REVIEW - Singularity
- Written by Ira Yamchuk |
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Turn your calendar back to 1955. Russian scientists have been working on a weapon of mass destruction to compete against the United States Atomic Bomb and become the only world superpower. In charge of the task is Russian scientist Victor Barisov. He discovered an element named Element-99 that has the ability to manipulate time either by aging or rejuvenating objects. It just so happens that the Soviets have discovered that the only place on Earth to mine this element is a remote island off the eastern coast of the Soviet Union named Katorga-12.
Now fast forward to the present day. Nathan Renko is a United States Special Forces Operative sent in to find out what is going on with all the strange activity in and around Katorga-12. His mission is to find out why the Russians have been keeping the very existence of Katorga as a secret from the world. Renko is flown in by helicopter when all the sudden a huge explosion and then a blue ball of energy engulfs the helicopter forcing it to crash land on Katorga-12. You suddenly find yourself sent back in time to the year 1955. Don’t worry though as you won’t be stuck there. Your task now is to find the TMD (Time Manipulation Device) and at certain locations you are able to open a time portal and travel between the two time periods and either save or kill someone to change the outcome of certain events. |
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Activision and Raven Software bring us a “to the past and back to the future” first person shooter. The game plays like a lot of the other first person shooters out there. If someone asked me what game does Singularity most resemble, I would have to say a little bit of F.E.A.R and Wolfenstein smashed together. The game does offer up 3 different endings to the game which can all easily be accessed by loading up the final checkpoint over and over again. But honestly in the end, this does not do enough to push the game to the next level as a must have title.
Graphically the game does a decent job for the most part but you’ll find that the level design is fairly linear and at times frustrating because you’ll see places you think you can go, but then find out that you cannot reconstruct the steps in front of you. I would have much rather seen more of an open world style of gameplay injected into this game and I think it would have made it so much more enjoyable in the end. There are a few instances in the game where you will find yourself in interesting situations and graphically I have to say they are at times a masterpiece to behold. Just don’t get caught gawking at the pretty graphics to long or you are a dead man.
I have to say one of the most enjoyable and disappointing aspects in the game is the TMD. It is really a lot of fun to use. It lets you manipulate objects by aging them or renewing them. You also can use it on your enemies by making them old and turn them into dust in a blink of an eye. It also sends out a blast of energy that will blow your enemies through the air. There are some puzzle solving elements in the game that can be solved with the TMD as well. But in the end it’s really just the same puzzle over and over again only put into different scenarios. Don’t worry you will see exactly what I mean as you play through the game. Last but not least you can pick up and throw objects as well kind of like the gravity lift gun. |
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The weapons in Singularity are pretty much your standard variety pistol, assault rifle,shotgun, and sniper rifle. There is one weapon that does stand out from the standard weapons and is really cool to use and that would be the telekinesis sniper rifle (E99 Seeker). It has a hilarious end result as well. With this weapon, once you squeeze the trigger it goes into a slow motion bullet time where the camera follows the bullet. Oh it gets better. You actually get to take full control of the bullet and direct where you want it to go. And did I mention they are exploding rounds. As I said this can add some great and memorable moments to the game and it actually works very well in the game.
You’ll not only get a fairly in depth single player experience, which can be a bit linear at times and repetitive in nature, but you’ll also get Multiplayer. Unfortunately, you only have 2 game modes to select from when going online. Creatures vs. Soldiers is your basic team deathmatch variety of versus game. The humans will be armed with TMD’s while the creatures will fight with their special abilities. The second mode is Extermination Mode. In essence this is your basic defense style game. As humans you will have to protect 3 beacons while the creatures are out to destroy the beacons. There really is not a whole lot of creativity in the multiplayer mode other than overlaying the Singularity canvas on standard FPS multiplayer modes. The action is 6 vs 6 and each faction will have 4 different character classes to choose from. |
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One area I think Raven Software dropped the ball would have to be related to the TMD. There is so much more that they could have done with the device. I could only hope that they would have found more ways for the player to interact with objects while using the TMD, but I guess that is what sequels are for. I also think that the game could have opened up a bit and added some variety into the level design. It just seems there is so many things in this game that I feel like I have done before in other games hence my comparison to the Wolfenstein/F.E.A.R. compilation.
Overall, I can say it is a pretty solid game. There isn’t too much we haven't already seen in previously released games. It’s a good game to help you get through the dog days of summer and to pass time till the big holiday AAA titles hit consoles everywhere. The game houses many secrets which you will find throughout. Hidden Memos, Audio Files, Video Recordings and more hold the secrets to Katorga-12 and it’ll be up to you to find them. If you are in the mood for a first person shooter with new twist on some things then you should definitely check out Singularity. But for those of us waiting for the next big shooter, I can think of 2 titles in the not so far off future that will take up so much more of our time. |
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SUGGESTIONS |
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The game has some great moments, but there is just too much of the same old, same old throughout that just never give this title a chance to be great. Better level design and more of an open world approach would really have helped. Again, not a bad game but it could have been so much better. |
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Release Date
6/29/2010
Publisher
Activision
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OVERALL |
78 |
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GAMEPLAY |
79 |
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SOUND |
75 |
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GRAPHICS |
80 |
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REPLAY VALUE |
70 |
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