At around the 10-hour mark of Breakdown, an extraordinary new First Person Shooter (FPS) of sorts from Namco, it delivers one of the greatest gaming experiences ever offered. Get your attention? Well good, because Breakdown is also a game that many gamers could tire of easily and give up on after only a few short hours. Breakdown although somewhat flawed, is a stunning achievement in storytelling unlike anything you have seen before in a game.

Breakdown is a FPS, but it is actually quite light on shooting. The games main mechanic is a first person hand-to-hand combat system with a ruthlessly persistent viewpoint. The entire game from start-to-finish is viewed from the main characters point-of-view. This includes cut-scenes and performing all actions, from seeing your hands turn door handles or climbing up onto ledges to picking up dead enemies' weapons, removing the magazine and discarding the now empty firearm. The effect of this persistent viewpoint and the awareness of the players body in relation to where you look is extraordinary and a massive departure from the ‘floating arms with guns' sensation of other FPS. Although very convincing, it can also be quite disorientating. When you get hit hard your view goes all over the place as you head is getting smacked around. It is quite easy to find yourself on the ground getting the snot kicked out of you with very little opportunity to get up and hit back.

The fighting system in Breakdown is surprisingly deep. Punches and Kicks are performed through logical combinations of left and right trigger pulls modified by movements of the Left Thumbstick. Clicking down on the Left Thumbstick blocks enemy attacks and targeting is managed by pressing the ‘A' Button to cycle through available targets (the same system is used for targeting ranged weapons). It is quite easy to pull off some very impressive combos and these become even more impressive as the game progresses. The only concern with the fighting system is it can be very hard to fight multiple opponents. Unlike graduates from the Hong-Kong Action Movie School of Fighting, the enemies in Breakdown don't just attack you one at a time. They can attack from all angles and give you very little opportunity to get up when knocked to the ground. The key here is to block regularly, keep your distance and choose your fights.

Breakdown has a very minimal HUD. In fact the only on screen indication is a small health and T'Langen bar. What's T'Langen? Well that will be revealed during the game but for now, consider it as ‘Kick-Arse Juice.' The more T'Langen you have, the cooler the super-human moves you can pull off. These two bars can be replenished by either drinking from a soda can (found around the place or dispensed from machines) or eating ration bars. As the game progresses you can also replenish yourself by killing certain enemies. There is no target reticle and a small orange circle indicates which enemy you are currently locked onto. You can not check your ammo supplies without exiting to the inventory menu and there is no map. This all serves to increase the realism level by minimising on-screen helpers and displaying a cleaner view of your surroundings.

The story in Breakdown is outright incredible. It is easily one of the best game storylines ever conceived and without a doubt told in the most intuitively and spectacular fashion imaginable. I won't go into details about the story itself as it is best discovered gradually though in-game events, conversations and research notes discovered whilst playing. I will say though that if you are a fan of movies such as The Matrix, Final Fantasy, Akira and Ghost in the Shell, you will love Breakdown. However, it's brilliant storyline and unique point-of-view and fighting system are somewhat let down by the games various faults. Breakdown although fantastic is far from perfect. The graphics are pretty average and would not look out of place on a PS2. The level design is very linear (not entirely a bad thing with the absence of a map) with ‘old-school' (read ‘outdated') channelling techniques, such as empty corridors with multiple doors, only one of which has a green light indicating it is the one to go through. Also, grey paint must have been on sale at the hardware store closest to the secret research facility as it's about the only thing you see for the first two thirds of the game.

The character animations in Breakdown are very well done as there are no ‘rag-doll' physics but all characters move in very convincing ways. The programmers must have been very proud of their jump/grab-ledge/climb-up animation (which does look cool) because at one stage you have to use it a good one hundred times in a row! The enemy AI is satisfactory, but no better. Soldiers stand out in the open, fighters attack with predictable attack routines and it is quite obvious that some enemies have a set attack radius and will stand like statues if you back far enough away from them.

For most of the game you are assisted by a mysterious female character called Trinity...Er, I mean Alex. She is capable of pulling off some very interesting acrobatics but while effectively invincible has the unfortunate side effect of being completely useless (other than to draw enemy attacks away from you). Even with questionable AI, Breakdown is still very difficult. Starting your game on ‘Easy' difficulty will save you hours of heartache later on. You have been warned...

One point of note is that Breakdown has quite a dark strain running through it. Right from the start, blood flows freely and you often turn up on the scene after some pretty terrible atrocities have been committed. Dead civilians (and soldiers), blood trails and splatters litter the levels and none of this Hollywood bright red blood either, but dark congealed messes that make you glad you weren't around to see it happen.

The sound design in Breakdown is top quality and the extensive music score is of an equally high standard. The game makes full use of Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and adds an additional level of emersion to an already compelling game. The positional sound processor of Dolby decoders is put to great use to realistically portray sounds of events happening off-screen and around the player and coupled with the games viewpoint really drives home Breakdown's sensation of ‘being there.' The game is quite long and takes around 14 - 15 hours to complete. It could however have been shorter and would not have damaged the gameplay. Some of the more repetitive sections could have been trimmed and because of this the total game is about 2 hours longer than it should be. Breakdown is single-player only and because of this and its length, will leave you with little desire to replay the whole thing again.