Breach is the latest release from developer Atomic Games, who have primarily worked on military simulations for the United States military and intelligence agencies in the past. It fits the same description, but is in the form of an online multiplayer only first-person shooter, which is being released on XBOX Live Arcade and PC today.
At its core, Breach is a tactical military shooter. However, it sets itself apart from the pack due to its stronger emphasis on realism, as well as its destructible environments. Whereas other games such as Battlefield: Bad Company allow you to destroy buildings, sniper posts and the like, Atomic Games took it a step further in Breach. In addition to being able to destroy buildings (which is useful to eliminate areas where enemy snipers may be hiding) or destroy bridges to make the enemy's advance more difficult, the debris that is created by the explosions can also take out opponents. This adds more realism to the idea of having destructible environments and also adds more strategy to the game. Players can also use destruction to their advantage by creating doors or vantage points, collapsing buildings with charges or by bringing a roof crashing down on opposing players. Charges can also be placed on enemies.
Unlike other shooters such as Call of Duty, your health does not regenerate, which makes the game a lot more realistic, in addition to making it a lot more difficult. It is important to take cover during firefights, using the game's active cover system, which is toggled by pressing the right joystick in when you're behind any sort of cover. Cover is a huge part of the game and it is very important to take full advantage of it if you ever expect to survive for long in-game. The only way to replenish your health is by using the medic kit gadget, but you don't unlock that until you make it to the fourth rank. It allows you to heal yourself or a teammate.
Weapons caches are found throughout each map and occasionally contain rocket launchers (it is also important to note that caches will replenish your ammunition, gadgets and/or explosives.) Rockets can be used to take out multiple enemies at once, but their best use is for destruction. Players can target specific structures, bridges or walkways with this weapon. However, it's important to consider your options before firing because, although the weapon is very useful against wooden structures and concrete barriers, some of the structures in the game are made from steel and this severely limits the damage caused by the explosive ammo. Additionally, players can also unlock sticky bombs, or breach explosives, which can also be very useful in an attempt to cause a massive amount of destruction. These are unlocked as you progress through the game and level up your character.
From the start, players are given the chance to choose from one of four different class types, including traditional rifleman and sniper classes, as well as a support class outfitted with a close range shotgun and a gunner equipped with a light machine gun. There is also an unlockable fifth class referred to as recon, which is only unlockable after players max out their rifleman and sniper classes, and is outfitted with a high-powered assault rifle. The class list is available at the start of each game and after each death that a player succumbs to. There is no option to switch classes while you're playing.
Players can fully customize their characters to suit their individual play styles. Each side has three different character skins to choose from and skins can be assigned to each class individually. As you invest more and more time into the game, you can utilize your experience points earned during matches to purchase new weapons, attachments, gadgets and perks. Breach allows you to set up each class separately by assigning them different perks, gadgets and weapons. There are only a certain amount of spots available, so you must choose wisely. The upgrades are locked at first, but you can unlock them by increasing your rank, which is accomplished by reaching certain experience point plateaus. However, you can only unlock new weapons by spending time playing as that class. For example, the only way to unlock new sniper rifles is to play as a sniper for a while.
Included in the unlockable items are 23 real-life weapons, as well as eleven real-life spy gadgets. The latter list includes a Dragon Skin armored vest, a sabotage kit, a sonic imager capable of seeing through walls and detecting movement, an IR sniper detector and a bomb sniffer. These gadgets each unlock at different ranks, but can be extremely helpful. When creating your own class however, you are only given the opportunity to select one gadget and one main weapon, so it's a tough choice. It's important to test things out to find out which one suits your play style best. There is always a side-arm pistol available at the press of a button (down on the directional pad in the 360 version's case.)
The game's thirteen unlockable perks can help you in various different ways. Some examples of the perks available for purchase include the following benefits: increased sprint duration, more ammuninition and grenades, increased accuracy during intense firefights, better accuracy during blind fire and double damage for your melee attacks. There are also perks that give you extra experience points (while reducing your health) and one that places an IR target on the player who killed you last, allowing for you to know who to take revenge upon. You are able to select one perk at a time.
Breach features five different game types, as well as a hardcore variation. My two favourites were infiltration (where the two teams battle for posession of objective control points and the first team to a certain amount of points wins,) and retrieval (which is a mode where teams try to collect a canister and bring it back to their secure locations, earning points for each time the canister is secured.) The game also includes a traditional team deathmatch mode, as well as convoy and sole survivor. In convoy, one team tries to defend a convoy of trucks as it makes its way from one point on the map to another, earning additional time when they pass certain points, while another team attacks. Sole survivor mode sees two teams battling against each other without respawns, allowing the final surviving player to be named the winner. The game allows for sixteen players to play in one game lobby, with two separate teams of eight. Bots are not available.
Hardcore mode can be applied to any of the game types and maps. It incorporates a lot of major changes to the game, including the elimination of radar tracking, disabling the kill cam, and modifying the damage settings to create a much more lethal and realistic experience. In general, hardcore mode is much more of a simulation than the game's regular set-up. You can access hardcore mode when you search for games by pressing the right joystick in and then refreshing the lobby list.
The game also features four different maps, with one variation that allows you to play one of the maps at nighttime as opposed to daytime. The game refers to them as combat missions, as opposed to using the term map. The list includes Peak (a communication complex located on a snowy peak,) Summit (a complex positioned on a mountain road, surrounded by shoddy wooden huts,) and Silo (a nuclear silo located in a mountain range, complete with valleys.) Additionally, there is a map that goes by two names (Passage and Nocturne.) This map contains a long service tunnel and is located within a mountain range in Asia. Passage is the name given to the daytime version of the combat mission/map, whereas Nocturne is the name the nighttime version goes by. My personal favourite is Peak, although I like all of the maps for their own reasons. Passage/Nocturne are unique because they contain more confined locations than the others do, and the tunnel is very dark, so it's hard to spot enemies. All of the game's maps are very large, which allows for the battles to take place on a large scale, spread throughout the map.
Players earn experience by completing an assortment of tasks within each game mode. Various amounts of experience points are awarded for killing an opposing player, as it's based on rank. However, experience is given for other things such as when players take over a control point in infiltration, deposit the canister in retrieval (or aid someone in doing that,) and when players assist on kills. There is also a perk referred to as the 'Badass' perk, which sacrifices half of a player's health in exchange for the ability to earn more experience. The game features several main ranks with different tiers of each. You can see the amount of experience points required to reach each rank by checking its achievement list. It takes quite a while to level up though, so that is something that will definitely keep people coming back. This is a game that requires a lot of time in order to progress within your rank and within your classes, so it offers a lot of replayability that isn't just based on competition or fun factor, but is also based on wanting to level up more and try out new gadgets and perks.
While playing Breach, it is important to understand that it's not a game that you can run and gun in like is the case with Call of Duty. I enjoyed this new, more realistic take on the genre. Although it has a steep learning curve, I had fun playing it and put quite a bit of time into it. Sometimes there are some issues when you're in cover (relating to it being a bit sticky and not responding perfectly,) but the game plays quite well. There were a few hiccups within the gameplay, but nothing major. It's challenging, fun and competitive. However, it's also tough. The shooting mechanics work quite well, and I like how important teamwork is within the core gameplay. If you don't work as a team and support each other, you'll lose.
Breach features an easy to navigate menu system, allowing for easy access to upgrade menus, game lobbies and its stats tracking page. Within the stats page, you can see the amount of experience points you've earned, how close you are to unlocking new weapons and your proximity to your next rank. You can also take a look at your kill-death ratio, as well as detailed stats regarding the exact amount of kills/deaths you have. I'm glad that they included this because it's something I feel every game should include. I find it frustrating when games don't have a stats tracking menu. One of my personal gaming pet peeves is when developers omit visible and accessible stats tracking pages.
The default control scheme is quite accessible and well designed. The left joystick controls your movement, whereas the right joystick controls the camera and your aiming reticule. Active cover is initiated by pressing the right joystick in and you are able to peek above or to the side of cover by using the left joystick. The right-trigger controls your fire, down on the d-pad brings out your side-arm and up on the d-pad can switch to a grenade launcher accessory. Players can utilize the A button to jump, the Y button to interact with items (such as canisters and weapons caches,) and initiate sprint by holding in the left joystick. Certain gadgets can be used by pressing the right shoulder button (or right bumper as it's often referred to as.) I found this control scheme easy to use.
In terms of visuals, Breach isn't anything that will blow you away, but it looks pretty good. Its maps feature quite a bit of detail and some nice texture work, but the visuals feel a bit dated. The character model options look decent, and are quite varied and detailed, although there's only a limited amount to choose from. However, sometimes their animations can be a bit stiff. Its effects are pretty well-done and are especially noticeable during explosions and destruction. The game runs on the engine that Atomic Games used for their last project, the controversial, unreleased (wartime) shooter/horror game, Six Days in Fallujah.
Sound design is a relatively strong aspect of Breach. It includes a myriad of different sound effects, including different sounds for ricocheting bullets, which was a nice touch. The sound effects used for the weapons, footsteps, explosions and destruction all sound pretty good. Although there is no real dialogue, soldiers will occasionally utter one-lined quips after taking out an opposing enemy. At times, sound effects can sound a bit muffled, however. The only major problem I had with the sound was that, during the first day I played the game, the sound almost completely cut out for about 30 minutes or longer. I could hear the music but that was all. It occurred during different games, and ended up rectifying itself after a while. I haven't experienced the issue since.
Overall, I thought that Breach was an enjoyable, engaging and well-made shooter. It sets itself apart from the pack by offering a more realistic experience (especially with hardcore mode turned on,) and offers quite a bit of content to unlock - so much so that it'll keep you playing for a long time. Although it has some minor issues (which aren't anywhere near game breaking,) it's a very solid game that is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of military shooters or simulations. You get a lot of content, lots of replayability and some time consuming achievements. Just keep in mind that this isn't an arcade experience like Call of Duty - it's much more realistic and unforgiving.
Rating: 7.5/10
Breach is available for XBOX Live Arcade and PC, as of today, January 26, 2011.
