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Fracture (video game)
Encyclopedia
Fracture is a third-person shooter
video game developed by Day 1 Studios
for the PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360
. It was released on October 7, 2008 in North America and on October 10, 2008 in Europe.
United States
which has been split into two sides, the Pacific and the Atlantic, by rising water levels caused by global warming
. The Atlantic is devoted to advancing the technological prowess of humanity, while the Pacific is devoted to enhancing the human genome
. When the xenophobia reaches an unfortunate peak, war erupts, and an army from the Atlantic is dispatched to deal with the Pacific force. Players control Sergeant Jet Brody as he leads his attack team against the Pacific force. His first target is Alcatraz Island, where Brody is able to test all the Pacific's found weapons. Both the Atlantic and the Pacificans have a trade monopoly in the area to promote the sciences.
Jet Brody is ordered to capture Sheridan, the Pacifican commander, the player's team is ambushed and Sheridan escapes. During the pursuit in a dropship, the ship is shot down, and Brody is the only survivor of the crash. after evading enemies, he meets up with a squad of Atlantic soldiers. The squad infiltrates a Pacifican bunker, but most of the members are killed shortly afterward. After fighting through the bunker on alone, the player discovers HYDRABALLS, a new, highly explosive Pacifican weapon. After destroying a large number of the weapons, the player breaks through and takes an elevator to a secret underground facility, where the player locates and destroys key manufacturing equipment. After destroying the equipment, the player aids an allied squad in capturing the Golden Gate Bridge
from Pacifican forces and fixing another bridge using multiple spike grenades. The Golden Gate Bridge is captured, but a giant, 1000 feet (304.8 m) machine called Dreadnought awakes from the Bay and destroys most of the Atlantic forces, then marches towards the East Coast invincible to aerial attack.
The player is taken out of San Francisco to a remote Pacifican base in the desert, where he is supposed to find information about destroying the Dreadnought. Along the way to the communications center the player fights a new enemy, the ground-burrowing Creepers, and shuts down the base's defense systems by destroying power generators. Brody also destroys both the radar systems and their generators, therefore knocking out all Pacifican communications. At this point in the game the player is required to use the Lodestone, a vortex-creating weapon, to solve platform puzzles by creating magnetic vortices. Also introduced are the super-fast Cheetah soldiers, who can move from place to place in the blink of an eye. Next Brody encounters a creature called the Bolla, a large minotaur
-like monster that throws boulders and charges the player. After killing the Bolla Brody is given an Alliance vehicle, the TDV1, that has an automatic turret and terrain deformation powers. Using the TDV1, the player is supposed to jump large pits of toxic chemicals and destroy the base's supercomputer, while fighting Pacifican soldiers and another Bolla.
At this point the base's supercomputer goes on meltdown and starts destroying the base, just as the player receives another TDV1 to escape to a landing pad. Sheridan escapes once again, this time with some of the toxin, and locks a traitorous biologist, named Marico, in a prison cell guarded by a Pacifican squad. The player must destroy the Pacifican forces and rescue Matsuharo before proceeding to Washington, D.C.
to destroy the Dreadnought and take down Sheridan. Another boss creature, the Spike Flyer that can create personal shields
, is encountered as well as another Bolla as Brody brings the defense shields back online by connecting the generator beams together. Brody breaks the Dreadnought's shields and destroys it from the inside, then kills Sheridan in a final battle to destroy the Pacifican Army.
The player can collect data cells to unlock a weapons testing facility and the weapons within it. Notably, the game requires puzzle solving using terrain deformation.
along with Chad Seiter and Chris Tilton
.
giving Fracture a 5.9 stating poor sound effects, lack of replayability, and repetitiveness as reasons for its low review score. 1UP.com
criticized Fracture for taking multiple features from other shooters such as Halo
, Gears of War
and Resistance: Fall of Man
. Electronic Gaming Monthly described character Jet Brody as "perhaps the single most derivative character in the modern age of gaming, a direct combination of the heroes from Resistance/Mass Effect/Gears of War/Too Human. If the narrative weren't so staunchly heavy-handed, I'd put my money on Brody being a literal parody of shooter-genre character tropes
." Game Informer continued this theme by ranking Brody first on its list of "the top 10 worst character names." Moving beyond the character's name, Game Informer notes that “Jet Brody is a detailed character, but ends up looking like an Unreal reject.” By contrast, Electronic Gaming Monthly describes the Entrencher gun as "Fractures true star."
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
video game developed by Day 1 Studios
Day 1 Studios
Day 1 Studios is an American game developer that operates in Chicago, Illinois and Hunt Valley, Maryland.They worked in tandem with developer FASA Interactive to create their first two games MechAssault, which Microsoft used to promote their Xbox Live service, and MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf...
for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. It was released on October 7, 2008 in North America and on October 10, 2008 in Europe.
Story
Set in the year 2161, Fracture tells the tale of a xenophobicXenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
which has been split into two sides, the Pacific and the Atlantic, by rising water levels caused by global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
. The Atlantic is devoted to advancing the technological prowess of humanity, while the Pacific is devoted to enhancing the human genome
Human genome
The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...
. When the xenophobia reaches an unfortunate peak, war erupts, and an army from the Atlantic is dispatched to deal with the Pacific force. Players control Sergeant Jet Brody as he leads his attack team against the Pacific force. His first target is Alcatraz Island, where Brody is able to test all the Pacific's found weapons. Both the Atlantic and the Pacificans have a trade monopoly in the area to promote the sciences.
Jet Brody is ordered to capture Sheridan, the Pacifican commander, the player's team is ambushed and Sheridan escapes. During the pursuit in a dropship, the ship is shot down, and Brody is the only survivor of the crash. after evading enemies, he meets up with a squad of Atlantic soldiers. The squad infiltrates a Pacifican bunker, but most of the members are killed shortly afterward. After fighting through the bunker on alone, the player discovers HYDRABALLS, a new, highly explosive Pacifican weapon. After destroying a large number of the weapons, the player breaks through and takes an elevator to a secret underground facility, where the player locates and destroys key manufacturing equipment. After destroying the equipment, the player aids an allied squad in capturing the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
from Pacifican forces and fixing another bridge using multiple spike grenades. The Golden Gate Bridge is captured, but a giant, 1000 feet (304.8 m) machine called Dreadnought awakes from the Bay and destroys most of the Atlantic forces, then marches towards the East Coast invincible to aerial attack.
The player is taken out of San Francisco to a remote Pacifican base in the desert, where he is supposed to find information about destroying the Dreadnought. Along the way to the communications center the player fights a new enemy, the ground-burrowing Creepers, and shuts down the base's defense systems by destroying power generators. Brody also destroys both the radar systems and their generators, therefore knocking out all Pacifican communications. At this point in the game the player is required to use the Lodestone, a vortex-creating weapon, to solve platform puzzles by creating magnetic vortices. Also introduced are the super-fast Cheetah soldiers, who can move from place to place in the blink of an eye. Next Brody encounters a creature called the Bolla, a large minotaur
Minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
-like monster that throws boulders and charges the player. After killing the Bolla Brody is given an Alliance vehicle, the TDV1, that has an automatic turret and terrain deformation powers. Using the TDV1, the player is supposed to jump large pits of toxic chemicals and destroy the base's supercomputer, while fighting Pacifican soldiers and another Bolla.
At this point the base's supercomputer goes on meltdown and starts destroying the base, just as the player receives another TDV1 to escape to a landing pad. Sheridan escapes once again, this time with some of the toxin, and locks a traitorous biologist, named Marico, in a prison cell guarded by a Pacifican squad. The player must destroy the Pacifican forces and rescue Matsuharo before proceeding to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to destroy the Dreadnought and take down Sheridan. Another boss creature, the Spike Flyer that can create personal shields
Shields
-United Kingdom:* North Shields, Tyneside, England* South Shields, Tyneside, England* Shields Road subway station, an underground station in Glasgow, Scotland-United States:* Shields, Indiana, an unincorporated community...
, is encountered as well as another Bolla as Brody brings the defense shields back online by connecting the generator beams together. Brody breaks the Dreadnought's shields and destroys it from the inside, then kills Sheridan in a final battle to destroy the Pacifican Army.
Enemies
- Pacificans – The common grunts of the Pacifican army. Armed with light machine guns, they are the main infantry force of Pacifica.
- Raptors – Heavier Pacifican infantrymen armed with heavy rifles as well as grenades. Although harder to take down, they are less in number than regular Pacificans.
- Hydras – Barely human, these genetically engineered humanoids can jump VERY high and often carry rocket launchers to fire when up in the air. They have only light armor to give lift, and as a consequence can take only a small beating before death.
- Shermans – a prototype, heavily armored, grenade launching brute. Launch neon-green grenades that cause extreme damage and pack a punch with their firepower. They also explode on death.
- Invaders – soldiers with heavy armor, can only be taken down with explosives, melee attacks or headshots. They use shotguns as their weapon.
- Creepers – Nonhuman, burrowing monsters that turn on Pacificans just as they would the enemy. Can be dug out with terrain deformation.
- Bollas-Giant – minotaur-like monsters that can charge and smash enemies. Can only be hit in certain areas.
- Spike Hydras – Hydras that use spikes from the ground to create personal shields. Use rocket launchers as well.
- Cheetahs – Superfast, land-based Pacifican supersoldiers. Use machine guns and can go at the speed of light.
Gameplay
Fracture's unique selling point is its deformable terrain. The player has futuristic weapons, both in the form of guns and grenades which can raise or lower the terrain. This ability allows the player to create cover, jump to areas not normally reachable, and launch enemies into the air and into ceilings. Examples are the entrencher, the tectonic grenade, and the subsonic grenade.The player can collect data cells to unlock a weapons testing facility and the weapons within it. Notably, the game requires puzzle solving using terrain deformation.
Development
Music for the game was composed by composer Michael GiacchinoMichael Giacchino
Michael Giacchino is an American composer who has composed scores for movies, television series and video games. Some of his most notable works include the scores to television series such as Lost, Alias and Fringe, games such as the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series, and films such as...
along with Chad Seiter and Chris Tilton
Chris Tilton
Chris Tilton, born 9 June 1979 in New Orleans, U.S. is an American soundtrack composer and has helped compose several television, film and video game scores. He collaborates with Michael Giacchino and J.J. Abrams on several of his projects. His projects include the video games Mercenaries:...
.
Reception
Fracture received average to mixed reviews with IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
giving Fracture a 5.9 stating poor sound effects, lack of replayability, and repetitiveness as reasons for its low review score. 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
criticized Fracture for taking multiple features from other shooters such as Halo
Halo (series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
, Gears of War
Gears of War
Gears of War is a military science fiction third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios...
and Resistance: Fall of Man
Resistance: Fall of Man
Resistance: Fall of Man is a first-person shooter video game for the PlayStation 3. It was developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game is set in an alternate history 1951, and follows Sgt...
. Electronic Gaming Monthly described character Jet Brody as "perhaps the single most derivative character in the modern age of gaming, a direct combination of the heroes from Resistance/Mass Effect/Gears of War/Too Human. If the narrative weren't so staunchly heavy-handed, I'd put my money on Brody being a literal parody of shooter-genre character tropes
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
." Game Informer continued this theme by ranking Brody first on its list of "the top 10 worst character names." Moving beyond the character's name, Game Informer notes that “Jet Brody is a detailed character, but ends up looking like an Unreal reject.” By contrast, Electronic Gaming Monthly describes the Entrencher gun as "Fractures true star."