Destructible game, Fracture, announced for 2008
by Zack Stern 
{ May 2nd 2007 at 10:00PM }
It's the year 2161, and the United States has been divided by its flooded Mississippi River. The East is full of cybernetically enhanced humans, while the West is populated with powerful mutants aided by genetic engineering. The freaks can't get along, and this premise -- which hopefully plays out better than it sounds -- incites a world war based in America. (We look forward to the "K" broadcasters finally settling their feud with the "W" stations.)
[Update: Be sure to check out our impressions of the title as well.]
Gallery: Fracture
(Aside: Some of the marketing materials explain why the game's future scenario is topical, such as tying current environmental issues to Fracture's decimated landscape. Our favorite connection mirrors current stem-cell debate and research to the mutated lives of the western people.)
Fracture claims to rely on destructible -- and constructible -- environments. In addition to other explosive moves, players will blast holes under walls and create windstorms of boulders and debris. But players will also use certain weapons to shape the ground; LucasArts says that one example is to blast the earth upward in order to reach a higher area.
Red Faction, Black, and other titles haven't fulfilled our expectations for destructible shooters. (Imagine that, games that don't meet their hype.) But with Battlefield: Bad Company, Army of Two, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and others, we're glad that developers keep trying. We'll take a closer look at Fracture and report back on our initial impressions of its destructible gameplay.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
LK @ May 2nd 2007 10:09PM
Is that a HEV suit the guy is wearing?
sicsided @ May 2nd 2007 10:14PM
RED FACTION!!!!!!
Einhanderkiller @ May 2nd 2007 10:19PM
I keep reading about these games with destructible environments but I've never seen one that actually does it right. Until I see a game with real-time non-pre-scripted terrain deformation, no game is fully destructible.
NeverSage @ May 2nd 2007 10:19PM
"which hopefully plays out better than it sounds"
LOL, just what I was thinking
evan @ May 2nd 2007 10:19PM
GO K's!
KUNM!!!
Eisen Soldaten @ May 2nd 2007 10:24PM
The trailer looks amazing.
Eisen Soldaten @ May 2nd 2007 10:32PM
In the trailer the guy throws a grenade and it creates an enormous vortex and consumes everything.
Another grenade raises the earth and tumbles structures.
They're not lying.
Ian Von Porter @ May 2nd 2007 10:33PM
"the third-person shooter will rely on destructible environments as a key component of the gameplay"
Super Mario Bros. had destructible environments that affected gameplay.... over 20 years ago.
Anonymous @ May 2nd 2007 11:02PM
8,
Imagine being able to blow a chunk of coinblock off, then using it to block up a pipe so the enemies stop coming through. Hell, if you could take out Bowser's bridge by fireflowering the structural support system, wouldn't that be awesome?
Dracula Jones @ May 2nd 2007 11:07PM
@Einhanderkiller, you should check out some of the tech demo videos of the new Lucasarts engine behind the Force Unleashed game. It blows open the whole destructible environment thing, literally. There hasn't been anything quite like it, so far.
Also, I'm sorry, but I already killed Einhander like 10 years ago when the dude who maintained the college game room gave me unlimited plays. And, yeah, I played as Cloud, wanna fight about it?
REUYL @ May 2nd 2007 11:15PM
LucasArts is going to change gaming as we know it.
I haven't been so excited about a technology since the jump from 2D to 3D.
Chris @ May 2nd 2007 11:16PM
It's a neat idea, and it looks like they'll be adding a puzzle element to it, which is cool. My only problem is the whole "destructive environment" ad seems like it might be a little misleading... when I think of destructive environment, I think anything that I'd be able to do in real life with a gun or rocket launcher will happen in the game. Based on the trailer, it seems like no matter what, certain terrain is going to have the exact same effect every time (to solve the puzzles). Maybe I'm wrong though...
Dracula Jones @ May 2nd 2007 11:18PM
Er, I just realized Einhander and Ehrgeiz were two different games. I am both ashamed and humiliated.
But playing as Cloud in Einhander kicked so much ass. Brave Fencer Musashi agrees. Mmmm, white-covered Squaresoft PSX games.
REUYL @ May 2nd 2007 11:22PM
@ Chris:
It seems that way from the trailer, but I'm willing to bet that the terrain movement is all generated in real-time. Here's something that may explain my logic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4EF9IkhAOo
Vision67 @ May 2nd 2007 11:28PM
I'm not going to lie here: my jaw dropped at that trailer.
Scott @ May 2nd 2007 11:58PM
Freaks vs. Geeks
B Tizo @ May 3rd 2007 12:02AM
Wow... Very impressive trailer!
This game is officially making my list...
Chris @ May 3rd 2007 12:05AM
REUYL:
Thanks for the link, those physics are pretty much amazing. If this game displayed those physics, and were obvious about it as they were in that video, I'd be sold. I'm assuming that was somehow associated with Lucasarts, with the whole R2D2 thing...
thescorpion @ May 3rd 2007 12:29AM
@REUYL
woooooooow :-O
thescorpion @ May 3rd 2007 12:33AM
@REUYL
Thats what i call Real Next Gen Stuff. That is what im whaiting for
Twist @ May 3rd 2007 12:49AM
Could be neat. Day 1's Mech Assault games weren't great but they were fun for a time but I haven't been too impressed with LucasArts over the past few years. Besides attempting destructible environments I have to wonder what else they are doing to differentiate this title from all the other futuristic 3rd persons shooters that are out there or will be soon.
Dustin @ May 3rd 2007 1:44AM
Bah, DigDug did this in 1982. Destroy the ground under a rock, and the landscape would shift. Real gravity effects would pull the rock down, crushing enemies in its path.
Josh Warner @ May 3rd 2007 2:34AM
My main problem is that it doesn't seem to use a gun or manipulator to actually dynamically change the terrain - the whole terrain changing thing seems confined to special grenades. Still cool, but I was hoping for more...
What would be really cool would be if your weapon was like a combination excavator and Half Life 2 gravity gun. You could carve pieces out of the ground and throw them at people, use them as shields, or pull down buildings and sniper towers. Also: object deformation based on projectile impacts.
We're getting closer, but just adding spiffy grenades isn't quite there. At least, not for me.
umm...hello?? @ May 3rd 2007 2:55AM
3rd person?? are they sure? it kinda looked like that other FPS called Gears of War....
j/k!!! really, looks promising (but so do a lot of other games)...but based on the screenshots it looks interesting.
Zaki @ May 3rd 2007 7:55AM
Wow, somebody actually made a physics defying game out of Bruce Sterling's Shaper/Mechanist Mythos?
Carlton @ May 3rd 2007 5:47AM
Are they sure? Yeah, they're sure. You've got a point though, it does look like a lot like a clone of THIRD person shooter Gears of War, with a pointless gimmick ripped off of some other games. Why would altering the environment make the game more fun to play anyway? It's just eye-candy. It's things like this that make it clear how far away video games are from becoming a legitimate art form. Developers need to start employing creatives rather than just programmers.
#21 @ May 3rd 2007 6:18AM
that dood throws like a girl...
Jason B @ May 3rd 2007 10:16AM
Dang...I wish I had seen this article yesterday. You don't see too many bass fishing references on the gaming boards but I loves me some bass fishing.
Zack, if your ever in the ATL and want to go, give me a yell and we'll take my boat up to Lanier and try to get on some Magnum Spots!!!
t_m @ May 3rd 2007 10:30AM
zzzz...
this game looks just like the aegis physics card trailer... a guy throwing lots of grenades..
would be better with some sort of "terrain gun".
Right now it looks a lot like Giants (which had 3rd person gameplay, and explosives that warped the ground).. but also had tactics, base building and 3 playable races. Also looks vaguely similar to planet moon's follow up, armed and dangerous..
(except those were original and funny.. two things Lucasarts hasn't done since 1994)
Jake @ May 3rd 2007 12:19PM
Awesome. This looks like a very fun and unique shooter. It is not a Gears clone, to whoever said that. Seriously, just because a game uses guns doesn't automatically make it "just another shooter." 3rd person doesn't make it just another gears. That is such silly talk.
We need games like this. Games that use next gen power for more than just pixels and shaders. Give our games graphics and gameplay through next-gen power. I'm very much looking forward to this.
Aerial_Daredevil @ May 3rd 2007 12:22PM
Take away the gimmick of terrain deformation and what do you really have? Weapons that kill. Simple.
Whats wrong with using guns, lasers, and rockets to kill your opponents? Sounds like these "terraforming" grenades are an indirect approach to winning the battle.
Example:
"Traditional Wepons" = Bullet + Body = Kill
"Terraforming
Grenades" = 'Nade + Ground = Deformation = Kill
Simplicity is often the most creative and conceptually solid approach.
More Videos please. This really doesn't sell it for me.
I also think that the story line is weak with very little "solid" gound to stand on. Har Har
Jack of No Trades @ May 3rd 2007 12:30PM
Aerial_Daredevil
I think about 80% of every videogame made has that "kill/distruction" foundation.
Aerial_Daredevil @ May 3rd 2007 12:37PM
Jack of No Trades,
That would be correct. So what is your point? My point is that this method of game play could be gimmicky - with little or no logic behind it.
This future Earth obviously has the technology to terraform - so why didn't they use these grenades to seal or fill in the Mississippi river before all this shit started in the first place?
Goddammit this looks stupid.
Jack of No Trades @ May 3rd 2007 12:49PM
Yea it does seem like a fucking stupid story. But at least we have cool terrain deform guns.
dmerc @ May 3rd 2007 12:54PM
@ #23
You can use guns to alter terrain. You'll use the guns more than you'll use the grenades to alter terrain. Wait and see.
Foof @ May 3rd 2007 1:50PM
For some reason, it looks a lot like old school height-extrusion, along with a modern Havok-esque physics engine to handle objects. I remember games like Magic Carpet (with MMX support!) allowing the same kinds of terrain deformation seen here.
Done right, it can still be a great gameplay concept (throw up a mountain to shield you from an incoming missile, etc.), but technologically I want to see more than they have in the trailer (and why is it that everything that deforms the environment is a grenade? You should be able to wave a gravity gun around and create a cresting wave or an arch or something).
bentendo @ May 3rd 2007 2:03PM
Anyone else remember Magic Carpet? You could create volcanoes, and rain meteors down on your opponents. Both of which complete ruined the, at the time billed as, "fractal" landscape.
This type of landscape deformation has been around in this exact form for over a decade. The technology hasn't changed, they've just slapped hi-rez textures on it and called it a day.
I for one would like to see fully independent destructible MAN-MADE objects in game. Much like those demoed in the above mentioned "Force Power Demo". Throwing storm troopers through columns, then the whole shmere at an approaching tie-fighter sounds AWESOME.
exit stencil @ May 3rd 2007 4:04PM
i add my voice to the chorus:
that dude throws like a girl.