Breach and Clear: Deadline Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of Breach and Clear: Deadline (Xbox One)

Thursday, August 25, 2016.
by Brent Roberts

The summer is winding down, and thankfully so are the mediocre games that have been flooding to the Xbox One. Trying to shoot its way out of this common scenario, Breach & Clear: Deadline breaks onto Microsoft's console for the price of $14.99. At the time of this review the developer, Mighty Rabbit Studios, had released a patch that was supposed to resolve a lot of the technical issues that were around at launch. Now, normally when we get information like this it gives us a hint about what we are about to get ourselves into, but I decided to dive head first and kick the door down on this game to see what's what.

Breach and Clear: Deadline is an action RPG with both real time and turn based gameplay. With the press of the LB you can switch between real time action or a turn based gameplay style, and right off the bat I can say that I was very happy about this option, even if the platform is incredibly straightforward. You control a group of four individuals and you can designate each of their classes. Each class carries with it variable stats, ratings, and skills, and it's your choice how you want to play, but remember, only a medic can revive your fallen teammates.

The game's story is simplistic, which was kind of disappointing. The crux of the narrative has you fighting through stage after sandbox stage in an attempt to save humanity. What are you saving humanity from? Well, you're defending the human race from a parasite worm that can apparently attach itself to your brain stem and mutate you into a mindless killing machine.

Breach and Clear: Deadline manages to spice up the simplistic narrative by adding in a few new fetch quests and side objectives for you to complete. In the end however, there isn't anything worthwhile that makes the story compelling for those who play, which made for a somewhat non-entertaining experience. This area is kind of a downfall, but when you take into account that this game wasn't intended to be very story intensive, then you can cut it some slack, because in the end there are quite a few things that this game has going for it, with its controls being one of them.

As stated earlier, using the LB allows you to switch between real time and turn based strategy. When you're in real time the RB will bring up a radial menu where you can have different items mapped out. These can range from your basic med kits to stat boosting items such as energy drinks and more. These can all be accessed on the fly and each character class has different options in their real time radial wheel, so selecting them not only is easy, but important when you think about what's at stake. Switching into the turn based mode however will unlock more options that will be at your disposal. Options such as find cover, switch weapon, and more, become unlocked and the game turns instantly into a tactical turn based experience.

In this mode you can select a wide variety of options if you want to operate one soldier at a time, or you can press the X button and proceed as a team and issue orders accordingly. This is where tactics come into play, as some classes also allow you to breach doorways, which will knock back enemies and injure anyone caught in the blast. When you're controlling your men individually, pressing left and right on the D-Pad will allow you to quickly select between your characters. From here you can point to a spot relative to their line of sight, and if you place your cursor behind an object, you will see a shield sign that indicates your character is moving behind cover. This allows two ways you can go about moving.

Normal movement in this mode is simple, as you place the cursor on where you want to move and simply press; however, you can also have your characters go into what is called "sweep mode". By holding down the A button you will allow your character(s) to move slower, but they will engage any enemy within their viewing range (which you can setup with the RS).

Breach and Clear: Deadline claims to have RPG elements, and while it definitely does have them, it's not as deep as you might expect or hope for. Throughout the missions, and in-game exploration, you will collect scrap. This is the game's form of currency, and at workbenches you can upgrade your weapons, gear, and more. Different stats can also be increased by means of upgrade slots. Now, it should be noted that Breach and Clear: Deadline consists of a common color scheme to determine the rarity of the items. When it comes to weapons the basic fields are Damage, Range, Accuracy, and Reload speed. These are the primary factors that will be altered when you either spend scrap to upgrade a weapon, equip them with modifications (such as under barrel grips and scopes), or you do both. It's not too much to take in, which is good because it allows you to spend more time killing everything else that you see.

Originally Breach and Clear: Deadline had some visual bugs and issues to contend with; however, throughout my experience I can safely report that outside of a few dodgy camera angles, there isn't that much that would be considered game breaking. There were some hiccups and glitches in terms of framerate drops, but all in all it was a fairly solid graphic experience post patch. The soundtrack on the other hand left a lot to be desired. Going for a minimalist approach would be a good thing, if the minimal audio content was actually good. There isn't anything that would make you set your controller down and take notice.

Without a doubt there are some very enjoyable elements in Breach and Clear: Deadline; however, there are a few things to note. The $14.99 price point is on the high side for a game that came out over a year ago on PC, and while it's not that long ago when you consider some other ID@Xbox games, it's still on the aged side. And sure, the game delivers some enjoyment, but that enjoyment comes with a simplistic story, tedious side quests, and dungeons that feel like the same level over and over again. At $14.99 I would say pass on this, however, should this drop in price to say $9.99 or below then pick it up for sure and bust down some doors.

Overall: 6.0 / 10
Gameplay: 7.0 / 10
Visuals: 6.0 / 10
Sound: 5.8 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Breach and Clear: Deadline (Xbox One)

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