Platforms: PC (reviewed)
Developer: Drama Drifters
Publisher: Nkidu Games Inc.
MSRP: $6.99
Introduction:
Breached pitches itself as a “genre-bending Sci-Fi first person adventure” and looks pretty slick on the surface. The game is narratively focused, telling the story of Corus Valott awakening from a cryogenic slumber on a seemingly alien world that has been desolated and lies in ruin. The object of the game is that you have eight days to gather resources to repair your generator and synthesize fuel so that you don’t suffocate. A pretty solid premise to say the least.
Unfortunately, as you use your drone to scavenge the game world, you quickly come to realize that much of Breached’s game time is spent wandering around samey looking environments and that your success rate of finding the materials that you need to survive can feel frustratingly random.
In some ways, you could argue that the randomness factor is the point and that it helps you connect with the protagonist in what is predominantly a helpless situation. So in that sense, Breached succeeds in what it sets out to do. But regarding actual game design, Breached leaves a lot to be desired.
Can I get a map?
In this day and age, games have moved away from forcing players to memorize levels, locations, etc. in favor of waypoint-oriented direction, mostly because levels are so much more complicated now than they used to be. Breached is unabashedly the former both for better and worse.
Again, it all ties back into how much you can invest yourself in the hopeless situation. The world that Valott finds himself on is very alien to him, despite the fact that he has been there for a long time. Since the world has decayed over time, it has become unrecognizable, and finding what he needs to survive is unquestionably difficult. While this all makes sense regarding selling the game world (and it does this very well), it doesn’t equate to being very fun.
In the hours that I have played Breached, I can safely say that 70% of my time was spent going in circles. The game offers three unique zones for you to explore, a Canyon, a Seashore, and a Crater, and they each contain varying numbers of Alpha, Beta, and Gamma elements (which you combine to synthesize fuel) and Capsules (the materials of which you need to repair your oxygen generator). Finding the capsules proved to be my greatest challenge, as there is one particular part, a Molecular Filter, whose rate of discovery is based on a small percentage.
As a result, I found myself only seeking capsules just so that I could have a chance at getting the Molecular Filter. Unfortunately, they are much rarer, and the game doesn’t give you any indication of how many there are or where they are. Your drone has a very basic sensor that tells you when something harvestable is close, but it can be frustrating when you’ve been circling the level for 20 minutes or so, only to find that the hard-to-reach blip is actually an element that you’ve passed on the ground a dozen times.
In this instance, it would have helped if Breached had some map or indication telling me where I had already traveled and said to me whether I was approaching a capsule or element. Sure, with enough time and patience, you can find the capsules you’re looking for, but there’s also the problem of the magnetic anomalies standing in your way.
Magnetic anomalies only add frustration, not a challenge.
So as it turns out, Breached is more than your standard walking sim. You can fail and die, which in and of itself, is not a bad thing. But the obstacles you will encounter, the magnetic anomalies, deal out more frustration than fear. Failing in Breached is very devastating to your chances of survival, and doing so more than once nearly guarantees that you will die at the end of the eight days.
The anomalies are more or less gravitational pulls of death, and if you get caught near one, the only thing you can do is hit the accelerator in the opposite direction. You will bounce back and forth a few times while you do, but if you are unfortunate enough to be around a cluster of them (and they seem to like to cluster along multiple playthroughs), then you will likely bounce right into another, and your drone will be destroyed along with any resources you’ve gathered.
When combined with the fact that the game can have you circling levels for large chunks of time, you can see where this can be more frustrating than difficult.
Verdict:
Breached’s pitch as a “genre bender” is correct, but only in the technical sense. What is here can be seen one of two ways, either as an experimental first person narrative adventure, or a bare-bones exploration game. The answer, in my opinion, is a bit of both. I enjoyed reading the slowly maddening thoughts of a man staring death in the face, but I lamented having to take the drones out to try and help him survive.
I played through the game four times, and each time I have suffered the same fate. I have been unable to repair my oxygen generator or successfully synthesize the fuel, and I would have thought by now I would have hit on at least one of those if not both.
That said, at the budget price of $6.99, it’d be naive not to assume that concessions had to be made. It’s obvious that the developers were working within incredible limitations, and to be fair, they did deliver something that is legitimately intriguing. But, Breached’s actual game design is lacking regarding balance and levels, but it’s a decent first effort for developer Drama Drifters.
