Ok, so after Grin was shut down I felt like I should pour one on the curb sort to speak by getting Bionic Commando at half the price.
Having just finished it right now I...wow, well, where to start! First the good I guess.
The milieu of an abandoned city in ruin always appealed to me and in this regard Grind delivered (still blows my freaking mind that this is the engine Flatout was built on).
Ok that covered swinging is also spectacular. It took a little while to get used to it but once I did I was
in it.
Music was also on the level. Though personally I would have preferred something more along the lines of what Rearmed attempted to do with it but it most definitely had its moments.
Now on to sigh...the bad. While I did like the setting I could not say the same thing about level design. Having invisible walls is fine as long as they aren't hitting you in the face more often than not.
The walls of this building look climbable, right? Well guess what asshole the roof isn't = dead. Wait! How did you swing so far up? Dead. Swung into water? Dead.
And many, many more moments like this made the amazing swinging much more of a chore than it should ever have been.
Enemies are also not nearly as varied as one would hope. What was it 4/5 types
overall?
Story. :lol I was already spoiled to its "twist" but actually seeing it did not dampen the absurdity of the moment. Not one bit. Amplifying the absurdity was the fact that I was playing using the classic skin.
All in all Bionic Commando is actually not a bad game at all. When I wasn't tearing my freaking hair out I was actually having quite a bit of fun with it. I also do plan to go back to revisit some of the more memorable levels.
In general however I feel like a lot of hate towards Grin is mostly misguided. True they made some mistakes (Wanted and Terminator are good examples) but they also could deliver quality games too. I heard nothing but good things about Ballistics and once I gave Bandits: Phoenix Rising a try it inevitably grew on me. Of course Rearmed is in this list as well. It saddens me to think that they will not have a chance to recover and make something which is
theirs instead of somebody else's. But I suppose with this kind of economy no one really gets second chances.
Watching the credits felt like reading an obituary. :'(