Before you even get to start the game you'll be wondering what the hell is going on, which is a feeling that will last throughout the game. As soon as you think you've figured it all out it will throw something totally unexplainable at you. Breakdown is clever, cleverer than you will ever be. Accept it.

You are Derrick Cole; His eyes, his ears, his mouth, his arms and legs and anything else you care to mention. This is first person. While there may be guns and ammo, this is anything but a traditional FPS. For one you lock on to any targets, and switch between them accordingly. Pretty easy work then, for a super soldier? Yeah, except you're not. You won't last long in a fire-fight. If you don't take cover and pick them off one by one, you're dead. You are human after all.

Of course a real man wouldn't need a gun; he'd just hit 'em, like a man. The left and the right triggers act as your left and right hands respectively, combining this with the analogue stick allows you to pull off any number of kick-ass combos. It's a really solid fighting system, and dead satisfying when you connect with a killer right hand. Just don't expect your opponents to bend over and take it though, the AI will be more than happy to throw it back at you. You best depress the left thumbstick to block then, something you'll have to get used to, as it's not unusual for you to be heavily outnumbered later on in the game.

Take too much of a whooping and you'll know about it. Your vision will be knocked about every time you are, blood will splatter and you'll be sent hurtling to the ground with an almighty thud, all in first person and glorious 5.1 surround sound. Fortunately, littered throughout the game are rations and vending machines that you can use to replenish your health. Just like in real-life then.

When you stop stuffing your face, why not take a look at your surrounding environment. The game slowly opens up from the sterile and claustrophobic rooms and corridors of the laboratory, to a beautiful open world that's reminiscent of Halo. Being able to drive in this area is a real joy, almost a reward from the developers for persevering through their unique game, and to say sorry for what lies up ahead.

It's really the desire for the explanation that keeps you playing. There are only a handful of characters in the game, and one of them is out to get you. But they engage you, they make eye contact and react to what you say and do. Somewhere in the game they become human, and you care. It's why the story works so damn well and the reason you'll be engrossed for the 10 or so hours it takes to see off the game.

The faults in Breakdown are ones to be expected considering the type of game it is. Regardless of how solid the engine is, sometimes you can't help but pick up an unintended item off the floor, or even losing your bearings in a fight. It's scripted, but that won't bother you until you have to replay the same section over and over again because you keep getting screwed by the checkpoint system. Something which becomes a bigger problem later on as the difficulty increases. Though it's never unfair, if you die it's your own fault, but it can be cruel, mercilessly so.

Niggles aside, Breakdown is one of the few games to of captivated me from beginning to very end. It makes no attempt to disguise its influences because the game itself is original. Sadly, though we crave for more original titles they go widely ignored and get lost amongst the endless sequels that flood the market. Next time you see Breakdown on the shelf don't just disregard it, else this review has failed to serve its purpose.