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FaceBreaker Review for PlayStation 3

FaceBreaker Review for PlayStation 3

Needs Repaired

The idea behind FaceBreaker is a great one. Take a boxing game and mix it with cartoony visuals, over-the-top characters, and incredibly fast-paced combat. However, in reality this game does little to live up to its potential. While I was pleased and even surprised by some aspects of FaceBreaker, the gameplay completely misses its mark and is sure to disappoint anyone who participates in a few rounds of competition.

FaceBreaker screenshot

The basic setup of the game’s fights is fairly straightforward, with every fight broken into three relatively short rounds, requiring either a FaceBreaker or three knockdowns to be victorious. If neither player manages to win by the end of these three rounds, a sudden death round begins. When in sudden death, the first player to score a knockdown is the victor. It can get rather frustrating to have dominated your opponent going into sudden death, just to be defeated by getting knocked down once.

Unlike EA’s realistic boxing franchise, the Fight Night series, FaceBreaker takes a much more arcade-inspired approach to the sweet science. Players are given the ability to perform high and low punches, haymakers, and a throw as well as defensive maneuvers like blocking, parrying, and dodging. Dodging can be difficult, requiring you to hold down either the high or low punch button, releasing it when your opponent attempts the same attack for a quick dodge and counter hook. Guessing which attack your opponent is going to unleash is next to impossible, but more on that later. You will likely find yourself relying on the slightly easier to perform parry move, which has you holding the block button and pressing the same attack button as your foe to negate their attack and score a quick counterattack.

Offensively, players will need to vary their attacks to have any chance of being successful. Switching between high and low punches along with an occasional throw, used to force opponents into a corner, helps to keep your foe off balance long enough to power up your best chance of winning most fights. By successfully landing punches on your opponent, your FaceBreaker meter will fill and eventually allow for a devastating FaceBreaker move that will instantly finish your opponent. Unfortunately, filling this meter often proves to be an unrealistic aspiration as it will empty whenever you get hit.

FaceBreaker screenshot

Sadly, far from the elegance that was Fight Night’s gameplay, FaceBreaker instead boils down to a button-mashing extravaganza. This is thanks mostly to the game’s incredibly fast pace in conjunction with, I swear, the cheapest A.I. you will ever experience. The speed at which you will need to press buttons is quite insane, easily having your hands cramping within a few short rounds. The combat’s speed not only takes a toll on your thumbs, but it also makes it incredibly difficult to properly use parries and dodges. Trying to guess which attack your opponent is going to use is next to impossible, especially when being hit by several blows a second. Also, no matter how quickly you manage to mash, the computer always seems five steps ahead. When you do actually manage to parry or dodge an opponent’s attack, one would expect to be able to successfully land a counterattack. Unfortunately, most of the time, your opponent will still manage to go counter for counter with you until you give up your will to live and they finally land their punches.

FaceBreaker screenshot

I would like to say that things like this don’t happen all that often but they persist throughout every match you play. When the computer decides it wants to win, you basically have no chance. Every time you get close to a knockdown, a FaceBreaker, or become involved in a sudden death round, your opponent seems to kick into high gear. Whether it is countering everything you attempt or just pummeling you with virtually unstoppable combos and cheap dizzying moves, the A.I. doesn’t mind destroying any and all hopes you have of winning. I have been involved in countless matches where I had four to five times more life than my opponent, just to have the A.I. decide that it didn’t want me to win and then completely obliterated every attempt I made to finish the fight on my feet.

FaceBreaker screenshot

While anyone who has played through a few of the game’s always frustrating fights likely won’t mind, the game modes offered in FaceBreaker are rather anemic. Players are only given the option of participating in quick fights, Vs. matches, online bouts, the Couch Royale, and the Brawl for it All mode. Couch Royale is a somewhat interesting mode that has you participating in a tournament, collecting trophy heads from your fallen opponents. Online fights add longevity to the title, but players with slower connection speeds will likely find themselves at too great of a disadvantage to find them entertaining. The slower your connection is, the slower your button presses register, the less chance you have of actually winning a match. The Brawl for it All mode makes up much of the single-player experience, having the player trying to win several belts by fighting through tournaments comprised of the game’s strange characters. Unfortunately, the absurd difficulty involved in doing so, even on the easiest setting, will likely keep most from grinding their way through the entirety of this mode.

The only real bright spots of this game come in the form of its visuals and its character creator. All of the game’s ridiculous characters look great, in a cartoony way. They have quite a bit of charm and are rather humorous to both look at and listen to. Successfully landed punches during fights will add bruises and welts to characters’ faces, leaving most looking horribly disfigured by fight’s end. Players can also create their own caricatures, either through the game’s fairly decent creation options or by importing pictures using the PlayStation Eye or Xbox LIVE Vision camera. You can also upload the characters you’ve created and even download other people’s creations. There are already some great characters available for download including Borat, George Bush, and Heath Ledger’s Joker.

The real crime of FaceBreaker is that its gameplay is so bad and the A.I. is so cheap that the game’s excellent create-a-player feature can’t really be enjoyed. Who cares how many cool characters are available in a game that is insanely frustrating to play? While FaceBreaker initially looked promising and its player creation and graphics are great, in the end the game itself is absolutely no fun to play. This is incredibly unfortunate, leaving only the hopes of a sequel with completely reworked gameplay.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.2 Graphics
FaceBreaker’s excellent cartoony look is put to good use with absurd created characters and combat induced facial distortions. 1.5 Control
Parries, dodges, and FaceBreakers are incredibly crucial to winning fights, and yet somehow next to impossible to use. 2.7 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
While there is some music and voice work to be had, most of the aural experience in FaceBreaker consists of just the sounds of punches landing and awkward silence. 1.7 Play Value
There aren’t many modes in the game. Unfortunately, this doesn’t really matter when every fight just devolves into mashing buttons as quickly as possible and crossing your fingers that your opponent lets you hit them. 1.9 Overall Rating – Avoid
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • FaceBreaker: Go from a couple of quick punches to unleashing the ultimate combos-ground, bone, sky, and face breakers-and enjoy the satisfaction of deforming your opponents face. Add insult to injury by bringing their head home to display in your Trophy Room.
  • Fighting mechanic: The core fighting mechanic was developed with three keys in mind-responsive, approachable, and layered. String together haymakers, face shots, and body blows, and find the right moment to drop a breaker to make your presence known.
  • Photo game face: Use the Xbox LIVE Vision camera to upload your face-or perhaps that of someone more notorious-and create a boxer with unique style to take into the ring.
  • New friends: If you’re struggling to find friends in the real world, 12 outlandish characters await for you to play with and against.
  • Screen Resolution: Up to 1080p (Full HDTV, Widescreen).

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