Go Go Bionic

I finished the new Bionic Commando this weekend. It was… interesting.

First, I will say that the swinging mechanic worked very well. I liked the arm for the most part and had a good time with it. The difficulty level was okay most of the time as well. A few parts challenged me, but I usually didn’t swear. The frequency of curses is usually directly related to how broken the game is.

That said, this game isn’t going to win any awards. The biggest problem is the illusion of freedom the game quickly dashes. For just a bit, you think you can swing anywhere, but then you realize that everything but the narrow path through the game is either covered in blue “radiation fog” or gleams with blue “radiation residue” that kills you all but instantly. A particularly impressive swing in the wrong direction is a guaranteed kill. It’s incredibly irritating and feels incredibly contrived; it’s even worse than an invisible wall or closed in area.

The story had its share of issues, too. Everything happened very suddenly. For example, who was the sniper that appeared exactly twice? Even if it should happen that the question was answered at some point in the game, the fact that I was able to miss it in such a linear experience means it wasn’t addressed to any meaningful degree. Further, the whole M. Night Shaymalan twist that occurs at the end of the game could’ve been worked themeatically into the game instead of just being a sudden twist at the end. In Prince of Persia, the story and gameplay supported each other as the love story between the Prince and Elika was established not only in the cutscenes, but also in entirely optional dialogue and the lack of death as Elika saves the prince each time he falls.

Maybe Spencer’s arm could’ve done something similar, saved him without his control at some point, even if it was scripted. Spencer’s unconscious emotional attachment to his arm was touched on briefly in some of the supplemental text you got out of the all-too-common mine-disabling relays, but it was a big empty spot that could’ve made the story much more interesting.

Joe and Spencer were voiced by two of my favorite voice actors, but it was a disappointment to hear both of them under-utilized. Steven Jay Blum seems to have pretty much the same voice in every game and anime, but I’m sure he has to have a few other voices he could use. On the other side, the incredibly flexible Mike Patton voiced Nathan Spencer. The vocalist of groups like Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, and Tomahawk has more vocal range than most whole choirs and he barely uses it. In the Darkness, he did some of the coolest, darkest voices you could hope for and even more, without post-processing. Why’s he voicing the most boring character? Also, they should’ve kept the original character design. The new one just sucks.

Overall the game wasn’t quite as bad as a lot of people said, but at the same time I’m still happy with Dead Space Extraction as my choice for 2009 Game No One Played.