User Review : Bionic Commando

A retro classic swings into a modern revival

I have very fond memories of Bionic Commando on NES. As a kid, I was always saving up every penny I could earn in anticipation of my next visit to the video store. I would debate what game I would rent next, hoping it would be good and that I wouldn't squander my hard earned money on another Back to the Future. I remember seeing the Bionic Commando box with Rad Spencer equipped with a grappling hook to his arm, swinging between robots and enemy troops. This game surely wouldn't be terrible I though and I rushed home to play what would be come one of the key games in my gaming education.

Now that I've grown, it looks like Bionic Commando has too. Developer Grin has taken Capcom's old, crusty commando, brushed him up and has enlisted him for duty once again. He just has a few kinks that need to be worked on first.

Bionic Commando picks up ten years after the first game on the NES. Nathan "Rad" Spencer has been imprisoned on death row for not following the order's of his commanding officer, "Super" Joe Gibson, which resulted in numerous soldiers being killed. After this incident, the bionic program was shut down and all bionics were forced to turn in their augmentations or have them forcibly removed. The bionics fought back though and a pro-bionic terrorist group detonated a nuclear weapon in the middle of Ascension City. It's now up to Nathan Spencer to find out what the terrorists really want and how it might be connected to his past.

Bionic Commando is a game that smells of nostalgia, but marred by bad game design decisions. One of the first sights you are treated too after retrieving you bionic arm is an open city landscape, littered with grapple points and vertigo inducing height. It's a beautiful spectacle that showcases how gorgeous this game is graphically. Sunlight sparkles off the water, forest areas are lush with detail, and city environments are highly detailed with impressive draw distances. Yet once you jump into this gorgeous open world, you are slapped in the face with dreaded invisible walls that manifest themselves in blue radiation clouds. These clouds of smokey death are placed in areas the developers don't want you to travel and are incredibly hard to spot. At points, you'll be swinging along and one small slip will have you trapped in these clouds, which kill you almost instantly. If they wanted you to stay on track, they should have made the levels more linear instead of betraying the initial sense of freedom you are greeted with at the start of the game. Couple this with the game's sparce checkpoint system and the game can be frustrating at times when you have to start at the beginning of the area after death.

Once you get past this though, the game can really start to shine. The animation of Spencer is amazing. He'll swan dive off of high buildings, flip around onto cliffs, and ground pound the earth in an particularly awesome sequence. Combine this with the swinging mechanic and the game makes you feel like a true commando. Swinging feels both natural and fun, but if you find it too hard, the game offers numerous tutorials and indicators to help you along the way which will be having you perform feats of dexterity in no time.

This crucial skill also finds its way into the combat. While your peashooter of a pistol is a lame weapon, the game's heavier weapon loadout is a joy to use. SMGs, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, and one beefy shotgun make up some of the toys you'll be using to take the fight to the bad guys, along with your very own bionic arm. You can spin whip, grab, and slam baddies into each other. Jump from a high ledge and execute the "Death From Above" to really shatter the opposition or latch onto them to zip kick from one to the next. The combat is very satisfying and fun no matter if you're a skilled gamer or if you completely new to action games.

It also helps that Bionic Commando has some amazing set pieces and boss fights to use these abilities to their fullest in. During the game's eight hour mission, you'll be faced with surviving a forest of snipers, a rooftop helicopter battle, and an intense shootout in a vast library. The game is always uping the ante as you progress with each new area, culminating in a finale so amazing I couldn't help but smile in awe.

Once you're done with the single player, you can jump into the game's multiplayer mode which features genre staples such as deathmatch and capture the flag with up to ten people.The mode does nothing special though to hold your attention other than the inclusion of the grappling hook. This does add a twist on the modern multiplayer shooter as players are swinging around, grabbing weapons and trying to out smart and out swing each other. Yet the bland maps and lack of any gameplay depth in a market crowded by shooters that offer perks and level systems guarantee Bionic Commando's multiplayer is utterly forgettable.

Bionic Commando does a lot of things right, while also commiting some bizarre design choices. Even though the game's campaign can be frustrating at times, it's still a fun game that deserves to be played by fans and newcomes alike. Just make sure you're coming for the single player and not the multiplayer.

Score

7.7

Graphics

Swinging around is loads of fun, but blue radiation clouds are not.

8.2

Sound

Environments and character models are nicely rendered, but there is some glitching and tearing at places

9.0

Gameplay

The remixed Bionic Commando music makes for one of the best video game soundtracks yet.

7.5

Fun Factor

The single player is pretty beefy, but the multiplayer is bare bones

6.5

Online

The online component is stale and boring. Only the swinging mechanic and vertical level design keep it from being completely useless

Overall

7.9

[ShadowCK]

Interesting Review. I've got the game I was pretty disappointed with it. Bionic Commando Rearmed was famous due to is amount of replayability and stunning visuals. However, in Bionic Commando there's no reason to replay the campaign once it's done and the graphics were average compared to other games.

Which is a shame because I was looking forward to this game.