing you doesn't leave a lot of room for thinking does it? What are you going to do? It took me a while to find the ceiling tile missing from the elevator that I had to climb up because it only takes a second for these bad guys to catch up with you, and once they do you're dead.

THE BIGGEST problem, and it's just a petpeeve of mine, is that when you hit Alex (your friend/partner) you get a GAME OVER because "you lost the trust of your companion". What kind of bullshit is that? It doesn't really affect the gameplay because you're not supposed to beat up the people helping you out (obviously) but for some reason that justs gets under my skin. UGH. I mean... losing the trust of your partner? Is this a FPS or an RPG?

Of course the game's story and new techniques make up for this small... let's call it annoyance... so don't let that deter you from checking Breakdown out.

 

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Good- great use of the first person camera and an excellent story. Bad- I hate voice acting. Ugly- watching yourself vomit in the first person.