Breakdown

released on Jan 29, 2004

Trapped inside a mysterious laboratory and unable to remember his past, Derrick Cole discovers his extraordinary powers, as he fights for survival against a determined military faction and a legion of seemingly invincible super-human warriors! Breakdown offers an exciting first-person action-adventure gaming experience by combining hand-to-hand combat and state-of-the-art weapons with an intense story line and incredible graphics. Embark on a thrilling and suspenseful search for the truth!


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Anyway, time for the actual review.

Breakdown is undoubtedly one of the most creative, innovative and coolest games I've ever played and seeing it being brushed off and forgotten due to when and where it came out is heartbreaking.
The gameplay is nothing short of fantastic, making you feel like a total badass all the while even the slightest amount of carelessness or arrogance will result in your death, the game managing to combine a fantastic story and setting in the process.

My only real critique would be that the auto-aim is often times janky and some encounters can be a bit frustrating, but those are heavily outweighed by all the positives, mastering and properly learning the combat will lead you to an unforgettable experience that is a must-play for anybody who's a fan of action games or rather video games as a medium and what they can be.

Tried playing this on Xemu but it looks and runs terribly. With a very good PC, it looks like you can make it run properly, but visual glitches will remain and they are so bad you'll find yourself able to see what's behind many doors or around the corner through the walls.

Even if I were to play this properly, I dunno how much I could get into this, honestly. Things that should be simple in a first person game like picking things up or reloading are unnecessarily complicated, janky and have long animations. Gotta enter "arm mode", gotta aim to what you wanna grab, gotta press the button to eat the food.
After the second gunfight or so, I ran out of ammo and couldn't find any on the guys I killed, though from what I see on videos, they should have it. I "arm mode'd" everywhere, didn't see anything, didn't pick anything up except one ration. Next encounter, tried punching them but it didn't seem doable to fistfight 3 guys yet at that stage of the game.

Maybe some other time, but until then, I think I'll remain Zeno Clash Gang.

To attempt to break down what makes breakdown so good is a hard task for me, maybe it’s the slick, intensely immersive first person presentation that’s further enhanced by being able to utilize the strength from the XBOX, the strongest console at the time, maybe it’s twisty, badass 2000’s sci-fi narrative, or maybe, just maybe, its the fucking BEASTLY combat system, I’m not sure I even know how to put my liking for it into words, but goddamn if it isn’t satisfying and unique then I don’t know what is, you get so many combos and some are better than others at doing specific things like you wouldn’t deal with 1 guy the same way you deal with 3 guys, another thing that enhances the combat is the progression of both enemies and your power, the game does a great deal of work to build up and introduce most enemy types, like those buff dudes at the start, all you’ve been fighting are humans and then these dudes pop out of nowhere and have a horror introduction where you walk through the messes they made and then see them absolutely destroy groups of enemies you’d have trouble with, so now you know they’re not to be messed with and you should run the fuck away, which is a great thing, you simply run away from them until you gain enough power to beat the ever living shit out of them, that’s another thing, the power progression is hands-down the best there is, without spoiling anything, you get stronger and stronger as the game goes on and every single moment is cool as fuck and serves to introduce your abilities well, no limp-dick skill tree bullshit.

BREAKDOWN turns boys into men. And you better play it if you have any ounce of love for action media. Just be open-minded regarding it’s control scheme, and don’t forget to block!

First person fighter game that I have made a mistake to play on Hard difficulty. Feels like playing Tekken from a first person perspective. Don't think I will ever beat this game but it rules.

An interesting concept for a game, but limited by the technology of the time. a bit dated now, but honestly i could see this having potential for a remake.