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Bionic Commando - PS3 / Xbox 360

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    Bionic Commando - PS3 / Xbox 360

    Picked it up yesterday after following the pre-release stuff for a while. Even after the Edge 6 / 10 I still thought this was worth a go but after playing it for 5 hours (and being 90% of the way through it) I think even that might have been a little generous!!

    Sad to say that it feels rushed and lacking a lot of polish.

    The games USP, swinging using your bionic arm, uses a blue recticle to indicate what you can and cannot latch onto to swing works amazingly well one second and not at all the next. The latter is usually when you are swinging over a pit of instant death and would have to face a tedious trek back to where you were because of the lacking checkpoint system.

    It looks quite nice in places. Some of the vistas are amazing and the speed at which you whizz through the skyscrapers using your bionic arm is awesome! Other times it looks like a last gen game with some dodgy textures, shocking frame rate and piss poor environments. You spend a fair bit of time underground in generic tunnels between various outside sections and they quickly get repetitive as you can't seem to use your swing ability and the whole game slows down and becomes another generic 3rd person blaster.

    Combat feels clunky and the weapons are really uninspiring with your typical shooter line-up. Using your wire-arm to grab enemies and throw them around is fun for a bit but lining up the target in order to highlight them can be a bit erratic in it's desire to pick-up an enemy for destruction. Close quarters combat isn't much fun either with slow punches and no real feedback as to whether your blows are connecting until the enemy falls over.

    The game is also very stop-start in the way it gives information to the player in order to complete special challenges (to get your Trophies / Achievements) and also to provide you with information about the world you are in and what everything is. Constantly having to press 'select' to pull up the in game menu to know what is going on when the instructions could have just as easily been a ticker tape along the bottom of the screen with the option to review if you want to would have been much better.

    This game really enjoys reveling in it's arcade heritage as it seems to take great pleasure in killing you though no fault of your own and then making you replay whole sections in order to get to where you were before. It then kills you again and expects you to replay that section again, and again, and again. There's no health bar either, the screen just gets redder the more damage you take, and it goes down stupidly fast.

    I must admit that at times the game can be a lot of fun when you're allowed to swing through the nicer environments but for the majority it just kind of plods along in a really unimpressive fashion.

    Grin seem to be a popular developer amongst publishers at the moment but after Wanted and now this I don't see why they are held in such a high regard.

    #2
    Yeah... the Edge review and general lack of raving on those few forums I visit regularly do seem to indicate I'd be better off giving this a miss. Perhaps when I've got money to burn again... I'm sure others will be charging in to let you know you're full of it and that everyone ought to rush out and pick this up because zomg teh swinginZ!!11!!!1!, but from what I've seen and read so far I'm just not feeling it. A pity, because I really, really wanted this to be another Lost Planet, but I guess I'll have to wait for the sequel to that...

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      #3
      Thanks for the impressions. Been waiting for this POS to hit the fan.

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        #4
        I've given up on this. I'm at the final boss and I get the distinct impression that if I don't give up then I'll need a new TV! The difficulty level has been daft throughout and now, write at the end it zooms off at some crazy gradiant!!

        It's going back tomorrow. Utter dump!

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          #5
          Played this for a few hours and so far I think it's very good. The swinging mechanic is superb but it does take a while to get used to, I'm still getting used to the timing of jumping from one place to another to get maximum momentum but it works really really well, can't fault it. The gun combat is ok as well, solid, nothing special but does the job nicely. I do like zipkicking people off buildings though, that's always fun

          I certainly don't think it's a bad game at all, though it has some design flaws in terms of them bloody radiation walls. That and them bloody loading screens, it's annoying when you're getting into the 'swing' of things and you then get a loading screen. Shall see how I feel about it in a few hours. I can see this being a VERY decisive game.

          But so far so good.

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            #6
            I just started playing this and that EDGE 6/10 isn't too far off the mark. I haven't come across any amazingly frustrating sections yet but from what I have read I will soon enough.

            The swinging mechanic is very much hit and miss, teddy got it spot on. When it works it's good but when it doesnt it is quite frustrating. There have been a few occasions where I was certain I was in range to latch onto something but nope, I just fell to my doom. Shame really as in theory this swinging mechanic should really work well but it just doesn't feel natural at times, clunky would be the word.

            Gunplay is just taken out of a generic average third person shooter and is unfortunately way more useful than the bionic arm. The moves that make use of the arm are really cool but by time your ready to take advantage of one you are almost dead so you have to resort to shooting your way to safety.

            Graphically the game is pretty decent, nothing to write home about though. The game looks its best when you are out in the open, the indoor environments look rather shoddy.

            It's all been rather underwhelming so far for me, expected it to be a lot more fun than this. If I complete it, I don't think I will be keeping it.
            Last edited by ezee ryder; 23-05-2009, 03:45.

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              #7
              Originally posted by teddymeow View Post
              Grin seem to be a popular developer amongst publishers at the moment but after Wanted and now this I don't see why they are held in such a high regard.
              Aren't Grin the reason for the poor Terminator Salvation game too?

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                #8
                Cheers for the impressions fellas. Think I'll save my pence for Infamous instead.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by MJ View Post
                  Aren't Grin the reason for the poor Terminator Salvation game too?
                  Yeah. It seems Bionic Commando Rearmed might have been something of a fluke

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                    #10
                    Thats not a fluke, its the typical case of a developer that can only handle existing code (I also hold Gearbox in this regard, although peeps will disagree). Rearmed is a graphical overhaul of a classic. This new game is being built from the ground up, and then its obvious that Grin is nothing special.

                    Ever since the first footage I felt this game would not deliver. Nothing looked outstanding, the swinging was the only thing that could save it somewhat. But, swinging in 3d... I can imagine a Sonic Heroes amount of cheap deaths.

                    Well, that all came true. This game is nothing special. Should Capcom have done it in-house or should it be 2D?

                    I'll probably borrow it or something.

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                      #11
                      Don't know what you guys are smoking, but i'm thoroughly enjoying this. The swinging mechanic, the most important aspect of Bionic Commando works brilliantly. I haven't died once i got used to it. Love drop kicking enemies then finishing them off with pistol rounds, also love zipping while shooting too. If you don't use the Bionic arm in gunplay, you're pretty much f****.

                      So far its getting an 8/10 for me. Lets see if it can stay that way by the time i finish it.
                      Last edited by SuperBeatBoy; 23-05-2009, 13:10.

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                        #12
                        I'm quite a way into this and still really enjoying it. The level design could be a bit better and bloody hell get rid of the radiation walls but the swinging and combat is a blast. Once you get the swinging down you're flying around a level like nobodies business.

                        Definitely a 7/10 or so for me so far, good core gameplay but certain aspects let it down. Certainly an above average game for me at least.

                        The music is also bloody ace, really enjoying that too.
                        Last edited by mr_woo; 23-05-2009, 13:39.

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                          #13
                          I am smoking ham.

                          Seriously though, I finished the first act last night and started enjoying it a bit more. I still think the use of the bionic arm could have explored a bit more especially in terms of combat. The best example of that is the end of act boss fight against the
                          , the arm

                          (apart from climbing to get the rocket launcher)

                          had no use in taking it down. The only way you could take it down was via the "gun" that was dropped down to you.

                          I still stand by my claim that the swinging mechanic is hit and miss, I came across a section last night which really highlighted that. I would be pretty much right next to a point I could attach to but of course the game didn't recognise this and I fell to my doom. Funny thing is when I was a considerable distance away from the same point I could attach to it with no problem.

                          Oh and don't get me started on the fact that you pretty much instantly die when you drop in water. You can save yourself on the odd occasion by attaching onto a wall near you but that is quite hit and miss anyway. The reason they give for the instant death is that the bionic arm weighs you down so "you must try and stay away from water". I can live with the whole radiation walls thing but falling in water shouldn't equal instant death.

                          Like I said earlier though despite these negatives I did start to enjoy the game a bit more, I hope it gets better as I play more.

                          Oh I must mention the challenges that pop up screen every now and again, I like those as they encourage you to play the game slightly differently and they give you achivements!
                          Last edited by ezee ryder; 23-05-2009, 13:56.

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                            #14
                            Finished it there now and would definitely say a 7/10 game. I enjoyed it a lot but there's definitely some flaws in there which effect enjoyment. Core gameplay's decent but if they expand it to give you more functions with the arm and really tighten up the swinging mechanic (in terms of level design) I would really look forward to the next one, assuming there is one.

                            It's certainly not a keeper, this is being traded in on Monday to go towards Infamous but I enjoyed the time I had with it.

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                              #15
                              I'm impressed people managed to get past the first act, I gave up when traversing the area the

                              plane has crashed

                              and died a few cheap "falling" deaths, every time starting back at the start of the area. That, on top of the previous "sniper" area was just too much.

                              I play games for enjoyment, not to test my patience.

                              Moreover, this isn't an open-world game. You have set waypoints and you have really small variations on how you get to them, if you deviate then the "radiation" prevents you from going that way...next gen invisible walls!

                              Such a shame as this game had brilliant potential, but just turns out to be a below average 3rd person shooter with a swing mechanic, which I didn't even enjoy.

                              Gotta be honest and say graphically it doesn't impress me much either, the cut-scenes are dog-rough (ruff?) as well.

                              Ezee, I found the water thing hilarious myself. You weigh so much you drown yet you can jump from standing...just totally stupid.

                              6/10 might be the right score, certainly from my experience but I can't be bothered going any farther as it's just a really annoying twitchy game.
                              Last edited by Jebus; 23-05-2009, 14:38.

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