We live in terrible times, gentlemen. From now on, destructible buildings are no longer the privilege of expensive projects like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 or Red Faction: Guerrilla. In 2011, even such a tiny studio as Atomic Games, can afford something like this. Moreover, she has the audacity to enter the territory of multiplayer, where, it seems, all the niches are already occupied. Breach trying to compete with BC 2 and other multiplayer giants. Is the recruit successful in this??
Battlefield?
The first milestone, however, Breach gives up without a fight – graphic brainchild Atomic completely unsightly. Homogeneous blue porridge instead of snow, faded special effects, poor scenery – after the dazzling gloss of "Bad Company" there is nothing here to catch the eye.
Oh well, it’s all little things. The most important thing, as you know, is the gameplay. It is a strange mixture of Battlefield And Call of Duty with occasional inclusions of Counter-Strike. The “soldiers” are divided into two teams and savagely beat each other up with the support of firearms, sophisticated devices and explosives.
Naturally, before the start of the battle we are offered to choose one of four (not counting the additional) classes. True, there is no need to expect any excesses: here the machine gunner differs from the machine gunner only in that he has a machine gun in his hands, and the machine gunner has a machine gun. Unique features – zero.
At least the “pumping” system allows us Frenzinocasino.uk to somehow individualize the guys – for experience points we buy sights and silencers for weapons, useful devices like first aid kits and, most importantly, skills. But here’s the problem – the developers threw all the skills and “gadgets” into a common pot. Sniper in Breach Exactly the same improvements are available as to the happy owner of an M16 or a shotgun (with a catastrophic spread of bullets, by the way). In this situation, it would be a great idea to allow us to create our own classes, but the set of three “trunks” for all specializations is fixed.
Besides, we are developing painfully slowly. If, for example, Modern Warfare 2 delighted us precisely because it provided us with something fresh every half hour, then here you will have to fight stubbornly for at least an hour to acquire your first “perk”, and three times more in order to unlock a new “gun”.
The cover system in the style of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas is a source of pride for the authors. The thing is useful at times, but, whatever one may say, it doesn’t have the potential to revolutionize the genre.
Battlefield? C’mon!
Modes in Breach there are five in total: the classic “Team Deathmatch” with or without revivals during the round, a local analogue of “Capture the Flag” with a canister as a banner, holding key points and “Convoy”. The first four are quite standard and do not need explanation, but the last one is quite interesting. In Convoy, the goal of the attacking team is to escort vehicles with reinforcements to several control points, repairing vehicles and blowing up barriers if necessary; the defenders, of course, actively interfere with the escort – they damage the transport and suppress opponents with fire. We already saw something similar in Team Fortress 2, when we pushed a cart with a bomb along the rails or the cart’s movement was impeded.
Perhaps this is precisely the fun that is worthy of the player’s attention. We have seen assorted “defmatches” more than once, and they were implemented much better than in the budget creation Atomic Games. “Convoy” can, with a stretch, be called original and even exciting. In addition, it is he who uses the potential of generally good cards most skillfully. Since transport does not stand still, fighters have to constantly change tactics. The cars had just rolled along the bridge – the enemies were shooting at the escorts with snipers; the jeeps disappeared behind the trees: a rifle is no longer needed here – you need to grab the M60 and set up an ambush in the thicket.
Well, the notorious advanced physics is unlikely to extend the life of the project. The problem is that the game in no way motivates us to destroy. Local levels turned out to be too cramped for equipment (if you do not take into account escort vehicles) – no tanks sweeping away shabby shacks in their path, no formidable helicopters in Breach can’t find. Yes, sometimes it is very useful to blow up a flimsy wooden bridge and force the enemy to make a solid detour around the location. However, you can spend a couple of weeks in battles and not learn about the existence of physics at all. Monolithic trees and pillars contribute to this.
Loading – almost a full-fledged sixth Breach mode. In total I spent at least an hour on it. Unforgettable.
It also becomes sad from long gatherings in the server selection menu: finding a match with a decent ping here is a non-trivial task. Meditating on the loading screen for ten minutes and eventually using Ctrl+Alt+Del is also a common thing. After this, it’s a shame to even complain about such trifles as inadequate mouse sensitivity settings and not the most responsive controls.
Pros: dynamic and moderately cheerful “Convoy”.
Cons: all other modes are no good; dreary and ill-conceived “pumping”; bad graphics; destruction plays a minor role; technical flaws.