Breakfree 3 - GrandmasterJ

 

    Breaking the tradition of the previous two entries, number three ditches the elevator and goes for a straight up platforming map. Visit beautiful Wing Fortress from Sonic 2 and confront Eggman inside.

SCMapDB page

Author:Beather

Date of release: 2007

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Breakfree 3

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | April 30, 2023 | 3430 characters

    Breakfree 3 is the third and final map in the series, this time instead of going up an elevator shaft like the first two we get to platform over a big airship. My teammate told me the level is based on Wing Fortress and then showed me a video of the level and I can agree that this is indeed a recreation of a Sonic 2 level.

    We start in a room with a minute long timer before the map starts. There are things that look like buttons here but these are lies and do nothing. When the minute is up we get teleported onto a plane, well my teammate made it onto the plane and I appeared in mid-air next to him then fell to my death. I respawned in mid-air above where the plane once was, and fell to my death once again. Thankfully the spawn does update when we make it to the actual map start but for that whole time I was dying over and over.

    The first section of actual gameplay is crouching down some crawlspaces, it mirrors the original Sonic 2 level but it slows gameplay down at the start. Then we hop across some fans, fight against the wind, guess which side of the ladder we're supposed to be on, and generally platform all around the exterior of the airship. Eventually we make it inside through a vent where we have to crouch slowly once again and get dropped down a shaft where we take 40 damage. There are some crushers and instant kill toxic goo and then we're at the boss fight. It's a lot of hazardous platforming and not all of it is annoying, but we get no checkpoints here until right before the boss fight. Lots of places in the map slow players way down and forcing us to go through all of this over and over again is not great. I liked the platforming, I like the map, but I absolutely started cheating halfway through instead of running through the whole map over and over again.

    The boss fight has us fighting a big computer block that has a sheath moving in and out around it. It's strange and not very fun. But once we win Dr. Eggman gets sucked through a tube and the map ends.

    I like the map and the Breakthrough series but there is always some sticking point that I can't get past. Both sticking points in the first two were the elevators but in this one it is the lack of checkpoints. The platforming is tough but fun and not in an annoying way, unless we have to run over them again and again on the way back to where we were. There are definitely a lot of areas where players have to slow way down, like crouching through vents or walking against strong wind. The boss fight was annoying but it did cap off the level pretty well. The map was the most Sonic this series has ever been and I am into it, it's got music, textures, and level design that make it look just like the Wing Fortress level from Sonic 2.

Pros:

• The map is a really good recreation of Wing Fortress in Sonic 2, with Sonic music and Eggman model
• pretty good platforming
• fun level design and sequences, I like the intro plane we ride
• there is a checkpoint

Cons:

• more checkpoints would help cut down on players going over the same areas again and again
• some areas force players to go really slow and that gets annoying fast
• final boss fight kind of sucks
• the intro is cool, but is also very broken

Score:

6 / 10