Paul Frew
Bionic Commando
July 29th 2009 08:56
- Todd Cooper
Capcom have released the sequel to 1988’s game of the same name, no numeral on the end to confuse things - how very post modern of them.
The single player campaign is well polished and a lot of fun to play - swinging around a ruined metropolis gunning down terrorists has never played or looked better. There are a few niggling little things i would have liked to see; like a stealth kill option with the bionic arm wire, a bigger more open environment. The linear levels are fun to play through but i couldn’t help thinking of how much more fun it would be to find another few routes around the areas of the city. I would absolutely love to see Nathan Spencer transplanted into the New York of Spider-man 3 or Liberty City (arguably the same thing) of GTA IV. However, while not entirely open to exploration of an entire city.
Capcom seems to have given you an option for play style. I am a slightly more conservative player - I don’t really like to run in guns blazing and spray an area with lead hoping to hit one of the gang of enemies before taking to them with brute force. I prefer to slowly take out my targets with stealth and subterfuge all the while thinking of what sort of effect the ever decreasing number of blips on the radar is having on the last henchman in the area. Weird, i know. And the fact that you can, in some cases, slowly pick off from afar or surprise attack your intended target both gives me great pleasure and makes me sad at the thought of the second level of gameplay that could have been.
The developers have obviously taken thought into how much ammunition should be placed around the levels to really push you to use the bionic arm as a weapon instead of just shooting away and being rewarded with more and more ammo. Now you have to think and conserve ammunition (especially for the heavy weapons) and use the bionic arm for grapple attacks and to throw pieces of the environment around or pull down things like road signs and billboards.
Taking on the larger enemies is something I can’t quite describe in a situation where you should be fearing for your life it’s almost too fun... especially when your support team sends you a drop pod with a grenade launcher or missile launcher to aid your efforts. Replayability wise, I think I will go back through the levels to collect all the hidden items and get all the achievements. Most of the achievements in the game are actually unlocked by completing combat challenges so to get as much as you can from the game I think it would be worthwhile trying to unlock them - especially if you play through on the HARD or COMMANDO difficulties.
Story wise it’s no raving beauty - the story picks up five years after the first game. Spencer has been jailed for the murder of five people during a mission and the whole world has turned against Bionics. Most people with upgrades have been stripped of them leaving them without an arm or their legs - which is how we first see Spencer, released from a tiny holding cell and tasked with taking down a terrorist cell from behind enemy lines. With only one arm. The bionic arm is sent into the mission field on a second drop pod - your first mission is to retrieve it.
Graphically it is a raving beauty. The visuals are one of the greatest aspects of the game, i’ve said it before- i will not play a game with lacklustre visuals. Your character model is excellent to watch swinging and jumping through the city streets and tunnels - his move sets are all hyper embellished to emphasise the agility of the character. As he leaps off the edge of a building he will stretch out waiting for just the right moment to fire the grappling hand of his bionic arm into the side of the next ruined skyscraper. And it seems that developers have finally pin pointed just how to use motion blur without turning the whole game into a dizzying haze of melted in colours. The scene around you blurs as you swing and jump to avoid enemy fire which accentuates the kinetic pace of the games combat scenarios. When you use the aiming function of your weapons the screen will blur just enough to let you concentrate on the target you are trying to hit but not so much that you lose sight of all other opponents.
The clear blue sky and twisted bombed buildings of Ascension City are beautifully rendered, perhaps not a stunning as Gears of War, but they certainly have that Capcom polish about them. But strangely the strength of the visuals highlights one of the game’s downfalls. The sight of a ruined city spread out before you only enhances the disappointment that the game is so linear. The sound of your hand digging into the side of a building or clanging against a girder adds another level of immersion - your enemies will shout to each other to signal that they’ve spotted you or that they need backup and the bionic mech enemies sound wonderfully alien and malevolent.
I usually play with the music turned down but this soundtrack isn’t too grinding on the ears even after four hours of non-stop play. It’s also nice to hear Mike Patton’s ( of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle fame and also the voice of the eponymous character in 2k’s 2007 game The Darkness) gravelly voice as titular hero letting you know when you’ve done something pretty awesome and Steven Blum (Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop and Wolverine from Marvel Ultimate Alliance) as his support.
The controls are a little finicky at first, especially the swinging. It takes a little while to get used to the actions required for a successful swing - but with an onscreen icon appearing at the height of the swing indicating the optimum moment to let go and sail towards the next anchor point you catch on pretty quickly. Strangely enough the swinging is comparable to the web-swinging of Spider-Man 2 and 3 with one major exception... it is handled better. With a little more control mid-swing than the Spidey games and a better targeting system for the anchor point of your next swing.
After getting used to the controls and playing through the game for a while, I decided to give the multiplayer a go (it should be entered into the record that I played the multiplayer aspect of this game before I purchased the game proper and much before I played the single player campaign) which is just like playing the campaign - except all your enemies are as agile as you which makes the game much more challenging and also enhances the need to swing, jump and grapple your opponents with much more accuracy. With something like sixteen maps to play and an ever changing line up of opponents it will be some time before the shine is taken off this aspect of the game. I would however have liked to see a little more customisability of the multiplayer models, like Halo 3 - is it too much to ask these days for a game with an online multiplayer component to give you a little more control of your characters appearance? A minor gripe I know but I just feel that it could have been added.
One thing I did notice is all the in game advertising for things like Capcom’s upcoming game Dark Void (which I am very excited about) NVidia and Alienware among others. Cheeky.
Overall Bionic commando is, thus far my game of the year (although with Halo 3 ODST, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Assassin’s Creed 2 on the way it will have stiff competition). I would have liked to see a little more variation in the gameplay like being presented with a route for stealthy exploration and kills, more rewarding unlockables like a few more impressive character upgrades and a larger more sandbox environment. But like I said - those are minor changes to what is a very enjoyable and worthwhile game. Bionic Commando is highly recommended, definitely worth a look.
Highly recommended
Bionic Commando is available now on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and on PC
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