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We take a look at the highly anticipated shooter at E3.

One of the best parts of E3 was having my cameraman, who is a gamer and really, really wanted to come along with me for the convention, mind-numbingly ask “since when does Lucasarts make non-Star Wars games?” Ahh, sometimes the fond memories of blunt wit and denouncement don’t leave so easily or peacefully. Too bad he wasn’t recording then, or that he didn’t dare think that Lucasarts was a game publisher too.

Fracture is another interesting outlook on how to change gaming in a more drastic way. Using weaponry that changes the ground to better help players progress and defeat enemies, that ground is your most important tool, weapon, and your best friend. If it were an FPS, sleeping on the ground could be more unsettling after playing.

The third-person shooter is all about a war between the Republic of Pacifica (guess which side of the US they’re from) and the Atlantic Alliance, which is basically a recreation of Total Annihilation’s story. For those who missed out on the game of the year in 1997, players are part of AA and have cybernetic implants. They are competing for dominance of the now split United States against the Pacificans, who have been genetically enhancing themselves. Albeit the Arm didn’t change their genetics, but they were probably pumping some drugs to make them not wet themselves against the cybernetic Core.

As Jeff Brody in the year 2160, players must use the ground to effectively wipe those mutant bastards off the face of this great nation. Using a “trencher”, the default weapon, Jeff can make several changes to the ground very easily and at any time. Each of the 12 weapons have different ways to change the landscape on top of being some sort of weapon. For instance, the catapault gun shoots projectiles that bounce off walls and detonate when players want them to.

The real weapon is the terrain. Using what developer Day 1 Studios calls “deformable terrain”, utilizing the terrain is the only thing that really matters. Can’t get to an area because gates block the path? Raise the ground in front of it to walk right over it, or make a gaping hole and go under it. It gives many advantages such as making sure you always have the high ground, or making cover on the fly. Whatever you can imagine that moving ground can do, it can probably do.

In trailers we’ve seen weapons that make the ground spike and destroy groups of enemies, and there are many more applications that haven’t been witnessed yet.

All we know about multiplayer is that all the weapons in the campaign, as well as their deformable terrain qualities, will be there. This means multiplayer will probably have only a few players per round, eight at most, and that it will be hectic, frantic, and most likely overwhelming for many. But it’s too early to tell with certainty yet.

Fracture comes out this October on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.