Singualrity Reivew

“Oh great” I thought, “another game with a magic hand that can do funky stuff”. I was being a little bit unfair really especially as after a while I remembered how much I loved Bioshock. When I saw a cheap pre-owned version I thought I would give it a go.

The action is set on a fictional Russian island called Katorga-12, in which, in the 1950s, a new element called E-99 was found. A research institute discovered that it was devastatingly powerful, but a cataclysmic event destroyed the island and turned its inhabitants into mutants. It’s up to you to time-travel (aided by a scientist who can flit between 1950 and 2010), overcome all manner of enemies and solve puzzles, in order to save the world from the evil soviet union.

You play the game through the eyes of an American soldier called Renko, it starts quite slowly, but it doesn’t take long before the game really starts to get going. There are plenty of weapons to play with, and along the way you’ll upgrade Renko with new powers and tools to make him even more super. You spend parts of the game switching between 1950 and 2010 which was quite a nice touch, especially as the story unfolds.

You are given a weapon called the TMD (Time-Manipulation Device) which allows you to do all sorts of things, you can restore broken crates for ammo and health or turn locks into dust to allow you to access locked areas. It will also help you solve the ‘puzzles’, which are never particularly difficult. The real benifit of the TMD is dealing with enemies, you can create Deadlocks can freeze whoever stops inside it, you can also turn enemies to dust or into ‘reverts’ which then turn on anyone nearby. There are lots of different enemies which keeps the game intresting and it gives you a reason to use the different powers and weapons.  All of these can be upgraded during the game which makes your life even easier.

I played through the game on Hard and for the most part it was pretty easy, there was one part in the game that did cause me an awful lot of grief, to the point where I was just going to stop playing. I didn’t and evetually got through it, you may have the same problem (it’s to do with spiders) – but persevere beacuse it gets a lot easier after that point.

The story was pretty good and there are lots of visual clues to keep you guessing whats going to happen, similar to Bioshock there are lots of audio recordings to listen to as well as notes to read. There are three endings to the game, and you can easily see them all by reloading the last checkpoint.

Multiplayer

There is a multiplayer element to the game but it doesn’t seem like many people are actually playing it and I haven’t managed a game yet, so I don’t have a lot to say on that yet. IF I do get a game or two I’ll update the review, but don’t hold your breath.

Overall I’m glad I stuck with this game – The graphics are good, the atmosphere had me gripped to the game at ceratin parts, mainly towards the end. If you are not sure about this game I would still recommend you rent it as you will finish even on the hardest level in 6-10 hours.