Video game review: Fracture
Did the earth move for you, baby?
Fracture is a third-person action adventure from Day 1 Studios and Lucas Arts. The plotline is so recycled as to not be worth mentioning, aside from its seemingly pro-Republican undertones, but that's just superficial way of justifying Fracture's unique gameplay mechanic: terrain deformation.
You play a generic, shaven headed special forces trooper equipped with the Entrencher. This tool will instantly raise or lower the terrain using RB or LB respectively. You also get grenades that do the same thing on a larger scale.
The result is frenetic encounters that see the very earth heaped a couple of storeys high or chipped away into deep ravines. Moulding the terrain is perfect for giving yourself cover, and Day 1 never misses a chance to pack the landscape with explosive barrels and balls to ensure your arrival in the combat arena is heralded by vast pyrotechnic displays, flying bodies and tumbling objects.
The weapons include the usual array of assault rifles and shotguns, but you'll also be regularly equipped with considerably more explosive fire power including remote-detonating grenades and subterranean rockets, which never fail to entertain. Later on, you'll get access to even more destructive equipment, such as the Vortex grenade, which sucks enemy troops and nearby objects into a swirling maelstrom before exploding outward in a shower of debris.
Despite the weak plot, the action achieves its most important goal: it's always fun. The level design is mostly well thought out and though the enemies look pretty samey throughout, they all have their own unique characteristics. Only at the end does the game take the lazy way out of throwing everything at you at the same time resulting in some quite tedious wars of attrition.
Fracture does an excellent job of hiding the limitations of its engine between carefully staged encounters and scripted events. On occasion you'll get to solve some quite interesting physics puzzles, such as guiding balls to targets through paths you carve into the ground with the Entrencher. But none of this entirely escapes the fact that there's more to this terrain deformation idea than was truly realised in the game.
It sets itself up for the opportunity of a brilliant sequel, which we'll be looking out for with interest, but this first attempt remains an enjoyable but short action romp through a concept that has yet to reach its full potential.
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Posted by Al Warmington on 2008-10-13
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The action achieves its most important goal
| RATING | PRICE |
|---|---|
 |
£49.99 |
WE LOVE
Ground breaking terrain deformationMega-explosions
Original weaponry
WE HATE
Limp plotlineUntapped potential
Short game time
Limited replay value
