Reply With QuoteI love Maken X as well, Mech, but Breakdown sucks teh moose nuts.
Electronic cigarette.
I'm probably gonna get a lot of "wtf" for this (and a bunch of "You don't think NG is the shit but you'll spout off this nonsense?!"), but here goes.
Disclaimer: I enjoyed most of Maken X
Breakdown is awesome.
At it's most base level it's a gimpy, confusing, awkward take on action games, but this is also partially part of its charm. The first-person perspective, particularly the way the whole body can always be seen and reacts (unlike just about every other first-person game in existance) lends it its credibility and gives it that extra boost of immersion that drew me in completely. When I land an uppercut and a T'Lan soldier goes flying back into a wall, I feel powerful. When one of them lands a shoulder ram and crumples me to the ground, I start taking it personally and have a burning need to break him. Watching my limbs flail around when that happens, when I hear something and try to whip the view towards whatever it was but the game automatically snaps the head towards the center of attention, things like that really start making me feel like part of it.
The loading (done Half-Life style) and lack of needed buttons (jumping and blocking really need a couple more shoulder buttons) are the only things which break that flow, and the former no longer really bothers me and I'm starting to get over the latter. Anyway, yeah, it's cool, yeah, I like it a lot, and yeah, a lot of people will hate it. It's the immersion factor that does it for me and this is one of the few times when it's really honestly worked on me. The hallucinations are awesome and the story and presentation have been cool with logically placed hints and even if I hated the combat it would make me want to keep playing.
Time for more, I've been waiting all day to get back home for it.
Dippity-Do!
I love Maken X as well, Mech, but Breakdown sucks teh moose nuts.
Originally Posted by Drewbacca
I bought it out of sheer ... nothing else to buy. I said to myself ... well, if this game sucks I'll bring it back to EB and get Splinter Cell." Well, after playing it for awhile. And getting past the ... Demo parts ... the game is really good. The immersion is the key here. Its a good story ... really freaky ... especially after the hand dissolving to the bone ... and the "Oh crap ... bullets don't hurt them." factor. Once you get down too it its a japanese take on Half Life. And you know ... the reviews that said that ... well they were right! It is.
To any that played the game. HOW DO YOU GET PAST THE T'LAN WARRIORS GUARDING THE DOOR WITH THE ROTATING WHEEL? Am I doing something wrong? If I block I still fall down? Or do I? Did I try? Hmmm.. anyway HELP!
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
Electronic cigarette.
Hit the open button that's right in front when you first enter. Get the T'Lans attention so they chase you, run to the right side, go through the small room and the instant you enter the room with the sealed door spin around and close the doors, shutting them outside and you in with the door.
I'm currently on the last boss, I'll be back with more impressions soon. In a nutshell: Breakdown is absolutely, positively incredible. And no, I'm not kidding.
Button Masher
I think Cap'n needs to play at least half of the game to have such definite opinions of it.
infinitely excellent
After playing through more of the demo and reading more impressions/reviews, I couldn't resist - I broke down (OMGROTFL) and picked it up. I'm glad I did, because it's awesome.
ITS really good. And the demo is timed. So in fact you can play all the way to the time you met up with the T'Lans ... cause if you know most of the stuff you cvan whizz through it.
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
Electronic cigarette.
If he thinks it plays like crap he won't need to go through half the game to figure that out. I will say he's missing out on a lot of great stuff and I do wonder how far he got, because if he got stuck in the same part that I did for a while I'll understand why he thinks it's bad.
Anyway: Breakdown is the almost perfect realization of playing an action movie. It has its flaws, namely a really bad jumping sequence late in the game (ala Half-Life) and a couple rooms that abandon the movie persona and go completely videogame-style (why is there a large closed-off room with T'Lan spawn tubes constantly spitting out soldiers for no reason other then for the player to fight them?), but other then that I would definately put this among my favorite games just because of the execution. It really just made me feel there, never deviating from the first-person view no matter what (which always threw me off in games like Halo) and using really fun tricks to accent that (a certain spoilerish battle is absolutely insane).
There's also a surprisingly amount of moves in here, I stuck primarily to basic combos for the game and so missed a whole lot. There's throws, special uppercuts, string combos galore (most of which I only touched on or did by accident), all sorts of kicks, counters, etc; breaking necks and tossing guys over you is just satisfyingly awesome. I'd have to agree with the XBN review, it has its flaws (and cheap enemy placement at times) but the overall package is so great its ridiculous.
I clocked in at about 13 hours (I'm 99% positive it doesn't count deaths) for those wondering on length. I imagine most people won't like this game because it's not very forgiving and so different, but if you're up for something different and cool you should give Breakdown a shot. Just remember, the first few hours aren't nearly as cool as the later stuff. I'm also very glad to see some love for this here, it's easily my favorite Namco game (granted, the only real competition there is Klonoa, but still).
I like how they give you special "action movie" credits when you get the good ending. Cute touch.
[edit] Yeah, the story was pretty cliche-ridden but still awesome. I sat back thinking and was mentally slapping myself for missing so many clues, done so that everything's there if you look and think hard enough but never, ever blatant. Considering how many times I manage to predicte plot twists in games and movies this was a very welcome change of actual good hints. I love it.
This is my fave too ... and it was more cause this game was supposed to be the game I will just return for Splinter Cell: Pandora Tommorrow. Now, I'm not even touching SC ... cause I'm playing Breakdown. I should see the clues too, but I'm getting my butt kicked on the roof! DAMN SOLDIERS! SURE I HAVE THE "you know" BUT DAMN!
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
Dippity-Do!
You all almost make me want to give it another try . . . almost.
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