Singularity

[BizioEE]

[size=+2]Singularity[/size]

Release date: June 29, 2010
Rated: Mature
Price: $59.99

 
 
 

[size=+1]1up Review : B+[/size]

Anyway, Raven Software\'s newest first-person shooter, Singularity, absolutely overflows with that sort of atmospheric junk. And that\'s just one of the many, many ways Raven\'s game gives off a serious BioShock vibe. For starters, Singularity opens with a helicopter crash over the Pacific Ocean -- BioShock, a plane crash in the Atlantic. Both games drop their silent protagonists into strange and perilous ruined cities where mysterious, flesh-mutating substances have been unearthed. They also both allow you to collect and trade the aforementioned gene-altering materials to customize and upgrade your abilities. I could go on for days, honestly, but all that\'s really missing here are guys in retro-looking diving suits, a soundtrack loaded with Bing Crosby songs, and the ability to unleash swarms of bees from your hands.

For all the similarities between the two games, however, Singularity still manages to explore plenty of its own unique ideas -- particularly when it comes to the game\'s focus on time travel. You play the part of Captain Nathaniel Renko, a modern-day military operative sent by the U.S. to investigate the abandoned, Cold War-era research island of Katorga-12. After a bit of snooping around the rotting facility\'s propaganda-filled halls, you eventually find yourself inexplicably warped into the pristine, 1950s version of the Soviet base. Your brief trip to the past winds up royally screwing with the present, and you spend most of the game bouncing between time periods in an effort to set things right.

These little excursions through time are hands-down my favorite part of the game, as your actions in the 1950s can affect the present in both drastic and subtle ways. A statue of Stalin might get replaced by a sculpture of a new dictator, for example, or you could inadvertently cause an enormous laboratory to become overrun with mutant vegetation. Yeah, these outcomes are all predetermined and you don\'t ultimately have much choice in the matter, but I enjoy seeing the consequences of my time shenanigans nonetheless.

Gameplay
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3180163


Singularity Reveal Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oSlZLXKDQA&feature=player_embedded