In recent years, the first-person shooter genre has seen a significant spike in games that give the player a gun in one hand and a special power in the other, Bioshock being the most effective and well-rounded game in this new phenomenon. Although this game lacks the storytelling of someone like Ken Levine, it's remarkably fun and is one of the better "left-hand gimmick" titles out there. Some minor spoilers lie ahead.
Graphics/Sound: 7.5/10
I found the world of Katorga-12 (or however it's spelled) to be really beautiful (if largely uninteresting on its own), particularly in the early levels. One of this game's subtle strengths is that, as you progress across the island, the environment changes. I never felt like I was exploring the same place twice, except during time-travel sequences when you're *supposed to see how the world has been affected over time. Sound design is forgettable, and some of the voice acting is plain, but the graphics are lovely and varied.
Gameplay: 9/10
This game does a good job of not trying too hard on the guns. Each gun is sort of a "plain-Jane" but effective demonstration of its class in the videogame world, e.g., the shotgun feels like just about every other video game shotgun. Because we've seen all of these guns before (save for one or two), the designers had the opportunity to blend the left-hand gimmick -- in this case, a hand-mounted device that shifts an individual object's place in its history -- flawlessly. You can't rely on one or the other, and nothing is quite as satisfying as freezing your enemies in a time-bubble, pumping mountains of rounds in with them, and waiting to see all of them fall at once.
Even before you get the "Time Manipulation Device," though, it's great. The beginning of the game sees you fighting off only a small number of very powerful creatures with nothing more than
Unfortunately, Singularity was a bit confusing on one front -- boss fights. There are two bosses and one miniboss (who's really just an annoying, 1-time enemy) in the game. The first boss, about a quarter of the way through, is tough enough to keep you on your toes, but he won't kill you more than once. The second is one of the biggest, most challenging fights I've seen in a shooter. After two fights, I was expecting the boss battle to be an integral part of the gameplay. I was wrong, and it left me wanting.
Story: 10/10 AND 3/10...?
The destroyed island of Katorga-12 is littered with documents and tapes left by its long-gone civilian, research, and military inhabitants. Even horror games like Dead Space never got my heart going quite like the opening of Singularity did. Your character is alone, barely armed, weak, and he keeps seeing weird time-residue events left over from a singularity (like the title!) that occurred in the research facilities. It's a great, great premise. In terms of immersion, think Bioshock. If you liked the tapes and the sense of ruin in that game, you'll probably like the same stuff here.
Then they brought time travel into it.
Spoilers: Early in the game, your character is cast into a time rift and rescues a man from a burning building. When you return to the present, the course of history has changed because that man, a Dr. Demichev, took over and created a singularity that destroyed the island.
But wait... the Singularity was a part of the world in the original timeline. Demichev died in a burning building... so, just by chance, the singularity still occurred? Like, by accident? How convenient.
Once you save Demichev, he kills the man who invented the time-technology, Dr. Barisov. Barisov wants to keep the technology safe and limit its power. So you save his life in ANOTHER time rift, and... it's all very confusing, but basically, you change the course of time a lot.
That leads to the biggest problem with this game: All of this is explained to you in a video by an organization called "Mir-12." For some reason, they keep track of all of these events and are unaffected by the changes you effect on time. Or something. It's stupid and and only brought up once or twice. The writing is confusing and kind of rushed. Had it been explained better, this could have been one of the best games of 2010. I found it very frustrating to be simultaneously so immersed and so detached. They should have picked an idea and stuck with it.
Ignore the story, though, and you're in for a really fun shooter with some of the most fresh game mechanics in years. That's hard to beat at 12 bucks.
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デビルギース
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