Bionic Commando Review (PS3)

A reboot of a classic franchise that went wrong

Posted by Alex V on August 11, 2009 - 12:37am EST

Multiplayer does not warrant a very long mention. It’s a collection of a few “island” type maps so that all players do not stray from the area. Weapons are scattered throughout, and again the bionic arm is only used to travel around the level rather than attack anyone. It’s just as dull as the single player, and the community is unlikely to pick up.

Graphically, the game looks impressive. Though not very big, the environments are detailed and so are all the major characters. The enemies all look the same though, but it’s pretty forgivable. The water effects look good, which is nice since you see a lot of water in the game. The game runs very smoothly with no framerate issues or slowdowns, even during checkpoint autosaves. The sound is pretty well done, and it includes some remixed versions of the soundtrack from the original games, which is a nice touch. The voice acting is very basic, and only 4 or 5 characters in the game have any kind of lines. All of the grunts yell repetitive “Damn you, Spencer!” lines which get old, and it is odd to hear every enemy calling your name.

I do not think Bionic Commando is a very good reboot to the franchise. It was billed to be an open-world game but failed to deliver, and while it has many touches of the original series, they fail to add any kind of value to newcomers. And isn’t that the point of a reboot, to add new fans to the series. The novelty of swinging around manages to stay just out of the boring zone, but the lackluster of other distinctive arm functions really fail to propel the game above others in the adventure genre. And without the arm, Bionic Commando becomes a below-average third person shooter with a convoluted story and an unlikable lead character. The last part of the game really picks up in fun and story, so I can at least say that the game ends on a high note. I can’t really recommend Bionic Commando to anyone other than fans of the franchise, as the linear gameplay and shallow characters are a bit below today’s standards set by other adventure games.