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Mixed or average reviews - based on 60 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 34 Ratings

  • Summary: Amidst a backdrop of worldwide ecological and seismological chaos in the mid-2100s, the United States has been split in two by the "Great Flood". As a result of the polar ice cap melting, the Mississippi River has destroyed the central portion of the United States, causing an ill-equipped Federal Government to fail and literally cutting the country in half. These two halves are left to fend for themselves in the aftermath. The East, now known as the Atlantic Alliance, symbolic of their union with Europe, puts its faith in surviving this new world in cybernetics, an established yet evolving technology now more than 150 years old. On the other side of the flooded continent, the Western states, now called the Republic of Pacifica and having allied with Asia, resort to solving their problems at the genetic level, effectively restructuring the DNA of its inhabitants -- a method the Atlantic Alliance finds morally reprehensible. By 2161, it only takes a hint of unauthorized military preparation in Pacifica for the newly restored president to order a strike in the heart of Pacifican territory -- an outpost in the now dry San Francisco Bay. This strike leads to the unthinkable: an epic conflict with global implications fought on U.S. soil. As a soldier in this struggle, Mason Briggs uses explosive, terrain-deforming weaponry to change the face of battle: He not only destroys the land in his path, he outright transforms it to gain the strategic advantage in completely unscripted ways no game has ever seen. With such a devastating arsenal at hand, Briggs never leaves any battlefield the way he found it. In addition to weaponry that allows players to do things previously only imagined, each side of the conflict, Pacifica and the Atlantic Alliance, boast soldiers with powers beyond those of ordinary men. Genetic augmentations provide Pacifican forces with amazing abilities, while Atlantic Alliance soldiers like Briggs counter the threat with the more "traditional" method: cybernetics. The differing states of superhumanity result in balanced yet stylistically different combat tactics that have never been seen before. [LucasArts] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 60
  2. Negative: 9 out of 60
  1. Fracture is more than solid. The hook of manipulating terrain to your advantage is used a lot in the game, but it is used in a way that it rarely feels out of place.
  2. Fracture is a good game, despite its flaws; and although it has a lot of lost potential in its story, its distinctive gameplay mechanics allow us to give it enough credit to say it’s worth checking out.
  3. With its terrain-deforming mechanics and physics-based weaponry, Fracture features some creative gameplay ideas and can be a lot of fun, but unfortunately that creativity isn’t matched in the art direction, story, or enemy AI.
  4. LucasArts touted Fracture not just as an exercise in extreme landscaping, but as an new property that would help them break their dependence on Jedi. They just forgot to invest in story, characters, or heart.

See all 60 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 11
  2. Negative: 3 out of 11
  1. MoBat
    9
    Some new, fun, and playable. Though you would never realize this from any of the reviews. When I say something new I do not mean "you get a new chainsaw on your gun", I mean this game allows you to manipulate your environment. In ways that I have not see anywhere (save red faction allowing you to dig holes). But this is only the center piece of the game, the weapons have also be redefined. My favorites would include the underground missile launcher, grenade launcher that patiently awaits you to detonate when ready, or a vortex gun that happily pulls enemy's and terrain together (with out overpowering the player). This is a hidden gem I would recommend to any of my friends. Expand
  2. (Written by AnotherSociety and x Joelene x)

    THE HIGHS AND LOWS
    I was not sure what to make of this game when I first played the demo but I kn
    ew there was something I liked about it so I purchased the full game on the day it was released. The story line is based on a good idea and the eventual outcome is pretty decent although lacking much needed detail. Without giving away too much basically the world climate change has altered the lives of millions and thatâ Expand
  3. Chan
    6
    Another lame game from Lucas Arts. How a company can spend millions of dollars on the most mediocre products in beyond me. You would think somebody at the company would stand up and say, "hey, we should really try and make a good game." Fracture could have been a good game with it's ground deformation gimmick. However, that's all it is, a "gimmick." That singular unique feature is never fully exploited and is lazily integrated in the puzzle solving elements of the game play. As for combat, all you'll be using the deformation tool most of the time is to throw up barriers between you and your enemies. There are also a myriad of weapons to use. However, most of them are completely ineffective and you'll end up sticking to one or two of the least exciting weapons. Those of you who are thinking of playing this game on the "hardcore" difficulty level must be prepared to pull your hair out. Enemies will hit you 98% of the time no matter how improbable the shot or angle while they spam you with infinite grenades that always land by your feet. Oh, but it gets even better! Using the exact same weapons as the bad guys have it will take you a whole clip to take one of these enemies down while a few crack shots from the same weapon will bring your health down to zero in one second flat! That's brilliant game play balance! However, if you love pain and manage to get all the way to the final boss in this game you will be rewarded with the cheapest most frustrating boss battle in the history of video games. Good luck! Expand
  4. Short: The ideas were sound, but the execution was sub-par at best. I couldn't bring myself to play past the first two missions. Rent it at your own risk.

    Long: Terrain deformation took center stage in this sci-fi shooter, where you were put in very open environments (conveniently made of dirt, I might add,) and were forced to morph your own cover. However, I found quite quickly that the enemies did not, in fact, care that you were sculpting masterpieces into the terrain with your magical pulsating beams, and decided to instead charge at you with lethal accuracy, all while you are desperately searching for ammunition to put into the pockets that your suit's designers seem to have forgotten.

    If you've ever played Lost Planet, this game is a direct recreation of it. Only this time, instead of giant swarms of monsters, hulking behemoth bosses, varied level design, and the multitude of giant, pilotable mechs, you get the side dish of human infantry.

    Every enemy carries with them the ability to destroy the player, making Fracture frustratingly difficult to play. I encountered one group of enemies that was completely invulnerably, save headshots, who were all toting shotguns, no less. When they charged, they rolled over me. Many times. Without variance. The game was filled with these cheap moments that simply reflected poor design.

    The camera controls are what to be expected from a third person shooter, but it feels as though it's a bit static for the action presented. (Mass Effect 2 nailed the third person camera, IMO).

    I ultimately discovered that once I found 10 of those purple data modules and unlocked the test area, the game had capped out. You will undoubtedly have much more fun in that area than most likely the rest of the campaign combined. Multiplayer was unavailable to me simply because there is NO ONE PLAYING. Servers shut down, perhaps?
    Expand

See all 11 User Reviews