The fact that Breakdown is rubbish isn’t so much the issue here. What is important is that Namco have attempted to do something fairly revolutionary with a genre shy of revolution. By really putting the player in the shoes of the games lead, Derrick Cole , you will view exactly what he sees throughout the first-person experience. This means of course, that when Derrick throws up into a toilet within the first few minutes, you actually get to see it through his eyes. Total Immersion.

Breakdown is essentially a First-Person Shooter, but with less emphasis on the shooting, and more on the punching; a First-Person Fighter, if you will. Being a game of Total Immersion, this means that when you get around to punching someone, you really do feel the blows connecting. On the flip side, when someone decides to punch you, you really do go flying backwards arse over tit. Though this is as disorientating as it sounds, it is still an appealing mechanic to have in a game.

Total Immersion allows for more than flailing limbs and being sick, however: it allows Namco to create some of the most inspired set-pieces the genre has seen for a long time. Upon eventually reaching the rooftop of the research centre you begin in for example, Derrick and your sidekick Alex are attacked by a helicopter. It quickly becomes evident that you have no real means of escape, but suddenly a too-close-for-comfort rocket explodes by your feet, sending you flying towards and over the edge of the building, with only a last gasp reach of an arm holding you tantalisingly on the edge. Alex rushes over and mutters something before attaching a zip-line and forcing you both to let go. As you plummet down all you can see is Alex’s face and her fear, followed by the branches of trees cutting passed you at high speed.

Everything is in one long set-piece, all of it presented without break from your first person view. As you are falling down the side of a building with Alex in your arms, it is difficult not to become immersed in the experience. These wonderfully scripted moments may only occur a few times in the entire game, but they more than justify Namco’s original decision to make a game based around the view-point.

Namco’s skills as a developer are evident in Breakdown, but their lack of experience and understanding of the genre unfortunately overshadows their other achievements in the game. This so-called Total Immersion works surprisingly well, however there is little point to it when the world you are being immersed in is one of the most redundant and uninteresting ever produced. Almost the entire first half of the game is spent wondering through repetitive, lifeless and grey office blocks that are not only horrible to look at, they are dreadfully designed and hopelessly linear. Forget entirely about freedom, as the entire game is on a one-way system of scripted events and locked doors. Corridors are illogically designed with lengthy segments leading only to dead-ends, without even a single doorway - locked or otherwise - to give it purpose. Though there may be cries of 'double standards', Breakdown’s bland graphical style is nothing like the sleek minimalism seen the Capcom’s P.N.03. That was cool; this is just lazy.

The second half of the game does open up, both with colour pallet and spatially, yet you are still expected to traverse endless identikit locations that only serve to depress just as you are reaching what should be an exciting climax.

Indeed, ‘what should be an exciting climax’ just serves to remind you what a talented developer Namco is and what a mess Breakdown has become. It should be exciting because, as stories go, Breakdown actually has a good one. Though borrowing heavily from every Sci-fi cliché, the story of amnesia and, as the initial teaser states, awakening the power within is presented well with enough surprises to give the player enough reason to continue.

That’s the strange thing with Breakdown; despite its horrifically flawed design, it remains quite a compelling game to play. As difficult as this may be to put into words, Breakdown feels like a game of two ages. The AI is appalling, with enemies apparently unable to walk through doors opening themselves up for attack through doorways, and sometimes they even blatantly ignore your walking right passed them. The level design is as weak as it gets and the level of frustration in the combat just pushes the game over the edge, making it feel like it was designed (and developed) for an age just coming to terms with the First-Person genre. Yet, like Derrick and his last-gap reach for the platform on the rooftop, this so-called Total Immersion feels ahead of its time, almost saving the entire experience. Though damaging to the gameplay, you can’t help but admire the mechanics when you are sent flying hopelessly across the room with little to no awareness of your new location. The satisfaction of returning the favour never gets tiring, either.

It’s just a shame Namco couldn’t put even more effort into the game. Sometimes the sheer laziness is appalling, such as the restart points that are almost always located just seconds before a loading point, or the fact that the game often puts you against multiple opponents but gives you little ability to fight them all simultaneously. Indeed, although the first person fighting works well against a single foe, or even a handful of the weak human soldiers, trying to fight a large number of the super-soldiers that appear a short way into the game is just ludicrously ineffective.

Ultimately Breakdown is a fairly awful experience with just a literal handful of inspired moments, and since these moments are so heavily scripted, you are better off just watching videos of it instead. Yet, Namco have not wasted their efforts with Breakdown and ultimately we can only hope that other developers (or Namco themselves) are able to salvage the positive aspects and carefully integrate it into a future title.

Breakdown is just the simulation; a practice run. Now we must await the real thing.