Breach

This game has me at a loss, I like this game but I just don't get it!

Breach has the components of a great FPS, solid game-play, weapon and character customization, good quality on-line play and so on. Everything you would expect to be there is.

To be honest it even has some elements that are better than most FPS games, the cover system and destructible environment are great in this game.

I should love it, right?

Unfortunately not... Breach does everything just about well enough, but for $15 you could pick up many other titles that do the job better and look graphically a lot more sound.

Pick up either of the Rainbow Six games, probably at a lower price and you can experience a better on-line experience, they even have a single-player campaign thrown in.

The game itself is very much feels like a mixture of a multitude of games; it has the rank progression of Call of Duty, the bullets rain down Medal of Honor, destructible environments like Battlefield and the cover system of Rainbow Six.

Sounds great! Its just it does all of these a little bit worse in every case.

All that to one side, I liked the game. It is a bit of a slow starter and the low power of the early weapons will annoy you early doors. It often feels like you have emptied an entire armory of ammunition into someone before they drop.

However once you progress a little bit the guns become better, you unlock a few helpful perks and you learn the massive maps.

Once that happens you start to work your way up the leader-boards in games and inevitably you find it more enjoyable.

I just can't see myself putting in the quantity of hours (or days) of game-play that I have in various other FPS titles.

The makers of the game Atomic may feel I am being a tad unfair, considering the budgets they operate on in comparison to that of Activision and EA, but if you are going to enter the FPS market you can't just ignore what is out there.

This is Atomic's first go at a FPS and I can appreciate what they have attempted, it is just, if I was entering the ring with Mike Tyson I wouldn't try and out-punch him, I'd try something fresh or new....Like bringing a sledgehammer in with me!

Don't expect fireworks, but if you see it on offer at any point in the future its well worth a good few hours of game-play.

For its $15 price tag Breach has a lot of content. There are five maps available for each of the five game modes. There are 16 weapons, 12 perks and 10 gadgets plus all of the explosive devices. The weapons are broken down into 5 character classes allowing you to focus on the ones that fit your play style without having to level up every class to get the guns you personally want. Like many modern shooters as you play you earn experience for kills, captures, assists and wins. You spend the XP you earn on the weapon attachments, perks and gadgets. I initially found the leveling process to be a little on the slow side as I played for almost an hour before leveling up once. However, after a couple hours of playing I was starting to learn the ins and outs of the various maps and game modes, and was leveling up much faster. You do have to be careful not to waste your XP because each weapon has its own attachments to buy. The gadgets and perks carry over between classes, but you will probably not want to setup each class load out with the same setup. You’ll probably need a different setup when to go from Sniping to Support.

The two big features that make Breach great are the destructible environments and the cover system. To get in cover just tap the right thumbstick near any wall or object. My only issue with the cover system is that you can’t turn a full 360 degrees while in cover. You can only turn about 90 degrees in each direction which means enemies can sneak up behind you if you are not careful. All of the buildings and walls are completely destructible in Breach. You can literally shoot them apart brick by brick if you want. More often though you’ll just use a rocket launcher or grenade to take out the whole wall that a sniper is hiding behind. Tired of enemies getting to your side of the map so quickly? Just blow out the bridge. Need a shortcut to carry a canister to the drop off? Blow a hole in the tunnel wall. The destruction aspects are really fun and change how the game plays. It never gets old to drop a building on an enemy’s head when they are behind a rock you can’t get at.

The maps are fairly large, but depending on the game mode you may only use sections of the map at any given time. Fortunately, the spawn points move as different parts of the map get accessed in the game modes like Convoy and Infiltrations. While Team Death Match and Sole Survivor are a lot of fun I prefer the objective based modes in Breach. Convoy is probably my favorite mode because you either are trying to get a convoy of trucks, with massive mounted turrets on them, across the map, or you are stopping the other team from doing so. As an attacker you can try and cover your ream from the sides or get down in the trucks and use the turrets. On the Defending side you can either focus on killing the enemies or just try to use your explosives damage the trucks so they enemy has to stop and repair them.

Breach was a slow start for me but the more I play it the move I am enjoying it. I would highly recommend checking it out and if you’re a fan of shooters I think you’ll really enjoy yourself.