#e-99

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Singularity

Developer: Raven Software Publisher: Activision Rrp: £14.99 (Steam) and £14.99 (Humblebundle) Released: 1st July 2010 Available on: Steam and Humblebundle Played Using: Keyboard and Mouse Time Travel, its been a concept that science fiction writers have played with many times over, many theories surround the idea but so far none of them have been proven (so far as we're aware anyway). But lets assume it is possible the important question is could you destroy the past to save the future? Singularity is a FPS with some light RPG elements. You play as Nathaniel Renko, a Captain of the U.S Recon Marines, who is sent to investigate some strange energy readings coming from the small island in Russian waters known as Katorga-12. As you may have guessed, things go wrong very very quickly. This is a game that borrows from a lot of other games of its time, there's a little bit of Half-Life 2 in the physics puzzles, Bioshock shines through in the light RPG elements and I even caught a wiff F.E.A.R thrown in too.

After a short amount of time you find and equip the TMD (Time Manipulation Device). This device has many uses such as decaying or rejuvenating certain items, ripping holes in the fabric of time and as a close quarters weapon (and all this before it gets upgraded). The supply of energy the TMD has available to it is limited but slowly regenerates, however if you need energy quickly you can collect TMD cells which automatically provide a quick recharge when you run out.

Whether an object can be manipulated using the TMD is indicated with a dual coloured semicircle that appears above your targeting reticulated. If the blue half is visible you can restore it and if its orange you can age it. The TMD can also be used on living creatures, doing so uses a lot of energy and, depending on the creature, has some very varied effects not all of which are helpful to you. During the course of the game the TMD gets upgraded several times, each upgrade adds a new feature to the device and after a while it starts to work like the gravity gun in Half-Life 2, allowing the player to pick up & throw objects. Of course the gravity gun couldn't age and restore items as it was holding them... Wonderful TMD gadgetry aside, no FPS is complete without its arsenal and Singularity is no different. There are nine weapons that can be found and equipped, of those, two are special weapons that cannot be reequipped through the Weapons Lockers. You find these Weapon Lockers as you play and they can be used to switch your weapon loadout any weapon that you've encountered (with two exceptions) can be found here. Weapons can be upgraded here using weapon upgrade crates that you find out in the world. Frankly the upgrades are a bit on the boring side as they just improve things like clip size, reload speed and damage with no physical changes happening to the weapon itself.

I find it curious that the developer chose to only allow the player two weapons at a time while at the same time have a upgrade system for weaponry. During my playthrough I'd very rarely switch my weapons out, especially once I'd applied a few upgrades, because why would I ever switch out from my shotgun that does an insane amount of damage to the un-upgraded pistol? I wouldn't of course, not unless I had no choice. Your weapons aren't the only thing that can be upgraded, Captain Renko (that's you, in case you forgot) can too! If you visit and Augmentor you can use the E-99 tech you've been collecting to purchase augments which can do quite a few things such as  increase your maximum health, accuracy and the duration of some of the TMD's abilities.

Something I find really strange is that there is no 'New Game Plus' mode, you'd think that there would be considering its not really possible to get all the upgrades for yourself and the weapons in one playthrough and they don't carry over to other playthroughs. This feels like a real missed opportunity especially because of linearity of the game, there isn't any real replay value. While playing one thought kept going through my head and that thought is this; 'If I'm changing the past and altering the present how come my character is aware of the changes? Or for the matter how are any of the other characters aware of it? Surely by changing the events of the past the memories of those around have been altered too so they would be unaware of any change.' It kind of took me out of the moment as I kept seeing it as a bit of a plot hole. Sorry, just a personal nit-pick there from a sci-fi nerd.

Well here we are the end of the review and down to the nitty gritty. In my own opinion I feel this game is worth every penny, there wasn't a moment I didn't enjoy. Sure, it copies a lot of ideas from other games but, to be honest, it does it so well that I don't really care! It’s by no means a 'must have' game but its a good one and worth a look if you find yourself wanting a shooter that’s a bit different. If this appeals to you perhaps try;