The United States has been split into two, ensuing war between East and West, which have become known as the Alliance and the Pacifican forces, each having very different agendas and laws that contradict with the other. The Alliance seeks to control, as The Pacificans seeks to enhance, or rather mutate their forces to extreme lengths as they are bordering the boundaries of humanity to fight back against the rules and have clearly over-tipped the odds in their favour. As a solider for The Alliance, you take control of Jett Brody, of which is quite possibly the dumbest name of a main character to feature in a video game, not to mention it looks like he has robbed...erm, borrowed the Gears' COG costume and added a lick of red paint to it. We'll just call him Brody for short, the bold-headed and dumb-struck soldier, and that is actually a soldier who uses the latest advances in technology to keep up with the stressing times of war against a madman and his army, or rather: his monsters. Perhaps Brody is not quite as lost as he appears after-all, and certainly has his work cut out for him in this ensuing battle of technology versus genetic enhancements.

Gameplay:

Fracture plays exactly like you would imagine if you have played any run of the mill shooter, which makes it accessible to the gaming masses rather quickly, though it does have a few tricks up its sleeve. For one, the Entrencher, a device wielded by Brody which quickly lets him manipulate the ground, well most of the ground anyway. Brody can quickly and easily alter the terrain to suit his needs, as described in the opening tutorial, which shows some pretty good and expected uses for it. The main use for it though will soon become apparent during combat, and that is creating some cover for yourself whilst your health regenerates ready for you to get back into the fight. The Entrencher can dig a rather large hole into the soil so you can get under a wall or door, the same is also true for enhancing the soil, literally creating a small mountain out of a mole hill. This combined with Brody's enhanced ability to jump and good timing can really get you up considerably high, which is useful for a number of reasons. Gaining air enables you to scout out the potential masses of enemies and proceed to open fire with an assortment of truly awesome weaponry. The only other real stand-out moments where terrain deformation makes an impact and sense for the player to use it in a useful way, is for repairing damaged bridges or giving yourself some extra jumping height on your little mole hill of a mountain to get up to ledges and other areas. Brody unlocks several new and enhanced abilities during the progression of the game's campaign, including a stronger melee attack, resulting in instant death on some opponents, provided you can get close enough. This is especially handy if your health is critical and you need to abruptly dispose of a couple of nearby enemies as your provide yourself with your hill of cover. During the campaign you get to drive the TDV-1. This vehicle comes with its own terrain deforming abilities so you can make the track suit your requirements; grinding into the ground will get you under blocked paths, and raising the ground ahead of you enables you to promptly build your own ramp, which is a must at a couple of points to get across some gaps and avoiding a long fall to Brody's death. The TDV-1 handling can be a bit fiddly, but fortunately it is fairly forgiving and there's plenty of wide space, which is no doubt intentional. What does seem rather cheap is the the TDV-1 has a turret, an auto-turret at that, which means you're just driving by while the turret automatically takes care of most of the enemies, you can of course mow them down at your leisure, naturally. The guns in Fracture are probably more impressive than the under-utilised feature of terrain deformation. There's the usual suspects, in the SMGs, Assault Rifles, Rocket Launchers and Sniper Rifles, but there's also some really unique ones too, which enable you to bring down hell in some amusing ways. One is by launching mass amounts of remotely triggered grenades, which is especially useful for those moments of elevated jumping as mentioned before. One of my favourite guns has the ability to create a brief kind of tornado experience, sucking up and spinning around anything in the near vicinity, including Brody. I shot it a little too close the first time I got my hands on the weapon. It's great for capturing a handful of enemies in a twist though, and there's even a grenade of which offers up a similar effect. Fracture simply has a surprising amount of weaponry, some familiar and some not so familiar, and it's the not so familiar and enhanced weapons of the Pacificans that pack the biggest punch, and of course all the fun. The Entrencher and its terrain deforming abilities also has its uses in doors, in those oh' so tight corridors; simply raise the ground on any enemies that are giving you grief and do it enough to the point of crushing them into the ceiling for some easy kills, though be sure not to squish yourself in the process. This method also applies to destroying other items in the game, such as power generators which will typically be there to block your path by powering a forcefield or other locked entrance thus your stopping progression through the mission at hand.

Graphics:

Fracture is a rather average looking and bland shooter. Although when carnage ensues, there are some noticeable and much appreciated effects with various explosions and terrain altering abilities on display. For the most part the textures don't do a great deal to grab attention, though a few areas later in Fracture are certainly of a much higher quality than that of which you are first introduced to.Sadly the more detailed outdoor streets which are filled with broken buildings, monuments and hordes of enemies is only a very small part of the full game.

Sound:

The music, the majority of the voice-overs and even the sound effects deliver a very admirable audible experience for the player, while the game is by no means a stand out title overall. Certain aspects of Fracture do stand out, and stand out well. The intense and frantic soundtrack kicking in when needed during those times of heated combat is most certainly one of Fracture's stronger points.

Longevity:

Fracture offers up both campaign and multiplayer modes, the latter includes the typical fan fare with only Excavation standing out as a rather intriguing match type. In this mode the player can capture points on the map in a back and forth battle, where they must defend objects and attack them in order to accumulate points for the team. The issue thus far with multiplayer is that there aren't a great deal of matches available at any one time. I have tried for days and have only managed to have one Ranked match, and typically there are at least 2-4 Unranked Player matches doing the rounds. The campaign is Fracture's strong point (if you can call it that), logging in roughly 8 hours or so of gaming time, depending on difficulty and ability. The multiplayer of what I played is easy enough to get into and take your experience into some competitive play, of which is actually rather entertaining, provided you can find the match type you want to play. The multiplayer however provides no extensive long legs to the longevity. The game is a fractured, and at the least a worthwhile romp the first time around. Collecting the hidden items, the Data Cells, is the the only other useful time where you are forced to put your elusive ground controls to good use. Much of the terrain needs to be altered to gain new heights or even lows to reach these items. For the “collectable� minded among gamers, a pair of beady eyes and potentially another play-through may be required for any missed opportunities of collecting Data Cells. Fracture is generally rather difficult. With three difficulty modes in Casual, Standard and Hardcore. The majority of gamers will likely immediately opt. for the Normal (Standard) difficulty, although the difficulty here, while certainly do-able, can prove rather frustrating. Needless to say, upon inspection of the achievements after completing the first two levels, I found there were no achievements for completing the game on Standard difficulty, and so opted for the much more approachable and still at times challenging Casual difficulty setting. Still, various difficulties will no doubt please gamers looking for that extra, enduring challenge, and the Hardcore difficulty will reward you for your efforts and frustration as there are achievements for completing each of the three acts on Hardcore difficulty, as there are for simply completing each act regardless of difficulty. It's a good excuse at least to go Data Cell hunting and attempting a more challenging approach on another, if so willing - play through.

Overall:

Fracture is an entertaining romp while it lasts. The ability to manipulate the ground does little to propel this game above your average shooter. The moments where the game stands tall involve tons of enemies that need taking out of commission, and using terrain deformation to your advantage. If you're after yet another shooter to fill the gap between the inbound more well known releases, then Fracture will go a little way to making the wait that much more bearable. That said, Fracture is certainly among the top of the ever-increasing average shooter pile.