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Walter’s Gamers Corner–Project Breakdown

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Written by Walter Robinson

Editor’s Note–We knew this game was a long one when Walter submitted this column. If you love video games and wish to catch on to this particular one, he has gone to painstaking lengths to make sure you have a leg up on the competition.

Project Breakdown (Xbox)

 

 

 

            Project Breakdown is a game that I call better than Call of Duty but others probably won’t.

 This game takes place inJapan, and you play as Derrick Cole, a guy who has no memory and is being rehabilitated. When I played, I thought one thing: what is this outstanding game I am playing?

  You start out doing tests (you know the basics and what not) that help you learn what to do.  When you get back to your room, the doctors leave you a burger and a soft drink (p.s. the burger is drugged but you don’t know) that makes you unable to move. 

  While stuck ,the whole facility is attacked by soldiers and you are almost killed until Alex, I don’t really remember the last name, saves you by fighting and killing them so you can move about.  To be honest this game is one of the longest games I’ve played, next to GTA.

 As you fight through the soldiers you then encounter your greatest enemy the T’lan (dun dun DUNNN).   You can’t fight them yet because they have some kind of shield that makes them immune to your punches, bullets, grenades, and rocket launcher (say hello to my little friend), so you run to find yourself trying not to die after getting separated from Alex for the first time (don’t  worry she survives way too much; it’s insane).

  Later ,you begIn to awaken the power that can defeat the T’lan soldiers (don’t worry they get worse as you move on) after one guy runs to a room and locks the door.  Soon you fight through enough and find yourself finding these hallucinations whenever you see this cat that looks like a ghost.

 When you get even farther in this practically longer than ten hours of a game, you find yourself on a floor that is completely on fire and the T’lan can’t be killed by fire, but you can.  When you finally get through that burning floor you meet up with Alex again.  When you get through you meet the T’lan that can talk and kick your butt through this whole game.

Solus… the guy is maybe the toughest in this game.  As you almost die at the hands of Solus he leaves, and why he leaves is still a mystery.

Meanwhile, the door to another building opens but the guy has a turret. No problem. You get  your shield another power that is being awakened because you were a part of a text to make super soldiers using T’langen. You were the only survivor of this little experiment.  The shield in this game allows you to survive bullets in front of you by blocking not running forward like some kind of imbecile or superman.

 You keep on until you get to the helicopter– which belongs to the army of the other guys who tried to kill you –is blown up.

This is the second time you face this helicopter of death.  You run from it in a hallway before you split up with Alex for the first time.  (Back to the roof) You fight and run, trying not to die from all the guys shooting at you.  When you reach the end of the line the helicopter shoots a rocket while you and Alex sky drive off a building using your body as padding (do I look like a pillow to you).

Luckily, you get a vending machine, and that is a good thing for someone who almost died. 

When you continue moving forward to get to this one guy Alex tells you about– Professor Ohagawa… I think I got his name right… and as you walk towards the door, it’s locked and the helicopter that tried to kill you blows it up.

 If you don’t see the joy and terror in this, you are not human. This gives you the chance to run to the building where the one guy is, while running from soldiers shooting at you and the helicopter.  Once that’s over, you stay inside for some time after having another hallucination.  Soon, more T’lans come out and they get difficult because some shoot lasers, turn invisible, and block your punches as well as your having to contend with these exploding bug things also more soldiers.  When you finally get to Professor Ohagawa, you talk, walk and then watch as ghost cat comes back again (I know it gets really annoying) and you time slip, which is one of the reasons this game is so long.

 

            You go on to the one place after that long point in time to get injected with some more T’langen to increase your powers with new moves, such as: pulse a projectile that can charge up to do damage and jump kick, well, just as the name says, it’s a jump kick.  You then go deeper and learn more about the T’lan and who they are all controlled by, Nexus, the guy trying to take over the world. 

With him single handedly controlling every T’lan, it is a true monster.  You soon go down deeper into the facility to reach Site Zero, the place full of T’lan, with the only gun that can kill a T’lan warrior (remember when you wanted that kill-everything kind of gun for Christmas as a kid? Well, Merry Christmas). 

Hold on, it’s not over because then you have to escape from Solus before he kills you and you escape to the sewers.  The Solus chase scene is one of the scariest moments in the game because you can’t fight him, there are trip mines everywhere, soldiers shooting at you, and him being immune to all of this stuff and using pulse (sorry kids, you’re not special).  So you have to turn the valves to water off and open the one door and jump into the sewer and if you get hurt going there, the game gives you some rations and drinks.  Later when you get through the sewers, you get to the military base for the big bad helicopter.  Literally no one is there but they set up trip mines once again and that’s the last time they do, by the way.

 So when you get to the one part of their base you fight the helicopter. Little does the guy know, you’re holding a rocket launcher and if you didn’t grab one, there are rocket launchers everywhere (seriously worse base for them EVER). So you’re set to kill this guy once and for all.

 In this battle it took me a while to kill this guy because, one, he keeps dodging my rockets, and two I have to reload and then I run out of ammo.  I have to get some from the outside while he shoots his bullets and rockets at my face (one of the longest fights, since he doesn’t stay still long enough to take a hit). 

After you beat him he crashes into a section of the base that was locked and you go in to reach the room with giant fans so you have to turn them off and run.  Soon you run into Alex and she is being chased by the army guys while you’re in the air vent.  The guys set up explosions on the door blowing it up and you‘re saving her (if I had a nickel for every time I had to save you) and go deeper into Site Zero.

When you finally reach Site Zero, you go through and see how nice and peaceful it looks until you drive farther in there, but before you do that, there’s an anti-t’lan gun just so you know (hint-hint). Then the assault T’lan begin to shoot you while you drive.  You can run them over, but they won’t die which is fun because it knocks them down. So when you drive and meet up with the guys who can kill the T’lan with guns, you have to go through this valley and for some reason Alex died.

 I don’t even know why she just died.

 The next try, she lived and I got badly beaten (oh oh, don’t help me.. I’m fine …just completely crippled. But you keep doing what you’re doing. *ouch*) and nearly died.  Later on I ran into another car (ROAD TRIP) but the bridge is down and guess what? Alex wants you to jump the fallen bridge (yes I know crazy right, isn’t she).

 So you drive off and jump but she couldn’t make it and falls. However though, Solus kidnaps her, like this game was Donkey Kong, and jumps up as a giant skeleton.

 This is getting close to the half way point. 

So alone and going along you run into a lot of assault T’lan for some reason.  After you fight through them you get to a hill or valley next to some water.  There you fight more T’lan but the other guys can block and jump you at the same time.  I kid you not, they will jump you, shoot you in the back, and kick you when you’re down.  So pretty much this part took me a couple tries since they ganged up on me. You can throw a pulse to get one of their attentions and take them down slowly. 

Then you see a helicopter as you walk somewhere else. Don’t worry, it’s not going to kill you, and then there’s three or four stealth T’lan waiting for you.  I could fight them and jeopardize my health and possibly die, or just run away without getting hit and fight the two big looking T’lan whose proper names I don’t know.

 Be forewarned that these guys take a lot of hits and bunch like tanks but are slow moving and once dead, can restore some if not all health and shield.  Later on after all this you see the military again but they’re shooting two assault T’lan who kill them if you don’t kill them first or get in sight of the them.

  I let them duke it out because you need all the ammo and health you can find. 

When  you get up the hill, the ammo I said you needed should be used now, because the army is there with turrets, grenades, bullets, and rocket launchers (oh, did you think they didn’t know about that helicopter crash).  So they fortified that area and you have to get by it.

Sounds simple enough. 

Going up the hill unprepared, you realize that it is likely you are going to die—and badly– a horrible death that will leave you sad.  

So after the whole hill situation, you run into a professor being killed and falling to an awful death (THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE) and she drops her card, but she’s not dead yet.  After you grab her all access card, she gets up, feels the blood on her head, and dies.

 So when you go out from there, you go through the silos to reach your allies, associates, etc. and this is one of the longest parts in the game.

  In a way when you think of plat forming games you might think of Mario Brothers or Donkey Kong but in the silo onwards through this game you have to do plat forming.  So much more fun but you get closer and closer to dying since they come from everywhere.

 When you finally reach your destination to stop the T’lan silos from launching sending them all over the world, you fail (game over man, game over… I mean what are we going to do now, man). This is another part of the game that takes too long but is so worth it because you get to fight Solus (so we meet again my new arch enemy, DUN DUN DUN).  In the final fight with him, he can be a real pain, and since I died during the first time I fought him,  I know that if you’re not careful, it’s curtains.  He can be spammed a lot by knocking him down and kicking him around the dome shaped room. 

Now for some good news and bad news: the good news is this is finally halfway over, the bad news is Solus defeats you and I can tell you how.  During the fight with Solus when it seems as though he has been defeated, he gets up and you have to fight him but he’s using more power and glowing blue (so when were you going to tell me he ripped off dragon balls).  Solus still had some tricks up his sleeves, with more moves like a barrage of pulses and him slowing down time; he is now more threatening and unstoppable than ever.  When you die at this part you don’t get a game over screen but Alex does try to help you by attacking Solus and being killed by him.  After all that occurs the army decides to nuke the place and everything explodes and turns to white.  Before the nuke blows up you get to a good look at it and its name is “Game Over” the only nuke I’ve seen that has that written on it.

 

            So when it explodes and after everything turns to white you see stars and the ghost kitten, but it wanders away from you (no don’t go to towards the light).  When it’s finally over you ,it turns out you were reliving what happened and that you’re fifteen years in the future after you finally awoke from the coma the nuke caused you.

 One of the professors tells you that everything you saw really happened.  Before you get up out of the machine, the people in the room are all killed by assault T’lan that broke through the door and shot everyone.  Then when you defeat the two that got in, the doctor has his final words to give you:“Every cloud has a silver lining *coughs*, that must be you”. 

As you continue onward, you fight through many more T’lans and see how much of the future has been destroyed and left in ruins.  You then run into Alex again (I’m pretty sure she’s invulnerable or something) and you to meet again but for her it’s her first time ever meeting you (this should explain everything as you move on through the game).

 When you get to your first of a few T’lan silos you realize that it is stuck in the ground and you have to jump on the ledges to get outside.  Outside is now a complete and total disaster with the ground breaking, glowing orbs floating through the air and ground,  and people in a struggle to fight the T’lan, with the fallen soldiers everywhere.  As you continue, you fight more but now you’re fighting with help. 

You soon find a building with an anti T’lan turret but you think someone is up there.  When you get there you go away to find Professor Ogawa and he has the final boost for your T’langen powers, so you can be prepared before something called the pendulum effect. 

Before you can get it, the place is now under attack from the T’lan and the shot falls down a gate.  You then have to go to get it, inject it and then after it has been injected, you jump and break through the gate, more powerful than ever.

 Now instead of yellow, you get to have blue with your T’langen powers.

  After you defeat the first couple of T’lan you get the same ability as Solus, only giving boost.  This allows you to slow time down and get through easier.  So when you defeat them you begin to have orbs around you and get sent back in time with Alex choosing to come along with you.

 As you travel back in time, you get separated and now you should be getting a picture of how she actually knows who you are.  Now more good news and bad news: the good news is that you don’t start from the beginning of the game; the bad news is that you come back where Alex is kidnapped by Solus.  With you going on alone,  the same things happening ..only this time you save the other professor and that gives you a short cut to the silos and stop the silos from launching.

 When you get to Solus you fight him and when I fought him, I destroyed him without him even being able to lay a single scratch on me.  When he goes down, the best fight of the game happens and I kept spamming him down to the floor and kicking him across the room.  I don’t remember how many times it takes for him to stay down but the best thing is, he’s dead and Alex is still alive. 

When you get to the center of the room, the elevator has a force field that separates you from her and takes you towards the center of site zero.  When you reach the first part of the area you see a dead professor and a couple of ration bars to heal you after that big fight.  As you keep moving on the next room happens to start falling apart from rapidly moving pillars as you try to avoid getting hit by one .

  The deeper into site zero, the more difficult it gets as each room gets faster and at the end you still find some ration bars.  After all the rooms with pillars, in the last room you have to go through a number of things that launch various T’lans that you must defeat.  When you enter this room the entrance disappears so now there’s no turning back.  Fighting them was not easy, but when they are defeated it fully heals your shield or health.

 When the T’lans have been defeated you come to the very center of site zero “Nexus” (hey Nexus, Solus wants me to tell you I killed him) and you have to kill him because Nexus controls all the T’lans.  When you get close to him a bright light comes and you’re sent back to the basic training rooms.  The difference is that everything is bloody and everyone is trying to kill you (just like when you first started playing) but you have no shield and beginning of the game health.

 The first of many tests that are like shelter is that there are three soldiers in the room and you have to kill them even though they have guns. After they disappear you can’t take their weapons or heal.  The next room shows the body of Alex, badly beaten, either dead our barely living. 

The next room for the controls has the burning bodies, the lady professor who fell to her death and one of the guys who was fighting the T’lan with the weapons and died trying to stop the silos, and Alex being shot at by soldiers you can’t kill.

 The last of these tests is the basic combat with your shooting and fighting skills.  The first thing you do is shoot the people that are your allies in this game.  When you finally get to Professor Ogawa and kill him he drops the shot to give you your T’langen before you have to do combat.  You have to get it because Nexus sends out three T’lans to fight you and kill you.  In the moment of getting the shot you really need to hurry to it or they will jump and kill you.  After that you can fight them but you need to use boost to catch up to Nexus and destroy him.  When you come to, you are still there with Nexus and you kill him.

 

            After his death you fall from the sky and land on a small piece of Site Zero that sends orbs out of it that slows your fall so you don’t die. 

Now after you get off of there you go up the fallen bridge and meet Alex with the Jeep.  She tells you that all the T’lan have stopped moving and Site Zero is falling apart. 

This is the part of the final moment of this game.

With Site Zero collapsing, you only have five minutes to get out of there.  As you drive, you see T’lan disappearing and unable to move.  As you finally reach the exit, the helicopter isn’t there and the bridge begins to fall. As it nears closer and closer to the end, the helicopter comes and you have to jump on it.

After you jump on it Alex jumps on and you see the bridge collapse.  Later on as you see the laboratory and site zero fall apart in an explosion and into the sea, you see the sun rise and the ghost cat is now a real cat.

  To end this game, you have choices ,  and already knowing of the pendulum effect, Alex begins getting sent to the future and you can either come with her or stay on the copter and let her die. 

The choice is yours but the true ending is to go back with her to her future ( I already did both of this.)

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