Facebreaker could have been a spectacular game. I couldn't help but believe that the developers made a genuine effort to create a fun game worth playing. Unfortunately, bad AI and broken elements create an ugly experience that turns most away within minutes of popping the disc in. Judging only its core gameplay, I want to say I was actually quite fond of Facebreaker! I found the game to offer a simple and addictive fighting engine, with a graphical style pleasing both through in-game graphics and via the art/menus surrounding the game. Many shun Facebreaker as a complete failure, even unplayable by some; more realistically, Facebreaker is a game covered in holes and mistakes, but believe me when I say the potential of the game was apparent.
Unlike EA's Fight Night series, Facebreaker can't really be lumped into the Boxing genre. Yes, there is in fact a ring, boxing gloves, a ring-girl, and knockouts; but there is no realistic boxing atmosphere present. More similar to "Ready to Rumble" than anything else, Facebreaker can be simplified as a "button-masher." Sad, considering a simple control scheme usually leads into a world of deeper competitive gameplay; alas, we never saw a following, thus no competitive background. Winning a match in Facebreaker tasks the player with two requirements: luck, and...okay, maybe only luck. Meaning that no matter what move you use to attack the AI opponent, they will counter and mercilessly pummel you. Playing through the Single Player mode legitimately, caused me hours of frustration; until I learned how the broken AI could be used to my advantage. While fighting as the game recommends ends in a headache and curse words, acting in patterns causes the AI to more or less give you the win! One second I'm wondering if a KO is possible, the next I'm seemingly the Facebreaker world champion.
Excusing the god awful AI, gameplay on its own gets my approval. As you attack your opponent, you fill a 4-layered meter. Each bar on the meter allows for a higher level attack, doing more damage than the prior. Acquiring a full meter grants the use of a Facebreaker attack (See, they had a reason for it) which when connected to the opponents face (surprise surprise) grants a one-hit KOI! Due to imbalances in the characters and special attacks, we of course witness utterly broken gameplay. If the developers spent a little more time to better balance Facebreaker, the game would work perfectly. The system is genius, and rewards players who know how to properly attack, as well as defend themselves.
For whatever reason, the main selling point was the "Face Breaking" technology. As you fight, boxers get increasingly more bruised and skewed. After matches boxers looking comparable to a cruddy clay sculpture; to me, this seemed pointless and overly silly, not sure why they hyped this. Another feature present was importing your persona into the game via an Xbox Live Vision camera. If you're aware of Microsoft's failing Vision Camera, you can already guess how this ends. Custom characters don't resemble yourself, they don't look good, and I'm really not sure why anyone would make one par from achievements! Outside of the Single Player "Brawl for it All" story mode, the only other options left are fighting a friend on the same Xbox, or battling the AI in pointless matches. There was an Online multiplayer, though EA recently closed it; so for the Achievement whores, I'm afraid a completion in Facebreaker is impossible as of now.
I mentioned that the art in this game was appealing. I didn't lie, headshots of the characters are a very nice mix of cartoony and super-hero esque. Graphics in-game are nice on the eyes, and have a nice crisp flow to them. The characters themselves existing as a goofy array of stereotypes and confusion. I'll just mention that a 6 foot tall Russian and a monkey WILL battle at some point over the course of this game; ridiculous- with a side of awesome. EA's soundtracks are usually questionable in my eyes, but I often caught myself tapping my foot to the beat as I navigated menus. And the sounds were well done too, making a victory seem much more rewarding than it really is.
I suppose I'm a little two-faced when it comes to Facebreaker. Its not a bad game. In fact its miles away from a good or even a decent game. Contradicting yes, but I find it difficult to label Facebreaker as terrible! Sure, the AI is satanic, balancing is extremely broken, questionable content raised many eyebrows- but when playing with a friend, I had fun. Simple as that, if EA were to re-release Facebreaker into a rebalanced XBLA title, we might see a strong following. Unfortunately, Facebreaker failed in so many areas I'm certain we'll never see anything even remotely close to a sequel. Disappointing.
Graphics | Audio | Gameplay | Replay | Genre | Final |
