AgtFox
10-06-2008, 05:57 AM
Fracture Review
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=605Title: Fracture
Platform: 360/PS3
Developer: Day 1 Studios (http://www.day1studios.com/)
Publisher: LucasArts (http://www.lucasarts.com/)
ESRB: Mature
MSRP: $59.99 (360 (http://www.amazon.com/Fracture-Xbox-360/dp/B000R0RHA4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1223175220&sr=8-3)/PS3 (http://www.amazon.com/Fracture-Playstation-3/dp/B000R3CIV4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1223175220&sr=8-4))
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek
What's Hot: The raising and lowering of dirt; some cool weapons
What's Not: Feels too much like a mash up of Haze, Crysis and other action shooters; concept falls on face; game gets frustrating even on easiest level; graphics often stutter going in and out of checkpoints; voice acting is BAD!Fracture has had an interesting development cycle. The game has been done for many months now and LucasArts is finally releasing it less than a month from the release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Developed by Day 1 Studios, best known for the MechAssault games on the original Xbox system, this game is a new IP for LucasArts. After playing it for many hours, I don’t think there will be a game in the series beyond this one.
As I was playing through the game I found myself thinking about how much it was similar to Haze and any number of Sci-Fi shooters out there with the story and action elements. The story begins saying that the American Midwest has been turned into an uninhabitable wasteland and that two separate governments have been created on each coast. On the Eastern side is the Atlantic Alliance and the Western coast is home to the Republic of Pacifica. It seems as if things have broken apart between the two groups and you, Jet Brody (great name, eh?), are sent to the west coast to capture a renegade general who is building an army of genetically advanced soldiers, something the President has just outlawed. Things of course go wrong while trying to capture the general and Jet spends the rest of the game trying to find the general and stop his plan.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3245/2918503804_d1e33c1667_m.jpg
This game is built around the ability to raise and lower any pile of dirt with a weapon called the Entrencher and is easily what makes it stand out against other shooters, although it doesn’t make it stand out enough. With the press of the right or left button you can raise or lower the dirt with the Entrencher to do such things as reach a higher area, make cover for your character or get through a blocked area. This is great and all, but as I was playing through the game I found myself totally forgetting about the fact I could use this to my advantage. Instead I spent most of my time with the game trying to find cover behind items instead of creating my own. Is this my fault since I’ve played so many FPS games and are used to looking for cover or is it the game’s fault for making me forget totally about the Entrencher except when it is absolutely necessary? Who knows, fact is I just forgot about the Entrencher and played the game like I would any action shooter.
Eventually I would reach a spot in the levels where I was dying over and over again. I started off at medium difficulty and actually found it a bit too hard with the enemy AI being of sharpshooter-like quality and me being unable to quickly turn around to shoot at someone shooting behind me. I then tried the easy difficulty and still found some areas even in the first act to be very hard unless you have a total grasp of where to fire a mound up to cover yourself because your enemies are still sharpshooters.
I’ll be honest with you guys, this is one of the first games in a while I have not completed simply because I was totally frustrated by sections in the game. Usually when I hit a wall in a game like this I’ll take some time off and come back to the game and usually be able to get through it. With this game I’d come back after some time and still find myself stuck in the same place, repeating the same section over and over. That pure frustration was maddening and maybe the readers out there will have an easier time of it than I did with Fracture, but to me it almost seemed like the game was working against me trying to finish it in a couple ways.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/2918503868_49d0bf1d00_m.jpg
Those ways are that the perspective is a bit too close and the actual shooting element is not smooth enough. I feel as if the camera is set a little too close to Jet, especially when a gunfight against several enemies comes up. Given how fast this game moves, it is difficult to set up some mounds in order to cover yourself and give you the ability to shoot at your opponents without slowly climbing the mound and basically mark yourself an easy target. Add to this the fact that aiming is not as smooth as it could or should be. There were many times where I could take out people in front of me, only to be shot at from behind and make the slow turnaround in order to face them and not really knowing where they are shooting at me from since there is no indication on the HUD.
Add into this that the story is like a bad Sci-Fi cliché stolen from the likes of Haze and Crysis in regards to having them give you a boost with extra powers such as super strength. Add to this the fact that the army you are facing off against are different colored or slightly different variations of the same enemy via genetic manipulation and it makes the game derivative if you’ve ever played the other games. Also, the voices are just bad in this game, especially early on as Jet jumps onto a dropship and the pilot gives no emotional feeling to the fact that they’ve just been shot and are going to crash. It’s just a deadpan, “Hold on, we’re going to crash”. No adrenaline-filled exclamation that they might just be about to die or anything. Sad thing is they do die and only Jet survives somehow. The core characters do a somewhat good job at delivering their lines, but the whole ancillary characters are just bad.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3047/2918503904_a427a47dc3_m.jpg
Since the game doesn’t come out until tomorrow, I was unable to find anyone else to play the multiplayer side of the game with. I am interested in seeing what kind of game it presents and hope to update this review with at least some experience in the multiplayer section of the game. I highly doubt even if the multiplayer aspect is the best thing since sliced bread that it will make my feelings on the game any different.
Fracture just kind of rubbed me the wrong way and seems almost a throwaway kind of game, marred in its sameness to a variety of action shooters that are far better. It is certainly better than Haze, which is the reason it gets a higher score. If you were to pick between the two recent LucasArts games that have come out, I’d recommend picking up Force Unleashed over this one, at least that game was a lot more fun and the story was more interesting. It’s sad to say that if they had totally taken out the ability to make mounds and crevices this game probably might have been more enjoyable and the developer could have honed in on making the action shooter experience better. Yes, it’s cool to use the Entrencher when it is needed, but in a full-out firefight it becomes unwieldy because things happen so fast and you need to plan out your mounds. Even though I didn’t have high hopes for this game, I figured it would have been at least better than this.
Score: 2.5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG2_5.png
Loren says, "Avoid It!"
- Review this title yourself (http://www.playitreviewit.com/reviews/write) over at Play It Review It (http://www.playitreviewit.com)
*Note - Review based upon 360 version of game
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=605Title: Fracture
Platform: 360/PS3
Developer: Day 1 Studios (http://www.day1studios.com/)
Publisher: LucasArts (http://www.lucasarts.com/)
ESRB: Mature
MSRP: $59.99 (360 (http://www.amazon.com/Fracture-Xbox-360/dp/B000R0RHA4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1223175220&sr=8-3)/PS3 (http://www.amazon.com/Fracture-Playstation-3/dp/B000R3CIV4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1223175220&sr=8-4))
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek
What's Hot: The raising and lowering of dirt; some cool weapons
What's Not: Feels too much like a mash up of Haze, Crysis and other action shooters; concept falls on face; game gets frustrating even on easiest level; graphics often stutter going in and out of checkpoints; voice acting is BAD!Fracture has had an interesting development cycle. The game has been done for many months now and LucasArts is finally releasing it less than a month from the release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Developed by Day 1 Studios, best known for the MechAssault games on the original Xbox system, this game is a new IP for LucasArts. After playing it for many hours, I don’t think there will be a game in the series beyond this one.
As I was playing through the game I found myself thinking about how much it was similar to Haze and any number of Sci-Fi shooters out there with the story and action elements. The story begins saying that the American Midwest has been turned into an uninhabitable wasteland and that two separate governments have been created on each coast. On the Eastern side is the Atlantic Alliance and the Western coast is home to the Republic of Pacifica. It seems as if things have broken apart between the two groups and you, Jet Brody (great name, eh?), are sent to the west coast to capture a renegade general who is building an army of genetically advanced soldiers, something the President has just outlawed. Things of course go wrong while trying to capture the general and Jet spends the rest of the game trying to find the general and stop his plan.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3245/2918503804_d1e33c1667_m.jpg
This game is built around the ability to raise and lower any pile of dirt with a weapon called the Entrencher and is easily what makes it stand out against other shooters, although it doesn’t make it stand out enough. With the press of the right or left button you can raise or lower the dirt with the Entrencher to do such things as reach a higher area, make cover for your character or get through a blocked area. This is great and all, but as I was playing through the game I found myself totally forgetting about the fact I could use this to my advantage. Instead I spent most of my time with the game trying to find cover behind items instead of creating my own. Is this my fault since I’ve played so many FPS games and are used to looking for cover or is it the game’s fault for making me forget totally about the Entrencher except when it is absolutely necessary? Who knows, fact is I just forgot about the Entrencher and played the game like I would any action shooter.
Eventually I would reach a spot in the levels where I was dying over and over again. I started off at medium difficulty and actually found it a bit too hard with the enemy AI being of sharpshooter-like quality and me being unable to quickly turn around to shoot at someone shooting behind me. I then tried the easy difficulty and still found some areas even in the first act to be very hard unless you have a total grasp of where to fire a mound up to cover yourself because your enemies are still sharpshooters.
I’ll be honest with you guys, this is one of the first games in a while I have not completed simply because I was totally frustrated by sections in the game. Usually when I hit a wall in a game like this I’ll take some time off and come back to the game and usually be able to get through it. With this game I’d come back after some time and still find myself stuck in the same place, repeating the same section over and over. That pure frustration was maddening and maybe the readers out there will have an easier time of it than I did with Fracture, but to me it almost seemed like the game was working against me trying to finish it in a couple ways.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/2918503868_49d0bf1d00_m.jpg
Those ways are that the perspective is a bit too close and the actual shooting element is not smooth enough. I feel as if the camera is set a little too close to Jet, especially when a gunfight against several enemies comes up. Given how fast this game moves, it is difficult to set up some mounds in order to cover yourself and give you the ability to shoot at your opponents without slowly climbing the mound and basically mark yourself an easy target. Add to this the fact that aiming is not as smooth as it could or should be. There were many times where I could take out people in front of me, only to be shot at from behind and make the slow turnaround in order to face them and not really knowing where they are shooting at me from since there is no indication on the HUD.
Add into this that the story is like a bad Sci-Fi cliché stolen from the likes of Haze and Crysis in regards to having them give you a boost with extra powers such as super strength. Add to this the fact that the army you are facing off against are different colored or slightly different variations of the same enemy via genetic manipulation and it makes the game derivative if you’ve ever played the other games. Also, the voices are just bad in this game, especially early on as Jet jumps onto a dropship and the pilot gives no emotional feeling to the fact that they’ve just been shot and are going to crash. It’s just a deadpan, “Hold on, we’re going to crash”. No adrenaline-filled exclamation that they might just be about to die or anything. Sad thing is they do die and only Jet survives somehow. The core characters do a somewhat good job at delivering their lines, but the whole ancillary characters are just bad.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3047/2918503904_a427a47dc3_m.jpg
Since the game doesn’t come out until tomorrow, I was unable to find anyone else to play the multiplayer side of the game with. I am interested in seeing what kind of game it presents and hope to update this review with at least some experience in the multiplayer section of the game. I highly doubt even if the multiplayer aspect is the best thing since sliced bread that it will make my feelings on the game any different.
Fracture just kind of rubbed me the wrong way and seems almost a throwaway kind of game, marred in its sameness to a variety of action shooters that are far better. It is certainly better than Haze, which is the reason it gets a higher score. If you were to pick between the two recent LucasArts games that have come out, I’d recommend picking up Force Unleashed over this one, at least that game was a lot more fun and the story was more interesting. It’s sad to say that if they had totally taken out the ability to make mounds and crevices this game probably might have been more enjoyable and the developer could have honed in on making the action shooter experience better. Yes, it’s cool to use the Entrencher when it is needed, but in a full-out firefight it becomes unwieldy because things happen so fast and you need to plan out your mounds. Even though I didn’t have high hopes for this game, I figured it would have been at least better than this.
Score: 2.5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG2_5.png
Loren says, "Avoid It!"
- Review this title yourself (http://www.playitreviewit.com/reviews/write) over at Play It Review It (http://www.playitreviewit.com)
*Note - Review based upon 360 version of game