PAX East Preview: Breach

For those who don’t know or simply don’t remember, Atomic Games was the developer behind Six Days in Fallujah which was put off due to publisher issues. Konami was once on board to publish the goods until they had a turn of heart and decided the content was far too controversial to keep in their mothership.  Apparently an accurate portrayal of the second battle of Fallujah is too much for some people to handle. Thankfully, they were able to begin development on another shooter, but this time focusing on only online multiplayer. Breach is a downloadable first person shooter that features an “active cover system” and a level of destruction not seen in any other game. With the help of some real life experienced operatives, Breach is aiming to give gamers a sense of what it’s like to be in a Black Ops situation with ultra realistic weapons and destruction.

Breach is set to release on XBLA and PC. It is multiplayer only and can support up to 16 players. At this year’s PAX East they had eight consoles hooked up in a 4 on 4 firefight. The main draw to the game is the cover system and the destructible environments. The cover system Atomic is using is what they call the “active cover system.” While against any wall or surface you can get into cover by clicking down on the right stick. Anything that an operative would use as cover you can use in the game. You can lean around corners, blind fire and get a better view of your surroundings without exposing yourself. Using cover in this game is key because it doesn’t take that many shots to take someone down, as a pinch of realism. The ballistics in the game are extremely realistic and it definitely adds to the destructibility. Each of the 23 different weapons fires differently and players will need to adjust to their destructive capabilities.

You won’t have to have fancy weapons or perks in order to shoot through certain objects; if a gun is able to shoot through the object in real life then you’ll be able to pull it off in the game. While utilizing cover is key, destroying the cover is another key strategy. If an enemy is firing at you from inside of a building or behind a small cement divider you don’t have to wait for them to pop out to kill them, you can take their cover away by destroying it. If a sniper is firing at you from a balcony you can take that balcony out with the proper weaponry. You’ll be able to do things like shoot individual bricks off a wall, pop holes in ceilings or floors to ambush the enemy and you can even take down an entire bridge.

All the destruction is physics-based and reacts correctly to the type of weapon the player’s using. In fact even if you’re far enough away from a C4 blast the debris can fly out and will hit and injure you. The level of destruction combined with the cover system lets players flank enemies or prevent enemies from moving to other locations. You can basically herd them into kill zones if that’s something you want to do. From what I saw at PAX East it seemed like players were spending a lot of time experimenting with the destruction element in the game more than they were actually playing. There were a few who realized they were playing a shooter and went about killing people, and it’s during those moments that you get a true sense of realism from the action.

Although Atomic Games has been working with military and intelligence organizations in creating a realistic training system, Breach will still have some “game-ish” moments. Not everything in the game can be destroyed. Though if it was — gamers would just blow up the entire map. There are also gadgets in the game that act somewhat like perks. These are real life gadgets that players can use to create any combination of loadouts for their class. Unlike in Call of Duty games where your class is set for the entire game, you can create a combination of gadgets while in the game. Gadgets like Bionic Ear which increases your hearing ability gives you a chance to hear enemies walking near you as well as the Remote Motion Sensor which protects your flanks while you’re sniping. Those are just two of the 12 gadgets that you’ll have at your disposal in Breach.

To unlock some of these gadgets players will gain experience points from kills or assists and of course by winning the match. There will be five classes to choose from: Rifleman, Sniper, Gunner, Support and Recon which can each be unlocked with experience points. The game will ship with three large maps including one nighttime map and one additional map that will be made available for free once gamers have destroyed a certain amount of objects in the game. In terms of game modes, the only one playable at PAX was the Infiltration mode which is just like a territories mode, but there will be other game modes. Along with the standard Team Deathmatch there will be an Operations mode where you’ll search for randomly placed bioweapons canisters and Convoy which is almost like V.I.P — only with trucks.

Convoy is a very interesting mode. One team’s job is to escort the convoy from one point to another while the other team is trying to stop it. This is a job that Special Ops soldiers do all the time. With every map you have to change your strategy because you’ll be going from wide open areas to enclosed spaces. This mode will require a lot of strategy and teamwork, something that I think has definitely been lacking in shooters these days…

The game still has some issues that need to be worked on and balancing everything is something the development team is putting a lot of effort into. Though Breach is largely a realistic/strategic shooter, there’s no telling how gamers will end up playing the game. There will be some who will of course run and gun and some that will blow things up for the sake of, well, blowing things up, but hopefully Atomic can find a way to implement mechanics that will end up preventing things like that from happening.

At first glance some might say “Oh that’s just a lame Call of Duty rip-off” but maybe that’s a testament to the visuals of the game. Keep in mind that this title is a XBLA game; it’s not a retail game but anyone who was to see the game in action wouldn’t know the difference. Atomic Games doesn’t have a publisher and is planning to release the game themselves. This is a prime example of a company who just wants to provide a great gaming experience without trying to empty your pockets. The studio is aiming for a June release window. For $15 Breach is looking to do what Battlefield 1943 did on Xbox Live and with their advanced physics engine and unique gameplay they just might be able to pull it off.

[Video walkthrough courtesy of IGN.com]