Breakdown. Lost in time

I don’t want to start my first blog with complaints about modern realities, but I think I’m not the only one who has problems with the fact that games, and indeed any works of art in general, have become very rarely surprising or evoking at least some emotions. Most often, you immediately begin to see generally accepted patterns and understand what awaits you in the coming hours. And if you don’t end up giving up this activity, you will be glad to see even the slightest glimmer of originality that stands out against the general gray background.

Someone might say that you’re just too greedy, you have too many leisure options. About 20 years ago you wouldn’t even think about such things, but would eat what they give you with a bun. I would also like to ask for more. And, of course, this is partly true – the abundance of options is very corrupting and raises the bar of perception.

However, lately I often come across examples Frenzinocasino.uk that, to some extent, show me that the problem is not only in my gluttony, but also in the paucity of ideas among the developers. I’ll try to convey what exactly I mean.

A little (but not exactly) background

A couple of months ago I wanted to get acquainted with the Star Wars Jedi duology, since the games appeared quite often in my information field, but I simply wasn’t in the right mood to try them. And so, on the recommendation of a friend, I watched Rogue One (not that I was delighted with it, but overall the film left a pleasant impression), after which, having caught the Star Wars wave, I decided that it was time for Jedi. The first part was already purchased on an account shared with my brother, but I bought the second at a discount on my own.

I had a rough idea of ​​what awaited me (thanks to the Internet for that), but without any spoilers or key details. I won’t go into detail about each game separately, because we’re not talking about them at all, but I’m just summing up my impressions: these are really beautiful AAA products with exciting production, good acting, not the worst gameplay and an interesting layout of locations (for my taste, locks are generally the best thing in both games). But the key problem for me personally here was the complete lack of emotional attachment to everything that was happening on the screen. I felt especially funny at the end of Survivor, which is entirely built on how the main character experiences the death of one of the key characters, pronounces a touching monologue before the credits, and at that moment I understand that I absolutely don’t give a damn about his words, about the dead character, and in general about what will happen to all these adventurers next. I was even a little upset because of this emptiness inside – how could that be?? Such a cinematic story, made, it would seem, at the proper level, passed as if it never happened. I bet that in a year or two I won’t even remember the events there.

Let me remind you that it was 2014 and simply watching videos from YouTube, which at that time I consumed in huge quantities. However, for some reason, the image of this game was imprinted in my creation so tightly that I involuntarily remembered it from time to time at completely random moments in my life, unsuccessfully trying to answer the question that was tormenting my brain: what the hell was it called?? Several times I tried to find it by description, but, surprisingly, this did not bring any results, although a similar move worked with some old forgotten films.

We return to our time, where many years later I watch a video over lunch about the history of the original box, which also tells about the launch line of games released on this console. Imagine my surprise when, among other gameplay inserts, I notice that same strange shooter with a dash of beat em up (or you can say the other way around: beat em up with a dash of shooter), and the author pronounces the treasured combination of English letters – Breakdown . No, I didn’t jump for joy and didn’t immediately rush to look for this game on the Internet, but simply with a pleasant feeling inside I added its name to my list of notes on my phone. But the thought began to ripen in my head that I should definitely play it. I even have a working custom Xbox 360 Arcade! In my stupidity, I spent too much time searching for the original disc, which now costs exorbitant amounts of money, and only half a day later I found out that Breakdown is sold for a very low price in the Microsoft Store. When the loading bar reached 100 percent and the game successfully launched on my old man, I was truly happy, despite the time wasted.

So what’s up with the game??

Here was that rare case when the project was able to truly surprise me due to my initially low expectations. Firstly, the game immediately greets you with a simply excellent first-person setting for 2004, which even today looks very good. From the recent one, parallels can be drawn with Cyberpunk 2077, where this aspect was also done at the highest level. Last but not least, this effect is achieved due to the fact that the main character has a body that you see and feel throughout the game. It’s rare that an FPS representative takes this nuance into account, but here a separate bet is made on it. This significantly enlivens all staged scenes and not only.