Breach (PC) Review - PAGE 1

In 2009, developer Atomic Games was the source of a lot of controversy with their game Six Days in Fallujah, a shooter centering on the real-life events which took place in Fallujah, Iraq. In the end, Konami decided to not publish the title, and it never saw the light of day. Atomic then switched gears, and from I gather, adapted their new engine to Breach, a shooter with at least some similarities, including destructable walls and objects.

Breach is a multiplayer-only budget title, and packs features like third-person cover and a kit and upgrade system, plus a reasonable list of modes: Infiltration (analgous to Battlefield's Conquest), Convoy (your team must escort a vehicle past enemies and barricades -- inventive), retrieval (CTF with canisters), and of course, Team Deathmatch. There's also Sole Survivor, which is a hardcore Elimination-style of play with minimal HUD info and no kill cam.

The gameplay in Breach is adequate, though hurt heavily by movement, which feels sluggish and laggy, not to mention running, which is really more of a horribly awkward fast hobbling. Naturally, you'll be running a lot so this really puts a damper on things. The transition from first person to third person cover however is relatively smooth and works better than it might appear from gameplay footage.

Then there's mouse aiming. While I've certainly seen worse, it's definitely not as precise as it needs to be, particularly with sniper rifles, and feels more or less like a direct translation of the Xbox 360 aiming mechanics. Again, it's not agonizing, and you'll be able to land most shots when lined up properly, but it does feel like half luck and half skill sometimes.

Atomic already issued one patch during my time with the game, though (prior to release), so hopefully they see fit to tweak both of these issues. At this late stage, there may be only so much that can be done for the mouse aiming, but any bit would help.

Graphically, it's actually not too shabby. Nothing too fancy most of the time, but not hard on the eyes at all really. An oddity I noticed: graphics during the kill cam sequences  seemed signifcantly improved over the usual goods (see comparison above) -- if they were brought up to this level, the experience would definitely benefit from it.

Audio is decent enough, and happily, shots stand out, particularly when coming from the sniper rifle. The lack of voice chat is somewhat of a turn-off. Though not essential for the light gameplay Breach offers, there are moments it would definitely be handy, and of course would make the experience more fun all around. Atomic says they're considering it for a future update, so we'll see.

Regarding PC-specific features, there's nary but a few -- in the graphics department we have options for V-Sync, Textures (high or low), and resolution. The V-Sync option does mean an uncapped framerate however if turned off -- on a medium-high end rig, I don't think I ever dipped below 90fps, and frequently hit 100-140. Lastly, thankfully, there are dedicated servers, so you don't have to bother with silly matchmaking systems. These do the job nicely. Keyboard controls are mapped smartly, though they're not fully listed in the options, and the lack of hotkeys for weapons is unforgivable.

Besides this, there's really not a lot to say about Breach. It's a decent multiplayer shooter that lacks polish in some key areas, while borrowing from titles like Bad Company 2 within its upgrade system, which includes perks as well as weapons and gadgets. Upgrades add a nice little incentive to keep playing (even if the system is somewhat unintuitive), and modes like Convoy and Sole Survivor spice things up some, but at the end of the day, the game finds itself in the same camp as Blacklight: Tango Down and The Scourge Project -- ultimately mediocre. Particularly with other great shooters new and old currently going for the same price or less, each suffering none of the faults of Breach, it's impossible to recommend. If Atomic does patch out its key faults, it could serve decently as a light discount shooter, and perhaps already does on 360, where the focus is.