A third person shooter game with some interesting gravity mechanics. Released in 2008 and Published by LucsasArts

The game is set in the year 2161, where tectonic weapon technology has had an impact on Earth, being a result to climate change and rising sea levels, resulting in the Government investing in terrain morphing research. Basically means you have the ability to raise or lower certain parts of the ground with your weapon and grenades.

The concept of the game was brilliant with it’s tectonic warfare, being able to manipulate the battlefield like it’s SimCity? You’re not just shooting or hiding; you’re literally playing God with the terrain. Raise the land, drop a rift, crush your enemies like bugs with moving rocks. It’s like someone looked at “Earthquake” and said, “I can make this a weapon.” However the actual implementation was very disappointing and is mostly used for moving objects to progress the story. For combat, it’s easier to take cover behind objects, rather than manipulating the ground to your advantage. Certain points of the mission require you to raise the ground to realign a bridge, or to lower the ground to remove a blockage. Whilst this mostly works, sometimes the ground can clip into the objects, making the game look a lot sloppier in presentation.

Now, gameplay. That terrain manipulation? Fun for about five minutes until you realize it’s the only trick in the game’s bag. Everything else feels like it’s been done before, and done better. The fun part comes with the explosives, as there is a good amount of destructible objects (not environments, you’re limited here) that you can use to take out enemies. Things can get a bit chaotic at times if you set these off in a chain with other explosive objects on the map, especially Hyrdraballs, which are explosive balls which roll about the map that you can manipulate.

The main character is a very safe design for its time, being your typical bald space marine. I guess when you’re going with a risky gameplay concept, it’s wise to go with a typical protagonist. There’s a few cutscenes that appear as you progress through the game which detail the lot of the campaign, but it’s really nothing to write home about and can be easily forgotten. Essentially you are fighting a rival faction for power and your player character is a soldier that was in the right place at the right time.
The story does explore themes of power, control over nature, the ethics of warfare, and the consequences of advanced technology. It questions the lengths to which nations would go for power and survival, and the impact on humanity when nature itself becomes a weapon.

The game was released for consoles only, for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. There waw no PC release which was unusually for a third-party game. The Xbox 360 version is considered to be the better port due to running at a higher resolution thanks to the 360 being easier to develop for. Remember this was 2008 where developers were struggling with getting to grips with the Cell Processor of the PS3.

In conclusion, Fracture is like a student project that gets a B for effort but a D for execution. It’s got one fantastic idea but doesn’t know what to do with it beyond the initial “wow” factor. If you’re into trying out games with novel mechanics for their novelty, give it a go. But if you’re looking for a deep, engaging experience? You might want to look elsewhere unless you’re really into watching potential squandered. It’s not the worst game out there, but it’s a reminder that sometimes, a great idea isn’t enough to make a great game.