Singularity.....actually quite good!

So I kind of shat on Singularity a few posts ago and now I feel bad about doing so. Not because I forgive the absence of subtitles in the game, but because the rest of the game is pretty damn good! I picked up Singularity second-hand a long time ago but only got round to playing it very recently. It's a 360/PS3 first person shooter developed by Raven Software.

Despite a very slow and uninspiring start, Singularity picks up after the first hour not only with a very neat story but with some very cool gameplay mechanics as well. You start the game as Captain Renko, an American soldier who goes to investigate an electromagnetic surge that downed an American spy satelite on an uninhabited island, Katorga-12 which was once held by the Soviet Union.

Once you/Renko arrive on the island you start mysteriously transporting back and forth through time from the present day to 1955. This time travel is made possible by a mysterious element found only on Katorga-12 called E-99. I don't want to spoil much more of the plot but basically you find out that an alternate reality has been created wherein a Russian scientist has used the powers of E-99 and now, in the present day, he and the Soviet Union rule the world. Your job is to try to set things right.
To help you do this you come across the TMD (Time Manipulation Device...*sigh*) that allows you to move an object back or forward through time. This allows for some really neat environmental puzzles and later on in the game the TMD becomes a Half-Life 2 style gravity gun! Adding to the TMD puzzles is some very solid gunplay and level design.

Along with the smart plot (that shifts back and forth between alternate realities AND alternate time-lines) the game exudes a very tense, almost BioShock-like atmosphere. Similarly, logs and journals from Russian scientists are littered around the island to fill in more of the story. There is a very neat plot twist towards the very end of the game and there are three different discrete story endings. If you're paying attention you can see the plot twist coming but it's still very cool nonetheless.

I really enjoyed Singularity. The first hour is a bit of a bore but once you pick up the TMD and the story becomes more clear it really picks up. I almost feel a bit bad that I didn't pick this game up new when it first game out because, from what I can tell, it didn't sell that well which is a shame.

Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of shooters and it can be bought for a song right now.

Lavan