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80%
PROS
Amazing graphics and sound. Multiplayer is a blast.
LOWS
Game is extremely short and you will be begging for more. The voices of your bosses and opponents are horrible.
OVERALL
A new type of car game... step out of the mold and try this one out.
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New York, USA: five gangs, one goal. After some minutes of cool music and cinematic, my screen is transformed into BEAM BREAKERS: my new addiction.
Beam Breakers is an interesting type of game that you do not see much of these days. A futuristic driving game set in NYC (or Neo York) that has you drive around in cars to do certain missions in single player modes. The basic plot is that there are 5 gangs in the one district, and your job is to be the best and impress your boss by doing various activities. In the early missions, you deliver pizza to various houses by throwing it threw little green circles. You do not know who your boss is until the third mission, when you have to destroy a restaurant for him and deliver some more pizzas for his cousin Tony. There are 6 chapters in your saga, and each chapter has about 12 missions. Some missions are very stupid, because they are repeated. For instance, in the first and second missions, you deliver pizza. There is nothing wrong with the whole pizza idea, but after awhile it gets really boring doing it over and over again. As you advance through the game, there are different missions, like stealing a car or destroying a competitor's car. One thing that repeats in all of these missions is that you always have to return to your boss's ‘office' without the cops behind you. All you have to do is go through a certain bonus in the air that causes the cops not to detect you. Even though the idea is nice, it can get a bit repetitive.
Besides the typical missions, there are races that you compete in order to gain your boss's respect. Even though I am not the best racer, I came in first place the first three races I ever tried. This gained me some respect with my boss… The missions in general are semi-interesting, but usually repeat certain aspects like pizza delivering. At first, it is fun, but can eventually get really boring. Aside from the nice single player modes, there are championship, survival, observation, and multiplayer modes. In championship, you choose one of the five gangs and start racing for them in a championship. The races are made up of laps with checkpoints in between that you cannot miss. Turbo is spread all around the maps, so there is almost no time when you will ever run out. This is fun, but also can be annoying because you will eventually start to win every race by a mile when you can just hold down the turbo button and never let go. If you win a race in championship mode, you get a trophy and can advance to the next race. In survival mode, you choose a place in NYC to race and try and stay alive as long as you can without the cops destroying you car. Your boss tells you to keep the cops away. If you can keep the cops from destroying your car in a given time, (which you do not know of), your boss congratulates you and you can than advance to the nest mission. There are 8 different missions in survival mode, which can all be beaten in about 10 minutes, 15 minutes tops. This mode is nice, but way too short. Observation mode is when you drive throughout the area of the city of your choice and basically ‘observe' the wonderful graphics. This is like a cruise is Midtown Madness, or a test drive in other games. It is not a race or a mission; it is simply driving around the city. Since Beam Breakers graphics are simply stunning, you can completely take advantage of the beautiful cars and destroy them!
In multiplayer, you can create a game, find players, or connect to a game. You choose a place to race (there are 12 different races), how many laps you want, and your car. Once another person joins the game, you can race. Multiplayer racing in a lot more fun than single player racing, because the people you race against have enough sense to hold down turbo the entire time unlike the AI. This creates a lot more competition and intense racing.
Beam Breakers has great music and incredible graphics. The controls are a little hard to configure; I don't know how to get my steering wheel to work (though I know steering wheels are supported). The menus are nicely made, and all the missions do have some points, but repeat themselves sometimes.
In all, Beam Breakers is now my favorite car game because of its amazing graphics and great fun. It's different than NASCAR or Rallisport, and that's what makes it such a cool game. Try it out.
