Yet another sci-fi masterpiece told in game form…
The game instantly plops you into action with a very quick tutorial to help get used to the basic controls.
You wake up groggy and unable to remember anything in a hospital room with voices all around you… you clear your eyes just long enough to see and hear a woman clad in black poof in and out of the room while talking too you… then you hear your instructions… after a series of training exorcises that include weapons training, crawling and ladder climbing that will all most definitely come in handy down the line you return to the hospital room to get some nourishment only to find that it’s been drugged… naptime? NOPE! The mysterious black-clad woman re-appears, she puts her fingers down your throat and you “lose your lunch” that’s when the REAL party begins. In marches the military. The bad news, they want you and everyone else in the building dead. You are forced to… dispose… of them and take their weapons… let’s face it, dead people don’t need guns. Once equipped you must fight your way out of the hospital. Those military guys you killed before, they weren’t alone. All their friends want you dead too. They all have guns as well. Some even have better guns. A few have grenades and some of them even have yummy ration bars… mmmm… rations… Anyway, as it turns out the military isn’t your only problem. As if fighting the military wasn’t a hard enough task, you also have to fight aliens. Easy right? Wrong. These aliens, are immune to puny human projectile and explosive weapons. The good news is you have a special ability; the ability to punch them. That’s right, momma said knock you out. So, while fighting the military and aliens through the hospital, you start noticing that you are a little different then everyone else… and the strange hallucinations aren’t helping… luckily if you get thirsty, there are soda machines everywhere. The good news is, you have a magic never-ending supply of quarters. Bad news is, there’s only one brand and only one flavor. There are also the occasional hamburger or two just laying about so if rations aren’t filling your dietary needs…
As it turns out, your goal is to stop the aliens, not the military. The problem is, you can’t save the world from a hospital so your journey takes you beneath the building into a secret research lab and then a tunnel and then to a scary cave which opens into an indoor alien preserve… which the aliens put on Earth untold centuries ago. Again, the bad news is that now the aliens want the planet and humans are standing in their way... not very strongly but in the way none the less. The alien preserve itself opens into a deeper cave system where the aliens are created. Your job is to find the thing responsible and take it out. John Rambo or John McClain style. Simple. Unfortunately there are quite a few unforeseen events and MASSIVE plot twists before you can do it.
The games cast of characters include Derrick Cole; the main character, Alex; the female lead and love interest to the main character, Stefania Wojinski; a very important Dr. lady, Glen Ogawa; the most important Dr. guy in the game, Gianni de Luca; a cirtified badd-ass military guy… at least in his head and Solus; the main villain of the story, he’s a Sephiroth-looking guy who talks like an arrogant, inhuman cyborg.
They all get great lines of dialog and some neat interactions.
Now for the important stuff.
The in game graphics are amazing. Everything is detailed even if you are just staring at the sky or the background. The coolest part is that everything really feels like you’re looking though the eyes of Derrick Cole. The least coolest part is some of the environments look yucky… like a retro game template… namely the inside of the alien spire… but everything else flows well and looks great.
The in game sound is terrific too. The voice acting was well done. In fact, it was one of the things I enjoyed the most, the actors did a terrific job at emoting and bringing the personalities to life… also covering for Derricks lack of things to say… The music was good. The ending credits even featured “Trust Company”’s “Take It All” The sound effects were pretty darn good but lot’s of repetitiveity… I guess you can’t really help that though… using only a small amount of guns and a lot of generic soldiers and aliens…
With the graphics and sound out of the way, let’s talk gameplay shall we?
The gun fight and interaction controls are simplistic, push or hold button and a thing happens. The hand to hand controls on the other hand, are combo based. Derrick gets a repertoire of nifty fighting combos that range from easy to a little less easy to pull off. You may end up fighting more then shooting. I know I did. There are a few choices to make in the story which don’t effect gameplay but effecting the story is fun too right?
Another thing that NEEDS mentioning is that this game isn’t a standered first-person shooter. There is more then just shooting in the game. Namco managed to though in platforming, driving, fighting and a little bit of collecting aspects. As for replayablity, the game lacks… well… actually, it has none. Unless you want to get the alternate ending or beat it on harder difficulties… or just REALLY liked the story you probably won’t be playing Breakdown again. It’s a solid rental, I bought it for about $6 and beat it in a little less then 20 hours and enjoyed every minute of it. But if you aren’t the kind of person who just likes having games on their shelf like I do, don’t buy it, give it a rent or borrow it from a friend.
I’d recommend this game to any Sci-Fi junkie or anyone who like fast-paced thrill rides or excessive amounts of action. This game is a good fix for those.