Singularity. My review...So far.

[PKerr]

I only got to play an hour or so last night as I was having (literally) a blast sploding tickers in the Gears 2 8 x's XP event. Forget about wave ten with nothing but boomers, ughh...
5 of us got annihilated in less than 30 seconds about 5 times.

Anyhoo, on to Singularity.

Singularity feels like a nice combination of several great games.

Bioshock
Katorga -12 feels a bit like Rapture as it’s a ruin of a once great scientific community.
It has that 40’s – 50’s advanced tech look and like Bioshock it has that creepy look of a failed scientific experiment gone terribly wrong .
The graphic of your hand with the TMD (Time Manipulation Device) also looks like something from Bioshock.
You also find various recordings of people and scientists that fill in the back story.

Fallout 3
Like Bioshock it has that 40’s- 50’s advanced tech look but what makes me think of Fallout 3 is that there are projectors scattered about that is in the cartoon style like the ones you see when you get power ups or stuff for your pip boy.
You also have this big diorama type model of the island at the beginning. When you walk around it there are buttons to push, when you do a red bulb light up and it tells you various history of the island and different locations scattered about .

Metro 2033
The game looks very similar graphics wise to Metro 2033, not over the top incredible but very nice none the less.
You are also dealing with stuff from a Russian perspective, The films show how evil and wicked the United States is and how through the finding of 99 E (element 99) Russia will be the strongest Nation in the world.
One film even shows uncle Sam as a menacing Vampire shadow monster, I was cracking up.

Dead Space
It’s got a creepy atmosphere and several “make you jump” moments.
At one point I was fighting a monster that phases in an out of time, reminds me of the X-men’s Night Crawler as he sort of just Bamf’s into reality. I was walking through the fenced in school yard and this one Bamf-ed into hanging other side of the fence and started screaming at me, scared the $#!t out of me.
You also dismember the various baddies and they still come after you without arms or legs.


I haven’t gotten too far into the game but so far the first level is pretty much a straight up shooter.
I got to use several different weapons but strangely you only get to use one at a time.
I’m not sure if the weapons are janky or if I was just hitting a sweet spot but several times I’d get one shot kills and other times I’d have to unload a few clips to kill a baddie.
You also have a knife but it’s kinda hard to remember to use because they tied it to the right bumper. Ughh.

I pretty much just found the TMD but the little I did use it was kinda cool.
I’m not sure if it recharges itself over time or the 99 E you keep picking up acts as ammo for it.
There is no real indication that your supply is going away because as you use it nothing that I’ve seen pops up on the screen saying that it’s depleting.
You also lose your knife when holding the TMD, the right bumper becomes some sort of force push type deal.

All in all so far I’m pretty pleased with it so far.
I’m looking forward to cracking into it some more.

So far I'd give it a solid 8 out of 10

 

[Haggis and tatties]

What were the game devs thinking by not including a physical melee attack, this becomes doubly frustrating as the game sees you between check points in the game with no ammo and a wave of enemys to get by.

It does have sone nice set pieces, but the whole weapons thing is very clunky, im a good bit through it and i have not seen a knife for melee anywhere, first i heard of a knife was in Pkerr good review above....so i will have to check that out later.

Its a intresting game with some nice set pieces, some of the weapons are fun like the bullet time effect seeker gun or the time stoping energy globe, but the whole clunky weapons system along with getting caught between check points with no ammo really notches up the old frustration factor, well for me anyway.

I give it a 8 for concept and a 6 implementation.

 

[PKerr]

Yeah the knife is standard, right bumper on the 360 version, which as I said is the last place I'd look for a knife attack to be on the controller.

Speaking of check points, if they were spaced a little closer together it wouldn't hurt my feelings any, of course (not bragging) but I am playing it on hard too.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Well I'm going to revise my initial score and give the game 8/10 for implementation, the latter half of the game is just brilliant and the endings are top notch, yes its short but once you get by those few stages were your replaying over and over again because there is no ammo and your getting killed your in for a treat....the last few level are just brilliant.

Oh and completed the game without ever seeing the knife, tried everything and every button but no knife ever appeared...don't know whats going on there.

 

[PKerr]

Well I'm going to revise my initial score and give the game 8/10 for implementation, the latter half of the game is just brilliant and the endings are top notch, yes its short but once you get by those few stages were your replaying over and over again because there is no ammo and your getting killed your in for a treat....the last few level are just brilliant.

Oh and completed the game without ever seeing the knife, tried everything and every button but no knife ever appeared...don't know whats going on there.

Do you have the 360 version or the PS3?
I also think once you get the TMD it replaces the right bumper with the force push.

I's also like to add a Little Half Life into my review as there are some pretty neat little puzzles to solve.

I don't know what level I'm at and I don't want to throw any spoilers out there but I've gained the ability to "move objects with a wave of the hand" if you will and I'm having an absolute ball.
Pretty neat game.

 

[firehawk12]

Man, a lot of podcasts are up on this game but the lack of any PR by Activision confuses me. Certainly this was a better game than Raven's latest Wolfenstein game, so what gives? It has the feeling of "sent off to die".

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Man, a lot of podcasts are up on this game but the lack of any PR by Activision confuses me. Certainly this was a better game than Raven's latest Wolfenstein game, so what gives? It has the feeling of "sent off to die".

Its one of those games that if you leave it before you get the first true power unlocked you will think its nothing more than a mediocre FPS with some real bad clunky controls, and that's what the first few level of the game feel like, i got to the TMD(Time Manipulation Device) level and could not progress any further due to lack of ammo and no melee weapon and ditched the game right there, it was only chance that i fired it up again before giving it back,( Pkerr seems to have a knife so i don't now if its a bug or something), but if you make it to the first special power up your in for a treat from then on, the second half of the game is just fantastic with some brilliant set pieces, i know i bang on about them but i don't want to spoil it for anybody that's going to play through it.

But is it worth £35, in a nut shell no, but if you get it for say £17.99 one one of those Zavvi Monday bargain specials then yes go for it.

And I'm not sure whats going on with the whole Knife/melee thing though, Pkerr seems to be using it ok, but i finished the game and never saw nor was able to even find a knife.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, I figure as an Activision game I never have to worry about it disappearing off shelves any time soon so I can just bide my time. Certainly I picked up a lot of cheap stuff recently just by being patient with games for the first time ever.

I'm glad it's good though. I feel bad for Raven because I like their games... and this is the first original thing they did. In many respects, this is like their Alpha Protocol. Somewhat decent, maybe ambitious original IP game buried by the publisher through delays and no marketing.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

You no doubt hit it on the head there bud, the game should have possibly been held back for a few more months just to polish off those clunky controls and to tighten up and tweak the first few levels, i think that would have made the entire game a must have and would have had it up there with Bioshock greatness in a heartbeat.

Playing the game is like riding on the biggest most exciting roller coaster ever, unfortunately at the beginning you all have too peddle the coaster car up the first bit of the ride, and if one person stops peddling you all have to start again, but once you make it to the top.........OMG!!!! THIS is BRRIILLLLLIIIAAANNNTTTTTTTTTTTTT!,WHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

 

[PKerr]

I finished the game the other night and I have to change my original Solid 8 to an 8.75

I agree with Haggis and tatties about playing through the first level or so, you're a bit underwhelmed as it just looks like another mediocre shooter and the controls are a bit clunky at the start.
I think that most of the reviewers are doing just that.

After finishing the game and both of it's alternate endings I can easily say this game is as good as a Bioshock or Dead Space.
Singularity is a very thought provoking game that will screw with your head a little bit if you let it. If you pay attention your first play through you will see a few Back to the future II things going on, I don't want to say any more than that as I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Singularity also has some pretty unique weapons.

The Deathrex is a grenade launcher of sorts, when I first shot it I was like WTF! I shot it and bowling ball size ball just plopped out on the floor at your feet (what a dud?) but no you actually control the rolling of it all the way to your target!!! LOL
It's neat to shoot it, the roll it down a hallway and around a corner into a bunch of baddies then BLAM!!! Great stuff.

You also get a sniper rifle type of gun that the bullet fires in slow motion and you can control its path to a certain degree.

I think this game is gonna be a hit with the people that play it but not many will because it's getting trashed for some reason in it's reviews. A real shame to because the game is begging for a sequel.

Do yourself a favor and the developers of this game, support it because it definitely deserves it.

 

[gh4chiefs]

What were the game devs thinking by not including a physical melee attack, this becomes doubly frustrating as the game sees you between check points in the game with no ammo and a wave of enemys to get by.

You surely must have a glitched copy or something. I just picked this one up this weekend, and very early on in the first level, you HAVE to do a melee with your knife to even progress in the game. You have to break some boards to go through a doorway, and the onscreen tutorial shows you how to do it with a melee attack.

I'm not even sure if I even had a weapon other than melee at that stage of the game.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

^^Possibly a glitch in the game, i cant remember the beginning of the game if i had a knife or not but it never saw or was able to activate it after i picked up the TMD.

Possibly a glitch that might need a game update, which i cant do since my 360 wireless stopped working and i cant connect to the modem from another room in any other way. But its long completed now anyway, although you can give the first person you see a stab on my behalf.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I've already stabbed a few mutants for you.

I haven't gotten too far yet, haven't recovered the TMD for example, but so far I'm liking it, but then I'm a sucker for FPS's so it doesn't take a whole lot to make me happy.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I've already stabbed a few mutants for you.

(Done in best connery bond voice)"Shoow, they got the Point", "They were Cut up about it", "You took a Stab in the dark".....Ok thats enough.

I haven't gotten too far yet, haven't recovered the TMD for example, but so far I'm liking it, but then I'm a sucker for FPS's so it doesn't take a whole lot to make me happy.

Your in for a treat, once you start to get powers for your TMD the game becomes a lot of fun.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Your in for a treat, once you start to get powers for your TMD the game becomes a lot of fun.

I see what you mean, I had a little time to play tonight and got to the part where you can move objects with the TMD (not unlike the gravity gun in Half-Life) and it's a lot of fun. I'll be glad when I have time to really set down and play for an extended time.