My letters are backwards.
It's not often that this Taffer trips over a game by accident, and then decides that it was worth the fall. Singularity, however, was a pleasant surprise. It got a firm grip on the Taffer's interest not even 10 minutes in, and held said interest tightly until everything was said and done. Not an easy feat for 'just another' FPS out there, yet this Raven [http://www.ravensoft.com/] game proved to be a fun and satisfying experience.
Satisfying you say?
Yes. Much like that bowl of popcorn you're having while watching a movie. It's nice. It entertains. Sure, you would rather have a nice, big, juicy steak. Who wouldn't. But the popcorn does the trick too. Taffer likes popcorn.
So, what was so satisfying about it?
It closely resembles Bioshock (and therefore System Shock 2), which one might call cheating considering just how much the Taffer loves System Shock 2. But she'll try not to put too much weight on that. Instead she'll focus on the game's own flair. Singularity began to impress the Taffer during the first few minutes of stumbling about in a moody environment rich with detail. She decided to ignore all the notes and recordings presented in convenient English (that said, didn't ignore their existence, but ignored the language), and pretended that the protagonist (G'day Mister Nathanial Renko) was kind enough to translate for her. Good man, eh?
And a good man he is indeed. A good american soldier, who just so happens to get himself entwined into a (passably good) story about time travel at his almost literal fingertips. His introduction to it all was what intrigued the Taffer the most, though she won't say more there, as there are enough reviews out there already that depict the details of the story. She'll just say she liked the way the beginning was told and enjoyed the fluent pace with which it moved from there on.
She also enjoyed the way it was told: In the tried and tested manner of emptying your weapon of choice into various fleshy creatures (while a cast of support NPCs leads you this way and that). There was only a single traditional cut-scene involved, which also happened to be the preface to one of the most enjoyable levels the Taffer has ever had the pleasure to play. Who doesn't want to run around in a massive cargo ship that is falling apart around you? Its walls rapidly rusting, the crust flaking off like leaves... the sturdy hinges of pressure doors snapping and corridors warping, bending, breaking... Mmh. Delicious, says the Taffer. You might disagree, but that's your given right. She sure felt the urgency of getting the hell out of there.
So. Err. Anyway.
Personal perception of the general feel of the game aside, let's take a brief look at the game play. Brief, because everyone else and their mother covers them anyhow. Aside from your usual arsenal of firearms (the Taffer's favorite was the sniper rifle, which she abused to the best of her ability), Mister Renko comes to befriend a device by the name of Time Manipulation Device (TMD), which is so devicy that it is able to alter time. It's nothing special. Nothing grand and mind boggling. Just a tool that offers additional ways to dispatch previously mentioned fleshy creatures and assist through a few environmental puzzles. However it does it's job as plot moving device (man..) quite well and fits the rest of the story like a glove.
Between the TMD and the various weaponry, Singularity presented itself as a perfectly workable first person shooter.
Once everything was wrapped up and all three possible endings explored in detailed (easily done by reloading the latest checkpoint), the Taffer came to the final conclusion that Singularity provided her with a few hours of solid, satisfying game-play without asking too much from her, but giving just the right amount of entertainment back. It even had it's moments of greatness breaking the clouds of mediocrity, brief as most of them were. So, no, she doesn't regret the purchase and believes that anyone who likes trips down memory lane to classic FPS titles like BioShock, HalfLife and F.E.A.R (or System Shock 2 for that matter), won't either.
Disclaimer: This is my .. what .. third review ever written, and I apologize that it might not sound or feel like an actual gaming review. I just couldn't get myself to write a proper one. It's also not very shiny. I'll work on shiny later.
/collapses
