Ah, back to reviewing games. Haven't done this since my Modern Warfare 2; suggestions for improvement review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.167131-Are-you-there-Infinity-Ward-Its-me-Virtual-Dom-Suggestions-for-improving-MW2], because I've been too busy with high school. But I didn't really make much of a reputation for myself, so I'll just assume nobody remembers me. Anyway Singularity...
There are a few definitions for this term:
*In mathematics, a singularity is, in general, a point at which a given mathematical object is not defined.
*In Natural Sciences, a point in spacetime in which gravitational forces cause matter to have an infinite density and zero volume.
*A first person shooter developed by Raven, published by Activision, and deals with a device that sends objects through different phases of its time state.
I can't exactly criticize a mathematical concept or a physical phenomenon, so I'll have to stick with the game. This game is a little bit under the radar in terms of publicity, as I dont' think a lot of people are thinking about it until you cam to this review. But anyway, this game has a major pretention to time control and evil shadowy soviets.
Renko is sent in to investigate and discovers that a facility was built by soviets to mine and test Element 99, being located only on katorga 12, and they needed to combat America's atomic capabilities. E99 is unstable but extremely powerful and has many effects on time. You will experience some shifts in the narrative from 2010 to the 1950's with each visit affecting the timeline drastically. The narrative is functional and there are moments of brilliance but the plot is rather hard to believe, and I feel its rather tasteless by making the soviets the bad guys, but that's just me. Also there is this female sidekick in there that just really doesn't belong and didn't need to be put in the plot at all. For a plotline dealing with time travel and corruption and paradoxes, this doesn't go as deep as I thought it would have.
This handy device however only fits 25% the criteria since as a gadget its intriguing, but as an awesome time altering gadget it fails utterly. The much-touted power of the TMD is that it can send objects through different stages of its time state, meaning you can age it or revert it.
For example, you can revert a broken staircase to a point in it's life when it wasn't broken, or age a human to dust. That's about the biggest extent you will use this feature, and I was disappointed by the lack of depth to this mechanic, as you can only switch objects from young state to old state, no inbetween. I cannot age an explosive barrel to a point when its leaking and set fire to the area which would have added all kinds of strategic and entertainment value.
This is NOT time manipulation, this is just a gadget that would make repairmen obsolete. No matter what, it never truly felt like I had true control over time with this device. The only thing that resembles some form of time manipulation is this bubble that slows down anything inside it, which I did use for when hard-to-kill common enemies tried to examine my spleen the direct way. The best way I could describe this is a "when shit gets real" response protocol.
But then again this level of depth fits the puzzles which are equally dull and simple. The first time there was a situation where I had to revert a flattened box to lift a gate that i needed to crouch under, I thought to myself "This has potential". But no, no complexity or deep thinking, just insulting simplicity.
However, this is a first person shooter, so there is combat involved. Would you believe it makes up for the flaws in its time manipulation use? Would you believe it makes up for the dull puzzles? If you said yes to the above questions prepare to be relieved because it does. You do get a standard array of weapons, like pistol, shotgun, automatic weapon and sniper rifle, however the combat is very old school just plain running around, gleefully spraying shrapnol at squishy soldiers and creepy, distorted time monsters. What I like in FPS'es is when firing a weapon provides proper feedback and in this department Singularity does well. Each weapon feels great to fire, and the gibbing of the shotgun and sniper rifle satisfies my inner maniac. You've seen it all before in terms of combat, but its still very thrilling and I'm sure a lot of you are sick of cover-based "realsitic" FPS'es, so this will be a nice change of pace for now
The most awesome weapon of the game is the Seeker, which is a sniper rifle that slows down time so you can steers an exploding bullet into an enemy. You read right, a steerable sniper rifle with E99 fused explosive rounds.
However going back to negative points, I have to say this game is not a looker. The level design is dark, dank, greyish-brown sewers and demolished urban and industrial complexes. It does sort of add to the creepy atmosphere, but that's like saying corn adds to the color of vomit. I noticed many jagged textures, poor lighting, and low resolution detail on objects so this is not the best use of the unreal engine 3.
So ultimately a game review must boil down whether I would recommend it or not. It depends on what your looking for. If you like an intriguing story, with creative puzzles that makes full use of an exhilerating time manipulation mechanic, look somewhere else because this is not the game for you. The gunplay is all I can recommend, since it is extremely fun since great sound effects, feedback and gore combined with old school mass homicide fun keeps it the combat from becoming dull. But other than that it is highly derivative from other FPS games, and doesn't set itself fully apart from others.
There are a few definitions for this term:
*In mathematics, a singularity is, in general, a point at which a given mathematical object is not defined.
*In Natural Sciences, a point in spacetime in which gravitational forces cause matter to have an infinite density and zero volume.
*A first person shooter developed by Raven, published by Activision, and deals with a device that sends objects through different phases of its time state.
I can't exactly criticize a mathematical concept or a physical phenomenon, so I'll have to stick with the game. This game is a little bit under the radar in terms of publicity, as I dont' think a lot of people are thinking about it until you cam to this review. But anyway, this game has a major pretention to time control and evil shadowy soviets.
[HEADING=1]Story[/HEADING]
The story starts out in a Bioshock fashion, with the faceless, silent, unlucky bastard of a protangonist Nate Renko, a Black Ops pilot that crash lands on a mysterious uncharted island called Katorga 12, which needed to be investigated because of it interferring with a satellite (which as far as I know probably broadcasts internet porn). 
A time of Cold War, Hats and Wodka
[HEADING=1]Gameplay[/HEADING]
"But why bother with story as long as we got an awesome time altering gadget" says Raven's lead designer to himself. So lets take a look at this time manipulating device called the... Time Manipulation Device (to me, thats just phoning it in a little. Couldn't they go with a little more creative like Temporal displacement Mechanism?).This handy device however only fits 25% the criteria since as a gadget its intriguing, but as an awesome time altering gadget it fails utterly. The much-touted power of the TMD is that it can send objects through different stages of its time state, meaning you can age it or revert it.
For example, you can revert a broken staircase to a point in it's life when it wasn't broken, or age a human to dust. That's about the biggest extent you will use this feature, and I was disappointed by the lack of depth to this mechanic, as you can only switch objects from young state to old state, no inbetween. I cannot age an explosive barrel to a point when its leaking and set fire to the area which would have added all kinds of strategic and entertainment value.
This is NOT time manipulation, this is just a gadget that would make repairmen obsolete. No matter what, it never truly felt like I had true control over time with this device. The only thing that resembles some form of time manipulation is this bubble that slows down anything inside it, which I did use for when hard-to-kill common enemies tried to examine my spleen the direct way. The best way I could describe this is a "when shit gets real" response protocol.
Don't Expect This...
...Or This
...Or This...
But then again this level of depth fits the puzzles which are equally dull and simple. The first time there was a situation where I had to revert a flattened box to lift a gate that i needed to crouch under, I thought to myself "This has potential". But no, no complexity or deep thinking, just insulting simplicity.
However, this is a first person shooter, so there is combat involved. Would you believe it makes up for the flaws in its time manipulation use? Would you believe it makes up for the dull puzzles? If you said yes to the above questions prepare to be relieved because it does. You do get a standard array of weapons, like pistol, shotgun, automatic weapon and sniper rifle, however the combat is very old school just plain running around, gleefully spraying shrapnol at squishy soldiers and creepy, distorted time monsters. What I like in FPS'es is when firing a weapon provides proper feedback and in this department Singularity does well. Each weapon feels great to fire, and the gibbing of the shotgun and sniper rifle satisfies my inner maniac. You've seen it all before in terms of combat, but its still very thrilling and I'm sure a lot of you are sick of cover-based "realsitic" FPS'es, so this will be a nice change of pace for now
The most awesome weapon of the game is the Seeker, which is a sniper rifle that slows down time so you can steers an exploding bullet into an enemy. You read right, a steerable sniper rifle with E99 fused explosive rounds.
Deja Vu times 32!
So ultimately a game review must boil down whether I would recommend it or not. It depends on what your looking for. If you like an intriguing story, with creative puzzles that makes full use of an exhilerating time manipulation mechanic, look somewhere else because this is not the game for you. The gunplay is all I can recommend, since it is extremely fun since great sound effects, feedback and gore combined with old school mass homicide fun keeps it the combat from becoming dull. But other than that it is highly derivative from other FPS games, and doesn't set itself fully apart from others.