Author Topic: [Video Game] Bionic Commando  (Read 4008 times)

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Offline Space Invader

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[Video Game] Bionic Commando
« on: June 01, 2009, 10:53:03 AM »
Developer: Grin Studios
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Action-Platformer
Rating: M

With the economic crisis affecting everyone those days, it seems that even game developers have to make sacrifices. In Capcom’s case, it seems like they axed the creativity department and go with the tried and true method of remaking games from the 16-bit era. You see, last year, while digging in the company graveyard, someone stumbled across a skeleton from the NES: Bionic Commando. Apparently desperate to squeeze some more cash out of this classic, Capcom and developer Grin Studios re-released Bionic Commando. So, here we are with the full 3-D Bionic Commando. Now, the question is, is the reboot any good? Let’s find out…

Having never played the original BC, my knowledge of the story so far was rather limited. Luckily, Grin seems to have realised that not all next-gen owners have played NES classics, and crafted a solid story that is both interesting and easy to pick up. Let me start with some brief background info from the first game (or at least what I picked up), and I’ll go from there: in the future the government creates a group of super-soldiers with mechanical limbs, called bionics, in order to take down a dangerous terrorist organisation. One of the soldiers is Nathan Spencer, who has a bionic arm, and he defeats the group and achieves peace for the world. No sooner has he finished his mission that the government declares all bionics dangerous and begins to hunt them down, confiscate their limbs and throw them in the slammer. BC picks up five years later, with Spencer in jail and a new terrorist group that blows up Ascension City. Spencer is called back into action by old “friend” Joe, who taunts him onto the battlefield with the promise of tidbits of info about Spencer’s missing wife, Emily. This all sounds like a confused mess, but once you get involved in the story, it’s actually quite compelling and fun. However, it does take a while to get the story going, but once it does, it unfolds at a breakneck speed that is quite fitting for the fast-paced action and atmosphere.

Gameplay is divided between two areas: swinging and gunplay. The bionic arm is the “mechanism” that drives the game forwards (sorry for the pun), and generally speaking the swinging works pretty well, with a few irritating problems. In the game, left trigger controls you arm, which shoots out and attaches itself to whatever you’re looking at. Most of the time, the arm hooks onto what you’re aiming at without a hitch, which is excellent. Once attached, you have to hold down the trigger until you swing into position and a second blue indicator pops up telling you the optimal time to release. When you release the trigger, Spencer lets go and flies forwards. This is actually an OK system for the swinging, and it’s clear and easy to use. But, the game is merciless in it’s timing, and if you miss the swing indicator by even a split second, Spencer will find himself either flying straight up into the air or faceplanting down into the dirt, neither of which help the rhythm or flow of the swinging. In a game that demands precision swinging, it’s really off-putting that BC would be so harsh on the player. Furthermore, the arm seems really picky about how far it will extend. Sometimes, it seems like the arm will attach to objects ridiculously far away, but when you’re falling or are just short of a target you know you can reach, the arm refuses to extend, leaving you with the Game Over screen. But, once I got used to the slightly clunky controls, I found myself pulling off epic jumps and swings without trouble. So, if you can get past some problems, swinging is quite enjoyable and rewarding.

Which brings me to gunplay. The trend of abusive difficulty continues and the shooting often feels awkward. Spencer can hold three weapons at a time: your pistol, grenades and one special weapon, such as a shotgun or grenade launcher. The indicators for all three types of weapons are ridiculously huge, even when zoomed in, and more often than not you’ll get a headshot out of pure luck rather than actual aiming. Same goes for the sniper rife, which jitters and shakes like Spencer is hyped up on caffeine and almost never hits anyone. And, to make the gunplay even more irritating, ammo drops are pathetically small and far between, so more often than not you’ll rely on Spencer’s hand-to-hand abilities. When it comes to melee combat, Spencer is able, but not exceptional. You can pull of some cool moves with the arm, such as the zip kick, but most of the time you’ll simply throw or beat enemies into submission. This makes me wonder why they didn’t just scrap the gunplay and focus more on the physical combat. Then I remember why: because the enemies are all better than you. Spencer has to fight everything from footsoldiers to mechs, and every single one is designed to kill Spencer and piss the shit out of the player. There are only about four enemies: planes, mechs, snipers and soldiers, and every single one is overpowered and has some way to kill you quickly. So you’ll die, and I mean a lot.

Having now complained a great deal, let me take a step back and admit that for all the irritations that the game throws at you, none of them are deal breakers for me. I still played through the entire 8 hour campaign, and when you do finally clear a particularly hard section of swinging or combat, I felt really good about myself. So gameplay is rewarding and satisfying, if a touch on the difficult side. But, the game has plenty more to offer, some good, others bad.

Music in the game is really good, and some of the battle themes are really intense and fit the mood of the game nicely. There is also a redone version of the original BC theme, which is a welcome addition. Sound-wise, the game is fine, with some good crashes, explosion and a very nice ‘ping’ for when you get a headshot that makes me smile every time. Audio-wise, the game really shines in the VO department. The guy who plays Spencer does a really good job, and his performance has loads of emotion and he seems really into character. Other voices include Joe, Mag and Groeder, but none of them hold a candle to Spencer. Footsoldiers have some really good dialogue too, and both Spencer and the enemies throw taunts at each other. (eg. as one enemy takes out his stun stick: “It’s ball breaking time!”). So the soundscape of the game is good, particularly Spencer. It’s just too bad the graphics aren’t up to snuff.

Visually, the game fails to impress. The character model for Spencer is mediocre, and this is even weirder in cinematics. With the voice guy giving a stellar performance, the model of Spencer is really stiff and his face is almost expressionless (also, his dreads look like someone superglued rope to his scalp). So, while the actor belts out an angry demand, the on-screen Spencer barely moves his mouth. It’s quite awkward and really ruins the immersion that the story and music creates. The best character design is a secondary character called Mag, who is damn sexy and really well done, especially next to Spencer in some moments. This difference in quality has led me to believe that the boys over at Grin don’t get out much, and made Mag as detailed as possible to fulfill a bit of their pathetic sex lives. But enough on that. Environments are OK, nothing amazing, nothing horrible. But, I have to say there is one element of the visuals which almost killed the game for me.

Now, I mentioned how the Capcom guys were scrounging for ideas, but I had no idea they were also looking for sponsors. Yes, that’s right. There are ads. IN THE GAME. This ruins the immersion almost completely, and when you turn a corner and come face to face with a Pepsi machine, or find yourself swinging from a Nvidia ad, or even see the Grin logo painted onto a fighter jet (Ok, that’s not really an ad, but still!) you can’t help but feel a little cheated. It’s truly disappointing that Capcom would stoop so low for some cash that they ruin a game. But, that’s not all Capcom did to utterly wreck BC.

And here’s what they added: radiation. Due to the bomb that went off in Ascension city, sections of the city are flooded with radiation. This is designed to keep you onto a gameplay path that feels EXTREMELY linear and restricted for it. Also, it completely undermines the free swinging aspect of the game. Radiation kills Spencer, so you might just be swinging along when you enter an invisible cloud that kills you within seconds. You have no hope of escape, and this happens everywhere. There are even ceilings  and floors of radiation, so one false step (which, as I’ve said, happens often) will lead to an untimely demise. This gameplay element sucks CRAP!

However, despite all the bitching I’ve done for the last couple paragraphs, I really like BC. The second half picks up greatly, Spencer gets some cool new moves that (thankfully) help you kill all those pest terrorist bastards, and there are truly epic and difficult boss battles. Furthermore, a system of challenges is integrated more fully that gives Spencer upgrades that are very useful and fun to get. Best of all, the environments get more open, and while the path is still linear and radiation filled, the new environments (starting with an underground cave and leading into a kick-ass forest) helped me forget that. Lastly, the ads vanish and gameplay becomes more polished and fun. For a while, I though it was too good to be true, and it was. The game ends with a piss easy final boss, who you don’t even fight, and an ending that gives virtually no closure.

Now, I know this is going to sound harsh, but if Grin had cut the first half, tightened up the mechanics and made it downloadable on Xbox Live, I would have loved this game. As it stands, the insufficient multiplayer and weird replayability problems combined with the bad first half almost ruin the excellent second half. A series with loads of potential, if Grin makes the next Bionic Commando an open-world game, I’ll be all over that game and hopefully be happier for it. 

7.5/10




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Offline setrataeso

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Re: [Video Game] Bionic Commando
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2009, 09:25:18 AM »
Hey, about time you appeared!
A second game reviewer. It's about damn time.
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Offline Serpentor

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Re: [Video Game] Bionic Commando
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2009, 07:08:50 AM »
the first bionic commando for the NES kicked some serious ass although it was frustrating at times.  One of the best for that game system
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Offline Global Laziness

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Re: [Video Game] Bionic Commando
« Reply #3 on: June 11, 2009, 10:03:26 PM »
Oh come on, surely a first post as epic as that (in terms of length) deserves a bit more attention that this! Not being a gamer myself, I've never played or even heard of the game, and I didn't read your review, but still!
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Offline setrataeso

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Re: [Video Game] Bionic Commando
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2009, 12:18:56 AM »
Oh come on, surely a first post as epic as that (in terms of length) deserves a bit more attention that this! Not being a gamer myself, I've never played or even heard of the game, and I didn't read your review, but still!

Actually, you saw me playing it. Cuz you were commenting on how he shouldn't be able to survive the long drops.
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Offline faemir

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Re: [Video Game] Bionic Commando
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2009, 10:36:58 AM »
I was really hoping this game would be really good - at least it's good to very good. I guess i'll get it when it drops in price.

In the meantime I shall complete the updated graphics version of the original (BC:rearmed on XBLA) which I got for a couple of £  ;D

Offline Global Laziness

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Re: [Video Game] Bionic Commando
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2009, 11:01:15 PM »
Oh come on, surely a first post as epic as that (in terms of length) deserves a bit more attention that this! Not being a gamer myself, I've never played or even heard of the game, and I didn't read your review, but still!

Actually, you saw me playing it. Cuz you were commenting on how he shouldn't be able to survive the long drops.

Ah, right. And he shouldn't!
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Offline setrataeso

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Re: [Video Game] Bionic Commando
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2009, 02:16:42 PM »
Oh come on, surely a first post as epic as that (in terms of length) deserves a bit more attention that this! Not being a gamer myself, I've never played or even heard of the game, and I didn't read your review, but still!

Actually, you saw me playing it. Cuz you were commenting on how he shouldn't be able to survive the long drops.

Ah, right. And he shouldn't!

BIONIC commando
Its robotronic, bitch!
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Setra, I think that is the best statement I have read on this forum.  Very well said.

Offline ZachyDou

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Re: [Video Game] Bionic Commando
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2009, 03:23:17 PM »
the last level rules too
it was actualy pretty fun once you get around the bullshit

Offline Global Laziness

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Re: [Video Game] Bionic Commando
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2009, 08:46:30 PM »
the last level rules too
it was actualy pretty fun once you get around the bullshit

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