In Creation Games

Developer: GRIN
Publisher: Capcom
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Version Played), PC (Coming soon)
Genre: Third Person Shooter
Players: 1 – 10
Release Date: May 22^nd (EU, PS3, X360)
July 17^th (EU, PC)

Before Bionic Commando was released I liked the look of it. It looked like a breath of fresh air in the third person shooter genre. The game just seemed to drift away from everyone when it was released though and with the exception of a few mixed reviews I didn’t hear much of it. I have to admit that the some of the reviews put me off the game. However I managed to borrow it off my mate and it exceeded my expansions, especially after seeing some bad reviews.

Bionic Commando starts off with a very slow start. You don’t even start off with your bionic arm which is the main reason that people will want to play it. This slow start could put people off it. Since you don’t start off with the arm you have to rely on using your pistol at the start which is a little boring. When you get your arm back though, things slowly pick up. The first thing you do is go through a tutorial which is actually quite good. It is told in the form of a flashback so Spencer (your character) is back to the way he looked in the original Bionic Commando. The tutorial tells you how to do basically every move in the game which may be good at the time but you don’t start off with all the moves.  This means that when you get to the fights you try and do moves that the tutorial lets you do but you obviously can’t do it which can be a little annoying. After a while though you get used to it but it is still a little slow. To make it even slower at the start, the swinging can be difficult at first. The swinging requires quite a bit of practise to get used to. It takes a while to learn how far you can swing and it also takes a while to learn how to time the swings. Once you learn how to swing properly it becomes great fun. When you manage to go for ages without touching the ground it just feels great.  Mixing swinging into the combat works well too. You can swing round buildings and then drop onto the enemy, shoot them while swinging and even swing towards them and then kick them in the face.

The bionic arm works great but the shooting isn’t up to the same standards. Well, the shooting itself works fine most of the time but it’s the guns themselves that need working on. You always need to carry your pistol with you but it feels pathetic and doesn’t do much damage. It feels more like a pea shooter than a pistol to be honest. The other guns feel better but, with the exception of the SMG, have next to no ammo. The shotgun has 8 shells, the sniper has 8 bullets, the grenade launcher has 8 grenades and the rocket launcher has about 4 rockets. The grenade launcher and rocket launcher are understandable but the other two guns should have a little bit more. Using the bionic arm in combat is normally the better choice, especially when you can pick up cars and boulders and throw them at people.

Bionic Commando deserves praise for its enemies. Not the normal foot soldiers because they are just normal foot soldiers but the mechs that you fight are designed really well. The ones you fight at first are the easier out of them all and lack the abilities of the later ones (such as flying and laser guns) but still put up a good fight. They all feel like mini-bosses because they are challenging and require you to do more than just shoot them. Some of the need to be attacked form behind so you need to swing round at the right moment and attack while others are too quick to so you need to stop them with a big boulder thrown in their face. On top of the mechs, the actual bosses in the game are really well thought out too. They add variety to the enemies and some of the fights are filled with some amazing set pieces. They are also more than just shooting so they are really enjoyable.

As I just mentioned some of the set pieces in the boss fights are amazing but there are also some amazing set pieces in the game, particularly the last chapter. Now mentioning them here wouldn’t ruin them but if you don’t know what they are it will be even better when you witness then yourself.

One of my main problems with Bionic Commando was that it was over too quickly and wasn’t very long. Quantity over quality springs to mind here but it would have been better to see a few more hours added on to the campaign. There is multi-player but I haven’t had the privilege of playing it so I can’t comment it. I would imagine that it would add a bit more length onto the game though. Even though the game is short it did manage to give a surprisingly good story and character. Since it was short the story never dragged on or anything. It also has amazing music. Most of the music was revamped from the older games which is pretty cool to hear.

It also loads a lot. This can be annoying and can break up the game. Every time you die or enter a new area the game loads and to top it off the loading screen is annoying. Yes, the loading screen is annoying. I don’t know why but it just is. All it is is a controller which will tell you the controls when you press buttons. At first it is really cool but after a while it just starts to get annoying. Not a majot complaint but a complaint nevertheless.

Bionic Commando is a very fun game which manages to add something new to the genre which works really well. The swinging is fast and fun and so is most of the game. It has its flaws but these are overlooked by a really good single player and experience as a whole.

+ Swinging works really well
+ The music is amazing
+ The bosses and most of the enemies are incredible to fight

- Quite short
- The weapons are very good

8/10