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Tawkn.com Review: Singularity

Written by Dana Olson Published at 2010-07-22 03:34:17 4 43 200 944     13

Multi-player First-Person Action for the PlayStation 3. Developed by Raven Software. Published by Activision. Released 2010-06-29. Rated M (Mature).

Singularity is the latest first-person shooter from Raven and Activision - the same pair which brought us the recent Wolfenstein reboot. My expectations for Singularity were set by my experience with Wolfenstein, which wasn't a great game, but was a fun game. I am happy to report that Raven have shown themselves up tremendously, as Singularity is a surprisingly great game.

The setting here is completely fictional: back in the early 50s, Soviet Russia is under Stalin's control, when their scientists discover a new power source known as E-99. The Soviets study the element on the island of Katorga-12 until 1955, when an accident occurs, destroying much of the research facilities. It is all but forgotten when suddenly, an American spy satellite is downed by a sudden surge originating at the island. Captain Renko, who the player controls, is sent to the island as part of a recon mission to investigate the incident. His helicopter is taken down just as the satellite was, but miraculously he survives. Soon after entering the facilities, he finds himself inside a field of power, which transports him fifty-five years into the past to the midst of a burning complex. From here on out, Renko travels between the past and present at certain points, altering the course of history for the island of Katorga-12, and, ultimately, the world.

It's interesting, but not a story that really sucked me in. It did set the stage for a fun time split between exploration, collection, and combat. As you progress through the game, you'll learn more about the events that took place through several means. You can find messages on chalk boards, or writing on walls, as well as tape recorders, filmstrips, and typewritten notes. These fill in the backstory, though not quite as nicely as they do in, say, BioShock. You will unlock an array of weapons, and while they all handle differently, they all feel and sound quite satisfying when fired. The sniper rifle has the ability to slow down time briefly, making headshots a breeze. The autocanon fires hard and heavy and has a huge clip. There is plenty of ammo around for most weapons, so you likely won't run out.

In addition to the weapons, the main hook of the game is the Time Manipulation Device, or TMD for short. It is a metallic-looking Power Glove with what looks to be guitar amp tubes plugged into the end, and a handful of different powers and abilities are progressively added to the TMD as you make your way through the plot. It has the ability to create a sphere inside of which time slows down to the point where bullets appear to be hovering in mid-air. It can pull objects such as health kits or E-99 from far away or projectiles out of the air. It also has the power to age enemies or objects forward or backward in time; a mechanic which is used throughout the game, including in some of the puzzles.

Upgrades to both the TMD and weapons can be purchased using E-99 or weapon upgrades, which you'll find hidden around the environments. Raven have done a good job in spacing this stuff out so that you don't get too powerful too quickly, but it really ramps up towards the end. I had more than everything that I cared about unlocked and maximally upgraded before reaching the final encounter.

Early on in the game, the island becomes inhabited by creatures of varying shapes and sizes, and they're all fairly unique in their designs both visually and functionally. You can shoot all enemies until they die, but there are often easier strategies that vary by enemy type. For instance, Phase Ticks usually attack in numbers, and they can pose a problem if you don't use your TMD on one of them, causing the rest to swarm it and explode. Another example are the Reverts, which are blind - sneaking past them quietly works, or you can shoot them from a distance, which will cause all of them in the area to come after you at once. There are only a couple big boss battles, which was disappointing, because they were interesting set pieces.

The game looks quite lovely, for the most part. The occasional texture will be muddy or low-res when close up, but nothing made me cringe, and overall, I thought it looked above average. The reflections in the metallic TMD are a very small touch, but one that would be noticeably absent in a lesser game. At times the art style is reminiscent of Metroid Prime or Resistance 2, but with better-looking Unreal Engine 3 tech behind it. The framerate was pretty much rock solid throughout the entire game, and it lent to the smooth feel of the gameplay.

The audio was top-notch as well. The positional audio was accurate and transitioned seamlessly between my surrounding speakers. Sound effects were remarkably clear when they should be, and they sounded convincingly realistic. This isn't one of those games where the action on the screen doesn't match what you're hearing in the speakers. Scripted sequences seemed to trigger always at the most appropriate time, so that the player wouldn't miss anything. The voice acting was hit or miss, but sufficient for the purpose. Of course, Nolan North makes his token appearance (this is a video game, after all), but the Russian accents on some of the other characters seem overdone at times. A creepy atmosphere was created almost entirely by the sound employed in certain sections of the game; effective use of audio would make me think enemies were coming up behind me, or just around the corner, when they weren't - I could never be sure what was going to happen. If Dead Space made you jump at all, then there's a good chance Singularity will do it a few times, too.

The solo campaign doesn't end in a whimper, but also doesn't have a big monster boss to fight at the end, as one might traditionally expect. Instead, it culminates in a final choice that results in one of three endings. You can reload your save when you're done to get the other two endings if you like, and you'll be rewarded with a silver trophy for each. Although the game is over too quickly, I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough, which left me wanting more - and that is a good thing, I think.

Naturally, I went looking for more in the wrong place... The online portion of Singularity might be the best thing ever, but I wouldn't know. In the several hours of trying, I managed to connect only a handful of times. When the game managed to get past the "Finding best match..." screen, I sat in lobbies watching the player counts fluctuate between two and ten people repeatedly. Occasionally, we'd be teased with the message "Match starting in 5...4...3...2" only to be interrupted by "New player connecting..." as the countdown was about to expire. My controller automatically powered off several times as I idled in the lobbies, listening to other gamers complain about the broken matchmaking. Most times I managed to get into a match, I'd get booted with a "Your connection to the host has been lost" message after a minute or two, and then it was back to waiting in the queue once again. I hope a patch is in the works, because I had a blast with the game mechanics in the single-player portion of the game, and the few matches I managed to complete were fun.

The game has only two multiplayer modes. I did not get enough time in either mode to choose a favorite, but both modes have creatures on one team, soldiers on the other. There are labeled objectives at several points on the Extermination maps, which you must either try and capture or defend, while Creatures vs Soldiers is just a plain team deathmatch mode. Players controlling creatures get to choose between a handful of enemies encountered during the campaign, such as the Tick or the Revert, and the game is played in the third-person perspective. Soldiers have a first-person view, and are divided into a handful of classes based on their TMD ability, such as teleportation or force blast. The gameplay is fun while it lasts, but it is unfortunate that my experience was marred by so many disconnects, slow/broken matchmaking, or simply a lack of other players.

Despite an online experience that mostly wasted a lot of my time, I would still recommend Singularity to the solo gamer who is looking for a good, well-paced, albeit fairly short, game with a decent balance between combat and exploration. Raven have produced a wee gem here; it's just a shame they spent any of their resources working on a neglected online mode when the solo game could have used a bit more meat to it. Perhaps we'll see a sequel, and if we do, I can only hope that Raven opt for an online co-operative experience in place of the competitive modes - I can only imagine the fun of time-traveling or TMD combos with a partner.

I was torn on what trophy to award Singularity. I decided on a Gold trophy by not letting the malfunctioning multiplayer weigh down the experience I had playing through the solid, but short, campaign. It's worth a purchase or at least a rental for fans of sci-fi, time travel, and just all-around good shooters. However, if you're looking for a online game to pry you away from whatever has you in its grasp currently, then you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

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