Capcom and Grin bring back a beloved franchise to the current generation consoles. It’s been over 20 years since we’ve seen Nathan “Rad” Spencer in action. Can he hold the test of time? Well, get your bionic arm ready for a ride. Here’s Evolved Gaming’s review of Bionic Commando.
So you play as Nathan Spencer, a war hero who was incarcerated and put on death row. Right before he is to be executed, his life is spared by fellow war buddy, “Super” Joe Gibson. He explains to Spencer that the government needs his help to stop an evil terrorist group called BioReign. BioReign has set off nuclear bombs in the heart of Ascension City so the city is in shambles and covered with radiation.
So, let’s start off with game play. The left trigger(L2) is for all the bionic arm controls. You can latch onto pretty much any surface as long as it is not covered with blue radiation. Hold down the trigger and press the A(X) button to jump into the air and begin swinging. Letting go of the trigger will release the arm and launch you into the direction you are facing. To be honest, it takes some getting used to. I’d say after an hour with it, you’ll be thinking your playing a Spider-Man game. It’s actually really fun. Y(triangle) is for a heavy punch that will launch whatever you punch into the air. You can follow that up by jumping and hitting the light punch button B(circle) and send it flying to other enemies of off into the landscape. Gun play is through the right trigger(R2) and aiming is toggled on by pressing in the right analog stick. There is a dodge mechanic by pressing the left button(L1), but to tell the truth, I never really used it. You can also switch your weapons by pressing the right bumper(R1).
The action is balanced out through having to “recall” your old moves again. So, you don’t start out with all your options available which is kind of a bummer. This can also make the early stages of the game somewhat difficult. Once you unlock your arm moves though, there are a ton of options at your disposal.
The experiences in the game can be awesome. I say can be because there are a few outstanding flaws with the game that really hinder the fun factor. For instance, The game sets up challenges for you like, “Kill 5 enemies with the shotgun.” I do that challenge and later on in the level die. I have now lost that challenge. So I now have to do it again. It wouldn’t be too big of a problem if completing challenges didn’t unlock new challenges and new upgrades like extra ammo or body armor. Another problem is the horrible checkpoint system. I touched on it in the first problem, but this needs to be extensively addressed. The checkpoint system is completely broken. There are collectibles spread throughout the level. You pick them all up before hitting a checkpoint. You die. Guess what? You have to not only start over from your last checkpoint, you also have to re-collect all those collectibles. This will infuriate you. The aiming isn’t horrible, but it does feel a little sluggish at times. One final problem is the fact that you feel that the game is almost open world. You can see for miles away, but you can’t go there. It’s blocked by this blue floating radiation from the nuclear bombs that were set off. This is the games way of creating invisible walls. I have no problem with this until I accidentally swing into a radiated area and don’t have enough time to turn around. So I die. I also, just lost two challenges and three collectibles not to mention about fifteen minutes of game play.
Ok. Now, I know I sounded harsh in the previous paragraph, but I said all of that to say this, this game is fun as hell. If you get the hang of the swing mechanic, and mix that with the crazy abilities you can use against your foes, you will have a blast. You can grab an enemy, throw them into the air, and then punch them into a group of three enemies. How about this? Say you’ve got seven soldiers surrounding you. Hit Y and B buttons at the same time to let out your arm’s wire and spin in a circle killing all of your enemies. There are also some really good boss fights that will keep you on edge the whole time. The swinging its self is awesome when you start picking up some speed throught the terrain.
Speaking of terrain, the graphics are really good. Like I said, they are so good, that it’s a shame that you can’t go off exploring because of the radiation. Draw distance is amazing. The only thing I can’t say looks too great is the cut scenes. Luckily, there are only a handful to be seen. Most of the story plays out in radio dialog during game play anyway.
There is a standard online multi-player which consists of deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag. The mechanics work pretty well for online, but there really is no depth to it other than a bunch a brightly colored dudes running around trying to grapple onto you to zip-kick you into next week. Ah, still, I had fun for a few hours on it.
The presentation is top notch. The music is beautifully scored to epic proportion. The voice acting is not bad considering who plays Nathan Spencer: Faith No More singer, Mike Patton. There is also a level jump option, but unfortunately, achievement/trophies and challenges are turned off. It really makes no sense why they did that when you think about the fact that after you beat the game, you can no longer get any more collectibles or challenges. You HAVE to start a brand new game. I’m still shaking my head at that one.
So, as you can see, the game boils down to awesome moments and fun game play which are sometimes majorly hindered by broken checkpoints and linear game progression. So I ask myself, “What was more predominate? exciting moments or flawed frustrations?” When it’s all said and done, I still had a blast when playing the game. Don’t get me wrong, there was a couple of times I told myself, “If I have to start this over again, I’m going to quit this game for good.” I know that sounds drastic, but keep in mind who’s writing this, after all my handle is not FrustratedFury for nothing.
The Good: Great presentation, Wonderful graphics, Nice voice work, Good sense of scale, and explosive, thoughout game play.
The Bad: Horrible checkpoint system, Takes a little getting used to the controls, Can be a difficult game, Radiation boundaries, Sluggish aiming, Level jump is pretty much useless. Multi-player feels limited.
Bottom Line: I had a lot more fun with the game than I did frustrations. This game is great for a rental. It will take you around 8 to 10 hours to complete. The multi-player is fun for a couple of hours but nothing to write home about. If you’re looking for a fun experience and will allow for a couple of moderate hiccups, definately give this game a rental.
Final Grade: 7.8
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