
	Platform PS3, Xbox 360 Genre Third Person Shooter Publisher LucasaArts Developer Day 1 Studios ETA TBA
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Fracture

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While the Star Wars franchise has long been the bread and butter of LucasArts’ bottom line, the company has made a concerted effort to balance out their library with a steady stream of unique IPs. These have ranged from their collection of adventure games from long ago, to more recent outings such as Mercenaries and Thrillville. Now the studio is introducing yet another new property via Day 1 Studios with the recently announced third person action shooter Fracture for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

With this game, Day 1 is going with the tried and true post apocalyptic Earth approach. In Fracture, the United States has been, well, fractured, thanks to a series of ecological disasters and massive earthquakes. Because of all this, the polar ice caps have melted, causing a huge flood to sweep down the center of the continent, cutting it in half. As such the US is no more, and has instead reformed as two independent nations on either side of the now horribly flooded Mississippi River. On the eastern side is the Atlantic Alliance, which has formed ties with Europe. On the west is the Republic of Pacifica that has allied itself with Asia.

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With all of this turmoil in the region both factions would like nothing better than to crush the other side as soon as an excuse, no matter how tenuous, presents itself. Eventually this happens when the president of the Atlantic Alliance hears that there was an unauthorized arms build up in Pacifica, and with that war breaks out, drawing in Asia and Europe in the process.

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This is where players come in, as they take control of a soldier named Mason Briggs who is fighting for the Atlantic Alliance. From this vantage point we’ll see what all the hubbub is about between these two groups, and all the other action and political intrigue that will inevitably come with it.

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What will quickly become apparent while playing is that Briggs has a slew of cybernetic goodies at his disposal. The Alliance’s military has long favored “traditional” cyborg enhancements for their soldiers as a means of getting the upper hand on enemies, whereas Pacifican forces have opted for genetic enhancements much to the horror of their rivals (it’s a bit of a sticky issue, sort of like stem cell research in the real world).

While cyborgs and genetically enhanced soldiers should supply their fair share of possibilities in battle, what Day 1 seems particularly proud of is how gamers will be able to deform their surroundings in-game. On the surface, the whole thing sounds similar to that found in the old Red Faction games, where players were able to shoot up the environments to reveal secret passages, or simply find alternate ways to dispose of enemies. While somewhat vague at the moment, Fracture’s developers claim that how players manipulate the environments in this game will be quite different from anything before. We’ll have to wait until more information is available in order to get an idea of what they mean by this.

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In the meantime, there are a handful of early screenshots available for the game, each depicting a decidedly desolate landscape, and giving a hint of how players may be able to transform their surroundings. Now the question is whether or not this gameplay feature will also be able to gain popularity, and transform an entire genre.

Jeff Nash

May 7, 2007