Singularity is a first person shooter set in two different time periods. The gimmick of the game is that you have a device that can both manipulate and travel through time. It's an interesting concept, but obviously plays off other shooters, and Half-Life 2 in particular.
Gameplay: 7.5
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
In terms of the game itself, it plays pretty well. The gameplay concepts are fairly simple and you can tell they at least explored new ways to play shooters.
Getting back to the Half-Life 2 comparison, you have a device that can carry objects around and you use those objects to solve simple puzzles. The shooter gameplay also kind of mimicks Half-Life 2, in a way, but doesn't have things like vehicles. The puzzles in particular are rarely rewarding, and often just clumsy and confusing, as if they needed to include that part of the game to slow you down. I can't say any of the puzzles are particularly fun. The shooter gameplay, though, is actually pretty good.
As I mentioned earlier, the gimmick of the game is the TMD - a device that can alter the state of objects throughout time and also allow you to travel through time at certain points throughout the game. It's not.. bad, per se. But it is a little more fancy than actually practical. A lot of the instances in which you repair stuff or destroy stuff by making it new or old is nothing but a gimmick. For example, getting a lock off a door is as dramatic as making the lock age by a million years and having it fall off. So, rarely would I call the time control aspect actually useful.
The enemies in the game are also pretty stock. There are enemy soldiers that shoot you and stuff, monsters that are like zombies, and a 3rd, ultra-annoying race that jumps up in your face just like the Flood in Halo.
A lot of the boss battles are just lame. There are a couple in particular where you do literally nothing but stand in one spot and shoot at something. Hurray?
Where this game actually shines is in it's multiplayer. It's like Left 4 Dead except... actually good. You play as either the humans or the monsters, and you can select your class of human or your class of monster, and it's essentially a game of map control. Playing as the monsters is awesome and creative, and playing as the Humans isn't annoying because you don't have 50 guys in your face all the time.
The only unfortunate thing is that this game really flew under the radar in terms of Multiplayer so finding a match takes forever.
Presentation: 8.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
This is one of those games that tries to reel you into the atmosphere by having a HUD that has as little information on it as possible. It actually works, too.
Through the beginning of the game, the audio is stellar and there is sort of a creepy/eerie undertone that keeps you on your toes. Although, that feeling fades pretty quickly, considering the game's tempo really picks up.
There are a few minor irritations with the presentation, though, such as the narrow field of view. I remember back when Halo 2 was THE game, and in Halo 3 they went out of their way to widen the field of view so you could see more when playing the game. It worked well, especially since HD was the new craze. This game's field of view is really narrow and almost feels as if you're zoomed in, all the time. It can get annoying.
One other thing that sucks is that this is a noisy game, but they don't even have an option to turn subtitles on. What's up with that?
I also don't get the random usage of backwards letters in their text throughout the game. What is this, a game or a lemonade stand?
Theatrics: 6.5
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
This game's story is about a secretive Russian island that was doing research on some new element - E99 they called it. It was apparently really radioactive and had all sorts of odd mutative and time-altering properties. You play as a US soldier that is sent in to find that device and then, apparently, get lost along your way and sort of follow the narrow path that the game sets out.
Going along with the good audio in the beginning, they tell a story from a ton of different peoples' points of view. There are audio tapes in each room along with instances of flashbacks that you sort of view through time.. vortexes or something, that help tell a story on a very personal level. Over time, this appeal really wears off and adds nothing to the game. I'm pretty sure they had the same voice actor on every tape, too.
The actual story isn't all that riveting. You likely won't ever care about any of the characters and the story events are like "this island got destroyed"... "this guy did it, and he's bad". Cool.
Controls: 9.0
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
This game has pretty nice controls. Very minimal complaints other than hiccups here or there. The TMD controls can be a little frustrating to work with, at times.
Replay Value: 7.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
The campiagn itself is okay, but I played through Half-Life 2 three times total. I won't have any interest in playing through this game again because it just doesn't offer enough awesome moments.
The multiplayer is great and I actually kept the game for an extra week or so, hoping to get into multiplayer matches. Trouble is that nobody plays this game anymore so finding a match takes forever.
Fun: 7.0
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
It's not a terrible game. There weren't big wow moments in the campaign. Multiplayer was actually a lot of fun, but it's hard to have a ton of fun while waiting forever for a match to start.
My Overall Rating: 7.3
Complexity Level: Fair. If you've played shooters before you should be able to pick this up and play competently, pretty easily.
Gameplay: 7.5
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
In terms of the game itself, it plays pretty well. The gameplay concepts are fairly simple and you can tell they at least explored new ways to play shooters.
Getting back to the Half-Life 2 comparison, you have a device that can carry objects around and you use those objects to solve simple puzzles. The shooter gameplay also kind of mimicks Half-Life 2, in a way, but doesn't have things like vehicles. The puzzles in particular are rarely rewarding, and often just clumsy and confusing, as if they needed to include that part of the game to slow you down. I can't say any of the puzzles are particularly fun. The shooter gameplay, though, is actually pretty good.
As I mentioned earlier, the gimmick of the game is the TMD - a device that can alter the state of objects throughout time and also allow you to travel through time at certain points throughout the game. It's not.. bad, per se. But it is a little more fancy than actually practical. A lot of the instances in which you repair stuff or destroy stuff by making it new or old is nothing but a gimmick. For example, getting a lock off a door is as dramatic as making the lock age by a million years and having it fall off. So, rarely would I call the time control aspect actually useful.
The enemies in the game are also pretty stock. There are enemy soldiers that shoot you and stuff, monsters that are like zombies, and a 3rd, ultra-annoying race that jumps up in your face just like the Flood in Halo.
A lot of the boss battles are just lame. There are a couple in particular where you do literally nothing but stand in one spot and shoot at something. Hurray?
Where this game actually shines is in it's multiplayer. It's like Left 4 Dead except... actually good. You play as either the humans or the monsters, and you can select your class of human or your class of monster, and it's essentially a game of map control. Playing as the monsters is awesome and creative, and playing as the Humans isn't annoying because you don't have 50 guys in your face all the time.
The only unfortunate thing is that this game really flew under the radar in terms of Multiplayer so finding a match takes forever.
Presentation: 8.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
This is one of those games that tries to reel you into the atmosphere by having a HUD that has as little information on it as possible. It actually works, too.
Through the beginning of the game, the audio is stellar and there is sort of a creepy/eerie undertone that keeps you on your toes. Although, that feeling fades pretty quickly, considering the game's tempo really picks up.
There are a few minor irritations with the presentation, though, such as the narrow field of view. I remember back when Halo 2 was THE game, and in Halo 3 they went out of their way to widen the field of view so you could see more when playing the game. It worked well, especially since HD was the new craze. This game's field of view is really narrow and almost feels as if you're zoomed in, all the time. It can get annoying.
One other thing that sucks is that this is a noisy game, but they don't even have an option to turn subtitles on. What's up with that?
I also don't get the random usage of backwards letters in their text throughout the game. What is this, a game or a lemonade stand?
Theatrics: 6.5
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
This game's story is about a secretive Russian island that was doing research on some new element - E99 they called it. It was apparently really radioactive and had all sorts of odd mutative and time-altering properties. You play as a US soldier that is sent in to find that device and then, apparently, get lost along your way and sort of follow the narrow path that the game sets out.
Going along with the good audio in the beginning, they tell a story from a ton of different peoples' points of view. There are audio tapes in each room along with instances of flashbacks that you sort of view through time.. vortexes or something, that help tell a story on a very personal level. Over time, this appeal really wears off and adds nothing to the game. I'm pretty sure they had the same voice actor on every tape, too.
The actual story isn't all that riveting. You likely won't ever care about any of the characters and the story events are like "this island got destroyed"... "this guy did it, and he's bad". Cool.
Controls: 9.0
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
This game has pretty nice controls. Very minimal complaints other than hiccups here or there. The TMD controls can be a little frustrating to work with, at times.
Replay Value: 7.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
The campiagn itself is okay, but I played through Half-Life 2 three times total. I won't have any interest in playing through this game again because it just doesn't offer enough awesome moments.
The multiplayer is great and I actually kept the game for an extra week or so, hoping to get into multiplayer matches. Trouble is that nobody plays this game anymore so finding a match takes forever.
Fun: 7.0
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
It's not a terrible game. There weren't big wow moments in the campaign. Multiplayer was actually a lot of fun, but it's hard to have a ton of fun while waiting forever for a match to start.
My Overall Rating: 7.3
Complexity Level: Fair. If you've played shooters before you should be able to pick this up and play competently, pretty easily.
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