"Ugh... and it could have possibly been good..."

I recently rented the game Nanobreaker two days ago at my local blockbuster. I haven't heard too much about it, the title was very much new to me, and so, I figured, what could it hurt to rent it? My friends, it was a horrible mistake on my part, and perhaps the worst $6 I ever spent in my life. On with the review.

Graphics 4/10

From the enviroments, down to the cookie cutter monster models, everything screams bland and plain. What I mean by this is simply that there seemed to be no real incentive to use the ps2 for its full graphic capabilities. If anything, it felt rushed. The hero dosen't even feel all that inspired as well. I mean, if your going to make everyone else look un-inspired, at LEAST give the hero some extra work. However, I will give them credit on the blood effects. Changing the colors and the amounts that are poured are really cool to look at, however, does anyone else notice the jelly effect the blood gave off?

Gameplay 3/10

This game was meant to be hack-n-slash. That part is obvious, and for the first 10 minutes, it seemed that they did it preety well (After all, these are the same people who brought us; God of War, CastleVania; Lament of Innocence, and among many others) however, after that false sense of security that this might be a fun slasher, your instantly slapped into reality when you realize; "Hey, this just dosen't feel right."

Wanna know why? It's very simple. The game is horribly boring. I actually yawned and dozed a few times during in-game play. What makes this so boring is the lack luster combos, (half of which can be found in many other slashers) The boring stream of monsters, (whom of which seem to have only 4-5 different races through the whole game) and the limited amount of weapons (Sword, Hammer, Spear? Yawn.)

Also, this is probably the only hack-n-slash game in which you will (literally) not have to worry about battling! What I mean by this is that the enemies aren't all that strong, and the rewards you get for collecting alot of gallons of blood are ridiculous (Think EXP points). I just slayed over 50-100 enemies and all I got is a 200 hp increase?! The rewards you get for fighting are so small and worthless that you'll find that "leveling up" will not be neccesary as you can get through the game very easily without stressing out over trying to get enough hp to last till the next fight.

Speaking of which, healing is a tough thing to acheive in this game. You can ONLY heal if you find healing capsules on the field (A real tough thing to do) or, battling the local monsters. Thats right, you have to fight in order to refill your life, and it takes a great amount of creatures to actually get it to fill up some. Needless to say, it's real dangerous to do that if your about to die and your faced with hordes of creatures.

In order to get Jake (the protagonist) to perform combos, you have to equip items called chips. These chips vary in color, meaning that you can't use a blue chip to get a lvl 4 skill etc. Fortunatly for you however, you don't have to worry about never getting your chip back once you equip it, because all chips are interchangeable as you see fit. Chips are tough to come across, and the high level skills are real tough to pull off, especially in the fray of monsters or the boss fights, so you'll end up stuck using the moderate leveled skills with easy combinations to survive.

The AI is horrendous. There will be a couple of times in which you'll have to escort somebody to a certain place, all the while fighting off hundreds of robots. Dosen't sound all that bad? Well, throw in the fact that your AI companion will literally run INTO the mass of enemies, or stand in front of you (which is dumb because you CAN hurt him) and your looking at one frustrating event. Luckily, theres only a few.

Boss fights are just a matter of memorize the patterns and rinse and repeat strategies. You can't pull off fancy combos or actually fight them, because you will lose due to the fact the bosses are obscenely powerful and youhave no way of curing yourself midbattle. Once you memorize their patterns however, it just becomes a timing issue.

Story 4/10

Basically without giving too much away. It is the future, and nanomachines have been introduced into society as medicines and used for other purposes. The nanomachines in the citizens bodies go crazy and end up transforming the humans into cybornetic lifeforms. The thing that caused this happens to be the Mother Computer which happened to go on the fritz. Thats preety much it, it has really obvious plot twists and a really cliche progress as the story goes on. In other words, not that interesting whatsoever.

Sound 5/10

The sad thing is, this is the best thing about the game, and it is still not all that great. The sword noises and the clanging of robots walking about sounds very believable and well done. The music in the background ain't half bad, it sets the mood, but it isn't nothing that will stay with you. It's about average.

Controls 3/10

They just feel wrong. The layout is good, and the moves respond well with the buttons presses, however, the controls are a stiff and sometimes unresponsive, however, that is nothing compared to the horrific jumping mechanics. I mean, seriously, if your going to add platforming mechanics, at LEAST make it so the jumping animation isn't so clunky to the point where you will miss the platform over 75% of the time. You actually have to compensate before hand if you want to make it on the next platform. If you don't nail it just right, you plummet to the floor below, regardless if you belive you had it dead on. This is especially frustrating at the portion of the game where you have to climb platforms like steps.

Replay Value 4/10

If you can get through the game you'll unlock new game+ which allows you to transfer over your chips, boosters, etc. Also, there is three modes and a secret character waiting for you if you can complete it. Not that much stuff obviously, but at least its something, however, it all comes down if you really want to go through all of the game again.

Buy or Rent? Honestly, I'd say skip this title altogether. There are plenty of great hack-n-slash titles all over the place, some in the 20$ price range (due to age) I'd recommend picking up one of them. If you think this will be the game for you, then just rent it. Honestly though, you won't get all that much out of it other than a watered down version of all the other great hack-n-slash games out there.

Results:

Graphics 4/10

Gameplay 3/10

Story 4/10

Sound 5/10

Controls 3/10

Replay Value 4/10

FINAL SCORE: 24/60= 4 out of 10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/06