Its promise of being able to alter terrain with an array of futuristic weapons sounded pretty cool.
You are placed in the middle of a futuristic war in which the United States has become divided and the East and West are at each other's throats over who is right about genetic modification.
Your side is against it, the baddies are for it - which means they can jump higher, run faster and have cooler suits.
You make up for a lack of physical enhancements with a gun that can literally make the earth move - pretty cool, eh?
Well it is, sort of. For the first few times anyway.
Unfortunately the novelty wears off, mainly because it gets a bit repetitive and easy.
At the beginning of the game a tutorial teaches you the basics, mostly centred around the Entrencher, your terrain-altering ‘‘gun''.
The Entrencher lets you either raise or lower the dirt to help you on your mission.
The idea is good. You see a ledge you cannot reach? No problem, just point the Entrencher, shoot and hey presto, you can raise a small hill that helps you up.
A wall blocking your way? Use the other function and you can blast a hole in the ground so you can get underneath.
Anything needs raising or lowering? You get the picture.
Sadly, the Entrencher only works on bare soil, not concrete or stone, so you cannot really do that much damage.
It also means that when you see a conveniently-placed patch of soil in an otherwise solid area you have a pretty good idea that you need to use the Entrencher to continue through the level.
The ability to raise a hill to hide behind when your health is a bit low is pretty useful but I cannot help feeling that the whole terrain-moving idea is not used enough. In fact the whole game has a nearly-but-not-quite feel to it.
Your character, Jet Brody, is equipped with all the latest gear (his suit is suspiciously similar to Marcus Fenix in Gears of War) so he looks the part.
Sadly, the levels are a bit repetitive and the enemies are, quite frankly, stupid. Not a bit stupid, but proper candyfloss-between-the-ears stupid.
If you shoot someone, they very rarely try to get out of the way, they just stand there and wait to get finished off. If they are running straight towards you and you raise a hill in front of them, they get confused and shout that they have lost you.
It has to be some of the worst artificial intelligence for ages.
It's not even a case of style over substance as, visually, the game does not break any boundaries, and in some places, notably the cut scenes, the graphics look decidedly average.
The sound is a bit ordinary too; the enemies all seem to have the same voice (maybe it is a genetic modification but it becomes annoying) and the background music is forgettable.
Don't get me wrong, Fracture is not terrible; in fact the online multiplayer is quite fun.I think disappointing is more accurate.
It could have been great - the terrain-altering aspect especially has a lot of unfulfilled potential.
Let us hope they can get it spoton in the inevitable sequel.
