''Breach'' is a team-based

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

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developed by

Atomic Games Atomic Games, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas, specializing in wargames. The company was founded by Keith Zabalaoui in 1989, and is best known for developing the ''Close Combat'' series of real-time wargames, as ...

. It was announced on March 26, 2010 at PAX East 2010 for

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PCs and the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

. Breach was distributed online for the Xbox 360 by

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

, and on Windows by Steam. It features dynamic destructible environments and a cover system. When released, the game featured five maps. Atomic Games said that another free map would be released once the Breach community reached certain goals. There are four game modes: Infiltration, Convoy, Retrieval and Team Deathmatch. The game features five classes: Sniper, Gunner, Support and Rifleman are available to all players, with a Recon class being unlockable after players have "mastered" two of the four original classes. Breach has an XP system that allows players to purchase gadgets, such as bionic ears and remote motion sensors. Perks are also available to allow class customization. The game supports multiplayer matches of up to 16 people. In Breach, players take the role of the CIA's Special Activities Division, an organisation that carries out black ops for the

US government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

. As of August 2011, the PC version has been removed from the Steam Store, due to lack of servers to play on and Atomic Games having seemingly gone dark.

Gameplay

There are four game modes, Infiltration, Retrieval, Team Deathmatch and Convoy. Infiltration is an objective capture mode similar to those found in many other first person shooter games, where certain points are captured and the team with the most points wins. Retrieval involves the teams attempting to capture an object. Team Deathmatch is a simple format where there is a time minute and the team with the most kills at the end wins. Finally convoy involves one team escorting a convoy to a checkpoint and the other attempting to prevent it getting there. The convoy itself is indestructible, but it cannot move without an escort. There are five classes: Rifleman, Gunner, Sniper, Support and Recon. The Rifleman represents "standard" soldiers, using

automatic rifle An automatic rifle is a type of autoloading rifle that is capable of fully automatic fire. Automatic rifles are generally select-fire weapons capable of firing in semi-automatic and automatic firing modes (some automatic rifles are capable of ...

s and similar weapons and specialising in mid-range combat. The Gunner class uses

machinegun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

s such as the M60, and specialises in suppression using high damage, high rate-of-fire, but low accuracy weapons. The Sniper class uses scoped rifles and specialises in long-range combat using slow, carefully aimed shots. The Support class specialises in close-quarters combat, primarily using shotguns. The Recon class is only available after the player has gained enough experience with other classes to have "mastered" them, and is between the Rifleman and Sniper classes, specialising in mid- and long-range combat.

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews on both platforms according to the

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website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. In its first week, ''Breach'' moved over 15,000 units.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Breach (Video Game) 2011 video games First-person shooters Multiplayer video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Xbox 360 games Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Products and services discontinued in 2011 Inactive multiplayer online games Atomic Games games