PixlBit

Time travel is not an easy concept to tackle in any sort of medium, much less a game. However, developers Raven Software decided that would be exactly what they would do in their latest first person shooter, Singularity. After completing the game, it's safe to say that the team did a great job in creating both action-packed shooting, compelling use of the time mechanics, and a cinematic experience that was engaging for the duration of the game.

Singularity starts in the modern time of 2010 with a trip to the Russian island, Katorga-12. Blacks-Ops soldiers, including protagonist, Nate Renko, are on their way to the island to investigate bizarre radiation emissions. Upon entering airspace of the island, the helicopter holding the soldiers crash-lands and Renko is knocked unconscious. When Renko comes-to, he finds that Katorga-12 is experiencing time-shifts between the past (1955) and the present. At one point when traveling to the past, players save a man from a burning building, which drastically alters the timeline of the world. Upon returning, players find themselves in a post-apocalyptic mess, which they now must correct.

At the start of Singularity, I was far from impressed with the entire concept and setting. Whenever time travel is brought up in a movie or TV show the main characters almost always find themselves coming back from the past to a changed and awful world. Fortunately, as players progress forward they come upon the TMD (Time Manipulation Device) and at this point the game became instantly more appealing. After acquiring the TMD players learn that the island was used as a testing ground for applications of E99, an element that has a multitude of possibilities. The element's main purpose was to breed super-soldiers from humans. Instead, the people were transformed, as was the entire island, due to the properties of E99. Now, monsters walk the island, each of which has different properties, but all of which have super-human strength. Additionally, E99 is the culprit of the time-shifting. A Dr. Barisov, who used his genius for good, learned how to harness the E99 power and created the TMD.

The TMD and E99 are the reason players will want to explore the world of Singularity. With the TMD, players have a wide-range of abilities, some of which are inherently time related and others which fall more predominantly into the psi-power category. On the time front, players are able to age/de-age objects all around the world; anything that came in contact with E99 can be manipulated. Players can also charge up an energy burst and throw a time bubble wherein all things move slower. The effect lasts for a short period of time and is used to both solve puzzles and deal with extremely fast enemies. Finally, players can age enemies, and depending on the enemy there are a range of results. Aging normal humans will turn them to dust, monsters are simply slowed down and made easier to kill.

As for psi-like powers, players can pick up objects with the TMD, and rapidly shoot them back out. The grab ability is used is several situations, from solving puzzles to grabbing projectiles like rockets or grenades out of the air and throwing them back at your enemies. Players can also execute an impulse attack that harms everything in front of the blast.

While players make their way through the quest, machines that allow players to upgrade their TMD will be made available at times. By the end of the game, the TMD is a much more powerful device than what players started with. As a gameplay device, the TMD is a great acheivement, as it provides for some great puzzles and the ability to de-age messages in both written and recorded form, but most importantly, it's fun to use in battle against opponents.

What's interesting about Singularity is that though it seems to be a traditional shooter, in many ways it's much more akin to games like Half-Life 2, Bioshock, and Metroid Prime. While there are plenty of challenging segments in the game, there's never any great danger of death. Similar to Metroid Prime, players can carry a number of extra health packs, allowing for plenty of life beyond your core life bar. This means that during firefights, players only need to activate a health pack to continue to survive, and nine times out of ten, players will have a number of health packs stockpiled. With the shooter mentality out of the way, players have the opportunity to explore the world of Katorga-12 and learn of the inhabitants and the story behind the destruction that took place there. While exploring for story, which is told through a combination of notes, chrono-notes (notes that must be de-aged), audio recordings, and video logs, players will also be on the hunt for E99 tech and blueprints for new TMD expansions.

Both of these work toward one of my other favorites of the game, the ability to upgrade both yourself and the TMD. Blueprints provide for new TMD equipment that have a variety of effects on the gameplay. A few of my favorites include the better accuracy of weapons upgrade, the vampire upgrade (killing foes restores your life), and the scientist upgrade, wherein E99 tech canisters have a 25% chance of holding double the tech. The upgrades to your character are also a nice feature, allowing players to increase their health, E99 energy (to use the TMD), impulse effectiveness, time bubble effectiveness, and even the effectiveness of health packs.

Every upgrade type has a drain on your E99 Tech stock, but part of the fun is finding as much E99 Tech as you can throughout the world. I found myself scouring every single corner, and in some instances, putting myself in imminent danger just to collect all the canisters. Though a number of the upgrades outside of the TMD upgrades don't offer an interesting change to my abilities, they were still redeeming to achieve. Even ones that didn't have a significant effect on my play experience, like health upgrades, I still found myself enjoying that my character was that much stronger.

While Singularity isn't predominantly a shooter, it still does feature a few really cool guns. Most of the guns in the game are standard fare, offering nothing better than what you'd see in any other first person shooter. However, two guns in particular stand out as fantastic for me. The first is the limited-time-use Seeker, which is made available only at certain points in the game. The gun allows players to shoot a bullet and then, with time slowed down around it, navigate that bullet towards an enemy. Upon impact, the enemy is obliterated. It's both fun to control the bullet from very far distances, and enjoyable to see just how devastating of an impact it has on the enemy (I know, I'm sick).

The Dethex Launcher is another example of a great weapon in the game. Players are able to shoot out a spherical grenade that can be navigated around the level by the player. In essence, the dethex grenade is similar to the morph ball, because like the morph ball, the grenade can even jump. This is used to solve a couple of non-mandatory puzzles, as well as attack enemies from a distance.

Overall, the single player mode of the game is more than the sum of its parts. Exploring the world and learning about it, fighting enemies with both the TMD and the unique guns, controlling time, and earning upgrades is an extremely effective combination when put all together. The story, though cliche, is interesting enough to push the game towards the seemingly inevitable ending that will have a 'gotcha' moment for most players. I greatly enjoyed my time in the world of Singularity and most definitely yearn for a sequel.

On the multiplayer front, things don't look so peachy. Raven seems to have attempted some Left4Dead style of play, wherein players are split into teams of creatures versus humans. In the matches I experienced, humans won every single time. Regardless of what creature I chose while playing for the other team, I felt like I was too slow to be effective. Most of the time, before I could even get close enough to attack, I was already being mowed down by a human player. I applaud Raven for recognizing the solid multiplayer experience of Left4Dead, but their implementation of the concept is far from effective. Unfortunately, most players won't derive much enjoyment from this mode, severely limiting the replay value of Singularity.

Though the multiplayer mode is a detractor, Singularity as a single player experience is still a worthwhile one. Players can expect to spend about 12-14 hours on the quest, and if you like exploration, not a moment of that will be a dull one. Those who are looking for a shooter more in the vein of Half-Life 2, Bioshock, or Metroid Prime will be extremely satisfied with what they find in Singularity.