Sunday, February 12, 2012

Bionic Commando Review

The Nintendo Capcom classic has a new look, with familiar characters, from the original Bionic Commando, with stunning visuals. But is this classic Commando a next gen bombshell, or does it swing it's way to the dust bins of mediocrity.
You are Bionic Commando, Nathan Spencer, the character from the first Bionic Commando. Ten years has passed since then, and Nathan has been in prison, for disobeying orders and convicted of treason. These events that Nathan has committed, doesn't stop the government from asking him for help. A terrorist group attacked a New York Esque metropolis known as Accesion city, by launching a Nuclear missile into the heart of it, and now the government calls for help, from the very same man they locked away for ten years, wow even in video games the government is a bunch of ... *Ahem* moving on.
The gameplay is solid, you move around with the left thumb stick, and have control of the camera with the right stick, just like any other third person game in the market. You fire Spencer's weapon by pulling the right trigger, shooting is very basic and smooth. when you find Spencer's Arm, yes! I'm not joking, you start the game's story, with one arm. When you find his bionic arm, that's when the game gets tricky, learning to swing has a bit of a learning curve, to swing you hold down the left trigger, sound simple? yea sure! you try it?, you just can't hold down the trigger and hope to swing on something, no, it doesn't work that way, you have to be close enough to the object you want to swing on, and if that's not enough, your camera has to be looking at what ever you want to swing on, and you have to wait for a blue targeting reticule to pop up on screen, It's not hard at first, but it seems like the game is asking you to much just to swing to another part of the level. Speaking of the levels, the game's levels are blocked off by invisible walls of radiation, if you stay in these zones too long Spencer dies. I don't have a problem with these radiation pockets, but when your fighting a boss, and he knocks you half way into one of these your dead. Plain and simple, and this happening repeatedly, becomes frustrating.
The Narrative in this game, is like watching a straight to DVD movie, to be honest, half way through the game, I totally forgot what Nathan's goals were. Yea I knew he was trying to stop the Terrorists, but the game starts throwing all kinds of characters and other plots, I kinda lost sight of what I was fighting for. Somewhere in the game his wife, who's been missing comes up a lot, but that's not until your about 87% through the game. Then when he does figure things out, HOLY S**T!!! I almost died laughing.
Overall Bionic Commando is a pretty good jump, into the next gen, but it doesn't quite hit the mark. Laughable storytelling and throw away characters really digs this game's own grave, the swing mechanics you can adjust to, but you can't adjust to lousy writing. I enjoyed it, but it won't survive against competition of the gaming market.

OVERALL - 7.3 OUT OF 10

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