At last, as promise the review of Bionic Commando, this is my first review, the review will base on the basics of Story, Gameplay, Graphics, Sound.
Developer: Grin
Publisher : Capcom
Platform: PC / Xbox360 / Playstation 3
Review:
Story: !does not contain spoiler! 3/5
The story take place ten years after the NES installment, Nathan RAD Spencer, the original hero of bionic commando series is betrayed and falsely imprisoned by his own government. The Great Bionic Purge begins. Before the execution of Nathan, an experimental weapon detonates in Ascension City, destroying the city along with its populace. So, Super Joe the protagonist from the Commando series, the supporting character of the NES series freed Spencer and given him his bionic arm back to redeem his name, in the price of sending him behind enemy line to see what really in the city. Basically, the fans of the original series will be rejoice seeing their hero this time fully rendered in 3D, although Nathan Spence is not what he used to looked like with that red hair and sun glass, if player unlock a special features of the game, player can use the old Spencer model instead the one in the game.
Gameplay: 2.5/5
The gameplay itself feel very similar to Spiderman with all the swinging and stuff but not to mistook this as Spiderman game because of the illusion of free-roaming world. At first the game really give you a sense of free roaming world with the big city view, after you get inside it you will get to know that your path is limited by blue radiation smoke-like thingy around the place. You can use guns beside your bionic arm in the game, basically there are four guns in the game, first one is the default handgun, which you cant really aim well, second one is a shotgun, which you don't really need to aim well to shot, third one is a grenade launcher which has a really big blast radius, lastly the rocket launcher, which can lock on to multiple target at the same time but you don't get to carry around often. As a result, the guns in this game do not really aim well, it may take some practice to get the aiming right. Now the arm basically is the most powerful weapon in the game, you grapple with it, swing, zip, throw things, hit enemy and some other cool things, something that you really need to get use to is the swing mechanic, if you play Spiderman before, you will know the swing mechanic is on auto which mean whenever you let go you will still swing forward, in bionic commando you have to control the momentum of the swing if you let go of the grapple to early you will not have enough momentum to chain the next swing, let go to late you ending going straight up instead going forward. Just one recommendation, if you going to get this game, try to get a Xbox360 control for PC because the game on-screen button prompt only show in Xbox controller layout, which really make you don't know which button to press on you keyboard. Lastly, the enemies in the game which overall consist of normal grunts and heavy grunts which really easy to kill, at the late part of the game the developer start to add in the mecha unit which really not that hard to kill, so it just that you get the idea how to deal with them it is really easy and right the game got a few good boss fight too but the final boss fight is really a let down, so this is the part where it really take away the point in gameplay.
"Its a illusion you don't have a free-roaming city"
Graphic: 4/5
The graphic itself look real nice, probably what you did expected from a next-gen graphic. Capcom did the same with Bionic Commando as Devil May Cry 4 and Street Fighter 4, they cooperate with Nvdia, with the "The Way is Meant To Be Play" feature, mean no more crappy port like Resident Evil and Devil May Cry 3, so the quality of the graphic is a guarantee. The Only downside of it, is just that the bluish radiation ray all over the place really annoy me.
Sound: 4/5
You really can't say much about the background music for this game, yes i know the game play the same one over and over again in battles but who cares it is nice, the music composer is Jamie Christopherson, the person who compose for Onimusha: The New Dawn, Lost Planet, LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth I & II, Lineage II and many more, when you see this guy name on the music composer credit then you know the music for the game going to rocks. The sound effect is real nice too, you can really feel the impact from the sound it make when you perform a "Death From Above" skill, it makes different sound when you perform on different surface too.
Final Verdict: 3/5
This game does look good and even play good. For the fan boy, you should definitely get this one, for the others try to get it and enjoy it, it is really good, give it a chance you might fall in love with it.
Replay Value: 3/5
The game has a multi player mode in it so this really boost the replay value of it and if you want to get all the reward all hidden collectibles, you have to play through it a few time to get all of it.
That's it my first review, feel free to drop in your comments and discuss it. Love and Peace .
