Fracture
Xbox 360
Lucasarts
3 stars (out of 5)
Review by Simon Kemp
Having read a couple of previews and seen a couple of trailers for Fracture, I was quite looking forward to Lucasart's latest offering.
It's 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 America has become divided and the West and East are at each others throats over who is right about genetic modification.
Basically, your side are 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 which 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.
Basically, the Entrencher lets you either raise or lower the dirt to help you on your mission.
The idea is pretty good - you see a ledge you can't reach, no problem, just point the Entrencher, shoot and hey presto, you raise a small hill which 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.
Something needs raising or lowering . . . well, you get the picture.
Sadly, the Entrencher only works on bare soil, not concrete or stone, so you can't 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 can't help feeling that the whole terrain-moving idea isn't 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 candy-floss-between-the-ears stupid.
If you shoot someone, they very rarely try and 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've lost you.
It has to be some of the worst AI for ages.
It's not even a case of style over substance as, visually, the game doesn't 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's a genetic modification, but it gets a bit annoying) and the background music is pretty forgettable.
Don't get me wrong, Fracture's not terrible, in fact the online multiplayer is quite fun.
I think disappointing is more accurate.
It could have been great, the terrain-altering especially has got a lot of potential.
Pretty much everything else has been done before, and done a lot better.
Let's hope they can get it spot-on in the inevitable sequel.
