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Breakdown is an incredibly innovative game, even in today's video game landscape. Had it resolved a few problems and tightened up the controls, it would be truly epic. Despite the flaws, the game achieves moderate greatness and must-play status.
The name of the game here is first-person melee combat. This mechanic is the primary means of combat, especially in the later stages of the game. They nailed the feel, but fell short on the animations and player control. That is, the biggest problem is their constant need to take control away from the player to play lengthy animations. Whether you are committing to a strong punch, or picking up a health pack, you lose control for the duration of the animation, which is LONG in many cases. Another annoying animation plays when you get punched and stumble back and fall down. This animation lasts 5 or 10 seconds (I did not time it, but it takes forever) and the player has no control for the entire duration, which is ridiculous in the middle of heated combat.
The mechanics break down in one of the last jumping sequences where you must use your bullet-time ability to proceed. This sounds fine, but the bullet-time power was never introduced. I have no idea when I got the power and never used it. So after failing this jumping sequence hundreds of times and getting very angry, I looked up a walk-through only to find out that the answer was a straightforward use of this ability that I knew nothing about. Talk about frustrating!
Speaking of walk-throughs, it is interesting to note that the melee combat involves a number of combos and other moves, like throws, which you never find out about. Without a guide, this is a very opaque system that does not lend itself well to self discovery.
Aesthetically, the game is not the best. Most of your time is spent proceeding along a linear path through same looking corridors where most doors are closed off, so exploration and discovery are out. A few of the set pieces are fairly impressive, but the corridor crawl is not.
The story is perhaps Breakdown's greatest asset. The twists and turns through the over-arching story will keep you guessing. In addition, many of the in-game story sequences themselves have some interesting things going on. I was very impressed with every single aspect of the story, without exception. They even did a fine job of character development without any lengthy exposition or required background reading in the manual. Bravo!
The bottom line is that Breakdown is very hit or miss. When it hits, it fires on all cylinders and this is one of the most fun first person games out there, especially when you are pummeling baddies. Sadly, it also misses, quite often. And when it misses, it totally sucks the life out of you, mostly due to frustrating sequences. Ultimately, the hits outweigh the misses and you absolutely must play this game.
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