Review: Fracture - not all it's cracked up to be

Mike Bantick
Monday, 20 October 2008 14:56

Opinion and Analysis

LucasArts have had a busy 2008, now comes a new Intellectual Property from the video game arm of the grey quiff’s company.  Fracture shows a lot of potential, but ultimately little pressure cracks appear on its glossy surface.

Imagine a world of the future, 2161 to be exact, where global warming has wreaked havoc on the environment and economy in equal devastating effects upon humanity.

Fracture
	Developer	Day 1 Studios
	Publisher	LucasArts
	Rating	M
Xbox 360, Reviewed on PS3

Unlike the pulp fiction world of a divided United States presented in such games as Crimson Skies, Fracture gives us a totally divided world where the Eastern half of the U.S. has teamed up with Europe to form the Atlantic Alliance (AA), whilst the West has thrown its lot in with Asia under the banner of Pacifica.

Now the AA has put its faith into technology; big guns, sleek vehicles and armour augmentation are the flavours of the military month.  Meanwhile those dirty dirty Pacificans have been dabbling in DNA manipulation to create an army of super humans.

Being divided by the ‘great flood’ of the Mississippi River is not enough to keep these two factions from coming together in warfare, and that’s where Mason Briggs steps in.

Playing the part of Briggs, the player must spearhead an assault deep into Pacifican territory, starting with the desolate and dry San Francisco Bay area.   Dropped in with a couple of AA buddies, Briggs races to capture the Pacifican leader Sheridan in a cross country cat-and-mouse game.

The main Fracture gimmick is the Entrencher, along with more traditional armament; Briggs carries the Entrencher enabling – within reason – him to alter the height of battlefield terrain. 

With a quick blast, Briggs can create a barrier between himself and the enemy, or dig a new path under a wall, or enable access to a previously high ledge.  The Entrencher is at the heart of Fracture game play, and once you have the hang of it, is essential to game progression.  All I could think was “How cool is this going to be in multiplayer?”

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