User Reviews (1 - 11 of 24)

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Welcome Surprise!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

After reciving this game in the mail and nearly beating it after a straight week of play I really think this first person puncher could start a new trend for the better! The controols though sticky at first get much easier to use as new abilities are granted to you.
The graphics are top of the line and suttle details like rusteling leaves under your feet and nearly perfect shading for all objects give a sence that you are really inside of the head of the character.
The story is enticing and compeling and comes at you from no where. The game seems dull and acts like a normal game untill your execution is upon you then out of no where your partner Alex some how jumps out of thin air, saves you, then vanishes again! Though it has no multiplayer ability, this game just might pave to way for more hand to hand FPS games...It is a very exciting game that I highly recomed to all people who like Halo, Final Fantasy, and Resident Evil.

Simply Astounding

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

There is only a little in here that we haven't seen before. But it's all the Good Stuff with none of the drek.

The story will remind of Half-Life crossed with the Matrix, with shades of Bio Forge. But it's all presented in a fresh, smart way that makes it all very compelling.

The 1st person view point is also not what you're used to. It's not just the barrell of a big honkin gun sticking up from bottom of the screen. You engage in hand to hand combat with an array of puches, kicks, strikes and latter special attacks and powers (I won't spoil anything here!) and your hands and feet flying into the view frame and upside the enemies' heads puts you firmly in the action.

I am not even a little interested in yet another FPS, but this isn't one. It's a totally new spin on 1st person gaming which I predict will be copied from now on. NAMCO has blended the 3rd person acrobatics of titles like Tomb Raider and Splinter Cell with the shooting action of Quake and the fighting of Soul Caliber (almost). To rip off a phrase first used to describe Battlezone's new type of gameplay, "I weep at the birth of a new genre."

Go buy 2 and give one to someone you love. This is worth buying an XBOX for. No need to wait for Halo 2!

One of the best!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Anybody who gave this game a bad review simply didn't take the time to learn how to play it. This is one of the best games I've ever played. The deeper you get into the game the more intense it gets. And the end will blow you away! I hope they make a sequel! But you can't pay any attention to these reviews! You need to try it yourself! And stick with it until the end! It's worth it!

Fun, Unique, and Too Hard

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Here I am, at a large, circular room full of creepy T'lan out to kill me. I have already killed four waves of them, but now all of them come out at once: the large Alphas, the fast Warriors, the cloaked Stealths, and the laser-shooting Assaults. I kill the Warrior first, but wait! Another one spawned in its place! I kill this one as well. I do this for five times, but yet another one spawns once I kill the previous one. I simply run away, but, when I do, I run straight into a Stealth that finishes me off. I am still stuck on this part today. I am on easy, but it seems more like medium-hard to me.

You are Derrick Cole - a former elite soldier who has forgotten his past when an odd substance is injected into his body. Later on in the game, you get super powers that let you kill the superhuman T'lan before Nexus transports them all over the world! The frustration starts when you meet the T'lan before you have the powers. You alone have to find out how to avoid them. How was I supposed to know that I had to jump through the elevator's open access panel to avoid those T'lan? The game does not even offer a single hint. What is more? You lose your heads-up display in the late portions of the game, so you do not know what items that you can use or anything. Wait; there is more! You go through a time warp, and, unbelievably, you have to do an entire portion of the game all over again!

Even with all of its flaws, it has a unique experience and a great gimmick; you are always in first-person, even during cut-scenes! This makes you, the player, feel like you are truly Derrick. His super powers feel like you have them as well. His gulping sounds when he has a beverage feel like you gulping sounds. Even his vomit ... uh ... you get the idea.

It is still a great game. The story, in particular, is guaranteed to captivate you, so, when you need to take a break from the typical "kill this guy, shotgun-blast this guy's head off, and slowly bleed this other guy" game, play this one instead.

Best Game I've Played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

There is only a little in here that we haven't seen before. But it's all the Good Stuff with none of the drek.

The story will remind of Half-Life crossed with the Matrix, with shades of Bio Forge. But it's all presented in a fresh, smart way that makes it all very compelling.

The 1st person view point is also not what you're used to. It's not just the barrell of a big honkin gun sticking up from bottom of the screen. You engage in hand to hand combat with an array of puches, kicks, strikes and latter special attacks and powers (I won't spoil anything here!) and your hands and feet flying into the view frame and upside the enemies' heads puts you firmly in the action.

I am not even a little interested in yet another FPS, but this isn't one. It's a totally new spin on 1st person gaming which I predict will be copied from now on. NAMCO has blended the 3rd person acrobatics of titles like Tomb Raider and Splinter Cell with the shooting action of Quake and the fighting of Soul Caliber (almost). To rip off a phrase first used to describe Battlezone's new type of gameplay, "I weep at the birth of a new genre."

Go buy 2 and give one to someone you love. This is worth buying an XBOX for. No need to wait for Halo 2! (...)

Amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The story line is original while the gameplay is awesome.
MUST HAVE for any XBOX owners out there. Simply Amazing!

GO AND BUY IT NOW!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Well I'll make it short for you, buy it now. Yes, it is too hard but you do get used to it even though it gets harder every time you get better. I, myself, have never found a game that I can't beat in 4 days (about 15 hours.) However, this game really challenged me. That made it even better for me. Anyone really good at games will love this a lot more than someone who can't beat simple ones. Really, it's good for everyone though, so buy it if you have some spare cash.

Awsome......simply awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When I saw someone playing this at a friends house I knew this was gonna be awesome. This is a game with some pretty cool original aspects. I mean I have never played a game that is completly first person the WHOLE time. Even cinematic type scenes. I think its cool how Derrick picks up items and examines them. I will admit that it does get a little annoying during a firefight, but if you use your fists alot you don't have to worry about ammo. The fighting action was the best, never played anything like it. I mean how many people here have played shooting games and thought it was more fun to run around swinging your fists instead of shooting? That was a blast. The graphics were great, and the motions. The combos were fun, my favorite was when you powered up and everything was in slow motion. It was cool how you would come to a room and think about what to do next. You had to look around and explore. You had to consider your options. Now sometimes it took me a while,like when you were supposed to run from Solus when he snuck up behind you, lol and I died alot tryin to fight him, but its all in good fun. But my all-time favorite part of the game though was the story. It really got me hooked. I'm into those deep storylines you have to think about for a while to understand. But what was really interesting was that Derrick had hallucinations, and sometimes you had to figure out how to continue and wake up, like the one where you were a scientist and you kept seeing yourself and Dr. Ogawa. Lol I was a bit slow on that one. I will admit that some parts of the story were hard to follow, and some I still don't completly understand, but it was VERY good. A MUST have. I'd say its better than Halo, which is REALLY good. I'd even say this is one of my favorite games, if not THE favorite. Up there with FFX. Play and see.

pretty fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I know this game isn't the best out there but i liked it. Nobody can say the story was pretty cool and the game was fun to play itself

Breaking Down "Breakdown". . .

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Give "Breakdown" the credit it deserves. It's a genre-defying first person action game with shooter elements, but an emphasis on hand-to-hand combat. That sounds strange, and it IS strange, but it actually works, if you can believe that! Add to the mix the most immersive 3D game mechanics I've yet seen, and you've got yourself a game that comes recommended despite its disappointments.

The setup is strikingly similar to "Half-Life," with a few twists here and there. You're Derrick Cole, and you come to in a glossy research facility that is being overrun by genetic freaks from another dimension. In fact, you're a bit of a genetic freak yourself, which makes you the only one capable of saving the day. It also means that you'll have to keep an eye out for armed soldiers who would like nothing more than to put a bullet in you. In all truth, the story doesn't make a lot of sense, but the game is so good at inserting you into its nonsensical setting that it becomes sufficiently compelling.

Initially, "Breakdown" feels like a first-person shooter. You must escape the facility, and firearms are in good supply to help you do just that. Things change, though, when you come face-to-face with your first mutant, as they are completely immune to gunfire. Avoidance is the only policy at first (and the game lays on the tension nice and thick), until at last you begin to morph into a being that is physically capable of taking on mutants in hand-to-hand combat. Because the shooter elements are so basic (you have a severely limited arsenal and targeting can be a chore), things start to get really interesting at this point, because, to my continuing disbelief, this form of combat works so well - provided you're not juggling several opponents at once. Sometimes the game forces you to take on a handful of powerful opponents, and it just becomes frustrating. Fortunately, in most cases it's a simple matter to lure your stupid enemies from their positions and beat them to death one-by-one. Later in the game this is less of an option, since you're hurled into rooms you can't escape until you've pummeled all the mutants it throws your way. Getting hit in the back and watching a ten second animation of you dropping to the ground is less than amusing.

The early stages of the game are immensely well done, and are complete with some staggeringly cool set pieces. One, which introduces you to the game's appropriately scary villain, a half-man called Solus, is better than just about any scripted moment I've ever seen in a game of this type. There are several moments early on that are worth playing repeatedly, and take cinematic gaming to a whole new level. In particular, Derrick's hallucinations as he mutates are imaginative and eerie. Unfortunately, all of these moments are frontloaded, and there are few such bits as you near the finale.

Speaking of the finale, here's where a great games settles with just being good. It's as though the designers got tired of all the work it must have taken to make the first half of the game so brilliant, and just cobbled together the remaining portion. What's more, you have to go through one large area twice! Nothing changes, it's essentially just the same as it was the first time you experienced it. It's every bit as disappointing as it sounds, and will probably threaten to break the will of many players. It doesn't help that it's the worst part of the game in the first place, as the alien dimension stages are visually unappealing, repetitive, and downright frustrating. The game tries to transform itself into a first-person platformer here, and it's ill-advised.

I've been an avid gamer for over ten years, and I've never seen a game with such potential fall short of greatness by a mere hand's breadth, but that's exactly what "Breakdown" does. The initial game is brilliantly executed, and promises an experience that is not delivered when it's all said and done. Even so, there's nothing out there quite like "Breakdown," and I recommend it highly despite its shortcomings. After all, those shortcomings are only as disappointing as they are because the game is otherwise such a joy to experience. Don't overlook this one.

Final Score: A-

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