Backbreaker: Vengeance Impressions (360)

[jyoung]

Picked it up this morning not expecting much. Man was I in for a surprise! Turns out this game is incredibly fun!

Natural Motion really outdid themselves with this game. Loads of content for $15 bucks. Online is a little laggy, but other than that, I'm having a blast!

Very pleased with my purchase and I urge all others to check it out!

It's basically like Trials: HD except you control a man with a football in his hands instead of a guy riding a motorcycle. Think of it as an obstacle course time trial game with awesome hilarious animations.

[mestevo]

If you're remotely interested the trial has a lot to offer and is a pretty small sub 400mb download. I think for many the trial has enough to satisfy the curiosity though, and save you $15. Many of the waves are so quick/easy in the trial I was doing more loading than playing. Not really looking to try and top the charts, just enjoy the puzzles, so the desire to replay the levels is greatly diminished. I didn't even finish all the levels in the demo.

[jyoung]

The challenge increases greatly as the game goes along. I am stuck right now at a couple places in the game, actually.

Also, Tackle Alley Challenge 10 Wave #2 has one of the most awesome moments in video games if you run straight ahead and press barge at the first tackle dummy.

So many wow moments in this game!

[mr janny]

One thing I did not like was the color outline around the defender telling you what move would work on him. It takes some of the unpredictability out of it, in my opinion. I mean, you're running down the field and instead of judging the angle the defender is taking or the position of other tacklers to determine whether you'll use a stiff arm or a juke, now you just have to notice that he's outlined in red and know that means you can hurdle over him. Seems really cheap. They might as well put a big "Press A" button above his head.

Also, the slide move is ridiculous.

It's a mildly entertaining piece of software, but I am really disappointed in the direction they seem to be taking this franchise. I hope this isn't a taste of what's to come with Backbreaker 2. If it is, then they're going in the wrong direction for my taste.

[jyoung]

You don't have to do the color-coded move to get by the defender, it's just the move you'll get the most points from.

They did it that way for the purposes of pursuing higher scores.

When you get to a lot of the later levels, you actually won't have enough space to pull off the high value moves like slide/jump, so you just have to steer around and juke/spin those enemies instead.

Around challenge 10 or so, the Tackle Alley difficulty gets BRUTAL! I am stuck on challenge 11 right now and it is insane! Bodies flying everywhere! lol



This game reminds me a lot of Robotron 2084 and Smash TV, actually. Pure twitch adrenaline arcade mayhem!

[mr janny]

Quote: Originally Posted by wEEman33

You don't have to do the color-coded move to get by the defender, it's just the move you'll get the most points from. They did it that way for the purposes of pursuing higher scores. When you get to a lot of the later levels, you actually won't have enough space to pull off the high value moves like slide/jump, so you just have to steer around and juke/spin those enemies instead. Around challenge 10 or so, the Tackle Alley difficulty gets BRUTAL! I am stuck on challenge 11 right now and it is insane! Bodies flying everywhere! lol This game reminds me a lot of Robotron 2084 and Smash TV, actually. Pure twitch adrenaline arcade mayhem!

I realize you don't have to do the move indicated, but the fact that they give you a 100% effective solution is weak and very arcade-y, which is not to my liking. Basically, if you are going up against a red guy, and you have the space, a hurdle will work 100% of the time. He will always dive low to make the tackle. He won't change tactics, won't adjust, etc. Like a robot, he'll always do the same move, over and over. Just like the yellow guys will always attempt to tackle high.

For a game that prides itself on the unpredictability and realism of it's engine, having the color coded tackler mechanic seems like a drastic step in the opposite direction.

[jyoung]

If you want, you can just use the spin or juke to avoid every enemy in the game, regardless of their color.

But the point of this game isn't just avoiding enemies. It's getting the most points possible while avoiding enemies.

And spin/juke only give you 100 points, while the color coded moves (barge/dive/jump) give you 500 points at the trade-off of longer, riskier animations.

Finally made it past Tackle Alley Challenge 11! I'm only halfway through Tackle Alley, and what a game already! I can't imagine how much harder they can make it.

[jaosming]

Quote: Originally Posted by mr janny

I realize you don't have to do the move indicated, but the fact that they give you a 100% effective solution is weak and very arcade-y, which is not to my liking.

Timing is a huge varying factor though, and the game realizes this in the later challenges (probably starting around challenge #8) where you can attempt to do the "enemy's" move, but you'll be better off with a juke. It's more challenging when you need to sprint to outrun pursuers and you get that lower camera view where you can't see who's coming. That said, if you didn't have the specific move enemies, the hurdle, slide, and barge would be nearly completely useless like they were in BB1's Tackle Alley.

Quote: Originally Posted by mr janny

For a game that prides itself on the unpredictability and realism of it's engine, having the color coded tackler mechanic seems like a drastic step in the opposite direction.

The pride of unpredictability and "realism" has only been bragged about the tackles in Vengeance. They never said they upped the AI to make it unpredictable, nor do they claim a realistic aesthetic with the visored gladiators and fireworks you can run into. Nevermind with levels like wEEman33 said (10-2) it gets to be pure insanity with the bodies flying into the barricades, dummies, and each other at full speed.

-ranty impressions-

The major problem most people from OS are going to have with this game, is it's not sim. But you guys need to realize that nothing about Vengeance is supposed to be sim. They wanted to provide an improved tackle alley game where you will never see the same tackle twice, they succeeded. It's a video game not a simulation.

You have to learn the patterns of the enemies coming at you and string the combos together for points, or even to survive. There is always a different route to go, and the A.I. does mess up with hurdles, dummies, each other, so you can catch lucky breaks as well. It's pretty difficult too, but like Burnout, the tackles of failure make it worth it to try one more time....unless you take it too seriously.


I've gotten through Challenge 12 of the normal Tackle Alley, and I think Challenge 10 of Vengeance. Being that tackler is a lot fun too, especially when you line up the carrier and hit him with a barge or slide to take him out. I beat all 10 Challenges of Supremacy mode, which is by far the most fun multiplayer wise.

Supremacy is a lot like racing, you want to get to the endzone first while getting the point zones. Whenever someone gets eliminated, a 2x, 3x, 4x multipler gets applied. After the first round, the lowest scoring person becomes the lone defender on the field, which can rack up a lot of points as long as you take someone out.


The bottom line is if you can handle a challenge, love Euphoria, and can remember that this is supposed to be a video game, then you are going to have a blast with this game. There is enough depth and replay value to warrant the $15 IMO. There are 100 tackle alley levels, 100 vengeance levels, and 50 supremacy levels. And then there are additional multiplayer ones as well. You gotta be able to sit back and enjoy the game rather than analyze it and claim that a slide with a bit of contact should be a downed player.