The fact that Breach even exists is a bit bittersweet for me. The online first person shooter was developed by Atomic Games, the team behind the promising, yet incredibly controversial Six Days in Fallujah, which was ultimately canned last year. Feeling much like a consolation prize, Breach is a first person frag fest with a few really cool ideas, but those alone aren't enough to differentiate it from the crowded field of AAA first person shooters.

Loading into Breach, the experience is pretty much what you'd expect. You gear up as one of five different classes of a US Military Special Ops team; rifleman, sniper, gunner, support and recon (which unlocks after several class upgrades). What's weird about Breach though is that your class choice only changes what weapons you load out with, so don't expect any changing objectives or anything. As you play through a few matches of the game and begin to level up, you'll earn upgrades that you can use to unlock and buy new gadgets and perks that really begin to differentiate your character from others. Want a sniper with a ton of extra headshot protection? Done. It's really cool to craft your character in exactly the way you want.

"...practically the entire world is destructible."

The gimmick which sets Breach apart from the competition though is plain to see minutes into any match; much like Red Faction: Guerilla, practically the entire world is destructible. Just think of it, prick keeps sniping you while camping out behind a wall? Blow the crap out of it. It looks extremely cool to see the destruction up close and it changes the way each match is played incredibly. Where other shooters allow players to camp and get cheap kills, Breach forces players to constantly think on their feet and adapt their strategies. What's more, spying a sniper hiding on a building and blowing the cover out from under them is incredibly rewarding.

All of the modes you've come to expect from the FPS genre are here, from deathmatch to capture the flag infiltration, but undoubtedly the standout mode of the game is convoy. One team tries to escort two armored vehicles to a specific point on the map, and the other does pretty much anything they can to destroy the vehicles. At its best, the mode turns into a fun and frantic good time with everyone shouting at all the right moments. Strangely though, it seems like all of the game's maps are built with convoy in mind, and that doesn't necessarily translate well into the game's other modes. All too often it seems like the levels are just too large for the action presented.

"Some of the textures are extremely rough, while others are remarkably well done."

There are a few quirks in the gameplay that are sure to take you out of the game - literally. Much like similar games in the genre, you'll earn those credits I mentioned earlier while in matches, but you won't be able to equip them until after. So you'll have to back out of a game to change your loadout. Why this is necessary when other games allow you to do it mid-match is beyond me. On the visual front, Breach is more of a mixed bag. Some of the textures are extremely rough, while others are remarkably well done. It's no Modern Warfare 2, but it'll do.

Breach has a lot of cool features going for it, but none of them are executed well enough to help the game stand out from the crowded pack of online first person shooters. Though it may serve as a decent enough distraction, don't expect players to deviate from the Call of Duty behemoth for too long.