Breach Impressions

At PAX, I had an opportunity to play Breach, by Atomic Games, and I was not impressed, to be honest. Breach is a first person shooter, based in a modern warfare setting. There are five classes which you can choose from, but only three were playable at PAX, the Rifleman, the Gunner and Recon. The Rifleman was similar to a sniper, but was more mobile and wasn't crippled in closer combat. The Gunner is your standard heavy weapon class, with a machine gun and grenade launcher. The Recon class is almost like a scout, with a little more weaponry. I was able to play all three classes, and wasn't overly impressed by any of them.

I am not sure Breach offers anything more than Counter Strike: Source or the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series. The developers at PAX were saying that the entire world was destructible, they said to the point where you could remove a single brick and use it as a whole for sniping, I didn't see it. I attempted to shoot at walls, and nothing happened, I fired grenade and there was little or no destruction. There was one wooden structure that was able to be destroyed, but it seemed to be the only thing. There was an archway where the other team would tend to hide, I attempted to drop it down on them, and nothing happened. I am not sure if it wasn't working, I was doing it wrong, or it just can't happen, but either way, it does not speak well for the game, since this was their big selling point.

The game is set to cost fifteen dollars, which is not bad at all, but I feel like they are making sure that everyone knows the game is fifteen dollars, they had a fairly prominent sign at PAX. I feel like they were trying to distract from a incomplete or sub par game by making sure that everyone knew it was much cheaper than similar games. If I was looking for a cheap game, I would still go with Counter Strike: Source over Breach, minus the "destructible" world Breach offers nothing more than Counter Strike. If you are looking for a current game, and willing to pay for it, there is no reason not to get Modern Warfare 2 or Bad Company 2. I feel like Breach attempts to cash in on the Modern Warfare trend, but it doesn't offer anything new, and Modern Warfare is a better game. I see no reason to purchase this game, to be honest, and I do not understand the hype it is getting. Though, keep in mind, the game is still currently in the very early alpha stages, so we could see much more in the way of improvement.