This video has been age-restricted and I don't have any idea why because RU-vid doesn't think it's necessary to explain why they're killing the momentum of my content. So, thanks for all your support on Patreon and elsewhere
How do you still not know that RU-vid is almost completely automated after all these years? They've been using speech-to-text to analyze videos for the last couple of years to look for no-no words (which you probably hate as well because you don't believe in freedom of speech - which is my takeaway from reading your Twitter). Word of advice: have a backup channel on Rumble or Odysee. RU-vid can give you three strikes in one go and you won't be able to do anything about it unless you personally know someone who works at Google or something. It's like you haven't learned when you got DMCA'd for Darkened Streams.
my channel with 99% gameplay videos and 1% personal videos is getting hit with hate speech strikes out of no where after 17 years and 6300 videos. on my last strike. google takeout doesn't work to export my videos. buried alive
@@phalxor RU-vid is complete ass. SsethTzeentach (another game reviewer) got a copyright strike from someone who drew Dagoth Ur from Morrowind (you can see the picture for 2 seconds in his video). The artist obviously wasn't the copyright holder. I just got a strike because I made a 1 minute compilation of some guys saying "like" in their videos. They did the exact same thing themselves with James Rolfe saying "mountain" as "mowtan". Nobody at RU-vid cares. Your video just gets blocked or deleted completely and YOU are the one who's supposed to literally call a lawyer and turn it into a legal case. Absoluetely ridiculous.
It's worth trying out if you can find a copy! I loved the tutorial section, was meh about the first twenty minutes or so of post tutorial game, but... It gets, like, 100% better every half hour or so right up until the fantastic endgame/tutorial 201 section.
@@peanutbutterdijonnaise you can actually play breakdown on modern xboxes. they made it cross compatible sometime last year and i believe its available on the store. cant install on pc though unfortunately (officially that is)
For the record, Breakdown's legacy is Mirror's Edge, many of the mechanics in that game: gaining momentum while you run, lack of a hud even for weapon ammo, and first person melee are all iterations on ideas Breakdown started, they even copy the game's fan puzzle. While since Breakdown is my favorite game I want more people to iterate on it's design that is a pretty good legacy.
That pendulum effect was genuinely a super interesting concept for a time travel story. Imagine a game that goes a bit deeper into it, with more swings that has you traveling back and forth and seeing the effects each time you go into the future. Thanks for this, Grim!
As far as I know, the only (other) games that have done something like this are Life is Strange, though it's strictly tied to the narrative and isn't a gameplay mechanic (you can rewind a little bit of time but when the protagonist focuses on a photo of herself, she can go back the moment that photo was taken. So it's basically The Butterfly Effect except with photos instead of a journal). Legacy of Kain: Defiance also has time travel as part of the narrative, and some things you do in the past can affect the world for the future, but it's not a mechanic. I feel like the consequences of time travel is one of those things that basically never gets explored in videogames, even though it's easily the best medium for it. I wonder why? Like, where's my videogame adaptation of Groundhog Day? It's such a simple idea and seems like it'd be really fun to explore as a developer.
I love Breakdown so much, i'll always remember that kitty cat, the weird trippy desert sequences, and the (at the time) super hi-def first person burger munching action.
This one was transcendental, hypnotic and downright spiritual. I don't have the vocabulary to say how awesome this is. Like going into another dimension. Blessings of the gaming gods upon you my friend.
Parapug is too damn cute. Idc he might be controlled and modified by paranormal entities beyond our comprehension every time he updates. He's just so damn helpful.
Can always count on Grim to show me something I've never heard of/don't remember, and just make it the most entertaining shit ever, every single time. Pure genius.
I'm not kidding when I say that Breakdown is my most restarted game ever. I would get to the first injection part of the game and somehow the difficulty spike afterwards caused me to quit almost every time only for me to pickup and restart the game a few months later. No one knows about this game if you mention it to them, it was one of those titles that you felt cool and in-the-know for being hot on it and seeing its small little innovative ideas and appreciating it in the context of its time & place. I'm so happy you did a full review on this one and I got the closure my 13/14 year old self needed from all those years ago.
This game was so great for me as a child, it introduced me to concepts I never would have realized until I was older, also I got the bad ending and cried.
I know. I couldn't get enough of Breakdown. I love that part at the end where Kurt Russell frees his wife and she drops the truck on the evil J.T. Walsh. Oh, not that breakdown? Yeah. It's a great Tom Petty song.
that ending and the music drop at the end as the protagonists talk about how they can still change the future was nuts, absolute peak 2000s imagery, they don't let you end games and movies like this anymore hell yea brtherr
Holy fuck that bit where your character was eating a snack and responding to Stefania while eating made me laugh so hard! Your videos are simple the best, I love your pacing, editing and comedic bits.
Breakdown is a game I absolutely adore, one of those weird Xbox gems that are just marooned on the console. Thank you for reviewing this, I absolutely love your content. I have your videos on at work in the background and its like I've got a little goth devil on my shoulder, whispering to me about obscure PC games and begging me not to tell people at work about my Bionicle tabletop RPG plans (they just won't GET IT)
FUCK YES! I've been hoping you'd do a video on this game, I saw you had gameplay of it in your intro and prayed that you would cover it one day. This is one of my all time favorite games from the original Xbox and its criminal that they never made a sequel.
I almost never like the little sketches or gags youtubers do in between the subject matter sections of their videos, but yours are consistently very enjoyable and get laughs out of me.
I cant believe grim beard reviewed breakdown which is one of my favorite games ever. I remember buying this game in early 2005 and being so immersed in it that I put down John Halo 2 and played Breakdown over and over again. I am so depressed even today that no one really bought the game and Namco saw it as a failure. Thanks Grim.
Grim, it’s said a lot, but you are the best of your kind- Absolutely incredible content as a crazy pace. You made this 40 year old weirdo squee with joy with this upload. Thanks!
idk if it's the lack of sleep but this was amazing, truly one of your best. The Ultra Accelerator bit had me crying of laughter. Kinda sad to think that because they originate from different timelines the only way for main char and Alex to be together is to keep jumping between them in a pendulum effect... uhm pendulum? Well I'm sure they will manage, she seems smart and capable and he punches really hard. Thx for this gem
The new incorporation of a seemingly unrelated history tidbit, just for it to actually be related to the game is both funny and inventive. I'm fuckin with it
I feel this intro in my soul. “Hmm, I bet I could do game reviews. There are a bunch of games I know way too much about.” “Yeah, but you and seven other people have played that game. Looking at you Lost Vikings 2: Norse by Norsewest and Dragonheart the video game.”
I totally love these 2000s Japanese Triple A games. The arcade pedigree of Japan always make their games feel like you have to replay them over and over to actually master them. Even gaming proposals of the same genre made in Yankeeland or Europe, like Half Life 2, feel like they never have this underlying mechanic that changes how you engage with the world in the second playthrough.
Never seen your stuff before but the moment I saw you were talking about Breakdown I had to watch. Breakdown has always been one of my favorite old games ever since I played the demo of it on a Xbox magazine demo disc, it has serious problems but the sheer potential that's there just shines through and I am always happy to talk about it and hear people's opinions on it.
Glad to see someone cover this. Been in my top 5 for while. Having competent developers who've worked on amazing arcade games in the past do this weird experiment of a game just feels like an immensely pure work of art. Its rare to come across something with original gameplay thats actually engaging as well as being coupled with an interesting and off-kilter story. One of the few games I really geek out over.
God, as someone who played this game as a kid, and thought it was a fever dream until I replayed it somewhat recently on the Xbox One thanks to backwards compatibility, I've always wished for a youtuber to do a long review on this Flawed Gem of a game. Great Video, and thanks for giving this game some, in my opinion, much needed exposure.
It's insane how the animation style of this game is pretty common now. Also, picking ammo off the bodies, mag by mag, is something I remember seeing many years later in the original release of Metro 2033. And the way the ammo works is how it works in Insurgency (going all the way back to the mod, I believe) Red Orchestra/Rising Storm, and a million other milsims. Even first person fighting feels very Riddick. This game was waaaay ahead of its time, and while it looks like a mess, it looks like it handled these concepts much better than Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth (Jesus that name is too long).
@@DGneoseeker1 Yep. Now if you look at a body and press interact, it picks it all up for you at once, instead of having to search pocket by pocket. It's been that way since the HD releases (the stealth system got reworked as well, there aren't 3 stages of light detection anymore).
I immediately wanted to play this game when I saw it previewed in a magazine. Bought it and it's been one of my favorite games from the xbox era. So glad others are discovering it and enjoying it for seemingly the same reasons I did. Great vid!
Hello, "one of the few" here. I adore this game, warts and all and still bring it up in conversations about older games. Sure, it's clunky and doesn't quite nail the execution but I found it really fun and the story is really good - a really nice mid-game twist. My go-to combo that never failed me was the Right + LT x6 combo that just did a rapid back-hand attack. It usually took care of any enemy that I came in contact with and wasn't too disorienting. And yes, I went to my physical copy and looked at the move sheet I made and printed out way back when. Also had my receipt from Ebgames. Also bought Unreal Tournament 2004 for the PC that day.
Thanks for the new content! Been watching your reviews playlist on repeat for a while now. Unrelated, but after watching your Phantasmagoria 2 review earlier today I stumbled upon the main actor of the game, Paul Morgan Stetler, who was coincidentally livestreaming at the time and he mentioned that he'd love to interview you about your perspective on FMV horror games and the like from the 90s. He streams over at ConversationsWithCurtis. I could probably grab a clip if you're curious.
Had the same realization. It's at once ahead and behind Half Life 2/God Hand. The relationship between the player and Alex has such good beats and a fantastic payoff. But yeah, you have to climb that tower. You have that arena you banged your head against and yet after watching your video, I want to play it again too. The frustrating difficulty leads to this weird mastery late in the game. I'm glad it's been preserved, I'm glad it exists and it makes me yearn for another batshit revolutionary time in game development. Great work as always, Grim.
Thought I’d be finding out about this weird game Breakdown and then was flooded with memories of eating those protein bars in first person. Thanks for awakening some dormant weekend rental memories
And here I am home from work on this, the day of Washington's resurrection, to witness a new Grimbeard video within 2 minutes of posting. Blessed be the holy Lincoln.
I could be wrong but the VA from Vampire Hunter D you mentioned also did the VO for the mass effect 1 CODEX, that voice of is very iconic, almost radio DJ like from the olden days
This game is my favorite game of all time behind Ocarina of time. I first played it in elementary school and it took me several revisits throughout the years before i beat it in high school, but man every time i came back it was a wild ride.
This is always top of my list for games I want remastered or to come back. I’ve loved this since the day it came out. My best friend and I would play it over and over again at sleepovers. Goddamn is it unique, bold, and incredibly fun.
Okay, I actually really like that time traveling plot there. With the little tidbits of foreshadowing sprinkled here and there that will make you giddy with excitement after realizing that they were hints and now you understand once you finally did the whole time jump. I also love that she literally "rejects" you and was confused w/ your priorities because she's technically mourning after the person she liked just a few hours ago. That was a great touch haha but also MAN, the embarrassment--I FELT IT.
I was a junior in High School when this came out and can’t understate how awesome my friends and I thought the demo was (we loved fully animated interactions like Shenmue and 1st person brawling was so novel..) I bought it immediately on release, beat it that weekend and wished I’d rented it. Still fond of it though. Was gonna hook up my old tv and xbox to revisit it recently, was surprised to see your upload and lingered at your story mark pondering if I was gonna wait till after a replay.. But honestly I’m happy to have reacquainted through you :)
Omg Vampire Hunter D was one of my first anime, watched it on scifi channel when I was a kid and the horror and atmosphere of it like.. changed me as a person. It just had such a huge influence on me, I've seen it so many times over the years and yah it holds a special place in my internal organs too lol
As a soon to be 41 year old decomposing husk of a gamer, Grim's videos feeds me with joy. Joy that that turns into piss and vinegar as soon as the video ends. But still, for those brief fleeting moments... I really feel something.
the soundtracks in this game are god tier. It's freaking amazing. If this game were to receive a remake treatment, no uncertainty in my mind the gameplay will be very much improved.
I've always seen the cover of this game around but never really looked into it that hard. It's nice that Grimbeard is a channel I can always rely on to find strange new games to play that I would've otherwise given no attention. Also love the random dancing eyes bit.
Dude I about passed out when I saw this in my feed. Breakdown's demo on an Xbox magazine disc was my whole childhood. Ya love to see it. Thanks so much grimby, you really are one of the best to ever do it. I watch a hell of a lot of RU-vid and you're easily in my top 5 channels period. Hope you know how much we appreciate you
Another one of those great oddities that felt like it came out of nowhere, I remember playing the demo for Breakdown and thinking "What the hell is this" in the best kind of sense, then finally playing it in full a good while later and came out loving it.
Thanks so much for this video! Breakdown and Otogi were my obsessions on the og Xbox. To this day no one has matched the first person vomit and cheeseburger eating of Breakdown. Also, has anyone else ever attempted a first person camera backflip?
Just a little idea, I think the reason Giovanni is still alive is because you get to the silo area much quicker due to the elavator so in this timeline you make it to him and his team before they are overwhealmed.
I dig your "third ending" head canon, I thought the same thing as soon I saw the cat outside it's cage. Also, on the subject of "overly long animations" Alien: Isolation and Metro did the same thing, and those games are masterpieces.
Honestly, I never thought someone would ever talk about Breakdown. Ever! Game is super under radar. The game i thought wasn’t real till 2019. Biggest Fever dream game ever.
Only became aware of you a few weeks ago, but I've dug up and devoured most of your videos. You are very good. Your videos are very good. Hearing intelligent discourse makes me feel less stupid for liking games. It's good to finally hear someone talking about games in the same way me and my friends do. It's genuinely warming to hear a review without reference to fps and ttk as if they are the sine qua non of gaming. I'm 40, stopped gaming 10 years ago (children, work etc) I had no interest in returning to games at all, until I found your channel. Now, I'm back on the pixel-crack, interestedly sourcing games I would never have been aware of, were it not for you. Thanks very much. Also, have you heard of the band, Throbbing Gristle? They're from the past, one of them lives near me, but in the present. Check them out in the future, if you have the time. Bye
Thank you for this wonderful content, and for uploading it right as my uni stress tension headache was about to become fatal... you may have saved my actual real life
Playing this game was such a trip as a 12 year old. So many twists and turns and makes me wish more games were so ambitious. My friend at the time who has since disappeared from the face of the Earth bought the game for like five bucks cuz I thought it'd make a cool gift cuz it looked interesting, we had no idea what it was and that made it so much better. We genuinely didn't know what to do when we got to the bridge section with the soldiers on the other side, felt hopeless, and then the ability that just appears was literally a collective WTF moment in a game that up to thay point was hard as fuck and equally as trippy. The controls were janky and the Tlan hard to fight...or so thought, and yet as things progressed and the main character regained his memory as well as other things, we progressed with him and became unstoppable. I don't want to say too much in case somebody runs into this comment but this was truly a game that I'm so happy I played knowing nothing. It left positive memories even with some of its flaws. And yes we all thought the game was going to end as well just to learn it was the halfway point and shit didn't get real yet.
This unlocked some sort of core memory i forgot I had. I remember watching my dad play the opening to this game when I was around 6. Jesus. Thanks Grimbeard!
Love how you choose background music and then match the tone of the script to it, for the early Story section. That can't be easy to do. I wonder if you make these loops yourself, I can't imagine where you would find a loop like that.
I see grim, I click. One of these days I wonder if we'll see some of Cryos back catalogue. A wee bit of Ubik? Some 'The Devil Inside?' So many odd delights.
I was looking for the name of this game for years! I remember watching it on X-Play back in the day, and Adam Sessler called it "VERY first person". It's interesting to see this "immersive" style of fps get normalised by the time COD 4 came around, and now we're heading into VR.
