Bioshock is my favourite game of the past five years. Fallout 3 sucked my life away for 6 months. Batman: Arkham Asylum is easily my favourite game of 2009. Singularity is the latest in this growing family of games which see the player thrust into a post-catastrophic environment, which is heavily influenced by the retrofuturistic, post-war imagery of the 1950s. To say that I had high expectations of it would be an understatement.
Set in 2010, you are a soldier of the U.S. Army tasked with investigating a top secret island which underwent some kind of catastrophe and has since mysteriously disappeared off the global radar. Sound familiar? Under the cover of night, your helicopter is shot down and you are left to find your way off the island, navigating through burning wreckage and inspecting decayed fragments of said catastrophe on your way. Still familiar? I’m sure any individual who has played any FPS in the past few years can relate to this scene. Hell, even Doom went with that storyline back in ’93. So at this point, Singularity will have to offer solid gameplay or mesmerising art direction. Thankfully, it possesses both in equal measure.
Upon firing up the title screen and, in fact, for the first hour or so, you could be forgiven for thinking that Bioshock’s American themes had been banned in the Soviet Republic and Singularity was their answer to it. In the opening level, almost everything will give the player déjà vu: the gloomy colour palette, the flames on the water, the little jingles that play during the instructional videos about the island, the weapon upgrade chambers, the separate functional areas of the island, the cutesy cartoon characters in lab coats being portrayed as figures of authority, contrasted with the imposing statues of Stalin and other key characters of the game; I was convinced I was playing Russian Bioshock.
And I loved it.
However hard you try to ignore the inevitable comparisons between Singularity and Bioshock, you will undoubtedly find them. Yet that is not to say that Singularity is a cheap copy – it is a perfectly capable game in its own right, and as such is a worthy addition to this specific niche of FPS games.
Gameplay:
From the moment I gained control of the main character, I knew I was going to like how Singularity played. The Unreal Engine is put to good use in this game: the walking seems realistic, the running seems realistic, and during the opening scene the first thing I noticed was that my screen was slowly bobbing up and down. My character was breathing. Call me old fashioned, but little details such as breathing have been missing from FPS games for far too long now, and it helps to make the character feel more real, and the consequently the player feel more engaged. Other character animations are generally sound, however one complaint I did have was that when the character uses the TMD, he does not draw his gun out again – it simply appears out of nowhere. I found that this pulled me away from the otherwise believable realism of the game.
The TMD itself is put to good use in the game, though it does feel at times that the developers thought of a new way it could be used and subsequently littered the next ten minutes with that type of action. The example I am thinking of in particular involved a long stretch of making trees grow in order to push metal panels aside. The interface for the TMD is reminiscent of Portal with its blue and orange segments, and again comparisons can be drawn between some functions of the TMD and the ASHPD (i.e. Portal Gun). I was unsure why Raven chose Blue and Orange – and specifically the same shades of blue and orange – for the TMD; after the fine line Raven have walked with the Bioshock themes, this seems borderline plagiaristic. In combat the TMD has a couple of interesting uses, yet I was left feeling they could have been developed further. For example, the player can age a Spetsnaz soldier to dust, yet it would have been fun to age him until he was a little old man, or even a toddler. The potential to fight a small company of doddery old men is an idea I wish Raven had not skipped over. Perhaps it will be included in DLC... but I dream.
The enemies have some interesting concepts to them, yet you will not find anything particularly new here. They serve their purpose well – they’re big, and nasty, and make you crap your pants when you suspect one is around. Part of this, however, is the fact that they have so much health - if you find yourself caught short with only your pistol to protect yourself, they can quickly close on you and finish you off in two to three hits. And don’t even think about taking more than one of them on with your pistol. Even the little critters can beat you to within an inch of your life, if you let them get close. Despite this, I only died a handful of times on Normal mode, so it could be argued that the constant near-death experiences keep the player on the edge of their seat.
There is an abundance of in-game extras that contribute to the rich background of Singularity. These come in the form of notes, recordings, posters, videos, announcements, and so on. Each contributes a little to the events that lead up to the catastrophe on the island, and some explain some of the other practices that took place on the island, which is a nice touch. These really add to the atmosphere of the game, and without them it would have definitely been just another average shooter. In fact, if you strip away Singularity’s atmosphere and back story, you do have very, very basic shooter gameplay at its core. Luckily the smart presentation distracts the player from that fact.
The only thing missing from here is the lack of some sort of journal or book for keeping all the notes and recordings – once the player has read/listened to them, there is no option to carry them round and listen to them consecutively. Oh, and sometimes you’ll end up reading the same piece of information from multiple people, without any extra details between accounts – it’s as though Raven wanted to make sure that if we missed one piece of information, it would be repeated right round the corner. This is thoughtful and generally good, but not so much for gamers who like to spend their time exploring and finding every last piece of data. And one more thing... There isn’t a map?! I feel like I’m being stupid and I just haven’t found it, but if it really isn’t there then it’s a huge shortcoming. It doesn’t detract from the game when you’re in the middle of it, but when you step back and think about how helpful it would have been; about the contribution to the atmosphere it would have made, it sticks out like a reverted soldier.
I have already stated my small concern about the toughness of the enemies, yet on the whole the gameplay in Singularity is like trying on a fine suit: very easy to get into, plenty of good attention to detail, and most importantly it just feels right. Unfortunately, as the game goes on, you’ll see less and less of the propaganda and art that I feel are the best part of Singularity. Also don’t expect an amazing twist at the end; keen-eyed players will pick up on events in the first hour of play that give away the game’s ending.
Graphics:
I have mentioned the striking similarities to Bioshock in this game before. I hate to compare the two so much, but in this case it is really a positive thing. If you liked the moody dystopia of Bioshock – its contrast of brightly coloured, retrofuturistic propaganda with the stark, foreboding statues and buildings which have fallen into ruin – then you will love Singularity almost as much. On a personal note, I found the theme of water more mesmerising than radiation as the source of the devastation, yet that is almost negligible. The art direction in this game, coupled with the smooth graphics, are top notch. The lighting is set just right, and the designs of the enemies – while not groundbreaking – have had enough thought put into them to make them equally grotesque and killable. There is one segment of the game that plunges you into the same run-down facility but 50 years earlier, when it was still in use, and the contrast was highly enjoyable. I would have liked to see more of that contrast, though sadly it was few and far between. The HUD is almost non-existent – only the player’s health bar is permanently on-screen, while other facets flash up when necessary. I was aware of them, but never distracted by them, and found the minimalist HUD refreshing. The graphics in general allow the player to enjoy the atmosphere the game provides, although once or twice I caught the game loading objects without their relevant textures; though this is really a minor thing. My more significant disappointment was in the repetitive nature of the surroundings – a couple of times I found myself wondering if I was revisiting a section of the map, yet they were two entirely different tunnels (because I didn’t have a map to consult). Also more generally, the colour palette stays in the grey-green-orange area for much of the game; I would have liked to see a couple of departures from that pattern at points in the game. Nonetheless the graphics are solid, and the art direction is of a high standard, if a little samey throughout the game.
Sound:
Multiplayer:
The multiplayer aspect of Singularity is a departure from the single player. I expected to find a bunch of clones of the main character, all in first-person mode, in the usual Deathmatch/Objective playlists. I also expected it to be somewhat tacked-on to the single player, which seemed to be too in-depth to allow for a comprehensive multiplayer. What I found was a pleasant surprise. Raven have created a team-based 3rd person multiplayer facet to Singularity, with a selection of the monsters from the game making one of the teams. Each has its own set of moves, albeit pinched from the single player. There isn’t a great deal of depth to the multiplayer and it is most likely tacked on, but it has had enough thought put into it to make it a worthwhile addition to the single player element of the game – one that will keep players occupied for a weekend or two once they have completed the game’s core story.
Longevity There are those of us out there who are perfectionists, and those of us out there who are not. The replayability of Singularity most likely lies solely within the realms of Achievement whoring and 100% completion. It is a mostly linear game; the only mutable elements being the upgrades one chooses to buy or the weapons one chooses to use. As mentioned, the multiplayer will add to the lifespan of the game, though not monumentally.
Singularity is the type of game that begs to be savoured on the first play-through - where the player can immerse themselves in the rich background, graphics, voice acting and storyline for the first and only time, and perhaps return to it after a year or two on the shelf. Sadly though, as the game progresses it devolves into a standard shooter, shedding more and more of the imagery and atmosphere that made it stand out. Perhaps if it had not been preceded by the likes of Bioshock, Portal and Fallout 3, it would have been heralded with a great deal more praise. However as it stands, it falls firmly into the category of ‘solid addition’ to the post-catastrophe shooter; an immersive, enjoyable game that has some interesting moments but is sadly just a year or two too late to be classed as groundbreaking. If you can get past the déjà vu, however, Singularity makes for a very enjoyable experience – much more so for its theme than its straightforward gameplay.
7.5/10: If you like your games founded on artistic themes and dystopian imagery, or you’re looking for something to keep you busy until your next major game, consider this 8/10. If you only like innovative gameplay, perhaps hold out for Portal 2.
FOR MOTHER RUSSIA!
+ Solid, yet unoriginal gameplay
+ Great graphics/art direction
+ Immersive environment
+ TMD is fun for a while
+ Novelty of TMD/E99 weapons
+ Multiple thought-provoking endings
CAPITALIST PIGS!
- It’s all been done before
- Superpowered enemies
- Environments are very similar
- TMD concept could be much more developed
- Where’s the map?!
- The twist is weak, and can be guessed from near the beginning of the game
REVIEW BY: