Singularity - Xbox 360

I haven't really written a review for a game in a long while, but I felt Singularity deserved one. Not many people have played this game, period, let alone on the PS3. It deserves so much more than that, so here is my two-cents. First off, the story: This game is set in 2010, when American special-ops go in to investigate radiation spikes on a seemingly uninhabited island near Russia's coastland. After an EMPlike blast forces our hero, Captain Nate Reinko, onto the ground of Katorga-12, the mysterious island locale of the game, things go the way of epic Sci-Fi. The island is the site of a previously unknown element called E-99, and the Soviet Union devoted huge resources to research of E-99 in the 1940's and 1950's so that they could establish themselves as THEE world power. E-99 is exponentially more powerful than atomic energy AND has trippy time-altering effects. Needless to say, disaster befell them long ago and you're left to figure out what went wrong and how to fix a new problem in the timeline. Singularity's story dabbles heavily in time-travel and alternate-timelines via "Back to the Future" ish story twists. Most stories that attempt to tackle the time-traveling mechanic beast end up muddled and confusing as a result. Singularity does not suffer this fate. The story is actually quite fantastic for what it is, and make no mistake, it is very campy in parts. That's part of its charm. I found myself in awe of just how well implemented time travel and alternate timeline related plot twists are used in the story. I for one am very big on good story in games, and this one does not in any way disappoint. The characters are pretty interesting, the setting and locale are compelling, and the endings are very impactful. The gameplay is solid throughout. All of the mechanics established in the FPS genre are here and implemented well and feel natural. The weapons are very fun to use and are interesting. Using a sniper rifle that can slow down time is awesome, and so is rolling a grenade on the ground into wherever you want. The other, more usual weapons like the assault rifle and shotgun are fun to use as well. The enemy AI is great, and so is their behavior. They act very lifelike, and I found that to be a nice touch. The mutant enemies are both scary and a blast to play with. The real treat is the Time-Manipulation Device, which allows you to do incredible stuff like freeze a giant bubble of time. That way, you can leisurely walk up to your enemies, casually pop off a round, rinse-and-repeat with the others, and when the bubble dissipates, they all fall down. This game really makes you feel like a bad@$$, and that is in large part due to the ridiculously awesome gameplay devices you're generously given. Lastly, the graphics and sound are very well done. The music is moody, while not being overbearing. Each setting achieves its goal of atmosphere, from the clean, distinctly Soviet-communist factory/lab environments of the past to the dilapidated, depressing current state of the island. Some of the native, mutated life of the island really reminded me of the Metroid Prime games, and so did the music. A nice comparison, if you ask me. One thing I really liked about the game was that the atmosphere always reached its goal of making me feel tense and cautious about what may or may not be around the corner. This suspense and dread is rarely executed well in games, and I have to give credit to Raven Software for doing just that. One thing I must point out that bugged me a little bit was the Russian language implementation. I LOVED the signs that were in full Russian. I didn't like substituting Russian letters into the English text simply because the letters are similar looking. Backwards N's and R's are abundant and it struck me as simultaneously unique and cheesy all at once. I have to point out that I speak a little Russian and that's probably why some of it gets to me a little. I mean, we're going to an island where everybody is a NATIVE Russian speaker, and yet they record their audio diaries in English with a heavy Russian accent? Gimme' a break. Most wouldn't find fault with that, as they don't know Russian at all, but I found it a little jarring. That's about my only jab I can think of for the artistic direction of the game. Singularity cannot be discussed without mentioning Bioshock . Similarities to Bioshock are EVERYWHERE in Singularity, from the audio tapes that flesh out the backstory of major and minor characters alike, to the art-design of, well, everything in the game, to the plasmidlike abilities you get, to the upgrades you make to your character and his tools/weapons, even the main supporting characters and the roles they play to you and the overall plot is eerily similar to Bioshock (including a "would you kindly?" moment, making for one of the most impactful "good guy" conclusions I've ever come across in a game). They are ALL taken from Bioshock's textbook. Singularity pulls almost all of them off flawlessly, and this ends up being a big plus from me, as I really loved Bioshock. HOWEVER, I must say that Singularity's story seems much more focused on being a fun, "cool" sci-fi blockbuster adventure than the deeply philosophical, incredibly tragic tales that Bioshock and Bioshock 2 were. I don't say this as a negative, but it is worth noting that there is a big difference in tone and focus. Singularity's "tragedies" never touched my heart or got me thinking as deeply and so profoundly the way Rapture's sad tale did, not even close, DESPITE Katorga-12 being presented as a place befallen by tragedy and philosophy gone awry. Atlas Shrugged , this is not. Since it was developed by Raven Studio, the developers behind the masterpieces X-men Legends , X-men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse , Marvel: Ultimate Alliance , Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast , and Star Wars Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy , I already knew the game would be another worthy installment, and now they have another game to add to an already impressive list of great games. It's so cheap now that I would say definitely BUY it NEW! We should be encouraging the publishers and developers to make these kinds of games. With its ridiculously fun and well implemented gameplay, its incredible, immersive atmosphere, to its very well-written and executed story, Singularity is a game worth playing. So for the sake of the motherland, buy it, teleport yourself into it, love it!

The main reason for this game to get 5 stars is that everything it does, it does great. I've played other shooters and this is one of my favorites. The story sets in Katorga 12, an island where you'll be playing in the present and past fighting soldiers and monsters, where scientifics have been messing up with E99, an element with special properties that has lead to experiments and the later fall of the island. I must say, though, that for me it's not the story what got me hooked, it's all the weapons, all the things you can do with your TMD and how well implemented all the mechanics are. All the level design, what's happening and what comes next is just very well planned and comes smoothly in a solid game. In some games we find attempts for really bright ideas, but the implementation brings it down to a nice try. That, in my opinion, is not the case for Singularity. It is true that it uses some previous ideas, as I find it pretty similar to Bioshock at some points (like the flashback scenes, the "telekinesis" thing that we saw in Bioshock, the Pulse) but, as I said, it implements them pretty well and in creative ways. It also adds more stuff to it, as you'll have this device (the TMD) that will be able to make a lot of things like making a slow-motion-bubble where everything inside or touching it will almost not move; reverting soldiers which basically turns the soldiers into puking monsters (doesn't it sound cool?); aging or return to the past some objects & bad guys, which will be basic at some points in the game; and the ones mentioned before. The weapons are a blast aswell, it has the standard ones like revolver, shotgun, machine gun, sniper & gatling-like gun. Along with those it hase some pretty original ones that put that cherry on top, like the Seeker. It's a powerful rifle that will get rid of the enemies in one shot, but the coolest thing is that you drive the bullet. You move it in the direction you want with the right stick from a view behind the bullet, by the time everything is slowed down and you watch the soldiers being eliminated when you hit them. So you just get cover and have some fun. The other one is the Desthex Launcher, which lets you drop a round grenade to the floor which you can control, so you don't even have to see your enemies, you just roll that metroid-like ball over the floor until you hear the soldiers scream "granada" and release the button for a sweet elimination! The graphics are very well done. Of course it has some blurry textures here and there (which game doesn't?) but overall it has a neat look with a lot of details, in that post-apocalyptic fashion some games use nowadays. When the game looks specially good is in the rainy scenes because with the Unreal Engine they got a cool effect that looks like the water is running down from the objects, and of course, because of the light reflection the wet scenes look better than others. Last but not least, the multiplayer is awesome!! It only has two modes, but it doesn't need more. The first one is Extermination where you have two teams, one is the soldiers and the other is the monsters. The monsters defend the current base while soldiers try to get to it. This will be harder or easier according to the team's abilities and coordination. The monsters don't have weapons but you can choose from 4 flavors, each having their special abilities: the Zek (basically melee attackers who can turn "invisible"), the Reverts (slow ones that puke and throw mines), the ticks (small bugs that can walk on walls and control humans by jumping on their faces), and the radions (big armored spiders that shoot some sort of lasers). There are also 4 types of soldiers, with different abilities: healing, teletransporting, pulsing (throwing enemies back and hurting them) and shielding. Overall it is pretty fun and entertaining, very well thought and executed. The other mode is Soldiers vs. Monsters, which I haven't played yet but I find the name pretty self-explanatory. Oh yes, and the comic book that comes with this edition is pretty cool, good quality & drawings. haven't read it all yet but it's good.

Singularity isn't going to be setting records as a great Sci-Fi shooter but it is a game that is a lot of fun, and has moments of old school FPS that some shooter games today seem to be unable to reproduce. However does it stand strong or did the "singularity" devour the gameplay as well as time itself? Gameplay: As I mentioned earlier, Singularity has a nice old school feel to it at times. It reminded me when shooters were just simply shooters. Run through a level fighting enemies, not overloading you with graphic awe. I attempted Singularity on "HARD" and was actually a little disappointed by this. Hard really wasn't hard. It felt like "easy" w/ enemies that did ungodly amount of damage to you. It did make me use strategy though instead of hulking through areas like I have super armor or something. The gameplay mechanics are a nice blend of well polished FPS mechanics, with a very nifty time manipulation element that lets you influence certain objects in your environment(E99 infused stuff) and then pulls various mechanics from other games. The "chrono-step" is my favorite. Similar to Dead Space's objective tracking system, but this looks into the future to find out where you are going to go Sound/Story: Very creative storyline that has multiple endings (3 to be exact). The game keeps you guessing as to who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. Hidden messages in time, mysterious warnings, the more time changes the more confusing things get. Essentially you are a US soldier sent to an Island outside of Russia to investigate a radiation burst. Next thing you know, time changed and things have gone to hell; you must embark on your quest to try and repair time. Sound is really good. The weapons sound crisp and clean, with the voice overs being decent. ** This game lacks Subtitles, which is a bit of a downer especially for the hearing-impaired or someone like me who just enjoys having em on ** Graphics/Presentation: Graphics are very good, not ground breaking or jaw-dropping but they are crisp and do a good job setting a creepy environment. I was actually more impressed with enemy animations. Very realistic. It was nice to shoot an enemy and it wasn't an insta-kill shot , you can see them on the floor trying to crawl away or get back up. I had a rare time where an enemy even faked it on me and shot me from behind. **Presentation is where this game honestly loses a star and why I am going into a little detail with it. The game is short, but falls in line with the 'norm' these days it seems. On HARD I beat it in about 7hrs which means on Easy it probably is a 4-5hr play through. Check points save your progress but once in a while they seem spaced fairly far apart. While the puzzles and gameplay were lots of fun, the game starts to rely heavily on the same puzzle but not to the point where it makes the game annoying. As the game starts to approach the end it just feels squished together. The pacing is off and I started to find myself rushing through areas simply to get to more action --- In other words the game probably could of used just a tiny bit more polishing towards the last hour of gameplay Length/Replay: As said above, the game is about 4-5hrs on easy, 7ish on Hard. 3 different endings make for good replay value however, if you simply select "continue" after you beat the game you can literally Re-beat the game and get a different ending thus taking away the replay value of the campaign(I still will play through it again though, try to find stuff I missed) The game has Multi-player included but it really doesn't hold up well compared to other MP shooter games Overall Score: 83% Singularity is a fun game. Worth a $60 purchase, ehhh probably not. However $30 would be a great deal for the game. It has a very polished shooting element with a decent storyline. The game is a lot of fun and it is nice to be able to use the power of TIME itself to influence your enemies and environment. What really held this game back was a lack of polish to the pacing and constant recycling of the same puzzle element; plus a very generic, almost pointless tacked on MP(that has almost the same number of achievements/trophies than the game itself?!) Still, Singularity is definitely worth adding to your collection. It is one of those games that you can return to after a few months and have just as much fun as when you first got it ** Seeker Rifle should be mandatory for all future FPS games ** **Bonus: The included Graphic Novel. Honestly, don't pay extra just to get the novel. The novel itself is well put together and uses color images but really doesn't add much to the game. It essentially details the discovering of E99 in 1940. Really serves no purpose since the discovery of E99 isn't a shocking revelation as the game tells you this 10minutes in.

When I saw that this game was focused around the Soviet Union becoming an overwhelming super power I was a little reserved, but the storyline actually isn't that bad. As far as the game play goes, it reminds me a lot of Dead Space and Half-Life as there is a fairly even mix between mutants and traditional military forces. There are humans that have come in contact with the E99 radiation and it has had different effects on different subjects. At times it seems the mutants will come out of nowhere or will just hang around taunting you and they can come up on you fairly quick causing some pretty tense moments. The non-mutated enemies are fairly straight forward and the AI isn't too overwhelming but can present a challenge at times. The traditional shooter play is typical and reminded me a little of Modern Warfare. I was pleased to see that if I shot someone in the head with a burst from my rifle they didn't get back up. The time manipulation device (TMD) is reminiscent of the BioShock plasmid, as you can switch between using the TMD and using your equipped weapons (which you can only have 2 equipped at a time). The TMD also has a function similar to the gravity gun in Half-Life and the gravity plasmid in BioShock, it can levitate heavy items for easy moving as well as catch thrown items out of the air and fire them back at the enemy. There is also a currency system that can be used to upgrade your skills and you can buy different pieces of TMD equipment that can be equipped to provide passive bonuses such as increased accuracy or improved health kit effectiveness. You can collect weapon technology that can be used at weapon upgrade stations to improve clip capacity, reload speed, and damage. There are also TMD upgrade stations intermittently place that will upgrade your TMD with a new ability. Finally, very similar to BioShock and Dead Space, there are audio recordings, projectors, and film repositories, strewn about the world which provides some insight to the events prior to the disaster on the island. Overall, it's a great game, but if you've played through any of the aforementioned games and are tired of them then you might want to pass on this one. However, this is a very fun game and will keep me busy until Dead Space 2.

This game got little to no advertisements and has been delayed far too many times for people to care by this point. That right there is what I expect most people to be thinking. Well good news! The game is actually great! The gunplay is excellent and the setting is actually pretty tense and creepy. I like the story so far myself but I see many don't care much for it. If you don't care for the story that should be fine because this is an excellent shooter that has many explosive moments and (so far) has been a thrill ride of fun and destruction. I'm so surprised about this game because I really did not intend on buying it. I read about it a long time ago and it seemed awesome but by the time I saw it being released it seemed very meh. Well luckily that isn't the case and I highly recommend this game. As far as Multiplayer goes it is a mixed bag. I find it to be very fun but I can see it not exactly being the highlight that people would like. One team plays as humans and the other as Mutants. There are different classes for each side and they all have different abilities such as Healing, teleporting, puking, controlling the enemy team, and just plain strong. It is very different but quite a fun distraction if you take the time to try it. The only thing I've seen that seems annoying is that a lot of the games I've gotten into have been one sided. Either one side totally destroys and wins the game or the other. Not too often is it a tie or close game. There are also only two modes to play and they may not keep your attention too long. One other downside is I've noticed some lag in the games when in the larger (12 people) games. Not so bad because it doesn't always happen but it's noticeable and could be a turn-off. So all-in-all I have been having an excellent time with this game that came out of nowhere and I recommend it if you've been craving a violent well-made FPS with some fun (if maybe not long-lasting) Multiplayer to boot. Definitely an excellent distraction while waiting for other great games. It's just sad it has gotten so little hype and attention because I can see this being a great series.

Billed as a First Person Shooter that uses time travel to tell a story, and time changing mechanics to alter the flow of combat. It does both of these, but in a shallow kind of way. I had been told it was underrated, that it was one of the hidden gems. I approached the game with this in mind, and the simple execution of the time-related mechanics left me disappointed. I loved Douglas E. Richards' book Split Second because of how deep into time travel theory it went, so people can see where I'm coming from. The mechanics are essentially that you have another weapon that lets you shoot beams that either reverse time of speed it up. In practice, you see an ammo box that's rusted and zap it so the box is restored and you can take the ammo. Oh the bridge is out? Zap it and it repairs itself. Enemy shooting at you? Zap the soldier and watch him age so rapidly he turns to dust. The story mechanic is essentially the same, just with your character being in 1955 or 2010. Need something from a sunken ship? Go back to 1955 and use the crane to move the ship so it can be accessed in 2010. You can only change time periods at very specific points, and almost all of them are as simple as my example. The game tries to imitate Infamous, but only at the end where it forces you to choose a good or bad ending. While I admire the simplicity (and the fact that the last save is right before the choice so you can go back and get the other endings) I couldn't help but feel that it felt forced. Also, how the game tells you to complete the good ending is needlessly complex. I realized there was a more simple way, but completing the objective by not following instructions got me the "Mission Failed" screen. I was surprised, because the game was trying to be clever and I thought it would have expected me to "think outside the box". It was fun, but is literally a corridor shooter. All missions consist of starting at A and go down the hallway until you get to B. That combined with a concept that pretends to be smarter than it really is, and my experience was a good way to kill 8 hrs and then forget about.

This is the first review I've ever done for a video game. However, this game is totally phenomenol. I consider myself to be a casual gamer, but I couldn't help but to write a review for this game. I prefer ps3 over x-box, that's not say that x-box is not a good system;I actually have both. Gears of war is probably the best shooter ever made. With that being said,I really feel that Singularity comes in second to Gears Of War on my personnal game playlist. The graphics and storyline are top-notch. Furthermore, the weapons used in this game are some of the best weapons I've seen in a game. There's one sniper rifle that fires highly explosive projectives. The feature that I enjoy the most about this weapon is the ability to guide each projectile to its intended target. I really like this game, but just because I like it, that doesn't mean that everyone else will. Who cares? every game is not for everyone. pros 1. graphics 2. Storyline 3. Weapons 4. Interesting enemies Cons 1. Can't think of any! This is by far the best PS3 game I've ever played. I really think that there's much replay value in this game. But hey, that's me. Although, I haven't finished it, I really wanted to write this review because I really enjoy this game. In reality, reviews don't mean anything. It's all about what each gamer thinks about a particular game. Different strokes for different folks. ANYWAY! THIS GAME IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5 STARS EASILY.

Summer's here and there is a lack of FPS games. At first I was hesitant to purchase Singularity, but I'm glad I did! The gameplay is your standard FPS fare, nothing new or boundary pushing in Singularity. The story is interesting, I like the sci-fi elements. There are too many "war" FPS games out there so Singularity fills the void nicely. Over the course of the game, you receive a Time Manipulation Device, or TMD. As you play, your TMD is upgraded with powers such as slowing down time, reverting enemies into creatures that go on a rampage, picking up and throwing objects around the environment, and using TMD power as a thruster to knock back and harm enemies and objects. I like the variety of enemies in this game. You have Russian troops coming after you as well as different types of mutated humans as a result of the explosion and E99. Enemies use a variety of weapons and the mutants can throw exploding barrels at you. The graphics in the game are average, similar to the "war" type FPS games where objects and textures appear somewhat blurry/pixelated when you stand next to them. It's nothing serious and it didn't affect my enjoyment of the game at all. There are a number of different weapons, your standard rifle and shotgun, pistol, grenade launcher (with a remote controlled rolling bomb secondary attack), sniper rifle, and more, I don't want to give away everything. Each weapon's clip capacity, reload speed, and damage can be upgraded twice using weapon kits you find in various places around the levels. First level upgrades require one kit, 2nd require 2. Scattered everywhere in the game is E99, an element used in everything in this alternate reality. You collect various containers of it and it's used as a currency to purchase different upgrades such as carrying more health packs, using health faster, longer sprint, more oxygen for swimming, extra weapon precision, and what not. These different upgrades must be found on blueprints around the levels. They are generally easy to spot but there are a few that you may pass by. Overall Singularity is an extremely underrated game. I'm sad that it hasn't sold more copies because Raven is a good developer. I thought that by sharing my opinions of the game, I can sway people to check it out. I've put about 8 hours into the game and I'm not finished yet. I still have another chapter and a half or so. I'm playing on hard difficuly and there are places where you will die repeatedly, but nothing so frustrating that you throw the controller.