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This thread has been linked to the game 'Singularity'.
Singularity is an FPS developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. The game received very little marketing and didn’t sell very well. Many critics stated that the game lacked originality and that it stole ideas from Bioshock and FEAR, but considering I haven’t played either of them this game could have been seen as something new. However, I don’t think that the developers managed to flesh out their gimmick enough.
You play as an American soldier known as Nate Renko who is sent to a fictitious Russian island called Katorga-12 where Soviet scientists had been experimenting with a substance known as Element 99 in the 50’s. An electromagnetic surge takes out their helicopter and Renko ends up on the island, where he finds himself phasing between 1955, the day of the Singularity, and the present day. When Renko phases into 1955 he manages to save a Russian scientist Nikolai Demichev from a burning building. When Renko phases back into the present, he finds that Demichev has taken over the world and that many people and creatures have been mutated by radiation. Renko is determined to find a way to make things right and save the world. So you’ve messed up and saved a mass murdering dictator; what should you do? Well the story goes off on a tangent from the obvious solution and you end up wasting your time until the final conclusion, where you will finally do what you were supposed to, if you pick the one correct ending out of the three you can choose from.
The story is stretched thin throughout the game and only if you wish to have more back-story you can listen to recorded messages and notes that are scattered throughout the game. Much of the information that you receive from these is pretty irrelevant and only on rare occasions you are given game play hints from them.
The game does have some standard weaponry, such as a pistol, an Assault rifle, a Sniper rifle and a Shotgun, but later on in the game you do gain access to more interesting weapons such as a Seeker rifle which allows you to control bullets remotely, allowing you to shoot safely around corners and from cover; and a Dethex Launcher which allows you to roll a grenade remotely along the ground. However, the main gimmick of the game is the Time Manipulation Device or TMD which has various abilities to use in combat or to solve puzzles.
In combat the TMD can age or revert enemies, which has different effects dependant on the enemy it is used on. When you age soldiers for example, they age to a skeleton and crumble into dust. Later on in the game you can change them into a “Revert” which will then attack enemies for you. I would have thought that the game would have allowed you to turn enemy soldiers into babies, but then the game would become controversial if you were allowed to shoot them. The TMD can be used to emit an Impulse blast which knocks back enemies around you and can be upgraded to cause significant damage. The Impulse ability is the most useful combat ability as there are a few occasions where you are attacked in groups at melee distance.
Each of your weapons and the TMD can be upgraded by collecting “Weapon Tech” found in the levels and using them at Weapon lockers. Considering you are limited to only two weapons at a time it is best to specialise in two. Scattered throughout the game are E99 tech, which you can use at Augment Stations to upgrade Renko to have more max health, carry more health packs, increase Impulse damage and many other options. As there are many things you can upgrade, it gives you a demand for E99 and you are usually rewarded for exploring areas. The downside is that doors can automatically shut behind you so that you can’t go back, which means you may lose out on E99 or Weapon Tech to buy upgrades.
The first upgrade you get for the TMD is Gravity manipulation, which is similar to the gravity gun from Half-Life. In combat you can use this ability to throw explosive canisters and grenades back at enemies.
Later on in the game, the TMD can be upgraded to create a Deadlock sphere which slows anything that is caught in its radius, which is similar to stasis from Dead Space. This is used for puzzles and can be useful in combat.
The aging and reverting abilities of the TMD are used on objects in the environment to progress and obtain supplies. There are dusty crates scattered through the game which will contain ammo, health, E99 and TMD energy packs if you revert them to a previous time. You use this ability on broken stairs to allow access to other areas and activate power stations to open doors or electrocute enemies if they are standing in water.
Although the puzzles are a good way of mixing up the action in the game, they are repeated frequently. Early in the game you will see a garage door that isn’t open enough for you to crouch under it, so you age a box so that it can fit under it and then you revert it so it expands and pushes up the door. You repeat this puzzle multiple times throughout the game so that you get tired of the once interesting idea. The Deadlock sphere, apart from one different puzzle, has the same issue. The Deadlock sphere is used to slow a fan blade so that you can pass through it and this is also repeated many times. The remote control grenades, of the Dethex Launcher, are used for one puzzle in the game; surprisingly it is never repeated.
In the whole game there are only 2 bosses that you face and I only enjoyed one of them. The second boss only requires you to fire at its glowing orange weak spots until it falls, while the more engaging boss is beaten with evasion and the gravity manipulation ability.
I would say that Singularity is a tad too easy on Normal difficulty. The game doesn’t give much incentive to use your TMD abilities over ammo as it is in a fair supply and you don’t have to use Deadlock spheres in combat to slow enemies as you can manage easily without it. Maybe the game will ask for more skilful use of abilities on Hard difficulty. There is a section in the game where you are advised to stealth past opponents, but I still fought through them anyway. The game does increase in difficulty slightly when elite TMD-resistant soldiers are introduced though.
Considering I couldn’t get a multiplayer game going, I would have to base the game on its single player only. The game introduces new abilities and enemies over the course of the game to help it seem varied and there is a charm to its time travelling theme. Even though the puzzles are repetitive, I still had fun with the game. It could be worse; the game could be filled with pipe connecting mini-games or something.
6/10
You play as an American soldier known as Nate Renko who is sent to a fictitious Russian island called Katorga-12 where Soviet scientists had been experimenting with a substance known as Element 99 in the 50’s. An electromagnetic surge takes out their helicopter and Renko ends up on the island, where he finds himself phasing between 1955, the day of the Singularity, and the present day. When Renko phases into 1955 he manages to save a Russian scientist Nikolai Demichev from a burning building. When Renko phases back into the present, he finds that Demichev has taken over the world and that many people and creatures have been mutated by radiation. Renko is determined to find a way to make things right and save the world. So you’ve messed up and saved a mass murdering dictator; what should you do? Well the story goes off on a tangent from the obvious solution and you end up wasting your time until the final conclusion, where you will finally do what you were supposed to, if you pick the one correct ending out of the three you can choose from.
The story is stretched thin throughout the game and only if you wish to have more back-story you can listen to recorded messages and notes that are scattered throughout the game. Much of the information that you receive from these is pretty irrelevant and only on rare occasions you are given game play hints from them.
The game does have some standard weaponry, such as a pistol, an Assault rifle, a Sniper rifle and a Shotgun, but later on in the game you do gain access to more interesting weapons such as a Seeker rifle which allows you to control bullets remotely, allowing you to shoot safely around corners and from cover; and a Dethex Launcher which allows you to roll a grenade remotely along the ground. However, the main gimmick of the game is the Time Manipulation Device or TMD which has various abilities to use in combat or to solve puzzles.
In combat the TMD can age or revert enemies, which has different effects dependant on the enemy it is used on. When you age soldiers for example, they age to a skeleton and crumble into dust. Later on in the game you can change them into a “Revert” which will then attack enemies for you. I would have thought that the game would have allowed you to turn enemy soldiers into babies, but then the game would become controversial if you were allowed to shoot them. The TMD can be used to emit an Impulse blast which knocks back enemies around you and can be upgraded to cause significant damage. The Impulse ability is the most useful combat ability as there are a few occasions where you are attacked in groups at melee distance.
Each of your weapons and the TMD can be upgraded by collecting “Weapon Tech” found in the levels and using them at Weapon lockers. Considering you are limited to only two weapons at a time it is best to specialise in two. Scattered throughout the game are E99 tech, which you can use at Augment Stations to upgrade Renko to have more max health, carry more health packs, increase Impulse damage and many other options. As there are many things you can upgrade, it gives you a demand for E99 and you are usually rewarded for exploring areas. The downside is that doors can automatically shut behind you so that you can’t go back, which means you may lose out on E99 or Weapon Tech to buy upgrades.
The first upgrade you get for the TMD is Gravity manipulation, which is similar to the gravity gun from Half-Life. In combat you can use this ability to throw explosive canisters and grenades back at enemies.
Later on in the game, the TMD can be upgraded to create a Deadlock sphere which slows anything that is caught in its radius, which is similar to stasis from Dead Space. This is used for puzzles and can be useful in combat.
The aging and reverting abilities of the TMD are used on objects in the environment to progress and obtain supplies. There are dusty crates scattered through the game which will contain ammo, health, E99 and TMD energy packs if you revert them to a previous time. You use this ability on broken stairs to allow access to other areas and activate power stations to open doors or electrocute enemies if they are standing in water.
Although the puzzles are a good way of mixing up the action in the game, they are repeated frequently. Early in the game you will see a garage door that isn’t open enough for you to crouch under it, so you age a box so that it can fit under it and then you revert it so it expands and pushes up the door. You repeat this puzzle multiple times throughout the game so that you get tired of the once interesting idea. The Deadlock sphere, apart from one different puzzle, has the same issue. The Deadlock sphere is used to slow a fan blade so that you can pass through it and this is also repeated many times. The remote control grenades, of the Dethex Launcher, are used for one puzzle in the game; surprisingly it is never repeated.
In the whole game there are only 2 bosses that you face and I only enjoyed one of them. The second boss only requires you to fire at its glowing orange weak spots until it falls, while the more engaging boss is beaten with evasion and the gravity manipulation ability.
I would say that Singularity is a tad too easy on Normal difficulty. The game doesn’t give much incentive to use your TMD abilities over ammo as it is in a fair supply and you don’t have to use Deadlock spheres in combat to slow enemies as you can manage easily without it. Maybe the game will ask for more skilful use of abilities on Hard difficulty. There is a section in the game where you are advised to stealth past opponents, but I still fought through them anyway. The game does increase in difficulty slightly when elite TMD-resistant soldiers are introduced though.
Considering I couldn’t get a multiplayer game going, I would have to base the game on its single player only. The game introduces new abilities and enemies over the course of the game to help it seem varied and there is a charm to its time travelling theme. Even though the puzzles are repetitive, I still had fun with the game. It could be worse; the game could be filled with pipe connecting mini-games or something.
6/10
Singularity is an FPS developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. The game received very little marketing and didn’t sell very well. Many critics stated that the game lacked originality and that it stole ideas from Bioshock and FEAR, but considering I haven’t played either of them this game could have been seen as something new. However, I don’t think that the developers managed to flesh out their gimmick enough.
You play as an American soldier known as Nate Renko who is sent to a fictitious Russian island called Katorga-12 where Soviet scientists had been experimenting with a substance known as Element 99 in the 50’s. An electromagnetic surge takes out their helicopter and Renko ends up on the island, where he finds himself phasing between 1955, the day of the Singularity, and the present day. When Renko phases into 1955 he manages to save a Russian scientist Nikolai Demichev from a burning building. When Renko phases back into the present, he finds that Demichev has taken over the world and that many people and creatures have been mutated by radiation. Renko is determined to find a way to make things right and save the world. So you’ve messed up and saved a mass murdering dictator; what should you do? Well the story goes off on a tangent from the obvious solution and you end up wasting your time until the final conclusion, where you will finally do what you were supposed to, if you pick the one correct ending out of the three you can choose from.
The story is stretched thin throughout the game and only if you wish to have more back-story you can listen to recorded messages and notes that are scattered throughout the game. Much of the information that you receive from these is pretty irrelevant and only on rare occasions you are given game play hints from them.
The game does have some standard weaponry, such as a pistol, an Assault rifle, a Sniper rifle and a Shotgun, but later on in the game you do gain access to more interesting weapons such as a Seeker rifle which allows you to control bullets remotely, allowing you to shoot safely around corners and from cover; and a Dethex Launcher which allows you to roll a grenade remotely along the ground. However, the main gimmick of the game is the Time Manipulation Device or TMD which has various abilities to use in combat or to solve puzzles.
In combat the TMD can age or revert enemies, which has different effects dependant on the enemy it is used on. When you age soldiers for example, they age to a skeleton and crumble into dust. Later on in the game you can change them into a “Revert” which will then attack enemies for you. I would have thought that the game would have allowed you to turn enemy soldiers into babies, but then the game would become controversial if you were allowed to shoot them. The TMD can be used to emit an Impulse blast which knocks back enemies around you and can be upgraded to cause significant damage. The Impulse ability is the most useful combat ability as there are a few occasions where you are attacked in groups at melee distance.
Each of your weapons and the TMD can be upgraded by collecting “Weapon Tech” found in the levels and using them at Weapon lockers. Considering you are limited to only two weapons at a time it is best to specialise in two. Scattered throughout the game are E99 tech, which you can use at Augment Stations to upgrade Renko to have more max health, carry more health packs, increase Impulse damage and many other options. As there are many things you can upgrade, it gives you a demand for E99 and you are usually rewarded for exploring areas. The downside is that doors can automatically shut behind you so that you can’t go back, which means you may lose out on E99 or Weapon Tech to buy upgrades.
The first upgrade you get for the TMD is Gravity manipulation, which is similar to the gravity gun from Half-Life. In combat you can use this ability to throw explosive canisters and grenades back at enemies.
Later on in the game, the TMD can be upgraded to create a Deadlock sphere which slows anything that is caught in its radius, which is similar to stasis from Dead Space. This is used for puzzles and can be useful in combat.
The aging and reverting abilities of the TMD are used on objects in the environment to progress and obtain supplies. There are dusty crates scattered through the game which will contain ammo, health, E99 and TMD energy packs if you revert them to a previous time. You use this ability on broken stairs to allow access to other areas and activate power stations to open doors or electrocute enemies if they are standing in water.
Although the puzzles are a good way of mixing up the action in the game, they are repeated frequently. Early in the game you will see a garage door that isn’t open enough for you to crouch under it, so you age a box so that it can fit under it and then you revert it so it expands and pushes up the door. You repeat this puzzle multiple times throughout the game so that you get tired of the once interesting idea. The Deadlock sphere, apart from one different puzzle, has the same issue. The Deadlock sphere is used to slow a fan blade so that you can pass through it and this is also repeated many times. The remote control grenades, of the Dethex Launcher, are used for one puzzle in the game; surprisingly it is never repeated.
In the whole game there are only 2 bosses that you face and I only enjoyed one of them. The second boss only requires you to fire at its glowing orange weak spots until it falls, while the more engaging boss is beaten with evasion and the gravity manipulation ability.
I would say that Singularity is a tad too easy on Normal difficulty. The game doesn’t give much incentive to use your TMD abilities over ammo as it is in a fair supply and you don’t have to use Deadlock spheres in combat to slow enemies as you can manage easily without it. Maybe the game will ask for more skilful use of abilities on Hard difficulty. There is a section in the game where you are advised to stealth past opponents, but I still fought through them anyway. The game does increase in difficulty slightly when elite TMD-resistant soldiers are introduced though.
Considering I couldn’t get a multiplayer game going, I would have to base the game on its single player only. The game introduces new abilities and enemies over the course of the game to help it seem varied and there is a charm to its time travelling theme. Even though the puzzles are repetitive, I still had fun with the game. It could be worse; the game could be filled with pipe connecting mini-games or something.
6/10
You play as an American soldier known as Nate Renko who is sent to a fictitious Russian island called Katorga-12 where Soviet scientists had been experimenting with a substance known as Element 99 in the 50’s. An electromagnetic surge takes out their helicopter and Renko ends up on the island, where he finds himself phasing between 1955, the day of the Singularity, and the present day. When Renko phases into 1955 he manages to save a Russian scientist Nikolai Demichev from a burning building. When Renko phases back into the present, he finds that Demichev has taken over the world and that many people and creatures have been mutated by radiation. Renko is determined to find a way to make things right and save the world. So you’ve messed up and saved a mass murdering dictator; what should you do? Well the story goes off on a tangent from the obvious solution and you end up wasting your time until the final conclusion, where you will finally do what you were supposed to, if you pick the one correct ending out of the three you can choose from.
The story is stretched thin throughout the game and only if you wish to have more back-story you can listen to recorded messages and notes that are scattered throughout the game. Much of the information that you receive from these is pretty irrelevant and only on rare occasions you are given game play hints from them.
The game does have some standard weaponry, such as a pistol, an Assault rifle, a Sniper rifle and a Shotgun, but later on in the game you do gain access to more interesting weapons such as a Seeker rifle which allows you to control bullets remotely, allowing you to shoot safely around corners and from cover; and a Dethex Launcher which allows you to roll a grenade remotely along the ground. However, the main gimmick of the game is the Time Manipulation Device or TMD which has various abilities to use in combat or to solve puzzles.
In combat the TMD can age or revert enemies, which has different effects dependant on the enemy it is used on. When you age soldiers for example, they age to a skeleton and crumble into dust. Later on in the game you can change them into a “Revert” which will then attack enemies for you. I would have thought that the game would have allowed you to turn enemy soldiers into babies, but then the game would become controversial if you were allowed to shoot them. The TMD can be used to emit an Impulse blast which knocks back enemies around you and can be upgraded to cause significant damage. The Impulse ability is the most useful combat ability as there are a few occasions where you are attacked in groups at melee distance.
Each of your weapons and the TMD can be upgraded by collecting “Weapon Tech” found in the levels and using them at Weapon lockers. Considering you are limited to only two weapons at a time it is best to specialise in two. Scattered throughout the game are E99 tech, which you can use at Augment Stations to upgrade Renko to have more max health, carry more health packs, increase Impulse damage and many other options. As there are many things you can upgrade, it gives you a demand for E99 and you are usually rewarded for exploring areas. The downside is that doors can automatically shut behind you so that you can’t go back, which means you may lose out on E99 or Weapon Tech to buy upgrades.
The first upgrade you get for the TMD is Gravity manipulation, which is similar to the gravity gun from Half-Life. In combat you can use this ability to throw explosive canisters and grenades back at enemies.
Later on in the game, the TMD can be upgraded to create a Deadlock sphere which slows anything that is caught in its radius, which is similar to stasis from Dead Space. This is used for puzzles and can be useful in combat.
The aging and reverting abilities of the TMD are used on objects in the environment to progress and obtain supplies. There are dusty crates scattered through the game which will contain ammo, health, E99 and TMD energy packs if you revert them to a previous time. You use this ability on broken stairs to allow access to other areas and activate power stations to open doors or electrocute enemies if they are standing in water.
Although the puzzles are a good way of mixing up the action in the game, they are repeated frequently. Early in the game you will see a garage door that isn’t open enough for you to crouch under it, so you age a box so that it can fit under it and then you revert it so it expands and pushes up the door. You repeat this puzzle multiple times throughout the game so that you get tired of the once interesting idea. The Deadlock sphere, apart from one different puzzle, has the same issue. The Deadlock sphere is used to slow a fan blade so that you can pass through it and this is also repeated many times. The remote control grenades, of the Dethex Launcher, are used for one puzzle in the game; surprisingly it is never repeated.
In the whole game there are only 2 bosses that you face and I only enjoyed one of them. The second boss only requires you to fire at its glowing orange weak spots until it falls, while the more engaging boss is beaten with evasion and the gravity manipulation ability.
I would say that Singularity is a tad too easy on Normal difficulty. The game doesn’t give much incentive to use your TMD abilities over ammo as it is in a fair supply and you don’t have to use Deadlock spheres in combat to slow enemies as you can manage easily without it. Maybe the game will ask for more skilful use of abilities on Hard difficulty. There is a section in the game where you are advised to stealth past opponents, but I still fought through them anyway. The game does increase in difficulty slightly when elite TMD-resistant soldiers are introduced though.
Considering I couldn’t get a multiplayer game going, I would have to base the game on its single player only. The game introduces new abilities and enemies over the course of the game to help it seem varied and there is a charm to its time travelling theme. Even though the puzzles are repetitive, I still had fun with the game. It could be worse; the game could be filled with pipe connecting mini-games or something.
6/10
Good review. The game certainly sounds as if it was destined to disappear in a sea of mediocrity.
Been a while since I played it but I quite enjoyed Singularity.
I did enjoy the game, but I don't think that you would be missing out by not playing it.
They could have used the Deadlock ability for a 3rd boss idea like freezing its arm while it holds an explosive or have a boss that you can't look at directly so that you have to pick at it with the seeker rifle. Maybe Activision held them to a strict deadline as they could have had more ideas for the abilities.
They could have used the Deadlock ability for a 3rd boss idea like freezing its arm while it holds an explosive or have a boss that you can't look at directly so that you have to pick at it with the seeker rifle. Maybe Activision held them to a strict deadline as they could have had more ideas for the abilities.