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A Bargain Bin Review: Fracture
Game Review | February 2, 2009 3:47 pm
By Minioger
I picked up Fracture for a whopping $15 dollars during a pre or post Christmas sale, its hard to remember which one now. I had heard plenty of bad about this game and wondered if I had made a mistake. I played the game despite all the negative attention and can now give you the low down on the game. Fracture is a third person shooter who's protagonist can alter the very ground he walks upon with TD: Terrain Deformation (get used to the abbreviation as I will refer to it the rest of the article), either raising or lowering the ground to use to his advantage.
Essentially due to
The strife occurs when Washington D.C. decides to outlaw genetic enhancements. Eventually the western states decide to secede from the rest of the states to form their own country, the Republic of Pacifica. The story's main character, Jet Brody, is a Sergeant in the Alliance Army, and his unit goes to the capital of Pacifica to demand their immediate surrender. General Nathan Sheridan is the leader of Pacifica and he refuses to come along peacefully, essentially sparking a war in the process. The remainder of the game is essentially Jet being the man and almost stopping the entire Pacifican armies single-handed. Of course the Pacificans were much better equipped for the battle than originally thought.
Jet is kind of a familiar character, I would say the head of Baldur from Too Human, the voice of the Apprentice from The Force Unleashed, and well any random FPS macho body stuck on it, with a cool red suit. Jet is a decent character but nothing in the story really developed his character, it was just kick the bad guys butt and move on. The sound in the game was also mediocre and every single time you we're going into a more difficult fight the music would build. Graphics were also nothing to write home about, not bad but not impressive either.
To steal a quote from Epic Lou "The best thing about this game is the weapons." I would have to agree. The weapons hands down is the only thing that salvages this game at all. Yes, you have the standard shotgun, a standard rocket launcher, assault rifle and sniper rifle, but TD helps add a couple to the mix, along with some breaking the mold from the designers. The weapon that is the most fun in the game would be the Rhino: when fired it creates a boulder from surrounding dirt and homes in and rolls over the nearest enemy or enemies. Fire off a couple rounds at once and enemies will literally have to run for their lives. Another fun weapon that just doesn't seem to be used in other shooter games is called the Black Widow. The Black Widow isn't a new idea, but its a great add on to the game - essentially it fires off sticky grenades that can be detonated with the press of a button at any point. Throw in a gun that shoots out mines and a rocket launcher that has rockets that ricochet off walls and you have a pretty potent arsenal. Sadly this is the best feature of the game.
The singleplayer mode is repetitive and unfortunately you don't get access to all the weapons for a while, and some the ammo is almost non-existant (the Rhino for one). In singleplayer mode, the game is broken into 3 acts and roughly 11 levels. It is a third person shooter so you are always looking over Jet's shoulder. In this game you will need to find cover from your enemies, especially on hardcore, and the trick is to use TD to give yourself this cover. There is plenty of cover to be found in the form of broken buildings and the like, but there is no cover system like Gears. You just have to duck down and hope you are hidden, which is sometimes hard to tell when you are in third person. You also just run from checkpoint to checkpoint killing the enemy, with the occasional cutscene, sometimes causing you not to even know when you finish the level. The final battle is quite cliche and a bit anti-climactic.
Multiplayer doesn't fare a whole lot better, mainly due to the lack of players. It is a decent online experience when you can find a match. There are quite a few modes which can be tweaked that should allow people hours of play time, again with some interesting work done by the designers. Excavation is a mode where you have to get to one of a few specified points, dig down to find a pillar and then protect the pillar from destruction by the other team, gaining points for the time while it is in one piece. Break-in is a king of the hill type game where you have to break-in to the other teams base, take over their hill while defending your own at the same time. Also thrown in are the standard free for all deathmatch, team deathmatch, king of the hill & team king of the hill, all with experiences that can be customized from weapon layout to length of match to certain nuances: in king of the hill the hill can be set to not move and in break-in it can be set that you don't have to hold your own base to accumulate points. Unfortunately it is for naught as it would require you to have people to play with.
To sum the game up: 5.5 out of 10. If you come into the game with the knowledge that it is simply a mediocre TPS with a gimmick, you will not be disappointed. Do not expect a whole lot more.
Wafflers:
800 points can be earned in single player modes and 200 points can be earned in online MP. The difficulty achievements are stackable and the only irritating achievement is the collection achievements. Although the game is nice in showing you how many data cells (the item you collect) that you have found in each level in the level select menu. The 800 points should be able to be earned in 6-10 hours depending on your skill. The online achievements can be earned in player matches, only requiring you and one boosting partner. You can also boost by being the host and the other player can just keep their console on and allow you to finish the match and restart the next one, allowing both of you to gain a part of the 1500 matches that would require you to 1k the game.
Completionists:
Expect probably 35-50 hours or more to finish this game. I have personally completed about 250 games online and it is very tedious and gets boring after 50 matches, let alone 1500. This can be done with patience and isn't too difficult, it is just very time consuming. Now I have to give a shout out to Epic Lou and Repo Man for playing for hours with me already, here's looking forward to at least a couple dozen more hours to finish it!
Essentially due to
Spoiler: Click here to toggle spoiler
According to the narrator this turns the Midwest into a wasteland as it was flooded as well, and separates the western from the eastern states. For undisclosed reasons the western states decide the best way to help mankind survive is through genetic manipulation and the eastern states feel technological advancement is the way to go. global warming and the polar ice caps melting the American government is forced to develop TD to raise the ground around its borders to protect the country from the rising water levels.
The strife occurs when Washington D.C. decides to outlaw genetic enhancements. Eventually the western states decide to secede from the rest of the states to form their own country, the Republic of Pacifica. The story's main character, Jet Brody, is a Sergeant in the Alliance Army, and his unit goes to the capital of Pacifica to demand their immediate surrender. General Nathan Sheridan is the leader of Pacifica and he refuses to come along peacefully, essentially sparking a war in the process. The remainder of the game is essentially Jet being the man and almost stopping the entire Pacifican armies single-handed. Of course the Pacificans were much better equipped for the battle than originally thought.
Jet is kind of a familiar character, I would say the head of Baldur from Too Human, the voice of the Apprentice from The Force Unleashed, and well any random FPS macho body stuck on it, with a cool red suit. Jet is a decent character but nothing in the story really developed his character, it was just kick the bad guys butt and move on. The sound in the game was also mediocre and every single time you we're going into a more difficult fight the music would build. Graphics were also nothing to write home about, not bad but not impressive either.
To steal a quote from Epic Lou "The best thing about this game is the weapons." I would have to agree. The weapons hands down is the only thing that salvages this game at all. Yes, you have the standard shotgun, a standard rocket launcher, assault rifle and sniper rifle, but TD helps add a couple to the mix, along with some breaking the mold from the designers. The weapon that is the most fun in the game would be the Rhino: when fired it creates a boulder from surrounding dirt and homes in and rolls over the nearest enemy or enemies. Fire off a couple rounds at once and enemies will literally have to run for their lives. Another fun weapon that just doesn't seem to be used in other shooter games is called the Black Widow. The Black Widow isn't a new idea, but its a great add on to the game - essentially it fires off sticky grenades that can be detonated with the press of a button at any point. Throw in a gun that shoots out mines and a rocket launcher that has rockets that ricochet off walls and you have a pretty potent arsenal. Sadly this is the best feature of the game.
The singleplayer mode is repetitive and unfortunately you don't get access to all the weapons for a while, and some the ammo is almost non-existant (the Rhino for one). In singleplayer mode, the game is broken into 3 acts and roughly 11 levels. It is a third person shooter so you are always looking over Jet's shoulder. In this game you will need to find cover from your enemies, especially on hardcore, and the trick is to use TD to give yourself this cover. There is plenty of cover to be found in the form of broken buildings and the like, but there is no cover system like Gears. You just have to duck down and hope you are hidden, which is sometimes hard to tell when you are in third person. You also just run from checkpoint to checkpoint killing the enemy, with the occasional cutscene, sometimes causing you not to even know when you finish the level. The final battle is quite cliche and a bit anti-climactic.
Multiplayer doesn't fare a whole lot better, mainly due to the lack of players. It is a decent online experience when you can find a match. There are quite a few modes which can be tweaked that should allow people hours of play time, again with some interesting work done by the designers. Excavation is a mode where you have to get to one of a few specified points, dig down to find a pillar and then protect the pillar from destruction by the other team, gaining points for the time while it is in one piece. Break-in is a king of the hill type game where you have to break-in to the other teams base, take over their hill while defending your own at the same time. Also thrown in are the standard free for all deathmatch, team deathmatch, king of the hill & team king of the hill, all with experiences that can be customized from weapon layout to length of match to certain nuances: in king of the hill the hill can be set to not move and in break-in it can be set that you don't have to hold your own base to accumulate points. Unfortunately it is for naught as it would require you to have people to play with.
To sum the game up: 5.5 out of 10. If you come into the game with the knowledge that it is simply a mediocre TPS with a gimmick, you will not be disappointed. Do not expect a whole lot more.
Wafflers:
800 points can be earned in single player modes and 200 points can be earned in online MP. The difficulty achievements are stackable and the only irritating achievement is the collection achievements. Although the game is nice in showing you how many data cells (the item you collect) that you have found in each level in the level select menu. The 800 points should be able to be earned in 6-10 hours depending on your skill. The online achievements can be earned in player matches, only requiring you and one boosting partner. You can also boost by being the host and the other player can just keep their console on and allow you to finish the match and restart the next one, allowing both of you to gain a part of the 1500 matches that would require you to 1k the game.
Completionists:
Expect probably 35-50 hours or more to finish this game. I have personally completed about 250 games online and it is very tedious and gets boring after 50 matches, let alone 1500. This can be done with patience and isn't too difficult, it is just very time consuming. Now I have to give a shout out to Epic Lou and Repo Man for playing for hours with me already, here's looking forward to at least a couple dozen more hours to finish it!
Reviewed: Fracture
Keywords: None
