Derrick Cole is the main character, a wounded soldier revived through the use of cyborg experiments. Little is known about him or his situation at the start of the game, and it slowly unfolds as the game progresses. Derrick wakes up in a research facility, unable to remember too much about what happened to him or how he got there. He is reoriented with the world through a short series of tasks, which handily teach the basic controls to the player. Soon after though the facility is attacked by soldiers, and the struggle to escape begins. Along the way new abilities are discovered, which is just as well after the appearance of a series of superhuman foes.

Hand-to-hand combat was always going to be tricky in a first-person game, and to their credit Namco have done a quite a good job with it. The shoulder buttons control the basic jabs and punches, with kicks and other moves activated with a combination of those and the left analogue stick. Namco have obviously used their experience with the Tekken series for Breakdown and as the game progresses more and more combos can be unlocked, resulting in quite an impressive move list by the end of the game.

While the melee combat controls are a fairly well done, the rest of the control system isn't exactly geared towards ease of use. Most actions require several button presses, even something simple like picking up items or climbing a ladder. Picking up an item, for instance requires the player to look at the item (or person or object carrying it), press the 'X' button to target, press 'X' to pick the item up, and press 'X' again to accept the item. While this is being done players cannot move or look around, even once the item is picked up, leaving them open to attack. Games shouldn't be this cumbersome, and using multiple button presses to open a door or retrieve some dropped ammo isn't impressive.

As well as the hand-to-hand combat Derrick can use the few weapons he finds. Through most of the game he will only have the use of a pistol, and machine-gun and grenades, with a couple of other weapons available late in the game. The focus definitely is on the melee combat with the large impressive weapons found in most FPSs missing. Further highlighting this focus are the rather simple controls for using weapons. With no crosshair or any accurate way of aiming players are forced to use the auto-targeting system. This though is quite restrictive, markedly cutting down Derrick's range of movement while the targetting is active.

Graphically Breakdown is a mixed bag. There are some quite neat touches, like the shadow effects used for Derrick, the portrayal of a lot of the action around him from a first-person view and neat effects like the gas mask. However there are also some quite glaring negatives that make the overall look of Breakdown appear bad. The amount of flickering and jaggies present hasn't really been seen to this extent in an Xbox game for a while, and the overall design and lack of texturing have created a very bland looking title. While visuals don't necessarily make or break a game, in a game like this where a believable story through the eyes of a character is trying to be woven they do take away a lot if not up to scratch.

Adding to this problem is the overall blandness of the level design. Breakdown is very linear, with a lot of the game played in long straight corridors with only one entry and exit. Much of the game is played in and around a large building complex, leading to rather characterless levels, although later in the game this does improve. The sterility of the building also translates to the insipid look of each of the rooms and corridors. Many of the walls are dull beige, with rooms and corridors lit by uniform lighting. Occasionally there is something a little more interesting, such as a smoky fire but on the whole the levels seem to be designed to put players to sleep. Taking a closer look at a lot of the features in a room doesn't improve the situation either. Many of the accoutrements of a room look like they have been painted on and virtually none of the items are interactive.

What does impress is the dedication to the first-person outlook that Breakdown has. Virtually all the cut-scenes are viewed from the view of Derrick, beginning with the opening scene waking up in the facility. Players only ever get to see Derrick's face when he looks in a mirror. Even while playing the camera does a good job of staying in character, rocking back if Derrick is punched or falling right back if he is knocked down. While at times this can be disorienting this does lead to a more immersive game. The only real problem with this view is the relative lack of visibility, leaving the player at a disadvantage at some points, for instance in a melee fight with more than one opponent players can take hits from the side or rear without realising anyone is there. This does add to the difficulty in what can often be quite a challenging game, but it does force the player to think a little more about their actions rather than the gung-ho attitude of a lot of first-person games.

On the whole the sounds in Breakdown are quite adequate, but don't really add anything to the game. Voice acting is reasonably good apart from the odd character that seems rather flat. Unfortunately there are large parts of the game where the soundtrack is almost non-existent. In between the ambient noises there is a lot of silence, which can seem rather odd at times. It doesn't help that the sound effects in the game aren't always good or accurate. The noise of weapons is quite good but there are some glaringly bad effects as well, such as the gentle sowing machine hum of a helicopter.