Fracture (Xbox 360)
Will you sign this game's cast?
10/7/2008 5:52 PM | 3 Comments | Page 1 of 3
What's Hot: Terrain Deformation (TD) = a novel concept; Decent multiplayer; Nice variety of weapons; Vortex Grenades are awesome.
What's Not: Tedious Action (TA); Repetitive level design and enemies; Weak boss fights; Not enough drama; Being told to get off the foot of a boss; For a game that lets you dig into the earth, it's pretty shallow.
Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.
Meet Jet Brody, a blank-faced white dude with a dumb name dressed in a bulky suit of armor that he apparently pilfered from Marcus Fenix's closet. Brody is the main character/empty vessel that you'll operate for the duration of
Fracture.
The real star of the game, of course, is Day 1's much-hyped Terrain Deformation (TD). Using the bumpers on the Xbox 360 controller, you can raise and lower the terrain around you. Click RB, and the ground balloons like one of those Jiffy Pop popcorn tins. Click LB, and the same patch of ground suddenly pocks in like a big acne scar. Hit RB a few times in a row, and the Jiffy Pop tin continues to swell to new heights. A few taps on LB, and you'll have yourself a swimming pool-sized hole in the ground in no time.
Looks like the old sawmill bridge is out. And Lassie didn't even tell us.
Terrain Deformation makes a terrific first impression. It's great fun to wander around the game's opening level, carving up the earth, leaving a series of hills and valleys in your wake. You can manipulate the battlefield around you, digging trenches to protect yourself from enemy fire, or you can carve your initials in the ground. It's another example, like
Spore and
LittleBigPlanet, of the burgeoning gaming-as-self-expression trend.
In
Fracture's early moments, you'll solve a few nifty puzzles using TD. None of these puzzles qualifies as a head-scratcher. But the first time that you find yourself at an apparent dead end, and it suddenly dawns on you that you have the power to dig your way under the object that's blocking your path, you'll experience one of those heavens-parting-mote-of-sunlight-shining-down-on-you gaming moments. It's empowering, to say the least.
Unfortunately, Terrain Deformation, and the game that's attached to it, both have some severe limitations.
Whew. Someone open a window. It smells like Halo in here.
Let's start with the game. The plot borrows heavily from Halo and
Gears of War. Absolutely nothing about the story or characters feels inherently original. The backstory: In the 22nd century, the ice caps have melted, flooding the fly-over states, and thus turning the U.S. into two countries separated by a new body of water. Out West, the Pacificans, as they now call themselves, began fooling around with their DNA. But the purists in the East -- called the Atlantic Alliance -- decided they were against gene altering, and passed laws banning it. The Pacificans seceded from the U.S., and now it's up to you and your giant Marcus Fenix suit to fight these genetically altered freaks on behalf of the Alliance in (of all places) San Francisco.
Yes, cover will be sought. Yes, shots will be fired and grenades will be lobbed. Yes, enemy artificial intelligence is smart enough to flank you.
Take a few hits and your shield energy will be depleted. Hide somewhere for a few seconds and the shield will recharge. Various guns will be doled out early and often -- I honestly could never keep straight which rifle or blaster did what -- but you can only carry two at a time.
