Facebreaker Hands On Preview

Tag : wool sock
TVG mopes in the corner with cotton wool in its nose after goingtoe-to-toe with EA's latest arcade brawler...
First off, let's deal with the foremost question on your mind whenit comes to Facebreaker: Will I get to deliver Peter Moore a KOpunch? Or, more importantly, will I be able to do that right out ofthe box? The answers to these questions are yes, and yes. EASports' head honcho is one of the stock characters in the game'sCreate a Boxer mode, which pilfers EA Tiburon's Game Facetechnology from Tiger Woods 08 so that you can upload your face orpretty much anyone else's that you know into the game using awebcam.

Once uploaded, this face can then be edited in ways that are ascomical as they are detailed. We saw Peter Moore morphed into agreen skinned guy with alien-like eyes and the body of a monkey.User generated downloadable content will also play a part, so youcan upload your creations with the editor onto Xbox Live/PSN forothers to download. As if that wasn't enough fun, the developmentteam at EA Canada has made sure that the main cast of characters inthe game are a barrel of laughs as well.

Cream of the Fight
We went hands on with three of these boxers: Socks, Molotov, andVoodoo. Socks is a straight jacketed mental patient with sockpuppets for boxing gloves, Molotov is an incredibly wide Sovietbloke whose strapped with munitions, while Voodoo is a heavy-setAfrican tribesmen. And it's not just the character models that areentertaining because EA Canada has built this game more towards thetraditional fighting game archetype than the style of EA's othermajor boxing IP, Fight Night.

In other words, Facebreaker features combos that have to be builtup and special moves that are character specific. The game'scharacters are far from re-skinned versions of the same model withvarying basic stats (e.g. strength, reach, and speed) for eachboxer. Instead, powerful Haybreaker combos and Facebreakerfinishing moves are often unique to a character (although notalways) thereby avoiding repetitive and tedious gameplay.

Before you can perform these sorts of rewarding combos though,you'll have to get used to the basic control setup. We went handson with an Xbox 360 build where the A and X buttons formed yourbasic low and high punches respectively. However, if you hold ontothese buttons then you charge up a punch. While charging the punch,your boxer will also dodge all of the opponent's lunges, as long asthey are the same type of attack. So, for example, if you'recharging a high punch and your opponent keeps throwing highpunches, then your boxer will successfully dodge all the oncomingattacks. If, however, the opponent throws a low punch, then yourboxer will take a painful blow below the belt. This forms a basicblocking and parry system for Facebreaker which is simple, but wellbalanced nonetheless and makes for an exhilaratingly fast pace tothe fighting.

The Y button commands your boxer's Haybreaker move, which is thebig daddy of all your attack options. Unleash the fury of this badboy and you're sure to do some damage, but if you hold off andbuild up some high and low punches first, then you can use theHaybreaker attack to let some fearsome combos loose. The combosystem is represented by four small blocks on the HUD and the morepunches you string together, the more boxes you fill up, allowingyou to perform larger Haybreaker combos. Two filled boxes (achievedby landing four straight punches) results in a two hit combo whereyour boxer will launch the opponent into the air with their firstHaybreaker hit. Players then have to match the second hit to thelast punch they made before instigating the Haybreaker. So, if youperformed a low punch (A) before pressing Y, then you have to pressA again to complete the two-hit combo.

These combos ramp up in difficulty until you reach four filledboxes (10 straight hits), where you can launch a Facebreakerfinishing move by hitting the Haybreaker button three times insuccession. This has the effect of finishing the match there andthen, while it takes three knockdowns to win a game otherwise. Thehealth meter has been crafted in a way that makes sure theseknockdowns are by no means a rare occurrence. A preliminary greenhealth bar soon erodes to reveal a red bar that drops rapidly, butalso replenishes fairly quickly. The effects of this are twofold:firstly, it means that knockdowns are an ever-present threat andsecondly, it makes beating that last bit of health out of youropponent quite a feverish task.

It's No Slouch In The Ring
As you can clearly see, Facebreaker is not a brainless arcadebrawler that will require the attention span of a dust mite. Itscombo and parry systems may be simpler than others, but they'realso well built and in keeping with a game that's aimed at quickpick-up and play sessions. Other features such as the health meteralso maintain a high tempo to the action that doesn't waiver. As wementioned earlier, the character specific moves are another keyfactor that won't fail to lighten up your day. For example, Sockshas a head-butting Haybreaker move while he's restrained by astraight jacket and he'll evade opponents (using the B button) bydoing a swift 180 and appearing behind them, resulting in adistinctly panto 'He's behind you!' moment.

Evasive moves aren't the only commands that the B button isresponsible for, as you can also startle opponents if they're farenough away from you. Our chubby African Tribesmen friend calledVoodoo does this pretty well by blowing a strange green gas intothe face of his rival. The effects are swift and brutal, as theother boxer will proceed to repeatedly hit them self in the face -this is more like those times in school when the class bully didthe old 'Stop hitting yourself!' trick. Socks will electrocuteopponents to startle them, while other boxers just make starsappear above their challenger's head (which can then be cancelledout if the opponent repeatedly taps the controller's face buttons).

Each boxer's characteristics also flow into their appearance andanimations. All have an element of slapstick comedy as theysuccessfully pull-off massive combos or get nailed by theirchallenger's devilish southpaw. Their looks are also fairly comicaland certainly varied; from a tall and lanky British DJ to a fat andnerdy looking ninja, all of the characters have their charm. Onething we weren't so wowed by was the "real-time facial deformation"that EA touted in Facebreaker's initial press release. The screensthat came alongside the announcement appeared to show faces thatrippled like ocean waves with the force of an outgoing Haybreaker.This wasn't so much the case on the preview build we played. Facesdid deform over time (particularly when a finishing move wassuccessfully deployed), but it wasn't quite as active as we'dimagined. It simply looked like their faces had been put in a viceby the end of it all.