Breed

by CDV Software Entertainment

Product Features

• Beautiful first-person shooter set in a future devastated Earth
• Vast arsenal to wipe out the bad-guy aliens
• 18 challenging missions
• Gigantic interior and exterior locations are all realistically destructible
• For one or more players using LAN or Internet connection

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000A380W
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 23, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,169 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Game Informer Review

Once, I had high hopes for Breed. In fact, if it gets a patch that fixes all of the broken bits (of which there are many), it may be a decent game someday. The ideas are sound, even original, but they're also all implemented very poorly. I can't think of a single element of this title that works well, and several don't work at all.

In Breed you control a squad of space marines, among whom you can switch on the fly, but their AI when you're not controlling them makes them worse than useless. They don't just get stuck, they also jump off of cliffs and waste precious sniper ammo in close combat. This is especially disheartening once you realize that level design in Breed mainly consists of two things: Emplaced guns you must snipe from far away or die, and hordes of identical enemies to be mowed down. Run out of sniper ammo, and the mission is all but lost – just one of those mounted weapons can tear your force apart in disgustingly short order if left operational.

Vehicles are present in some missions and help to spice up the gameplay, but driving them is generally less effective than being on foot – especially since your squad can't join you on them. Weapons are similarly disappointing. Not only do they sound wimpy, but the alien energy weapons you capture are so worthless you can't help but wonder how they took over the Earth in the first place. The human weapons are named strangely, but they behave exactly the same as the standard FPS rifles, shotguns, and such.

There are some exciting moments in Breed, where you really feel like you're humanity's last bulwark against extinction by hostile aliens. Surmounting the insane odds you're put up against is a great feeling, and some parts of the environments are destructible – it's pretty awesome the first few times you collapse a tower on top of some aliens' heads. These fleeting seconds of brilliance, however, are nowhere near enough to make me forgive the problems that plague this game.

Normally I try to refrain from commenting on stability issues, since they're almost always different from PC to PC, but Breed forces me to. On any of the three machines at GI's top-secret headquarters, it was a miracle if Breed went 15 minutes without crashing to desktop. If you absolutely must have a new sci-fi shooter you might consider this, but playing through Halo yet again is worlds better in my book.

Concept:
Ship a last-gen FPS, despite it being riddled with bugs and other technical problems

Graphics:
If you can ignore a low polygon count, abysmal texturing, and repetitive design they're not bad

Sound:
The voice-acting is too horrid to even be funny

Playability:
Clipping issues and teammate AI I wouldn't wish on Hitler make shooting aliens a chore

Entertainment:
Until a patch can resolve the glaring flaws this isn't worth your time, much less your money

Replay:
Low

Rated: 5.75 out of 10
Editor: Adam Biessener
Issue: June 2004

2nd Opinion:
Breed is cool because it lets you try so many things, and uncool because it doesn't do any of them particularly well. The environments are huge, but they lack variety. The vehicles are plentiful, but the controls are often awkward. However, my biggest complaint has to be the AI. Enemies often lack the most basic common sense. And though you can switch between allied team members at will, the computer-controlled squad is woefully stupid. There are also some horrific technical glitches, which the developer would be wise to address in an early patch. Still, the game has some bracing action, and includes a driving, pulse-pounding soundtrack.

Rated: 6.75 out of 10
Editor: Matt Miller


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Product Description

Breed puts you at the head of a suicide squad that only want one thing: to annihilate the alien race known as the Breed! Up to 32 people can get in on the multiplayer game modes -- fight on Earth or in space, as a Breed or human soldier

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor Man's Halo., January 4, 2006

By 

D. A. Cortez (Fillmore, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Breed (CD-ROM)

This game inspired me! Yes, it inspired me to the point that from now on I will come to Amazon to check reviews before buying a game I've never heard of. I got my $10 worth. The voice-overs try to hard to sound excited and some of the things they say is stupid in the midst of combat; "Hey, watch out!" "Awww, come on." The characters of no names so you can't make an emotional connection to them. They're just refered to as Grunt, Heavy Gunner, Sniper and I can't remeber what they call the other guy. The aliens look stupid. They're too cartoonish. The guns are weak have have a horrible accuracy except for the sniper rifle. They was the only cool weapon. The commanding officer who's voice you hear throughout the game tries too hard to sound "gung ho," but he sounds like a poor excuse for a wanna-be soldier. Play Halo instead. If you can't afford Halo thenh just go outside and enjoy the day.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Junk--Avoid, April 10, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Breed (CD-ROM)

What do you get when you mix numerous game-killing bugs, super-laggy multiplayer, pathetically amateur writing, stuttering graphics, some of the worst voiceovers in years, boring weapons, repetitive missions, and a bunch of ideas stolen from Halo? Breed, of course. What a bad joke of a game.

3.0 out of 5 stars HALO lite, April 8, 2008

By 

C. Campagna "apocalyptic hunter" (Montreal, Quebec Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Breed (CD-ROM)

On the plus side, this game has very good graphics and .... wait, that is it. The parts when you drive a tank are fun but that is over too soon. All the action is 95% outdoors and that's okay because the indoors levels looks like they were made in a rush. The missions are unimaginative and repetitive. The voice actors are so horrible that it is funny.

I played through it all because I hoped that it would get better. It did not. Its saving grace, it was over soon.