Bionic Commando
The new Bionic Commando game is the sequel to the old NES and arcade classic. When the game was first announced there was a ton of press on it. As it got closer to release date, the amount of coverage dropped, and I was completely taken aback when I saw it on store shelves. “This came out?” was my first thought. How come I didn’t know it was coming out so soon. Over the next couple week or so I heard mixed things about the game. The one that really stands out is the fact that the game was selling poorly. REALLY poorly. This thing wasn’t moving at all, and that’s a surprise as the remake of the classic “Bionic Commando Rearmed” sold like crazy only months prior… plus you can jump now (which was the biggest complaint from the original). All signs point to this being a terrible game, but is it?
First off the storyline takes place 10 years after the first game. The world has changed and people have turned against the Bionic Soldiers who have protected them in the past. You play Spencer who despite being stripped of his Bionic Arm and having been in custody is sent to stop a group of terrorists who have destroyed and taken over a city. The game also stars the main character from Capcom’s Commando series which is a good throw back if you enjoyed that game series as well.
The game starts off with you being launched into a building in the heart of the city. Your arm was sent separately (wtf?) so your first objective is to find it. Once you’ve found it, the real fun begins. You can do tons of stuff with the arm, punch enemies, pick up and through objects, etc. The most important aspect however is still swinging and climbing up to higher locations. After a brief training session you run through the rest of the building and get to jump out onto the city. This was a really breath taking way to drop the character into the world. The draw distance is great; the scene of jumping from the building down was just set the mood for the entire game.
From there on you just run through the city completing objectives. It’s pretty linear; there are objects in each stage to collect. Some are pretty tough to reach so it’s makes the game a little more interesting. The combat is well done, and there are always tons of enemies to take out.
So far this sounds like a pretty great game, but there are some gripes.
First off the swinging mechanic takes a while to get used to. There are tons of things to swing on, but the swinging itself doesn’t work like you’d expect. You’d expect it to be physics based, and that the faster you swing and what angle you let go at determines everything. That’s not the case. The speed thing holds true, but the angle fails. Basically, you can only let go within like a 15 degree radius to propel yourself forward and upwards. If you let you afterwards, instead of a higher and shorter jump, you just fly straight up into the air. It’s very frustrating. It’s not game breaking at all, but does take some getting used to.
Second is that the game is completely inconsistent. You’ll constantly be switching back and fourth between parts that are fun and parts that are very frustrating. The fun parts are well designed, easy to navigate, and have the perfect balance of swinging and combat. The frustrating parts are poorly designed, you don’t know how you’re supposed to get through them and things are placed in annoying positions, they really break up and ruin the experience. The game shifts back and fourth between the two constantly so just as you’re having a good time it comes to a screeching halt.
My final say is that Bionic Commando is a good game. It’s not perfection, but it’s better than a lot of what’s out there. The issues above keep it from being a phenomenal game, but the reason is sold so bad can only be attributed to marketing.
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It’s nice to read an unbiased, informed review of this game from someone who took the time to play it, as opposed to people just parroting what everyone else is saying. Thanks!
Loved the review’s title, btw! lol