Breed – PC – Review

Somewhere in the early
2600’s most of planet earth left to colonize other planets. Shortly there after
an alien breed started attacking our pilgrims, causing major destruction and
loss of life. After answering a distress call to earth, our fleet engaged the
breed across the system. Upon our returning to Earth, we are only to find that
the breed out flanked us and attacked and attempted to take earth. With the
majority of our defenses away, they were very successful. Only small packs of
resistance remain, until the US Darwin came to save the day. Now it’s up to you
and the USC grunts to take Earth back and restore hope to mankind.

The USC Grunts are
genetically engineered attack force that is in a seemingly never ending supply.
The USC Darwin carries an array of accelerated gestation pods; during the course
of the journey to the colonies, these are used to grow legions of GRUNTS
(Genetically Revived Universal Tactical Sentient) from genetically engineered
embryos. Specifically designed for combat, they are biological fighting
machines, bred for battle, incapable of disobeying orders and completely
expendable. These are the backbone in Earth’s new breed of warriors and
defenders.

Through the 18 or so
missions you will have an arsenal of machine guns, plasma stingers, rocket
launchers, grenades, etc. Everything you need to carry out the missions is right
at your fingertips. Jet fighters, tanks, assault buggies, landing crafts, jeeps
etc. You can also man gun turrets, AA guns, and most anything you come across in
the campaign. This gives the game a lot of diversity, which keeps the player
addicted to the game.

Some missions, you will
have limited access to your assault team, but for the most part you will be able
to control around 4 soldiers at a time. The AI of your team is not terribly bad.
They generally fight back pretty well and don’t sit around like a bunch of
idiots while the enemy is gunning them down. They do however get in the way
sometimes, which can get a little annoying. You are limited with the amount of
weapons one can carry so having the others at your command with different weapon
types is quite awesome, and much more realistic then some other FPS that allow
you to carry 500lbs of weapons around. Toggling between your team is quite easy
so you can take over the different weapons they are carrying sort of speak.
Jumping form man to man made the game very enjoyable, and quite diverse. Just
goes to show there is safety in numbers. Here is some of the USC you will have
command of:

USC Sniper

The U.S.C. is well aware
that brute force can only get you so far, therefore they have an elite division
of GRUNT units that are composed entirely of women. The "SNIPER CORPS" of the
U.S.C.’s GRUNTS are feared and respected by those with whom they serve. Mostly
mavericks and highly trained in the use of the "SUREKILL" sniper rifle, these
deadly ladies can pick off a target from any distance. Armed with a secondary
light machine gun and equipped with the lightest armor the U.S.C. forces have to
offer. They are the most agile of all the U.S.C. units, as well as the deadliest
infiltrators and saboteurs. The Sniper is one of my personal favorite types of
character to play. You can use the SUREKILL scope to scan the area without
having to toggle between binoculars. Some of the best missions were played using
spot and shoot tactics…LOADS OF FUN!

USC Engineer

Equipment gets damaged,
guns break down and vehicles throw wheels. If an engine overheats or an axle
bends, it’s the job of the USC Engineer to make sure the vehicle is back up and
running in record time. Armed with medium weapons and packing a heavier form of
the GRUNTS standard armor, plus a reinforced toolkit, the Engineer can repair
broken equipment, weapons, vehicles and installations if given enough time.
Engineers can also work quickly with various data terminals and are expert
hackers. They move at about the same rate as other medium units and are vital to
many of the USC covert operations. Your team members are usually equipped with
at least one equipment pack. The engineer carries several. These can be used on
the fly to fix a vehicle that is near destroyed so you can keep on fighting with
out exploding into little grunt pieces all over place.

USC Medic

When the body fails and
damage is too great for automated healing systems, the USC turn to the tried and
trusted method of ‘field’ medicine. The Medic is trained with small firearms and
is highly skilled at patching up injured GRUNTS. As an offensive and defensive
unit the Medic is one of the weaker units in the USC and it is advised to keep
them close to the back or behind a Heavy Gunner. They have a medium movement
speed and only limited access to offensive equipment.

USC Heavy Gunner

The favored unit when you
need to conduct a heavy assault upon a particularly well defended target. The
USC Heavy Gunner is certified to use the ‘ATROCITY’ and other large caliber
weapons. The GRUNTS armor has been modified fitted with strength enhancers and
polymer sealing NANITE group that acts to close minor breaches in the armor. The
armor itself is stronger than the other GRUNT types and can take much more
punishment. The Offensive and defensive capabilities of this unit are far in
advance of the standard types, but the movement speed is greatly reduced. They
maybe slow but the heavy gunners provide a six pack of whoop ass. These guys can
take on a small attacking force all by themselves. Take over this unit and let
the killing begin!

The graphics and sound
are O.K. Not terrible just a bit dated. With new releases like Far Cry it’s hard
to say the graphics are awesome. Multiplayer gets a well deserving two thumbs
down. If lack of servers wasn’t bad enough, it is loaded with bugs. That’s not
the half of it. The MP games are SOOOO limited it makes my heart ache. There is
only Deathmatch type of games. No Capture the Flag, assault, or attack/defend,
type of games. Ok guys let me let you in a little secret; MP is what gives even
the crappiest games life. Gamers play the solo missions more like practice for
the countless hours spent in online battles. This is key for replay-ability and
justifies shelling out $40-$50. Sure some never play online, but if you are
going after the almighty dollar and market share, you need to have a solid MP
version of the game if nothing else. This brings me to my last and final gripe,
and I’m sure the most important. After playing for many hours, and downloading
the patch, I have come to the conclusion that CDV basically released an
unfinished product. After reviewing about 100 titles, I don’t ever think I
played a game that crashed or was full of as many bugs as this one. I can deal
with bugs. Things floating, poor AI, shooting through walls, etc. But when I can
not even play for 15minutes without crashing, it just becomes unbearable. After
reading posts from the breed forum found at the game’s website, it sounds to me
and many others, that the game released was not the version the developers
wanted released. No one can seem to answer why, but needless to say it’s going
to take one hell-of-a patch to make this game fluid and playable. This game has
so much potential, it could easily rival games like Halo and BF 1942. Like any
other game if you rush it to market it just spells DOOM. Which is my guess as to
why they released it early before the anticipated DOOM is finally
released and sets an elevated benchmark.

All in all it can be a
fantastic game despite its similarities to Halo. So what if it resembles a great
game, that’s what will make me go buy it. Someone called it a Halo Killer after
playing a preview of it. It very well could have been, but until they get this
game running problem free, it will end up as a coffee coaster for my desk. 

Gameplay: 6.8
Tons of things to
do, vehicles to drive, guns and gun emplacements to man, and different missions
to experience. But fluid play is just tough to come by. If long cut scenes
aren’t bad enough, buggy coding causing crashes and long start ups just make you
at times want to do something else, like shoot yourself in the foot. Thankfully
you can save your game frequently and pick up where you almost left off. Save
often and it’s not so bad.

Graphics: 7.8
Too little too
late. Graphically the game is pretty good, especially if it would have come
sooner. After seeing games like Far Cry, and UT2003, it just falls short.
Definitely enjoyable, definitely diverse, but definitely not all that.

Sound: 6.9
The musical score
was very exciting at times when you engage a hoards of the breed. Unfortunately
it was not played very often, and at times it just was plain to quiet. Sometimes
sound bytes overlapped wondering what the hell was going on. Overall all the
sound effects like explosions; voiceovers, engines, etc. were decent at best

Difficulty: Medium
Getting started
is quite easy, and you can toggle the difficulty settings. Some missions are
still challenging even on the easiest setting.

Concept: 6.5
Having diverse
missions and many vehicles to pilot is the game’s saving Grace. Other than that
it’s another FPS with a Halo feel.

Multiplayer: 6.5
At time of review, rarely could a game on Gamespy be found. I raise an eyebrow
at only having deathmatch type games. Where is the CTF games or attack and
defend? This game could be so much more in the multiplayer arena then it
presently is. However, if DM is your thing, the games are a quite fun. More
games and a dedicated server could make this title shine, despite its single
player shortcomings. Tons of bugs need to be worked out to really enjoy online
play

Overall: 6.9
Not a bad game, but it still needs some work. The bugs are still present despite
downloading the first patch. If it weren’t for random crashes and long start
ups, the game would have been much more enjoyable. There is plenty of diversity
with the missions, which does leave the gamer wanting to play more to see what
the next mission has to offer. If more game options were added to multiplayer
games, it would definitely add to the replay factor…that is if the bugs are
fixed!