Gameguru reviews/specials archive                                        << back to the main page Breed (hx) 11:04 PM CEST - May,30 2004 Breed is squad-based vehicular combat/first person shooter hybrid set in the year 2610, when you find yourself commanding the last remaining United Space Corps cruiser, Darwin. The Earth's Colonies have been attacked by a mysterious alien race - "The Breed" and now you are here to wipe the aliens from Earth again. The storyline of the game is quite simple and understandable for everyone. However, we have seen the plot several times before and in much better ways. Squad-based gameplay is at the core of Breed. You control a squad of Grunts (Genetically Revived Universal Tactical Sentinels) holding the line and fighting back against swarms of invading aliens. Your squad mates are class based, so they will have different sets of weapons for specific uses. For example, Grunts have the assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. Your squad may include a heavy gunner, medic, sniper, engineer or your regular soldier. Snipers are your best bet for picking off small groups, medics hand out med packs to the injured grunts and engineers can fix damaged vehicles. The weapons in Breed are all standard shooter fare - slightly futuristic assault rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, and the like. A key gameplay mechanic is the need to swap between squad members to gain access to certain weapons (all squad members can only carry a maximum of two weapon). Breed also incorporates a lot of vehicle-based action. Among the heavily armed vehicles are fighter jets, landing craft, tanks, buggies, jeeps, and APCs, so you can battle differently by land and by air. The vehicles are easy to control and the vehicular combat is pretty cool, especially in the tanks where one can drive and fire while the other mans a turret and also fires - you can choose from a minigun, guided missiles, a devastating plasma cannon, and rockets. The action takes place both on Earth and in outer space. The physical environments are huge, whether they involve indoor or outdoor locales. The environments you are fighting in are very detailed and everything looks good. Breed contains 18 missions, which include destroying breed facilities and structures and of course to kill any alien you many encounter. Although many are just demolition assignments, some do involve alternative objectives such as securing structures, protecting resistance movements or sabotaging enemy radar and tracking stations. Sadly, some missions can be so incredibly repetitive and predictable. Also the time pressure present in some assignments does nothing to increase your interest. It's actually rather frustrating :( Besides, your squad mates often get stuck behind anything they can find just to frustrate you too. Sometime, the game feels much easier without your teammates. In terms of multiplayer, there are some regular deathmatch modes playable through the Internet or LAN. Unfortunately, even with the patch #1 installed, there are some serious technical problems and lag. Overall, I think this game is pretty mediocre. Breed has incorporated some good features from other games but doesn't bring anything new to the genre. To be honest, Breed didn't impress me much. There are serious bugs which are still present despite downloading the first patch. My recommendation would be to try it before buying, especially if you like the genre - you may just like it. Note: The gamers who have enjoyed Halo PC will find this title eerily familiar. But unlike Halo, Breed is relying more heavily on ground and air/space vehicle combat. Related links: playable demo (217MB) System requirements: Minimal: Processor Intel P3 / AMD 1GHz, 256MB RAM, T&L 3D Card with 32 MB RAM, DirectX compatible soundcard, 1.2GB free HDD space, 56k modem for multiplayer Recommended: Intel P4 / AMD 1,5 GHz, 512MB, T&L 3D Card with 64 MB RAM, DirectX compatible soundcard, DSL or better snd: 3/5 - decent sound effects, horrid/annoying voice acting, inconsistent music gfx: 3/5 - look dated, Mercury graphics engine can only render 24 bit colour textures, large outdoor maps with destructible environments playability: 3/5 - nothing original, vehicles are easy to control, highly frustrating, poor AI (especially pathfinding), lagging multiplayer, _many_ bugs genre: squad-based vehicular combat/FPS release: April 2004 developer: Brat Designs the game is similar to: Halo publisher: CDV Overall: 64%

last 10 comments:

blooduk posted - May, 30 2004 - 23:32 Needs a lower score, the bobbing made me puke! chris posted - May, 31 2004 - 00:11 its a good idea ... it needed MORE WORK ... dirty old man posted - May, 31 2004 - 10:38 BRRED..... what women are born to do!!! v1m posted - May, 31 2004 - 11:48 Good review, hx. This is a bug-ridden, inconsistent failure. It has its moments, but not nearly enough of them to outweigh the many horrendous bits. maga posted - May, 31 2004 - 14:34 i liked the assault gun sound ! ra-ta-tat-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta- ! Brad Skank posted - May, 31 2004 - 20:51 To "maga" hold on to your smackish excitment because the up-coming kick ass game like Doom 4, Half Life 2 and Battle Field 2 will-blow-your-ass off to hell for some serious excitment. So I wouldn't count on these lame ass fps like Far Cry. Well happy gaming. Tom posted - May, 31 2004 - 22:11 Yes doom3, finish sp in 10 hours or less and get it on with 4 people multiplayer! wohoa! there's a game of the future! HL2, hey we dont let you just play games, we have spyware in Steam and we collect lots of info from you! and u can buy games now while you play!! Wohoa! enjoy your gaming and raping experience. BF 2.. hmm, sounds good, but what is it really? more DX features put in?.. need more detail and what will go into it. From what I read, not much more just better graphics and BF and Vietnam already have pretty decent graphics as it is...Breed? oh yes, the review. Good review and honest. Game sucks. Simple enough. konrad@collectivegam posted - Jun, 01 2004 - 00:28 Whats wrong with far cry? sure multiplayer sucks but it is a good engine. And please don't forget stalker Cellux posted - Jun, 01 2004 - 01:22 You need an open mind about this game, dudes! Not much wrong with it, everyone should stop comparing it to games its nothing like and see it for what it is. Spectator posted - Jun, 01 2004 - 03:52 FARCRY GOOD ENGINE!? OMG! You call a huge pig like that a good engine!? please man, you don't know zip about games man! If that's your idea of a good engine, I better look into getting a 300gb hard drive. v1m posted - Jun, 01 2004 - 10:15 Open mind? How about an informed mind, Cellux? I'm probably one of ten people on earth who bought and played this sucker all the way to the end. I liked the concept, hated the execution: poor AI, poor flight model, uselessly timed missions that make you roar through rather than explore the levels. Those are the main problems. Then there are the bugs. Saved games disappearing; player dropping through level geometry; level events not triggering; crashes. Whether that's the fault of the publisher or the devs (who claim that the publisher raped their code), it doesn't matter. The game's a mess that no amount of open mindedness can save. El_Coyote posted - Jun, 01 2004 - 10:31 Spectator: The quality of the engine has nothing to do with the size of the game... thats level and texture sizes you want to scream at there. freak posted - Jun, 01 2004 - 12:43 You know, Ed Scio who did this also did armour geddon back in the 90's. can see the similarities between them. fair review though. Dr John Becker posted - Jun, 01 2004 - 13:49 There are some incredibly bad spellers on this website. Please do yourself a favour Freak, visit www.spellcheck.net. Please. Spectator posted - Jun, 01 2004 - 16:24 El_Coyote, other than graphics the game has got ZIP. Biggest actual piece of junk I ever bought. I will remember the game maker next time I purchase. Jared posted - Jun, 01 2004 - 18:46 The first demo sucked, the second was horrible, and the full version is so bad, it makes Microsoft look good. Bill Gates posted - Jun, 02 2004 - 10:33 Hey Jared, I read what you just said about MS! =)  write a comment The old comment system has been replaced. Check out FORUMS!