Giant Bomb review excerpts:
The tutorial and the easy sections at the beginning of the game are a crucial time. It really feels like you'll either take a shine to the game's swinging, figure it out, and really enjoy the six-to-eight-hour adventure ahead of you, or you'll spend a lot more time standing on the ground than you should, and you'll probably hate everything that comes next. The game also has a challenge system that rewards you, both in achievements/trophies as well as in upgrades. Executing a set number of melee kills, taking down two enemies with one shotgun blast, executing properly timed consecutive swings, and killing guys by flinging objects in their direction are just some of the things that you'll be asked to accomplish. Some of these challenges just unlock more challenges when completed, but you'll also get better armor, faster reload times, and other helpful upgrades for playing along.
The structure of Bionic Commando is completely linear, with waypoints appearing to keep you focused on the next objective.
Bionic Commando is a great-looking game that creates a heavy atmosphere as you move from place to place. The bombed-out city is full of big craters, torn-up buildings, and debris. Underground, you'll hook onto stalactites, deal with tremors, and see some terrific subterranean cave areas. Spencer and the other characters in the game look pretty good, too, though I didn't really appreciate Spencer's "edgy guy with dreadlocks" look so much. If you want a classic feel, owners of Bionic Commando Rearmed can unlock a classic Rad model and use that, instead... but his shades and decidedly retro look stick out amongst the edgy tone the game attempts to hit.
In addition to the main campaign, which comes in three difficulty levels, Bionic Commando also has a pretty solid multiplayer mode that, again, depends on your ability with the arm. At its best, the game almost feels like dogfighting, with multiple players swinging around, launching through the air, attempting to grapple directly onto an enemy to slow him down for the kill. On some of the larger maps, though, the game sort of bogs down as players attempt to get the one-shot-kill sniper rifle or grab the Tarantula and launch lock-on missiles. It supports up to eight players and offers the standard trinity of multiplayer modes: deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag. While it probably won't replace your multiplayer shooter of choice, it's a fun diversion from the campaign that works better than it seems like it should. But it suffers a bit by being more combat-focused, putting more of an emphasis on the underwhelming weapons. The matching is pretty fully featured, containing a Halo-like party system, and it also has support for clan tags.
Bionic Commando goes back and forth between moments of great, navigation-based gameplay and a lot of little touches that don't work as well as you'd like. It makes the final product a little frustrating, because you can almost see a better game trying to bust its way out of its constraints. But more often than not, I was really taken by the game's rewarding swinging controls and terrific looks. If you consider yourself something of a swinger, I think you'll probably feel the same way.
In other words: Game is pretty good, learn how to swing and the rest is a breeze. Besides the swinging isnt THAT hard to master. Just up the sensitivity, and hold the LT/L2 button while in the air and looking for a close object to grapple. Keep thinking about picking up momentum.
The tutorial and the easy sections at the beginning of the game are a crucial time. It really feels like you'll either take a shine to the game's swinging, figure it out, and really enjoy the six-to-eight-hour adventure ahead of you, or you'll spend a lot more time standing on the ground than you should, and you'll probably hate everything that comes next. The game also has a challenge system that rewards you, both in achievements/trophies as well as in upgrades. Executing a set number of melee kills, taking down two enemies with one shotgun blast, executing properly timed consecutive swings, and killing guys by flinging objects in their direction are just some of the things that you'll be asked to accomplish. Some of these challenges just unlock more challenges when completed, but you'll also get better armor, faster reload times, and other helpful upgrades for playing along.
The structure of Bionic Commando is completely linear, with waypoints appearing to keep you focused on the next objective.
Bionic Commando is a great-looking game that creates a heavy atmosphere as you move from place to place. The bombed-out city is full of big craters, torn-up buildings, and debris. Underground, you'll hook onto stalactites, deal with tremors, and see some terrific subterranean cave areas. Spencer and the other characters in the game look pretty good, too, though I didn't really appreciate Spencer's "edgy guy with dreadlocks" look so much. If you want a classic feel, owners of Bionic Commando Rearmed can unlock a classic Rad model and use that, instead... but his shades and decidedly retro look stick out amongst the edgy tone the game attempts to hit.
In addition to the main campaign, which comes in three difficulty levels, Bionic Commando also has a pretty solid multiplayer mode that, again, depends on your ability with the arm. At its best, the game almost feels like dogfighting, with multiple players swinging around, launching through the air, attempting to grapple directly onto an enemy to slow him down for the kill. On some of the larger maps, though, the game sort of bogs down as players attempt to get the one-shot-kill sniper rifle or grab the Tarantula and launch lock-on missiles. It supports up to eight players and offers the standard trinity of multiplayer modes: deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag. While it probably won't replace your multiplayer shooter of choice, it's a fun diversion from the campaign that works better than it seems like it should. But it suffers a bit by being more combat-focused, putting more of an emphasis on the underwhelming weapons. The matching is pretty fully featured, containing a Halo-like party system, and it also has support for clan tags.
Bionic Commando goes back and forth between moments of great, navigation-based gameplay and a lot of little touches that don't work as well as you'd like. It makes the final product a little frustrating, because you can almost see a better game trying to bust its way out of its constraints. But more often than not, I was really taken by the game's rewarding swinging controls and terrific looks. If you consider yourself something of a swinger, I think you'll probably feel the same way.
In other words: Game is pretty good, learn how to swing and the rest is a breeze. Besides the swinging isnt THAT hard to master. Just up the sensitivity, and hold the LT/L2 button while in the air and looking for a close object to grapple. Keep thinking about picking up momentum.
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