Review: Singularity
Dynamite Jack
Raven Software delivers Singularity, a time-manipulating FPS featuring superpowers, time paradoxes, and evil Russians. Lots of evil Russians.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Raven Software seems to agree. I can only assume this because they made a Bioshock game and then called it Singularity. Familiarity would be a more appropriate name.
I spent the first hour of Singularity groaning at the many "borrowed" gameplay elements from Bioshock, but eventually I warmed to the game's story and combat and had an enjoyable time. After all, Singularity comes from the folks behind last summer's Wolfenstein so these guys know how to make a shooter
What's It About?
I don't want to spoil the story, as it's one of the better things about the game, so I'll keep my explanation brief.
You play as a black-ops solider investigating a Russian research facility on an island named Katorga-12. The island is a hotbed of the element E99, a powerful substance that ultimately leads to a catastrophic accident killing much of the island in the year 1955. While exploring the science labs, you come across an experimental TMD device (Time Manipulation Device) that attaches to your left arm allowing you to perform all types of time-based tricks. Basically it's like the plasmids in Bioshock.
To get off the island, you need lightning to strike the clock-tower so you can get your to DeLorean to 88 mph . . . wait, wrong story.
The Good
+ The TMD powers that you obtain throughout the game offer creative ways to kill enemies and solve puzzles. For example, you can use your TMD to rapidly age or revert enemies and items that you encounter. See that broken set of stairs? Just revert it back to it's working state and walk on up.
My personal favorite ability is Deadlock, a time-freezing bubble that stops enemies in suspended animation allowing you shoot them at will. When the bubble wears off, you can watch them slump to the ground in a violent heap. Good times.
+ The single-player campaign story is interesting, although it takes until the very end for things to make sense. I found I cared about what happened in the story which doesn't happen all the time in shooters. There are three different endings that are determined by your final decisions in the game, but fortunately it auto-saves right before decision time so you won't have to replay the game to experience all three finales. Just select "Continue Game" after the credits and make a different decision.
+ You can upgrade your weapons and TMD devices throughout the game by spending E99 that you collect along the way. For some reason this powerful element is just lying around everywhere. The first thing I did was max out the assault rifle and then I used that for the majority of the game, but upgrading allows you to customize things to your playing style.
+ The multiplayer is surprisingly good and offers a different take on the standard deathmatch experience found in most other shooters. There are two modes, "Extermination" and "Creatures vs Soldiers", and both pit Russian soldiers against various creatures from the game. Every creature has a different special ability and it was fun trying them all out. For some reason the creatures are controlled from a 3rd person perspective while Soldiers control in standard 1st person view.
Unfortunately, it can take awhile to find enough people to start up a match and that problem is only going to get worse as time goes on. If Singularity's multiplayer is a selling point for you then you'd better play it soon because the pool of players is shrinking quickly. For what it's worth, I played the 360 version but I've heard that PS3 players are having the same problem.
The Bad
- The health system is archaic. Collecting health packs and pressing up on the d-pad to manage your health bar seems terribly outdated in this era of regenerating health. It slows down the combat tremendously when you have to run away from enemies just to look for a magic health pack. I felt like one minute I was playing a modern day shooter, the next I was playing old-school Doom from 1994. Regenerating health is popular because people like it. Nobody likes to micromanage a "life bar" during a shootout.
- Singularity doesn't feature a level select so you can't replay levels. Upon finishing the game the only option you're given is to start over from scratch or continue from the final save point. It would be great if there was a New Game+ option that let you start over again with the powers you've accumulated the first time through, but no dice.
- While the graphics are generally good, the environments in the game lack uniqueness. All the cliched FPS battlegrounds are here: the science lab, in the sewers, on a moving train, defending a room until the elevator arrives, etc. It's hard to shake the feeling that you've played this game before because it borrows so heavily from every other FPS.
Final Thoughts
Singularity is a solid shooter. It's got a decent story with some cool time-manipulation elements and it will last you the better part of a weekend. The cold hard truth is that it does nothing that several other shooters don't do better, especially on the Xbox 360.
The multiplayer can be fun, but I doubt you'll be able to play very much of it. Right before writing this, I spent a good 10 minutes trying to join a public match on Xbox Live with no luck. There just aren't enough people playing Singularity online to get matches going. It's a shame because I think a lot of people would like it.
If you're craving a new shooter to play during the summer gaming drought then Singularity is worth checking out.
Review Score: 7 out of 10
For this review I completed the single-player campaign of Singularity in eight hours (Normal difficulty) and played about two hours of multiplayer when I was able to find a game. I reviewed the Xbox 360 version.
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