Fracture Preview

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Out This Month

	Gears of War 2 Platforms: Xbox 360 Release Date: 11/7/2008 Genres: Action Developer: Epic Games
	Quantum of Solace: The Video Game Platforms: All Release Date: 11/4/2008 Genres: Action, Movie-Based, Shooter Developer: Treyarch
	Tom Clancy's EndWar Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC Release Date: 11/4/2008 Genres: Real-Time, Strategy Developer: Ubisoft
	Legendary Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 Release Date: 11/4/2008 Genres: First-Person, Shooter Developer: Spark Unlimited
	Resistance 2 Platforms: PS3 Release Date: 11/4/2008 Genres: First-Person, Shooter Developer: Insomniac
	Call of Duty: World at War Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 Release Date: 11/11/2008 Genres: First-Person, Shooter Developer: Treyarch
	Mirror's Edge Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 Release Date: 11/11/2008 Genres: Action, Adventure, First-Person Developer: Digital Illusions CE
	World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King Platforms: PC Release Date: 11/13/2008 Genres: MMO, Role-Playing Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
	Alone in the Dark: Inferno Platforms: PS3 Release Date: 11/18/2008 Genres: Survival Horror Developer: Eden Studios
	Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360 Release Date: 11/10/2008 Genres: Fighter Developer: Midway

Fracture Preview

(1 Vote)

Sean Tonks, Senior Editor

Wednesday, August 13 2008

For the first time in over 300 years the United States is on the brink of civil war. Political bedlam has led to a reshaping of the social situation in the United States. But this time, it is not the South looking to forge a new sovereignty. It's the West, and this is the dark setting of LucasArts and Day 1 Studio's new action-shooter, Fracture.

After a presidential decree outlawed the biological engineering of humans, the Pacifican Army has begun massing forces further distancing themselves from the East, and the Atlantic Alliance. The decree was all but a death knell, cutting a social divide through the nation, and perhaps, signaling the final years of unity of the once great country.

As a soldier of the Atlantic Alliance, it is your job to stop this divide, and that is where the game begins. You are sent to apprehend General Sheridan of the Pacifican Army, but there is an issue. He is holed up in an extremely fortified San Francisco. Does that mean you won't carry out the mission? Hell no, that just means you are going in hot, and creativity is your best asset.

Fracture Preview

Developer, Day 1 Studios, really is making creativity key on the battlefield with their wide array of world altering weapons. You see, Fracture is a game where the world is ever-changing, and not just politically speaking. We are talking about the actual terrain. One of the biggest pulls of the game since we first heard about it was the level of interactivity with the environment players would have.

Grenades can blow out craters in the ground to trip up enemies, or, special reverse grenades can construct a mountain for cover. Some weapons, like the Torpedo, provide a covert level of destruction. With the Torpedo you can launch a subterranean missile that burrows through soft ground, passes underneath obstructions, until it reaches a target. Once it is at the feet of something that needs to be blown sky high, it goes off and does just that.

Not only will you have a unique arsenal for combating the separatists, but they play an important role in environmental puzzles and progressing through the game. We found in some areas we had to blow the ground away to find hidden tunnels, and in others we had to create rocky pillars from the ground to bridge gaps in a path. In one area, we literally raised a fallen bridge into position using the terrain deforming tools.

Fracture Preview

What we saw set Fracture apart from the regular "shoot'em-ups" based solely on the creative implementation of the action. It isn't straight forward, or black and white. Sometimes it requires a bit more though in how to approach each situation, which is a seriously welcome direction for the genre, and we are happy to see it is actually working. In our war on San Francisco we intuitively fell into the rhythm and the complex weapon mechanics. It is almost like playing a Ratchet and Clank title. At first you may feel overwhelmed with the weird options, yet as the game progresses you find a fantastic use for each gadget and weapon.

But sadly, just as the war was heating up and we were becoming experts at shaping our combat zone, the ground shook with a massive earthquake. Only, we soon found out, it wasn't an earthquake. We were witnessing one of the massive bosses emerge from beneath the city of San Francisco. This metallic titan made the colossi from Shadow of the Colossus seem like plush toys. Right as we were gearing up, our experience ended. We were left hanging on the edge of our seats, with no hope of resolution to the conflict until the game releases, this October.

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