Breakdown (Xbox) (2003)
Developer: Namco

Review by Faididi and Co.

Brutally fun analysis

Story: Excellent

The discovery of The Sanctuary, an ancient underground ruin, leads to the accidental awakening of its scary cyborg-like inhabitants, the T'lan. Derrick Cole is the amnesic sole survivor of an experimental program that infuses human soldiers with the T'lan's strange energy, and he needs to use his new powers to beat back the monsters.

From its deceptively simple start, the story develops into a fascinating tale that avoids the preachy, melodramatic garbage that plagues so many anime-inspired yarns. Its carefully scripted plot ties the beginning to the end in more ways than one, and it successfully weaves together a wide range of sci-fi themes, from the blurring between broken memories and nightmares to the questions of perceived realities, and from the law of conservation's dominion over time travel to the mix of horror and beauty in strange alien worlds hidden within our own. Subtle little details abound, and they do a fantastic job at bringing out the sadness and poignancy in the game's universe, be they the mystery of the partially dissected remains at The Sanctuary, the lonely automated turret that has nothing left to defend, or the fragility in the link that bonds Derrick to his significant other.

Gameplay: Above Average

A most unusual FPS, Namco's Breakdown looks at first like an anime take on Valve's Half-Life. Derrick battles through seamlessly connected areas, and the story is entirely played out from our hero's viewpoint, but the game brings the first person immersiveness to a perverse extreme. Our hero must realistically interact with every single item, patiently extracting ammo from dropped weapons and actually holding documents up close in order to read them, all in real time. Better yet, Derrick gets to pull off kung fu moves, punching and kicking away at his foes.

As a matter of fact, Breakdown is actually about up-close combat. The selection of guns is few, and the shooting portions are misleading, because roughly after the first third of the game, the regular enemies all consist of the T'lan monsters, who can be defeated only by Derrick's hand-to-hand attacks or energy-costing special moves. Our hero eventually acquires powers that make him pass for a Dragon Ball Z superhero, complete with energy projectile attacks, shockwave blasts, mighty flying kicks, super ninja jumps, and slow-motion perception effects.

Alas, those cool moves never feel enough, because the T'lan are serious about killing people. For a well-trained soldier who's imbued with superpowers, Derrick turns out to be a giant pussy against the T'lan, invariably becoming dazed after receiving the slightest punch. That means during fights against more than one of these fantastic beings, which is to say some eighty percent of the battles, as soon as Derrick gets grazed, he will lose balance, fall flat on his ass, and most likely die under an unending barrage of his foes' follow-up blows. Appreciating Derrick's special abilities isn't easy when simply running past the bad guys is a more reliable tactic. Derrick has infinite lives, and he restarts from checkpoints with regained stamina, but the game probably should've given him regenerating energy by default.

Speaking of checkpoints, the level design itself needs to be more compact. There's nothing wrong with jogging through linear office and laboratory corridors, except when these corridors follow cookie-cutter patterns and are dragged out to dreary proportions, at least in the early scenes.

However, don't let any of that diminish the game's genuine strengths. Breakdown is one of the rare cases where a shaky beginning conceals a far more captivating bulk. Derrick's creepy hallucinations are worked perfectly into the story's cruel secret, and the final third of the game really pumps you up with its mindblowing level design, its clever surprises, and the frightening implications of the entire Sanctuary.

Controls: Average

Breakdown goes overboard with the first person immersiveness. For all the fun you might initially have at watching Derrick snatch up ammo clips, pull the tab before gulping down a can of juice, or somehow consume a hamburger in three bites, waiting for him to go through these motions every time can be a pain in the butt.

The worst part of the game is the obtuse fighting controls. The energy projectile attack is too easy to perform by accident when Derrick merely wants to pull off regular combos. The auto-aiming is a bit stupid, because it can cause Derrick to ignore the nearest enemy and focus on distant foes instead, although the game doesn't force you to use auto-aiming.

Graphics: Excellent

Except for the bland stretches of corridors in the beginning act, the visuals kick ass. The first person view faithfully follows every rolling and spinning motion of Derrick's head (like when getting smashed completely around). The characters are gorgeously animated, from the small details on their uniforms to the stealth-type enemies' cloaking effects to even the tears that stream down one person's face. The rich environmental texturing and lighting effects look even better with the consistently smooth framerate.

Audio: Excellent

The gunfire and the explosions are loud, while the punching and kicking attacks sound forceful. The ambience effects rock, and the music can be inspired and driving, particularly in the final third of the game. As for the voice acting, the best part is Derrick's realistic breathing and wheezing as he exerts himself. That doesn't count his funny pussy-ass death groan.

Overall: Above Average

Breakdown is definitely not the typical FPS, and it isn't without its problems. Its controls can use more fine-tuning, and the level design in its early sections doesn't reflect the quality of the parts afterward. Get past those issues, though, and there is a mind-bending world presented through a sometimes frightful, sometimes haunting, but ultimately thought-provoking story that lies in an entire class of its own.