Reviews and Thoughts - By Aaron Waller

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SINGULARITY: X-Box 360

Reviewed By: Aaron Waller

Controlling:

The game handles quite well, despite having multiple abilities due to your TMD gizmo. There are a few issues involving aggressive battle scenarios in the game and accidentally using an unwanted power. By pressing down on the right stick or R3 for the knowing gamer, you can create a bubble causing all activity (except yourself) to slow down almost freezing it still. In some of the action I caught myself pressing down on the stick and creating this time bubble rather than running or moving when in most cases it was imperative. But otherwise the controlling of this first person shooter is smooth, and familiar for all FPS fans.

4 out of 5 stars

Game design and graphics:

I always love reminding to whoever listens, that I love how graphics in the entertainment industry are incredible. As a former art student and current gamer I enjoy seeing how far graphics have come. But I have to remind people it’s not always about the look, but the feel of the design as well that can make a good game, into a great one. A good example is the latter half of the Final Fantasy genre. Not to say that some of them were not great, I myself became an avid gamer thanks to FF7. I just believe SquareEnix has put more time in the look of their story rather than the feel of it. Most of the games are half video and half game, and the story line (probably the most important) has not been the same since the early golden age of gaming. Ok so now that I’m done chatting your, eye out…? I’ll bring you back to the game I’m reviewing. Singularity has average for today’s standard when it comes to its look. It’s a very basic style of FPS graphics, you can find on just about anything from the 360. A good game to compare it to would be Wolfenstein. However unlike Wolfenstein, Singularity is a very linear game. You have specific goals to accomplish, but only one route to go so you won’t have a problem getting lost. Being that I have said one good thing about the game design I have to say I really dislike how there is barely any exploration in this game. Now given FPS games are not always adventurous. But when you have to run away from a continuous onslaught of enemies and the door closes behind you, I can’t tell you how annoying it is when you know you’ve missed that one item you need to fully complete the game. I always make sure to check every corner and every room in every game I play, but in this heavily linear game I was not always able to. I did enjoy the game play, but to make the environment so closed off to the player now a days just seems like a horrible idea.

2 out of 5 stars

Story:

Alright, so this is going to be the hardest and most confusing section in this review. Singularity is exactly that, a Singularity in an easy to understand definition is the center of a black hole. That is where “supposedly” all time and space itself stands still, and in some theories is obliterated. But enough of me explaining to you what these things are, and hopefully you can pick up an encyclopedia or search it on Wikipedia for yourself. The game basically starts off with you as a member in a Spec Ops team sent to an island east of Russia in the present. Your team knows nothing about the operation and it is just like every other game out there, your job to find out why and to fix “it”. On your way to the island in one of a few choppers you notice a large storm over the island and large amounts of radiation, while conversing with your team leader a large blast of microwave radiation engulfs the island and each one of the Spec Ops choppers. The next thing you know is you’re waking up on the shore of Kartuga island and all of your squad mates are missing, eventually while running around for a minute you get a signal from your leader giving you the objective of meeting up with him. It actually takes a while for the action to start, or even find a weapon. But it does a good job building up the suspense during that time, it almost felt like a watered down FPS version of Silent Hill. Little kids and dolls in any suspenseful, scary game always creep me out… So eventually as events start to unfold throughout the game you end up going to the past and affecting it by changing what was meant to happen in your universe, causing an alternate and ultimately horrifying present. The story is rich and it has you wondering who it is that is writing on all the walls, all the way up to the climactic end. It honestly is a rich and thoughtful idea for a game; it is however a letdown that you weren’t able to mess around with changing the timeline on your own terms. For those people that are like myself and love watching the episodes of Star Trek where in they go back in time and alter their reality in some way or another, you will like playing out this games paradox.

5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:

Singularity is a wonderfully written game, with average graphics and little to no adventure in game play. I did have fun playing through the game, but found myself getting upset on how linear the world is. I would recommend this game for anyone that likes Sci Fi, and hasn’t but would love to play another FPS. Best for occasional gamers, and maybe a lot of dads out there.

Average & Overall Game Score

3 1/2 out of 5 Stars