Breakdown for the Xbox is one of those games that was poor rated (underrated in my opinion) with quite a few good ideas.
1) First person fist fighting and shooting. Released [shortly] before Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Breakdown was first to present the this combination of two types of combat in such and interesting mix. And with more combos and tougher enemies I actually think breakdown was slightly better in this area then Riddick. However Breakdown royally screwed the pooch three major ways, like due to inexperience in the first person genre and because they trying something so new. The first major flaw was rather poor enemy AI, sure they could block, counter, and flank but this was extremely predictable and often made the enemies little more then punching bags. Secondly there was noway to take on multiple enemies at the same time in hand-to-hand combat. When you came across more then one at once you either had to separate them and take em down one at a time (which usual was hard to do) or suffer an extreme beating. This could easily been fixed by incorporating the lock-on button mechanic into the games combo system so that you could switch between enemies in single combo. The third and final flaw in the combat system was the gun play. With the lock-on system in the game the developers seem to have found it necessary to tone the guns to make it more challenging, by making them for the most part incredibly unbalanced. The guns were, in particular the submachine gun, rather inaccurate with suprising short range (weirdly the rocket launcher was the most accurate projectile weapon in the game). This I think could have easily been fixed with a little fine tuning.
2)The second thing this game did right was never to take you out of the experience. The game was presented entirely in first person, cutscenes and all (including first person vomiting), and you were somewhat in control (being able to move during around cutscene or at least look around). And it was one fluid experience, you did everything with out elapses in time like most fps have when they take you to a new location.
3)Probably the best story and fps has ever had which is intricately incorporated into the gameplay and experience.
Even with all its flaws I truly love this game and thinks it deserves a remake (with fixes to the problems) and a sequel. Games like Mirrors Edge and the upcoming I Am Alive could take a few pointers from this game.
PSN- vykk8930 currently playing RE5 Mercenaries
