Darth Vader and Indiana Jones, come meet your new pal—Mason Briggs. Following nearly a year of speculation, LucasArts officially unveiled its newest original project as developed by Day 1 Studios, Fracture. Equally as much a reveal of the game as a proclamation of the company’s renewed effort to create new intellectual properties outside of the Star Wars universe, I participated in a small press gathering at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco for a first-look at this incredibly promising title.

“We want to be known for more than Star Wars and Indy,” starts Jim Ward, President of LucasArts, “and Fracture is a big part of that.” Steering clear of galactic melodrama and Nazi bashing, Fracture depicts the somewhat inconvenient truth of an Earth ravaged by global warming. As if Vice President Al Gore were wagging a disapproving finger at us all, the game follows shortly after efforts to combat rising temperatures fail and the United States splits as a result of a massive glacial flood. Soon, the tenuous union between the disparate eastern and western states dissolves as they align with European and Asiatic nations to form the Atlantic Alliance and Republic of Pacifica, respectively.

With tensions high, each government drafts a military force to secure its survival. Utilizing high technology, the Atlantic Alliance creates an army of cybernetic soldiers with advanced weaponry; the Republic of Pacifica, on the other hand, uses genetics to raise legions of modified warriors. What’s truly interesting is both factions can equip powerful tectonic weapons capable of reshaping terrain. Geology class flashback—the same forces at work moving the planet’s tectonic plates have been harnessed in compact weapons you now carry into combat. While initially intended to counteract the effects of global warming, they have become deadly weapons hijacked for use on the battlefield.

More than just a typical third-person shooter, Fracture looks to expand with traditional action elements and new terrain deformation mechanics. Players take on the role of demolitions expert Mason Briggs who finds himself at the forefront of the breaking war against the Republic of Pacifica. The oress gathered at the event were shown the second level of the game, in which Briggs is tasked with taking out a series of anti-aircraft guns to allow Atlantic Alliance drop ships clearance into the area.

Dealing with the superhuman, high-jumping Hydra soldiers that aggressively attempt to stymie his progress requires more than an itchy trigger finger. It’s clear from the demonstration given by Denny Thorley, President of Day 1 Studios, that toying with terrain is absolutely core to the Fracture experience. Interestingly enough, enemies will utilize terrain deformation just as much as you, so learning how it functions is vital.

Several different weapons were locked and loaded for our destructive viewing pleasure from simple ground-morphing grenades to destructive terrestrial vortices. The two most basic armaments shown were the tectonic and subsonic grenades that raise and depress terrain, respectively. Chuck a tectonic grenade and wherever it lands the ground rises up in a mound; conversely, throw a subsonic grenade and a hole forms.