Today we're doing a review of Fracked. The game came out back in 2021, but we've recently got a port of the game on Meta Quest, which is the version that we'll be reviewing today. Since this is my first time playing the game, I'll be talking about every aspect of it, but I'll also be talking on how well it performs as a standalone game since sometimes porting games can be a hit or miss experience. So let's get into it!
The new Meta Quest port of Fracked released on August 29th 2024 and is available for $26.99 Canadian. It is supported on the Quest 2, Pro, and 3. The game original came out on PSVR1 3 years ago, and then a port of the game was made for PCVR a year later. And it was developed by nDreams, a well known developer and publisher who made games such as Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, Synapse, Little Cities and the upcoming vibrant color PvP shooter, Frenzies.
Gameplay
Fracked is first and foremost a first person shooter. You'll be progressing through the game while enemies are blocking your way, so you have to eliminate them. You can shoot them multiple times on the body, but a headshot will instantly kill them. Your health will regenerate automatically if you hide and don't get shot for a few seconds. You can drop your magazine if it's not empty yet by pressing B, and you can reload by pushing the magazine back in the gun, and then crank it. A cool thing is that you can check how much bullets are left by looking at the side of the gun, and it'll become transparent so you can see what's inside the clip.
The nice thing about the game is that you're not often forced to defeat all of the enemies. If you feel daring enough to go to the next objective, you can totally do that at your own risk. But usually it's best to clear out the enemies in the area before you do so.
nDreams has kind of some signature mechanics that they've been using in their games, and they can be seen here. There's many sections where you can zipline your way from one room to another, and there's also the hiding mechanic where you grab the ledge of a hiding spot, and you pull yourself behind it. This mechanic can also be seen in games such as Synapse and the new upcoming Frenzies. It's pretty cool and very useful from time to time when you desperately need to take cover. It's way faster than moving and crouching in real life.
Variety
There are also different elements added to your adventure that keeps the game fresh throughout your playthrough. Something very unique are the skiing sections where you're going down mountains full of snow. You need to lean your head left and right to move around and make sure that you don't hit any obstacles. You will also need to use your gun to shoot enemies that are chasing you on snowmobiles and the ones that are in guard posts. These sections happen once in a while throughout the adventure, but it never felt old. They were really fun.
There are also a lot of climbable sections in the game, with a few little platforming sections. Nothing crazy, but the flow of the game is done really well. Because after fighting off a lot of enemies, these climbable sections just help with taking the time to breath before you travel through another section full of action.
Story
The story is fun to follow. The protagonist is a special force operative and was skiing in the mountains, but i believe that he then got caught in an avalanche, so he shot a flair gun to get some help. That's when Rosaleen came with her helicopter and follows you through the adventure.
As you and Rosaleen progress, you realize that a group of people are fracking in the mountains, but something weird is happening. The people over there has gone insane and are shooting everyone that they see in sight. You've decided to go investigate and see exactly what's happening and get to the bottom of things.
It's not a crazy story, but like it said, it's a fun one to follow through, it has a good formula to keep it interesting. It almost have that James Bond/Perfect Dark vibe, but with a little bit more action.
Graphics/Design
I love the graphics of the game! They're using a cell shaded style and the colors used really looks good and pops well in VR. The environments just have some nice details and doesn't feel bland at all. Honestly, they really did a good job at porting the game on Meta Quest. I've been using the Quest 3, and the resolution is great. I haven't played the other versions, but this stand-alone one haven't given me any hints that the game's graphics were toned down or anything like that. There's no pop-ins or any graphics detail changes when you get close. It almost feel like the game was built to be on the platform. So for anyone who's worried, I'm pretty confident that you get an equal or better experience on the Quest.
The level design is also really good. You never really get lost and it's pretty easy to understand what you need to do next. Some nice places to hide during the action sequences, and there are some special weapons put at certain locations which feels rewarding when you find them. There are small puzzles that you have to figure out from time to time, but nothing that breaks the flow of the game.
Music/Sound Design I actually really liked the soundtrack of the game. You know, when you play a game and you're really into it, but then the music kicks in and you notice it to a point where in your mind you're like "Wow! This is really good!" , to me this means that they've done an excellent job with the music, and this is the case here. There are many times in the game where it was really enjoyable.
And the sound design is also good. They use spacial audio properly and you know exactly where things are. The gun sounds great, and you don't hear enemies saying the same phrase over and over as far as I can tell, which can usually be an annoying thing in games like this. If the sound is not enough to locate enemies, you will also see the enemies shadow through the wall if they make sounds, so you never have too much of a hard time finding them.
Length/Difficulty One thing I want to say is that the game is a little on the short side. It took me less than 2 hours to complete. But the nice thing is that there are a few things that can extend your time with Fracked, and here they are:
There are 3 types of difficulties. Easy, medium and hard. Medium is the difficulty I've chosen because on hard, you only have one life throughout your adventure. Definitely something that I'd like to revisit and do at some point. I love the sound of that challenge.
Every time you finish a level, you are present with a score and a rank that you've achieved. I'd love to challenge myself and see if I could achieve an S Rank on every level. You gain score by not dying on the chapter, and killing enemies with only one headshot boosts your score immensely. I think that the time you take also affects the score.
The last replayability element is that there's some collectable coins that you can find in hidden places in the game. It was fun and satisfying when you went in a spot off track and you found those. I'm not sure if they affect anything in the game though.
Nitpicks Just a few nitpicks that I want to mention. Nothing that personally affected my enjoyment of the game, but I just want to lay it out there in case it matters to some of you.
There are some things that lacks in variety. Outside of the special weapons, you only have 2: the handgun and the SMG, and you end up mostly only using the SMG, unless you run out of bullets.
There are also not a lot of enemy types. You have the regular mobs shooting at you, suicide bombers, and then the bigger guys that requires a little bit more effort to defeat. And you fight through those 3 types throughout the game. There's a reskin for certain of them, but they pretty much act the same way.
The last thing is that there's not really an aiming sight to your guns. You kind of have to guess where to shoot, especially when they're far away. But you get used to it and it's not much of a big issue.
Outro Thank you so much for sticking throughout the review with me guys! The summary of Fracked is that I personally really enjoyed it! If you're in the mood for an action first person shooter, you're in for a fun time! Although I would've definitely loved to double my time in this adventure. The ending of the game kind of hinted for a sequel, so hopefully we get to see that in the future. I would love to get back into the shoes of our hero.
