Disintegration Review (PC)

fair
key review info
  • Game: Disintegration
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: Yes  
  • Reviewed on:
Disintegration key art

Disintegration is a brand new IP coming from a new studio founded by Marcus Lehto, the co-creator of Halo series. And that's probably the most exciting thing about the game, although I would say that I was pretty hyped at first to see how would a first-person shooter / real-time strategy mash-up will play.

Developed by V1 Interactive, Disintegration bets on the “jack-of-all-trades” card trying blend two very different game genres: first-person shooter and real-time strategy. It's a bold endeavor for a new studio trying to make it to the top in an already overcrowded industry.

At least the premise of the game is interesting and very promising in case V1 Interactive plans to make a sequel. Disintegration is set in the not-so-distant future on Earth, in a time when natural resources have almost been depleted, so humanity's only chance to survive is to “embrace” the outcome by integrating their brains in robotic shells.

Of course, some people don't want to embrace the so-called “integration,” which makes possible the rise of a militant group named Rayonne that wants to coerce everyone into the integration process. You play as Romer Shoal, an already integrated human being who has been captured by the pro-integration group.

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After narrowly escaping Rayonne, Romer will become the leader of a band of misfits who oppose the militant group. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think it's wrong to see him as the leader of the resistance against the group that plans to “reboot humanity.”

The story builds up nicely, but the missions that advance it are quite generic and simply not interesting enough. Now let's talk a bit about gameplay and what it means to have two different game genres blended into one.

In Disintegration, you'll be piloting a Gravcycle, some sort of flying vehicle outfitted with various weapons, which hovers above the ground. While flying above the battlefield in his Gravcycle, Romer can give orders to his on-ground squad. Each member of your squad has unique abilities that you can use as many times as you want, but you'll have to be careful when to use them since they have cooldowns.

Since the Gravcycle can be outfitted with multiple weapons, you'll be able to switch them in battles and shoot at the bad guys while healing your teammates. When one or more members of your squad are downed, you'll have to pick up his/her head in order to have the body reconstructed. To add a feeling of urgency, developers have added a timer for whenever your teammates get killed, which means you'll only be able to resurrect them if you recover their remains in less than 30 seconds.

Your teammates have a mind of their own, so they're controlled by the AI if you'd rather shoot your enemies 100% of the time instead of giving them orders. However, the game encourages players to manage their squad since their Gravcycles can only do so much. In fact, your squad should be the main firepower, you're just there to make sure that things are getting done.

I admit that this was quite challenging at first, especially that my brain wanted me to shoot more and manage my squad less. After the first couple of missions, I understood the formula, and while I do think that it works well, I simply didn't like it. I do like shooters and I love strategy games even more, but a hybrid like Disintegration didn't make me feel as exciting as either of the two genres.

One thing that I love about Disintegration is the narrative and voice acting. Granted the game suffers from lack of characterization, there was a lot of lore to explore that I feel it was unnecessary considering how underdeveloped many of the characters really are. It's very hard to attach to Romer, let alone any of the other NPCs that you'll interact with throughout the game.

Disintegration missions start quite nicely but then become repetitive. Not to mention that they're a bit too long and there's no option to save in the middle of a mission. It's true that there are checkpoints spread throughout a mission, but if your game crashes or you simply want to stop playing, you'll have to start all over again.

Looking back in retrospect, Disintegration's main campaign seems like a lobby for the multiplayer mode. It seems like V1 Interactive has sunk a lot of development hours into the multiplayer aspect and it shows. Three different 5v5 modes ensure that players will find the best way to experience the multiplayer aspect: Zone Control, Retrieval, and Collector.

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Now, imagine that each of those 10 players fighting on a map drives a Gravcycle and control a squad of on-ground units. Things can get a bit hectic sometimes because the maps are a bit small, but when you get full teams on each side, these multiplayer games are a lot of fun.

You get to choose between nine different crews, each with their own role, although I'm not sure the multiplayer mode is very well balanced. I noticed that many crews never make it to the lineup of either of the two teams, while others are more often the not the best in each game. Oh well, at least it's a good start.


The Good

  • Solid voice acting
  • Decent multiplayer mode
  • Interesting premise and lore

The Bad

  • Forgettable story
  • Lacks characterization
  • Missions can become repetitive
  • FPS/RTS combo works, but it's not that fun
  • Some technical issues

Conclusion

Disintegration feels like Anthem and Destiny had a child. The world and lore make the new IP quite promising, although the gameplay and characters don't rise to the challenge. It's a game of black and white where I found myself hating some parts, but absolutely loving others.

It's true that the weird combination of first-person shooter and strategy elements do work quite well in Disintegration, they're not as fun as one would expect (if anyone can expect that). Instead of having the best of both worlds, Disintegration puts itself in the position of potentially being hated by fans of both genres. Yes, the hybrid approach does work, but it's not entertaining enough to warrant a full playthrough. Here is hoping for a better sequel though.

story 6
gameplay 6
concept 7
graphics 7
audio 6
multiplayer 8
final rating 6.5
Editor's review
fair
 
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Disintegration screenshots (18 Images)

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