The Life and Adventures of Jet Brody
Fracture has some interesting features, but it's not much fun.
Published: November 4, 2008
Fracture is a third-person shooter that tells the story of a tough hombre who makes up for his complete lack of personality and style by having the radical and extreme name Jet Brody. Jet Brody's mission is to kill a bunch of genetically modified transhumans for some reason; I think it has something to do with a big lake in Ohio. The big hook of Fracture is its terrain deforming weaponry. There are grenades and guns that raise and lower the ground in certain places, among other things. These effects are visually interesting, if not tactically inspiring. The slick physics engine handles all of this churning and bubbling well, but in most other respects, Fracture feels like an embarrassingly low budget title.
As nifty as the terrain deformation is, it ends up being of limited utility most of the time, aside from a few places where it is forced. The meat of the game is in the running and gunning, and it is weak. Movement and aiming have a strangely flimsy feel, and the enemies are incredibly boring. There are a few exceptions, but most of Jet Brody's opponents are bland foot soldiers who generally stand still while taking potshots at Jet Brody, and these are sometimes accompanied by elite foot soldiers who simply require more bullets to put down. Though not threatening individually, there are enough of these species traitors in some battles as to be quite irritating. Of course, even the basic soldiers do have an exciting special ability: they are able to magically appear out of thin air when Jet Brody crosses the invisible line that triggers the next encounter.
Sometimes, the game is downright frustrating. Hordes of enemies are thrown at Jet Brody, and it tends to feel as if this ham-fisted approach was utilized not in the service of creating impressive cinematic set-piece battles, but simply to artificially lengthen the game. Enemy fire is very accurate, so these swarms of green boobs will wear Jet Brody's health down if he remains in the open. One of the primary uses of the terrain mangling then is to create cover, but Jet Brody must expose himself to return fire, so the utility of this is questionable. Jet Brody can "slice the pie" somewhat, but it all feels very clumsy. A fun use of raising terrain is to give Jet Brody a boost in his jumping height. If Jet Brody finds himself in a room that doesn't have a dirt floor, then he's basically hosed.
Jet Brody has a regenerating shield, which due to some mysterious technobabble reason is upgraded remotely by his handlers over the course of the game rather than being turned all the way up at the outset. There are a few other upgrades that similarly just sort of happen, but none of them are interesting enough to discuss. Jet Brody can carry two firearms at a time, so he must be selective with his loadout. Jet Brody has access to a bevy of wacky and fun weapons, but it is rarely wise to carry them, because a general purpose assault rifle is guaranteed to be useful in a variety of situations, while the more specialized (and ammunition limited) weapons are not.
As nifty as the terrain deformation is, it ends up being of limited utility most of the time, aside from a few places where it is forced. The meat of the game is in the running and gunning, and it is weak. Movement and aiming have a strangely flimsy feel, and the enemies are incredibly boring. There are a few exceptions, but most of Jet Brody's opponents are bland foot soldiers who generally stand still while taking potshots at Jet Brody, and these are sometimes accompanied by elite foot soldiers who simply require more bullets to put down. Though not threatening individually, there are enough of these species traitors in some battles as to be quite irritating. Of course, even the basic soldiers do have an exciting special ability: they are able to magically appear out of thin air when Jet Brody crosses the invisible line that triggers the next encounter.
Sometimes, the game is downright frustrating. Hordes of enemies are thrown at Jet Brody, and it tends to feel as if this ham-fisted approach was utilized not in the service of creating impressive cinematic set-piece battles, but simply to artificially lengthen the game. Enemy fire is very accurate, so these swarms of green boobs will wear Jet Brody's health down if he remains in the open. One of the primary uses of the terrain mangling then is to create cover, but Jet Brody must expose himself to return fire, so the utility of this is questionable. Jet Brody can "slice the pie" somewhat, but it all feels very clumsy. A fun use of raising terrain is to give Jet Brody a boost in his jumping height. If Jet Brody finds himself in a room that doesn't have a dirt floor, then he's basically hosed.
Jet Brody has a regenerating shield, which due to some mysterious technobabble reason is upgraded remotely by his handlers over the course of the game rather than being turned all the way up at the outset. There are a few other upgrades that similarly just sort of happen, but none of them are interesting enough to discuss. Jet Brody can carry two firearms at a time, so he must be selective with his loadout. Jet Brody has access to a bevy of wacky and fun weapons, but it is rarely wise to carry them, because a general purpose assault rifle is guaranteed to be useful in a variety of situations, while the more specialized (and ammunition limited) weapons are not.
