This is the big thing in Lucas Arts’ Fracture and how it differentiates itself from traditional shooters. You’re constantly running around raising and lowering the terrain to kill your enemies, getting to places you can’t reach, and providing protection for yourself. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen and it sort of works.
Update – Multiplayer will be updated and added soon. Our build was Gold and not retail.
Story
If you’ve downloaded the demo then you basically know the premise of the game, so I won’t go into much detail there, but if you haven’t, then here’s the quick and dirty. The year is 2161 and the country is in a state of civil war and is divided among the Pacificans and the Atlantic Alliance. You are Jet Brody and your mission is to defeat General Sheridan and his crazed army of genetically modified super soldiers. But if that’s not good enough for you then just watch the trailer.
Gameplay
I’m used to playing shooters like Halo 3 and Gears of War among the many that are out there and Fracture just can’t keep up. Little Jet Brody is slow to get from one point to another. When he sprints it’s even worse. But that’s about the only gripe I have so far. The graphics are great and the sound effects aren’t too shabby, but there are times when your CO is trying to tell you things and it’s barely audible (or I’m just deaf).
The control scheme is fairly simple. The X-button reloads your weapon of choice; the Y-button switches between two guns; the B-button punches; the A-button jumps; RT fires your weapon; LT launches one of four types of grenades; RB raises terrain; LB lowers terrain; left joystick maneuvers Jet and pressing it downward will make Jet crouch; right joystick pans up and down and side to side, pressing it down will go into scope mode; back button shows you your objective; start button pauses; D-pad selects one of four grenades.
Weapons
The plethora of weaponry in the game is vast, although many of them seem to be direct clones of themselves. But there are tons and tons of weapons, like 30 or so. My favorites were the Black Widow (basically a sniper rifle) and Vortex grenades (sucks everything within a few feet of impact into the ground).
The terraforming weaponry in the game is the biggest draw. Because there are so many weapons to be had in the game, Day 1 Studios threw in a weapons testing mode that can be unlocked by collecting data discs throughout the game. I spent a few hours just playing around with all the weapons in this mode.
Multiplayer
Fracture has it, but my build of the game doesn’t work so I’m unable to comment. We’ll update when we get our retail build.
Enemies
The enemies were a bit predictable and none of them really stood out from each other except for the ones that jumped around and bombed you from above. I hated those guys.
Overall
The terraforming aspect of the game is unique and if you’re into it then I’d go ahead and grab it. Rated against other shooters, I’d probably pass, but to each his own. If you haven’t tried the demo then do so now. Fracture is available starting today for the Xbox 360 and PS3 for $60.