Singularity Review - New Game Network

Singularity is a sci-fi first person shooter from Raven that is set on a fictional island known as Katorga 12. The island was controlled by the Soviet Union in 1955 in order extract a fictional element called E-99. The element possesses untold power along with time travelling capabilities and would have given the Soviet Union absolute power if it weren’t for a terrible catastrophe. As Nate Renko you and your squad are shot out of the sky patrolling this island and you will come to know its inhabitants very well.

Time can quickly transform the world before you

The setup and early presentation for Singularity will feel criminally familiar to BioShock fans. Here is a portion of humanity separated from the populace where a series of really-bad-things have happened. These bad things involve time travelling, ethics gone wrong and some horrific accidents you come to know quite well, some of which you are involved directly with. The opening segments of the game are slow paced, you don’t get to shoot anything until sometime after the introduction. Instead the game places you alone on the war torn island initially thick with desolation.

The game briefly gives you an overview of the entire island shown as a miniature in the lobby, after this point you can scour the hallways for notes that reveal some information before, during and after the tragic events that have occurred. If you are the information gatherer then there are lots of notes hidden away in corners that peel back layers of the puzzle. You also get a taste of the story via still working projectors and audio tapes in a similar style to the aforementioned BioShock.

It won’t be long before you get access to the Time Manipulation Device after the slow start. Before acquisition the game gives you a few standard weapons and some mutated beasties to shoot down just to get you into the groove. This start sets up a great mood but is over before the game completely capitalizes on the great setting. Once you get hold of the TMD though the action broadens and so does the story. You even get to travel back in time to 1955 around when the disaster struck the island. It won’t be your last trip back in time, many occurring for combat and story purposes.

I’m just glad all the weapons are fireproof, unlike this poor guy

The TMD that you acquire will give the player access to a few powers some of which have been influenced from other games. First up you get a gravity gun type power that allows you to use a handful of objects as projectiles at the expense of some E-99 energy. Most of these objects are explosive canisters or barrels but they also throw in the clichéd freeze canisters for good measure. Some enemies even hurl objects at you, so this power comes in handy for catching those projectiles but is rarely necessary.

You can also age enemies with the TMD or knock them back with an impulse burst. Normal soldiers will turn to dust through aging but it can be energy expensive. Mutated foes, like the blue Zek, can be brought out of phase allowing easier disposal with conventional weapons. Objects like door controls, stairs and boxes can also be aged or made new again with a little energy. Renewing items is required to progress along the linear path but you don’t have to think much. Impulse is a shockwave that knocks back close enemies and later tears them apart with the extra force acquired through upgrades. The most satisfying power is the Deadlock, creating an isolated portion of space time.

Probably the best power at your disposal is the time sphere, called the Deadlock. You can create a sphere with energy which can be launched like a projectile; it expands and slows down all items within. This includes bullets passing through and creatures that leap into the time sphere, making it the perfect hiding place. You can freely move in the sphere and use it to pump an excessive number of bullets into enemies as they are frozen in time. Once the sphere drops those who suffered lead poisoning will fall to the floor. This sphere is useful in many situations and provides a simple sense of satisfaction.

The Deadlock is extremely useful and rewarding to use

After the slow, carefully paced start the game will open up and become a more constant experience of fire fights and puzzles. The variety is good and you won’t be spending much time in one location or doing one thing for too long. Staggered along the way are very simple puzzles involving a box and the acquired aging/renewing powers. The specific boxes used for the puzzles are never seen outside of the puzzle locations and most of the time you age the box to make it smaller then renew it to climb on an object or open a door. There are no more than a few puzzles that do not fit into this category. The game doesn’t rely on puzzles heavily as they just serve to reduce the pacing before you step into another large fire fight.

The shooting in the game is relatively good too or at least some of the weapons are quite satisfying when upgraded. All weapons can be upgraded, along with your TMD powers and even passive characteristics like player health. Stations placed throughout allow you to increase damage, clip size or energy with research acquired from pickups in a similar way to Dead Space. A favourite weapon was the Autocannon which has a satisfying spin-up sound and cuts through soldiers with ease. You also get a weapon that allows you to steer bullets in slow motion watching them explode poor Russian soldiers from the past. You can only carry two weapons at once, and due to limited ammo this makes you swap them out and use the TMD a little more.

Along the way there are a few sniper sequences designed carefully with staggered spawning from enemy soldiers as you fire from a high vantage point. The sniper sections allow you to perform an unbelievably high number of headshots against enemies who spawn in sequence. The sniper rifle has a bonus mode where, left shift doesn’t steady your sights, it slows time. This small improvement makes taking down poor Russian soldiers incredibly trivial and the sniping sections become low intensity in comparison to much of the game.

Ahhh pretty blue glowing sphere!

Although the setting would allow for numerous scares the game is rarely scary. The opening segments set a good mood and promise great things but it’s not long before the game relies instead on basic shooting to progress. I can only recall one section where a carefully placed body and a music interlude made me jump. Even stealth sections that expect you to carefully move passed blind vomiting Reverts fails to capture the imminent danger. After a failed attempt I instead opted to run passed them all and shoot them all down as they came up behind me.

The story isn’t exactly full to the brim with quality dialogue but it certainly isn’t terrible. Coming across a hanging body in the sewers and listening to the audio tape of the victim it represents is a nice touch. The time travelling aspect by itself also will leave you pondering about the story a bit longer than the majority of games once the game is finished. You’ll come across an empty school where children were segregated and forced to drink contaminated milk. There is even a book, presented by an attractive female agent (naturally) for a secret organisation, which has a prophecy yet to be fulfilled that will shape the rest of the story. Once the campaign is over though you can just jump into some multiplayer if you haven’t had enough.

The multiplayer in Singularity lets you to play as the creatures whom you fought against throughout the campaign. You can play as the mutated Reverts and vomit over Russian soldiers or heal your mutant buddies. The phase tick can crawl up walls (think Alien) and can take control of lonesome enemies. Even as the Zek you can conjure explosive barrels from another dimension and hurl them at groups using regenerating energy. They can move out of phase to avoid bullets then move in close for some melee kills. The humans have opposing classes allowing you to teleport short distances, heal or use impulse shockwaves.

All the crazy action happens around the beacons in Extermination

Although playing as the creatures is a fun twist the limited number of modes and presentation deficiencies bring down the experience. Apart from basic creatures vs humans mode (deathmatch) you only have Extermination. In Extermination the humans move forward and renew beacons then defend them for a short time. Mutants defend and destroy the beacons and once three have been renewed the humans win. If you have a capable offensive team with a few healers you can usually overcome any of the defenders without trouble and rounds are over quickly bringing you back in the lobby ready to try again.

The game doesn’t use dedicated servers and there was considerable delay between shooting and killing during all games. Pings listed on the score list did not seem representative of the experience I was having throughout matches. Even movement feels at the mercy of your connection with reduced correlation between what you see and what is happening. The whole presentation quality feels more like user made mod for the UE3 engine than a portion of a full blown retail game. Perhaps the real killer though is the lack of players, making it hard to get into a game. Extermination is the most popular mode with barely anybody playing deathmatch.

Head to the tower with the huge beam of energy, it’s safer there!

Singularity is a decent single player shooter even if it sometimes questionably emulates similar games like BioShock. The game keeps a steady pace with enough variety improving over the tedious backtracking seen in Wolfenstein. The combat is fairly consistent but has plenty of room for improvement and the puzzles are far too simple to be memorable. None of the NPCs will look at you during cut scenes and there are major problems with the texture streaming. There is no save system, relying on sparsely placed checkpoints and doors conveniently close behind you too often. After finishing there is no way to go back and repeat better sections, assuming you even wanted to, without restarting a game. The story is minimal but effective enough and actually one of its better features, the game is resolved when the credits have rolled. Multiplayer feels tacked on and something destined to be quickly forgotten on the PC. Singularity will no doubt appease fans that can’t get enough shooters but it will not help those already growing tired of the genre.