|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Review: BreakoutReviewed By: Bill Stiteler Review Date: August 17, 2001
Hearing that new games are being made by Atari is a bit like hearing that a new Beatles album is coming out. It's exciting for a minute, and then you think, "Hey, wait..." Was I big Atari fan? Let's put it this way; I remember Atari Force. And then Pac-Man for the 2600 came out, and I was so badly burned I felt like that big statue that all the smelly people put up in the desert.
Now I have to remind you that my favorite game is Civilization II and that I spent countless hours plotting entry plans for Rainbow Six. But in terms of a game that's easy to learn, Breakout is a hell of a lot of fun; sheer joy to play...until you run into the programming glitches which could be game breakers for some. In Breakout, you play the part of a paddle who lives on an island with his other paddle friends and your typical, every day enemy-magnet girlfriend. Once the villain shows up, you get thrown in prison, which you escape by, well, breaking out. Knock the ball against the bricks till you're through, but don't let the ball get past you, or all is lost in this highly unlikely land.
As for the Breakout levels, they're gorgeous and fun. From smashing down a 3D pyramid to taking on very mobile sheep and obnoxious fowl, they went a long way in helping to get past the games other flaws (more on the way, I'm afraid). You can also select three camera angles: one a floating third person, the other fixed behind the paddle, and the third a more traditional top-down view. Keep in mind where the hotkey is to change the angle; in the Egyptian level, you get a nasty artificial lens flare off the sun if you use one or two.
Yet another requires you to connect a series of pipes by knocking the blocks down until all the right segments line up...or rather, I assume that's what I was doing, since all the blocks appeared as blank tiles to me. Welcome to one of the more serious bugs in the game, which had me randomly hitting the ball until I was told I had completed the task. At first I thought it might have been the fact that I didn't have the latest version of OpenGL installed, but even after taking care of that, the problem persisted. A very large fly in the ointment of some fantastically-designed levels. It's obvious that the people from Varscon put a lot of thought and work into their levels, rather than just falling aback onto putting simple walls everywhere. Interspersed with this are the adventure segments. In the first one, your paddle runs on its...uhm...stubs down a road being chased by a wolf. In another you must gather stones to hurl at a dragon. Very fun, especially if you can figure out how to work them. And good luck doing that, for the game will give you helpful instructions which are no help at all. For example, if I told you to hit "1" to run, you'd most likely hit either the "1" on the keyboard or the number pad, then try the other when that didn't work. But you see, when Breakout says hit "1," it doesn't actually mean "1." It means the first hotkey, which is actually "B." And good luck figuring that out on your own, because you can't get to the controls menu from within the game. You must quit and restart--and don't double-click your saved game; doing that bypasses the initial setup panel. Oy.
Difficulty-wise, the game is as hard as you want it to be. Once you complete a section, you get ranked. You can then continue on or replay it to get a higher ranking (usually based on how quickly you go through it). Some levels are harder than others--screw up one wave of the chicken barn and it's back to the beginning. Small children can breeze on through, or obsessive types can play a level over and over again to get the best ranking. A "map" similar to Oni's save game allow you to revisit whatever sections you may want. Breakout is hampered by more than a few annoying glitches, obscurities and missing information, but is still an enjoyable game I can highly recommend--even moreso after a bug patch and a more thorough manual come out. All in all, it's another solid entry in the return of the Atari line. Now, when do we get Yar's Revenge?
 [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
. |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
So here's Breakout, being put out by Atari. Also, Varcon Systems, Supersonic, Infogrames and MacSoft. Keep in mind that this is all like, one company. Breakout is part of a slew of old-school titles being put out, I suspect, to attract casual gamers who don't want the ultra violence of Unreal Tournament or the learning curve of Civilization. In other words, your dad. Unlike 
Here, the new version of Breakout adds a bit more finesse to the original, which only gave you horizontal control of your paddle. In this version, you can tilt your paddle at varying degrees for bank shots (practically required on some levels), or alter the shape of the paddle from a straight line to a convex shape. Also, once you free one of you compatriots, you can select that paddle (on the fly, no less) and take advantage of its "special powers," provided, of course, you can figure out what they are. Here we run into the first problem with Breakout--weak documentation. I have no idea what most of the other paddles are supposed to do. The one colored like an American flag is larger than the red one, but slower. I get that. But the one that looks like a magnet doesn't seem to attract anything, and what's the orange one supposed to be? A sponge? A Twinkie? Some other paddle's little brother, who we just had to rescue so mom wouldn't yell at us? Fortunately, the plot doesn't hinge on which paddle you choose, so you might overlook that oversight.
Another good point is that the goal of every level isn't the same. In some, the object is just to get through the wall as quickly as possible, in others, you have to eliminate the obstacle completely. But then the game will add modifiers. One level takes place on a series of conveyor belts where you have to move, Frogger-like, to avoid being tossed off. In another, trolls work to rebuild sections you've knocked down. Still another has just four blocks, but if your ball goes through a hole you've created before destroying them all, the level resets. And try hitting a roaming sheep with a ball and see how easy that is (which strikes me as being the punch line to a joke my Scottish friend told me).
Fighting the dragon, likewise, had its own problem. Both you and the dragon have Mortal Kombat-style health bars. Too bad they were both blank. Perhaps the game is trying to teach the value of perseverance; I don't know.