Singularity
Intro and Influential Information
Platform: 360
Money Paid for Game: £8
When I got it: 15 months after release
Why can nobody (apparently) describe what kind of game this is? It’s not that hard, it’s a third person action/shooter. The main reason I had no idea what to expect from this title was because I couldn’t find anywhere that described what kind of game it was. I liked this in a way, Bionic Commando has a strong retro feel to it, from the gameplay stemming all the way to the achievements. However, it is unfortunate that the potential this game has never comes close to being reached.
Story / Characters
Right this won’t be long. You take control of “Rad” Spencer, A Bionic Commando (yep...) with a seriously awesome prosthetic left arm. Somewhere between this and the previous game everyone became aware that people with bionic limbs were a threat and suddenly went anti bionic and started rounding them up.
Ascension city is then devastated by a nuclear attack and Rad Spencer is reunited with his bionic arm and sent out to get to the bottom all of it. The story is definitely not the driving force of the game, but there a couple of twists that are at least done well, no matter how predictable they are.
Gameplay
Bionic Commando is all about swinging (no, not that kind). Your bionic arm can shoot out like a grapple gun and attach to surfaces allowing you to swing around levels at high speeds. According to other reviewers, this takes a lot of getting used to and can be very difficult. However, providing you don’t completely suck at games you’ll get this right after the tutorial and be swinging around with relative ease. Your arm can also be used as a weapon to punch enemies, life heavy objects and throw them at enemies and you also get some cool adrenaline moves later that allow you to despatch numerous foes instantly.
Taking away the bionic arm and the game plays like a very average third person shooter. You get a number of run of the mill weapons such as the pea-shooter pistol, machine gun, shotgun, grenade launcher etc. The tarantula rocket launcher has a lock on feature that lets you target parts of enemies, which can be pretty fun at times. The gun controls are pretty weak for the most part, they are responsive but until you complete several of the games challenges your accuracy will be very poor at anything above medium range. All of these weapons can be used while swinging on your arm, which makes using them pretty exciting at times. Ammo is plentiful and you also have grenades, the main thing that detracts from the gun combat besides the poor gunplay is that everything apart from the pistol is regarded as a special weapon. Ammo for said weapons is extremely scarce and heavily controls your usage of them.
The game is also relentlessly linear; due to the nuclear attack on the city 90% of it is drenched in radiation. This is just a way of forcing you to stick to the mission paths. For me this was the most disappointing part of the game, once you click with the mechanics for swinging it is by far the most fun thing to do in the game. You naturally want to explore on your own and swing around the city, this being strictly prohibited seems extremely lazy. If you had a huge world to swing around with (maybe) some cool side missions it would have made it easier to overlook some of the shortcomings in the core shooting controls.
Replay Value
There’s really nothing here besides the obligatory hard mode and collectibles to keep you coming back. Which isn’t much to say the least. It’s hard not to focus on the fact that the best part apart the game wasn’t fleshed out properly, the game feels so incomplete due to the lack of any extra goodies. At the end of the day all you have is an amazing swinging mechanic that is bogged down by a run of the mill story and single player experience. I did really enjoy the old-school vibe the game has, but that’s just me. There is no question this game had insane amounts of potential, but we’ll have to wait and see if a sequel comes along to realise it.
Platform: 360
Money Paid for Game: £8
When I got it: 15 months after release
Why can nobody (apparently) describe what kind of game this is? It’s not that hard, it’s a third person action/shooter. The main reason I had no idea what to expect from this title was because I couldn’t find anywhere that described what kind of game it was. I liked this in a way, Bionic Commando has a strong retro feel to it, from the gameplay stemming all the way to the achievements. However, it is unfortunate that the potential this game has never comes close to being reached.
Story / Characters
Right this won’t be long. You take control of “Rad” Spencer, A Bionic Commando (yep...) with a seriously awesome prosthetic left arm. Somewhere between this and the previous game everyone became aware that people with bionic limbs were a threat and suddenly went anti bionic and started rounding them up.
Ascension city is then devastated by a nuclear attack and Rad Spencer is reunited with his bionic arm and sent out to get to the bottom all of it. The story is definitely not the driving force of the game, but there a couple of twists that are at least done well, no matter how predictable they are.
Gameplay
Bionic Commando is all about swinging (no, not that kind). Your bionic arm can shoot out like a grapple gun and attach to surfaces allowing you to swing around levels at high speeds. According to other reviewers, this takes a lot of getting used to and can be very difficult. However, providing you don’t completely suck at games you’ll get this right after the tutorial and be swinging around with relative ease. Your arm can also be used as a weapon to punch enemies, life heavy objects and throw them at enemies and you also get some cool adrenaline moves later that allow you to despatch numerous foes instantly.
Taking away the bionic arm and the game plays like a very average third person shooter. You get a number of run of the mill weapons such as the pea-shooter pistol, machine gun, shotgun, grenade launcher etc. The tarantula rocket launcher has a lock on feature that lets you target parts of enemies, which can be pretty fun at times. The gun controls are pretty weak for the most part, they are responsive but until you complete several of the games challenges your accuracy will be very poor at anything above medium range. All of these weapons can be used while swinging on your arm, which makes using them pretty exciting at times. Ammo is plentiful and you also have grenades, the main thing that detracts from the gun combat besides the poor gunplay is that everything apart from the pistol is regarded as a special weapon. Ammo for said weapons is extremely scarce and heavily controls your usage of them.
The game is also relentlessly linear; due to the nuclear attack on the city 90% of it is drenched in radiation. This is just a way of forcing you to stick to the mission paths. For me this was the most disappointing part of the game, once you click with the mechanics for swinging it is by far the most fun thing to do in the game. You naturally want to explore on your own and swing around the city, this being strictly prohibited seems extremely lazy. If you had a huge world to swing around with (maybe) some cool side missions it would have made it easier to overlook some of the shortcomings in the core shooting controls.
Replay Value
There’s really nothing here besides the obligatory hard mode and collectibles to keep you coming back. Which isn’t much to say the least. It’s hard not to focus on the fact that the best part apart the game wasn’t fleshed out properly, the game feels so incomplete due to the lack of any extra goodies. At the end of the day all you have is an amazing swinging mechanic that is bogged down by a run of the mill story and single player experience. I did really enjoy the old-school vibe the game has, but that’s just me. There is no question this game had insane amounts of potential, but we’ll have to wait and see if a sequel comes along to realise it.
