Fight enemies from the past, the present and abominations caught between as you fight the past to stop the Singularity
Contains: Strong Gory Violence, Grisly Images and Infrequent Strong Horror
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Singularity is a Sci-fi First-Person shooter that takes place on a mysterious , fiction Russian island known as "Katorga-12" which is at the centre of attention for a strange incident that occurred there involving time manipulation experiments.
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STORY - 4/5
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The game takes place on Katorga-12 where Russian experiments involving "E-99" took place during the height of the Cold War era. The scientists positioned there found the mysterious "Element 99" which, despite its inherent instability, was an incredible power source with potential for sinister future events. The studies continued until sometime during 1955 when a terrible catastrophe known as the "Singularity" occurred on the island, from which then the Russian government erased Katorga-12 from the maps and hid every bit of news about E-99.
In the present time of 2010, a sudden electromagnetic wave surges from Katorga-12, and a military Black Ops team is sent to investigate bizarre radiation emissions from the presumably uninhabited island, but on route a second surge causes the helicopter to crash. You play as Nate Renko, and after surviving the crash, enter the abandoned scientific complex only to discover that the island is constantly shifting between the time periods of 1955 and 2010 because of a rip in the time continuum created from large quantities of E-99. From there you encounter Victor Barisov, the scientist in charge of the Kortorga-12 experiments who reveals that a man named Nikolai Demichev is on the island to try to restart them on a much larger scale with world domination in mind that would cause an unthinkable disaster. During the quest to stop Demichev you will have to deal with hostile Russian forces in both time periods, and the hideously mutated flora, fauna and former residents of the island, some of which have developed time manipulation power of their own.
The plot is very mysterious and intriguing that always makes you curious as to how it'll conclude, and builds up to a clever plot twist and multiple endings.
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CHARACTERS - 3/5
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Nate Renko is the game's silent Protagonist, and it works effectively throughout the game, so you can't see how he perceives everything unfolding. You'll be constantly given orders and directions of what you need to accomplish next, and the other characters that are encountered along the storyline have a big enough impact so that their interaction with you will be something worthy of consideration towards their aims. Solid voice acting makes you fully aware of their intentions, and obvious to which side they are serving, and as the story moves along you'll feel deeply involved with setting things right to thwart the power-hungry Demichev from gaining unparalleled dominance across the globe. There are many other characters who contribute unseen appearances on audio recordings found frequently throughout the game, which give insights into what's happened, plus many notes that contain knowledge and journal-like documentations of the various experiments and predicaments that have happened on Katorga-12, their horrifying experiences with the mutations, and also words of warning on hidden messages scrawled across the bloodied surfaces of walls down daunting corridors.
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GAMEPLAY - 4/5
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The opening hour or so will make you feel like you're playing the wrong game. The feel of the island, and the way exploration is handled perfectly to get you looking in every corner feels like Bioshock. It even graphically and artistically has some of Bioshock washed upon it, but this is exactly how Singularity succeeds in capturing your intention with the motivation to continue the path to see what else is hidden and reminiscent from other games. The slow-paced opening sequences are carefully handled and creepy, and encourage you to explore each corner because of the level design, because of the collectible E-99 substance that has key importance for future use, and because of the notes, audio recordings and video projectors that give some flesh to the skeleton of the story and characters. It's a shame that there wasn't more of this slow-approach gameplay throughout the game, since once weapons and the Time Manipulation Device are unveiled to you; it's nearly non-stop goofy, gory action. The action is very fun however, and actually feels like a combination of other game's associated with the First-Person shooter genre. Some scenes feel like segments from the historic, sci-fi remake Wolfenstein, and others can feel reminiscent of games such as FEAR where horror thrills are concerned, and even Timeshift with the slow motion opportunities. But these noticeable and comparable relations are great, maybe not intentional similarities, but good fun none-the-less in addition to the tricks Singularity eventually reveals hidden up its sleeve to offer something completely new and extraordinary to the splashes of gore, and the genre.
The gunplay is great, not quite solid because gore, death animations and physics could do with polishing up, but overall the hit detection is fine, with realistic, flesh hitting damage effects, and is fun and feels great to shoot from the numerous weapons available. While there are lots of cool sci-fi, and modified modern weapons to play around with, such as one called the Seeker which allows you to control the flight of the bullet in slow motion, and another that shoots spikes and explodes once it's stuck into flesh, Singularity's primary gameplay concept comes in the form of the hand-equipped Time Manipulation Device. This unique device that connects to your left wrist has been built with the potential and ability to reverse and age objects in time that E-99 has come into contact with, and so walls and staircases can be altered backwards and forwards through time to help you overcome environmental puzzles and for benefits during combat. It can be used to disintegrate cover that enemies are using, levitate explosive barrels to launch at foes, and is disturbingly appropriate to use on opponents directly. Aging enemies causes them to turn to a pile of ash, where you witness their skeleton and flesh age before you until it crisps up and falls to dust, whereas reversing time on them causes them to mutate into hideously deformed remnant of the island, capable of attacking you and nearby enemies alike with a grotesque and bloodthirsty appetite for human flesh. Other power capabilities the TMD includes a strong knock back pulse that stuns nearby enemies, and if within a close enough proximity, the force will actually be powerful enough so that limbs go flying in gory style. Another advantage for puzzle-related and combat purposes is by generating a dome and then launching it into a group of enemies, causing everything caught inside to go in super slow motion, the perfect opportunity to blast away enemies with a barrage of bullets without them knowing what hit them until normal time resumes and the bullets take proper effect and propel them away with extreme force. The TMD has its limits though, and uses E-99 energy cells to function so you can't constantly use it, and the weaker abilities don't use up much energy, whereas aging enemies requires more power and therefore consumes more E-99 upon use. The bar does slowly regenerate over time so that you can never be out of juice, but the rate in which it regenerate causes you to respond differently to enemies if you don't have any energy cells to quickly refill the energy bar. Cautious use is recommended of the TMD so you can always have a healthy supply of the source, but using a combination of both the TMD and conventional firearms is useful to keep action from being too easy and repetitive.
All weapons can be upgraded and equipped from infrequently spaced lockers using rare pieces of weapon technology, and the same applies to special TMD devices that provide perks and upgraded damage to certain powers. This is why exploring each corner of the environment to find hidden rooms becomes beneficial, as you can guarantee you'll need upgrades to face more challenging enemies and future stages of the game. E-99 specimens are used for purchasing ammo and TMD upgrades once found, and the infrequently spaced lockers make finding them give a good sense of reward for your efforts to reach that far. Overall the gameplay is well paced and offers enough variety with the TMD and weapons, well presented puzzles, neatly and timely placed TMD power upgrades, and slow approach gameplay with horror elements. The game focuses on the consequences of decisions during time, and from time to time you'll encounter time rifts, which when combined with the TMD can be used to travel through the time-space continuum from the small time rip that are created from large quantities of E-99 to change the outcome in the past that will reflect on the future, and the consequences of doing so. Objectives can be led to by Chrono-Ping, a clever ability that the TMD can do which reveals chrono-footsteps, while also helping you navigate around a mysterious environment that you feel unfamiliar with, and it's clear that each ability the TMD possesses has been well considered and subsequently implemented by the developer's to cover all areas of the time-continuum effect.
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GRAPHICS - 4/5
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Singularity's visuals have been criticized for being 'behind the times' and lacking the sharpness other games newly released on the market have achieved. But in fairness, Singularity actually possesses graphics that are technically impressive and effective for the well crafted environments you'll navigate through. The level and art design show consideration for the fictional and mysterious island, and the detail gone into the surroundings is notably impressive and eye-catching. When you are navigating tightly abandoned school corridors and science facility rooms, the high quality of the graphics will no doubt strike you, and even though the graphics don't deteriorate in the outside environments, the immense detail you'll notice on inside environments makes the outside look a little bit lacking artistically, and the indoors much more substantial to capture that tense atmosphere. When entering a time rift, a shockwave swiftly takes act of the environment, changing it's state to a believable one that's associated within the period of the timeline you're entering, and within seconds the art design and colour contrasts completely change, presenting a new look upon the gore-filled area you once new, but now a polished scientific identity is placed on objects reflecting your transition in time from one period to another in the past. Occasionally you'll notice slow loading and low resolution textures that become apparent on some surfaces in the environment, but aren't that distracting from the overall graphics and sharpen up reasonably quickly.
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SOUND - 4/5
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To add to the believability of the characters, there is some fine and convincing voice acting which strongly influences situations and dialogue, and the effort gone into creating believable characters rubs off on the plot too. Notable sound effects during gameplay are the blood spurting effects when your shotgun or TMD blasts away limbs in such brutal, gory style, and aging an enemy is satisfying as their scream is short-lived and then blocked out by their skeleton turning to crisp, giving you a feeling of a great sense of power and control, which quite rightly is correct. The sound design is also very good, giving you a scary sense of immersion in the early stages as you quietly tread foot through abandoned buildings with limited ammo and resources, and then bursts into life when the game hits dramatic moments of intense action in the later stages.
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CONTROLS - 3/5
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At the beginning of the game the controls feel similar to the standard FPS game, but the introduction of the Time Manipulation Device changes all that. TMD abilities make the controls feel very unfamiliar and sometimes awkward because of their configurations on the controller layout and it seems the developer's ran out of space as to how to input them on the control layout, as sometimes abilities overlap each other and are only changed if you tap or hold down a certain button. For example, tapping the R3 button on a correctly marked object allows it for telekinesis actions, holding R3 down generates a dome of energy that creates a slow motion time warp within, and holding R3 fully on a specific object allows you to pull it forward through time for use in a puzzle. It does get confusing each time a new upgrade is implemented into the gameplay, and sometimes you might accidentally perform an action you otherwise didn't wish to do, depleting your energy metre by an unfortunate margin, but standard use of the TMD to age and revert enemies and objects is quite simple to grasp, and aiming and shooting down the sights of a weapon will be very familiar from similar FPS games.
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ATMOSPHERE - 4/5
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From the very opening a daunting prospect enhances the artistic designs in the environment, creating an eerie sense of dread as to what could possibly await around the next corner. The atmosphere is thick with tension and is sustained to great effect until you engage in more action orientated scenarios, and the horror elements are of welcome variety because of the unexpectedness of the aspect. Accurately placed soundtrack generates the right atmosphere for the right situation, and while the combat section are often entertaining, they don't come equipped with a thick and worthy atmosphere like the creepy ones introduced early on. Time Rifts transfigure the environment, but the dark and gritty atmosphere carries over similarly from one period to the next where is violently spilled equally despite the change in visuals. When you are progressing forward in some areas, ghostly apparition cutscenes showcasing past events play out, and these add some back-story to the events that occurred while also complimenting an effect on the atmosphere within the area. Much of the environments are covered with bodies of unfortunate soldiers caught in the mutated and aggressive conflict with all the corpses mutated in gruesome ways, and this frequent grisly imagery creates creepy tension on proceedings as you face the perpetrators in their mutated forms.
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ENEMY AI - 3/5
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You'll fight enemies from the past, the present, and abominations caught somewhere between, so there is a good amount of variety to attack patterns that force you to adapt slightly differently with each enemy type, primarily the mutated enemies that now inhabit the island. Some can disappear and then reappear, taking advantage of the rips in the time-continuum, and careful and precise use of the TMD's functions will be the resulting downfall of these mutants as you force them to stay in the present time by using one of your abilities. Each enemy reacts differently to your TMD powers - the human enemies age and revert into mutant aggressors, but some of the vicious monsters are either unaffected by the TMD or their state changes, where they perhaps go in slow motion when you attempt to age them, or simply explode into a bloody, gut-filled mess. The mutants all prove challenging in some way, as they leap through time zones to try and get behind you or aggressively charge at you in numbers trying to tear you to shreds. Human enemies show more consideration to your overwhelming power and are more intelligent by taking cover and throwing grenades, though sometimes their intelligence proves doubtful. If you destroy the cover they are taking refuge behind, they take a while to respond, as if they are unsure of where to go next, and sometimes are so intent on focusing their bullets on hitting you that they stand in the open and don't take cover.
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LENGTH - 4/5
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Singularity lasts a good length of approximately 12 hours if you take your time in the surroundings by exploring for items and ammo, or read notes placed around that give information to the current events happening on Katorga-12, all the while leading up to multiple endings depending on your last minute decision.
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REPLAY VALUE - 4/5
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While you can reload the last checkpoint to find out other endings, the game does encourage you to go back through to experience the story again, with the chance of gaining a better understanding like always with another playthrough. You can also change which upgrades you purchase or have equipped, the weapon load-out you choose to use, or to explore even deeper into the environments in the hope of finding all secret locations that require a little extra puzzle solving enthusiasm to gain access. Overall Singularity is a great game. It derives some elements from other games like Bioshock, Timeshift and Wolfenstein, and turns them into success within itself, and the reminiscent aspects all combine to great effect. Gameplay is very entertaining and well paced, and using the unique Time Manipulation Device to thwart evil is always fun as you fight the past to save the future, put an end to the mystery, and stop the singularity.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 8.5/10
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Good Points: Excellent first impression on the opening level, Audio recordings and collectibles encourage exploration within every environment, TMD device has lots of cool abilities to mix up the action and the pace of the game, Very good mysterious story with multiple endings, Impressive graphics, Some detailed environments, Lots of fun gory action and imagery.
Bad Points: Occasional low resolution and slow loading textures on surfaces, TMD functions make the controls feel awkward.