Namco, creators of the famous fighting Tekken series and the light gun fantastic Time Crisis have melded the two formulas together to create a game that utilises fighting and shooting into a story driven action first person adventure. As if a love child of the two aforementioned games, Breakdown takes the essence of each and thrusts the player into the leading role.

“Your name? Your name?” you can’t remember as the beginning of your adventure starts with you waking up in an enclosed room not fully aware of what is real and unreal. A voice booms out over a PA system, ordering you to your feet and asking you your name. However your head seems to hurt and it appears that you are suffering from amnesia. “ My name is……..my name is Derrick”. Without any hesitation the voice orders you to exit the room to asses your current state using some simple training exercises. Without question and little knowledge of anything you comply.

Players assume the role of Derrick Cole who has lost his mind and is caught up in some conspiracy scenario, whereby as a mere pawn must escape his captors and learn the truth behind his true purpose. Welcome to Namco’s Breakdown.

Gameplay:

Breakdown is a 1st person action adventure game that incorporates both hand to hand fighting elements and 1st person shooting action. The first thing you will notice as the intro unfolds is that you view everything through the eyes of Derrick. This means the only glimpses that you will see of him is in mirrors. This is an unusual style as most games opt to show off the lead character in third person during cut scenes and fmv’s.

The first part of the game teaches the player the basics of combat and movement. These range from crawling to climbing and jumping. The fighting at this stage is limited to certain simple moves and combos, such as 2 punches and a kick combo. Once training is over then the game begins proper as you try and escape aided by a female accomplice. It is here that Derrick gets to experience real combat against armed soldiers. The player being able to fight hand to hand or use the mp5s or pistols that the soldiers drop when defeated. Derrick is able to pick up ammo clips and rations from the fallen so it’s often advised to clear a room then search the bodies for items before moving on, if your lucky you might find a grenade or two.

As the player gets more and more immersed into the story Derrick begins to suffer some flashback type experiences as he begins to remember who he is and what he is capable of. During these moments Derrick starts to remember his former skills and they unlock from within his consciousness. From a player point of view this simply means that Derrick becomes even more “badass” as these extra abilities are re-awakened.

Controlling Derrick felt a little strange to me at first as his head movement seemed a little too sensitive. However after a short time this posed no problems at all as I adjusted to the sensitivity. Fighting is aided by a lock on feature which enables Derrick to strafe around enemies whilst shooting or punching. Again this is different compared to most 1st person games but works once you adjust your usual play style.

The fighting is also a unique feature for a game of this type as many moves seem to be lifted from the Tekken series. In fact it plays very similar to the 1st person mode seen way back on the PSone in Tekken 2. So expect a lot of block and then counter style game play against foes that fight rather than shoot. There are a number of moves available and more being discovered as you progress through the game. Punching with either left or right hands is handled using the left and right triggers on the controller. Movement with the sticks will perform the various moves. Overall this works well and is pretty simple to pick up, especially as foes during the opening stages of the game don’t really fight back giving you the chance to hone those skills. It’s a case of experiment and see what works best.

Graphics:

Graphically Breakdown falls short, as the environments are very confined until towards the latter stages of the game where you even get to drive a jeep. The details are a little on the basic side and really makes the game feel more inferior than it should be on Xbox. Character models are decent yet again with the environments could have been much better. However the whole 1st person view works really well and is a plus point for the game overall.

Sound

Sound is of a high quality as some good voice acting is used for the many characters that you encounter during your adventure. The music is also very good and complimentary to the game play favouring a more electronic sound overall. Other sound effects are pretty good too as everything has been covered from gunfire to your heavy footsteps as you run. Some sound effects for the hand to hand are also reminiscent of Tekken.

Longevity:

Breakdown is a reasonable length adventure that offers several difficulties to mess around with. The sheer nature of the game will probably warrant more than one play through for most players yet I find the linear nature of the levels themselves may perhaps hamper this for some. There are no two player options available which could have proved interesting, however I think Breakdowns emphasis is solely on the one player experience with no need to explore the multiplayer angle. In a nutshell I think the longevity value of the game is down to how much you like the game and how deep you want to go perfecting your fighting skills. If you simply plough though the game just for completion then I think you will have missed what the developers were trying to achieve with the fighting system they used.

Overall:

Breakdown is definitely an interesting game and succeeds to a degree. However the overall look of the game lets it down as does the repetitive feeling you get from some of the more confined areas of the game. As an ambitious title that successfully combines shooting and fighting in first person Breakdown is definitely one to check out if you are looking for something different. The story telling is of a high standard and the through the eyes view is paramount to its effectiveness. A solid title well worth a look.