Backbreaker Football Game Preview

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Introduction:
While the market of football games is largely dominated by Madden NFL franchise, it is rare that a newcomer trying to encroach on the golf franchise from EA, especially when one side eying happy simulation. But that's what happens with Backbreaker, straight out of the English studios NaturalMotion. Backbreaker is the full-on 11 vs 11 high-impact pro football that outruns, outhits, and flat-out dominates the games of the past. It’s a new generation of football for a new generation of fans.

About the game:
Backbreaker lets you experience what it feels like to break through the defensive line, to see the pocket collapsing around you to take down that cocky receiver like a 1000-ton freight train. Based on the revolutionary euphoria engine, Backbreakers action isn’t pre-canned. It is calculated on the fly and truly live. Forget seeing the same tackle twice this is real time.

Game Features:

• Dazzling graphics and AI using the Euphoria Engine (GTA, Star wars)
• simple pick up and play action
• Split-screen and online multiplayer
• Every hit is exceptional
• Extensive team customization
• Full presentation and training modes

NaturalMotion has forged a name in the gaming world thanks to its physics engine, Euphoria, used in some big games, including the excellent Red Dead Redemption. This engine can handle so much more realistic than scripts, and without using motion capture, collisions and interactions between different characters or objects between themselves or with the environment, by subjecting them to physical laws specific. Therefore, nothing is more natural for the designers to try to integrate it into a sports game, what is more American football where collision handling has a special place.

The least we can say is that the result is there. Every tackle, every shock or evasion is unique and is extremely credible. Just to see a player switch over another and landed hard on the ground to be convinced. This is not a simple addition made to the app, but Spearhead put forward by the studio to stand out from the competition. But not only. The other originality of Backbreaker is the placement of his camera.

While the Madden NFL and others prefer a system that allows for better assessment of the game in its entirety, proposes backbreaker immerse the player in the heart of the action with a camera that is stacked directly behind the player embodied in the field or following closely the ball during the passes. The immersion is really excellent, even if it is to the detriment of the legibility of play because it is not uncommon to be as a quarterback tackle by an opponent came from a blind spot or that emerges the fray while it searches for a teammate ready to receive a pass.

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If physics is really well done, cannot be said for the look of the game software is not inherently ugly, but it is true that the stadiums and the players do not have a level of bewildering detail. The players give the impression of being "smooth" plastic and there in all and for all three models of different templates. The result is very similar teams against each other, differentiated only by the color of their jerseys. The stadiums are all benefiting more or less the same visual environment, even if the possibility of playing at night or in the rain is nice. The soundscape is successful, but the game has only one runway, which is activated during engagements or replays. Really disappointing to this point. The menus however are very pleasing to the eye, ergonomic, and it is easy to navigate between different modes of play.

These modes are seven in number to the main menu. Classic and Online Exhibition Mode are the party as well as training and the mode Leagues. This is the career mode of play, in which it is possible to use a predefined or a team created by the care of the player to progress in a fictional league. And yes, the championship, as sports stadiums and teams are fictional, the game does not have the official NFL license. Undoubtedly a big disadvantage against rival Backbreaker Madden. But to overcome this problem, the English NaturalMotion had the excellent idea of integrating an editor of teams, the most comprehensive seen in a football game. It is possible to configure everything, color jerseys, helmets and protective of the players, statistics or even the logo. No doubt the fans will be eager to recreate their favorite national teams.

The mode "Tackle Alley" for its originality is a soft, since it allows to embody a runner whose goal is to reach across the field to perform a Touchdown while waves of enemies trying to prevent it. One hundred different waves are linked together, whose difficulty increases as and, with some disabilities such as inability to cross certain areas of land. A fashion "Locker Room" contains some rather anecdotal bonus, images and videos of the app. The training mode is very successful and allows beginners to become familiar with the handling of the original software through various exercises to theme, the fishway attack through defense or special strategies.

The grip, talk about precisely. While the app plays the card of the disposal, it had to offer an intuitive gameplay adapted to the concept of real control of action advocated by the game Bet is rather successful, although it is quite difficult to really control all the movements correctly and use them at the right time without a few hours of practice. In addition, beginners in the world of football could easily find themselves lost in the choice of tactics to training before every action, even if the visual patterns of each of these strategies appear on the screen.

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For controls, when playing defense, the right joystick allows to initiate a tackle or a block, while in attack, it allows for dodging or passages in force. It is really pleasurable to achieve a complete turn on itself to fake a defender by doing a U-turn with the joystick, or rap backwards to make a sudden stop and deceive the defense. It is also possible to perform other movements when combining the joystick to one of the two main trigger of the joystick to switch between agile fashion to concentrate or aggressive mode. As a quarterback, it is possible to perform different types of passes as the movement that one gives to this joystick.

The system password also works much better solo than in multiplayer. The multiplayer mode offers two local players to compete, or to play cooperatively against the AI, via a split screen. The online mode however does not offer co-op mode, simply play one against one, and the method Tackle Alley, a table summarizing the results online. Returning to the issue of passes in local cooperation during the phases of attack, a player will generally have to pass to teammate running.

The problem is that often passes are not received, the fault of the quarterback who sends completely beside or rider who does not even see the ball. But with practice and once these problems under control, the co-op mode is fun to play. The AI's side has not fared too badly, but the challenge is not to go. It is too offensive, even in hard mode, and the most experienced players are easily able to discard.

Despite its many flaws, the soft leaves a good impression in the end, including through total immersion of the player, that feels really take part in the game and really feel the sensation of being on the field. Backbreaker has thus a strong argument for trying to stand out from the competition, and we must admit that it is doing rather well.

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Conclusion:
Backbreaker offers an alternative to Madden NFL, placing all his experience playing on the player's immersion in a game. Accessible to all, it still allows to achieve more movement techniques, making it downright pleasurable when certain actions well performed. NaturalMotion here gives us a good game for its first foray into the gaming world, strictly speaking, until maybe a sequel that could correct some defects in its senior Backbreaker and make a serious competitor to the license lighthouse EA for football.