Day 1 does it again...
You remember how you loved Mech Assault? Remember when the sight of Denny Thorley at E3 brought enjoyment? Yah that's all in the past, now. I used to be the world's biggest Day 1 fan...no longer...
While FEAR may not have been the worst game in the world and actually showcased innovation that was worthwhile (with the slo-mo tech), Fracture just fails to hit that mark every time. I won't rehash Vinny's review because everything he says is right on. What kind of game company publishes a mediocre third party shooter the week of TGS? Talk about terrible marketing decisions. I looked through 5 major gaming websites' podcast archives and not a single one of them covered the game. Giant Bomb's coverage was a joking Vinny : "Rent Fracture" followed by a serious Ryan "or don't and go rent a better game". Brutal.
For me, the game had some pretty bad frame rate issues and audio cutting in and out, making the music painful to listen to at times. Also if that music could be any more generically Star Wars, I'd have to throw up. When the frame rate doesn't dip and the audio stays true, it's a competent 3rd person shooter but nothing more.
Then there's the final boss fight which is why I'm going down to 2 stars. The final boss fight is ridiculously difficult requiring you to do up to three things at once, even on easy. I confess to not being the greatest skilled gamer in the world, but when I play a game on Easy I expect to be able to drill the guy with bullets until he dies. After about 30 minutes, I put down the controller, hit the eject button and said out loud (to no one), "this sucks and is not worth it."
The game also does a HORRIBLE job of letting you know what to do when you're lost. About 4 times in this game, I was left standing in the middle of a room with NO ONE to fight and having not the slightest clue of where to go or what to do. Without exception, each time, I had to perform some terran deformation that would get me where I needed to go.
The whole game feels horribly contrived, as if they came up with the deformation idea first and everything else was worked out in an hour on the back of a napkin.