[360/PS3] Bionic Commando Review

[AgtFox]

Bionic Commando Review

Title: Bionic Commando
Platform: 360/PS3 (Late July PC)
Developer: GRIN
Publisher: Capcom
ESRB: Mature
MSRP: $59.99 (360/PS3)
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek

What's Hot: The bionic arm after you get used to it; most of the boss battles; the graphics and camera work; an “outside the box” thinking achievement system; voice work is well done for the most part; the overall level design outside of mine traversing

What's Not: First half of game is very frustrating as you get used to the arm; possible instant deaths because of drowning, falling or irradiated areas; constant replaying of sections because of said deaths; the end throws two disappointing wrenches into the overall series

Bionic Commando is a tough game to review because it is one of the few instances where the second half is far better than the first half and an example of a sum greater than its individual parts. This isn’t to say there aren’t some problems with the latter half, but actually making it through the first half shenanigans pays off with things like the boss battles, faster moving story/gameplay and opens up the beautiful look and design of the later levels. The problem though is that you may reach your threshold during the first half and quit the game, missing out on the experience of the second half. Add into this a pretty fun multiplayer component that sees everyone flying around with their bionic arm and it makes it tough not to at least recommend this game for rental, if not outright purchase.

The game opens up with us finding out Nathan “R.A.D.” Spencer has been locked up in prison for five (5) years. He now sports some dreadlocks and is still smarting over the fact that his wife, Emily, left him and that the government has put him behind bars for being a bionic enhanced human. For those that didn’t purchase or play the GRIN developed remake, Bionic Commando Rearmed, they fleshed out the story of the original NES game quite a bit and Spencer goes into the fact that his wife left him before he went on the original mission. Well, Spencer keeps having dreams where he sees video screens in front of him showing bionic upgrades and catalysts when Emily appears. When he reaches for her, she runs away. Obviously the man is haunted by his past, but he really should have done something about that hair. Granted it works for characters like Ronan on Stargate: Atlantis and after a while I wasn’t as bothered by it, but seriously, this is how we translate his hairstyle from the original 8-bit game?

Seems the FSA has use for Spencer once again, deciding to forego his execution for the crime of being a human with bionic implants, something now prohibited by Presidential order. Seems our old Imperial friend Groeder is back as well, this time heading up a pro-bionic terrorist unit called BioReign. You and your bionic arm are reunited and start kicking ass and taking names for no real reason. That’s one of the problems with the game if you think about things logically. Spencer is technically fighting people who are for him since they are pro-bionics (later on soldiers even talk about the fact that Spencer is fighting against people that support him and his bionics) and really his only goals are to follow orders from Super Joe and the Secretary of Defense, destroy everything in sight and find out what happened to Emily. Outside of that everything is white noise except for the couple times where old acquaintances cross into his path, including one that has a scant minute in the limelight and really explains nothing about why they are there (and they are an important character in the series).

Super Joe, the hero from the original Commando and the kidnapped soldier in Bionic Commando is your navigator through the missions and the game in general. He tells most of the plot of the game through voice communication and Spencer reacts to it, usually in a missive tone. For the most part the voice actors do a good job, with Mike Patton from Faith No More (and other voiceover work) lending his voice to Spencer. There are points where the lines by Spencer are delivered oddly, but for the most part Patton does a good job. Steven Jay Blum lends his voice to Super Joe and other characters. For most of the game it sounded to me like David Hayter was doing Super Joe since it sounded so much like Solid Snake. I didn’t understand why I hadn’t heard of Hayter on this project, but once the credits rolled I found out I was wrong. It is worthy to note that this game is rated Mature, but I think it is more for the swearing because outside of a few cutscenes there is no blood present while you’re shooting up people with the Tungsten or the other weapons. There is a lot of the F and S words used though, just kind of odd to utilize the Mature rating for swearing over blood though.

The game starts you off with the objective of hunting down your bionic arm in Ascension City where a nuclear bomb recently went off by the hands of BioReign. Two pods were fired into the city, one with you aboard and one with the bionic arm. Spencer runs around without his left arm for a while until he finds and is reconnected with the arm. Then we go through a small training section that teaches us how to use the bionic arm. The most difficult thing early on is figuring out when to release the left trigger button and have Spencer fly through the air like Spider-Man does in his myriad of games. Unlike the Spider-Man games, there isn’t always a place to fire the bionic arm onto and this is where the first half frustration rears its ugly head.

The major frustration early on (and, after a long absence, later) comes from two things: minefields above never ending holes or water and irradiated sections in the levels. Both the holes and water are almost instant death. If you miss a mine (once deactivated) trying to swing from one to the next you fall and die. You then have to start over, most of the time at the beginning of the mine traversing. If there is water underneath you, another problem presents itself. Spencer cannot swim because of his heavy bionic arm (logical), so he basically drowns unless you are lucky enough to have a solid object to attach the bionic arm to and hit the A button repeatedly to zip up and out of the water. There is a small air bar, giving you enough time to escape, but there will be many places where you won’t have anywhere to grab and you have to restart the section.

Then there are the irradiated parts of the levels. They are usually indicated by a bluish hue on the screen, but honestly you don’t really know what is irradiated and what isn’t. Early on you fight a new enemy and in order to defeat one of them (this is early on, you learn other tricks later to take out this enemy) you have to move Spencer into an irradiated place in order to drop his Death from Above move (you repeatedly tap Y after dropping from a tall place to send a shockwave out) and be able to take the shielded enemy from behind. If you stay in the irradiated section too long you die. If you happen to swing through an irradiated section for too long you die. There was a spot later in the game where I wanted to take a higher road instead of near the water over an elongated bionic swing section with large gaps all around. I swung myself into the air and went straight into an irradiated section, died, and had to start the long trek over again. Funny thing is, although these are frustrating, if you take a break and come back or actually make it through you feel a great accomplishment. I think GRIN took the difficulty of the original game and tried to translate it here, but in some respects I think they used this specific problem a few times too many.

With all the frustration out of the way, I think we should talk about what actually makes this game good. Anyone who has played the original game remembers it being quite hard, especially later on. The same holds true mostly for this game, except the difficulty revolves more around waves of enemies toward the end. This time around Spencer can jump with the A button and the bionic arm can attach to virtually everything. As you go along you gain new abilities for the arm as well as new weapons for yourself such as a sniper gun, different kinds of grenade guns, an RPG and a machine gun. When you get the ability to grab onto glowing objects with the arm, kite them up with the Y button and then throw them at targeted enemies with the B button, Bionic Commando really hits its stride as a game. You now have a number of things you can do to take out enemies and most of the levels are rather large, so you can single out major enemies away from the minor ones. Also, once you get used to the arm and all the things it can do, the game really runs smoothly. You’ll find yourself doing leaps of faith and holding onto the L trigger (the arm will release as soon as something is able to be grabbed) as you fall, hoping the arm will grab onto something.

The graphics in the game are also quite good. Nowhere did I see any clipping or bad collision detection (well, outside of the aforementioned minefields and instant deaths, but that is more mistiming the liftoff from the swing) as I went through the game. The levels, characters and swinging around all look very good. Parts where the sun shines in are immaculate to see and the shadows are simply well done. The graphics of the enemies are good as well, whether you are on the normal camera or you zoom in for better aim with a click of the right analog stick. It is obvious this game was built upon the same graphic engine that Devil May Cry 4 was (sorry, haven’t played Resident Evil 5 as of yet, it may share engines as well). It has some nice in-game cutscenes scattered throughout the game as well. I think I saw one small hint of slowdown in a major fight, but it could have just been the explosions being so powerful. The variety of the levels, from the city to the lush park area and finally onto the huge lumbering machine walking around Ascension City, it all looks wonderful.

There is a bit of loading throughout the game as you hit major waypoints, but for the most part the levels are rather large and outside of irradiated areas you can basically traverse wherever you want. The game is built around waypoints set for you by Super Joe. He will give you your objectives and the game will give you “challenges” which actually equate to unlocking many of the achievements in the game. If you hit the pause button and look through the various menus you will find the challenges and what you have to do to accomplish them. Once you complete the goal you get the achievement points. Along with those are the regular “finishing the stage” type of achievements, but the challenge ones are a case of really thinking outside the box and allowing for replaying of the game, even though there is no New Game+ found here. I didn’t get all of the achievements, but it certainly makes me want to go back and attempt to get them and the beginning of the game is so much easier after you’ve gotten used to the arm and its abilities.

Through the first half of the game there are really no boss fights. You are more getting used to the types of enemies that will pop up throughout the game and getting used to the bionic arm. Beyond the halfway point you run into your first boss fight and they’re all interesting up until the very last one that turns into a QTE (QuickTime Event) fest instead of a straight up boss fight which honestly it should be given the events that transpired. The boss battles are pretty cool and each one has a different strategy to take out. The bosses are also very large and during one boss fight Super Joe will tell Spencer that he should screw (he uses a different word though that starts with F) it and the subtitles say “fight it”. Granted, I got that Easter egg after a few losing battles with the boss until I figured out where the safe zone was and how to actually take the boss out.

The game also sees collectibles throughout the levels represented by large 8-bit characters. If you grab enough of them (I never did collect all of them in one section), I’m guessing an achievement or unlock is granted. The problem here is that if you die you lose the ones you have so far collected in the section and have to re-collect them. Many of these collectibles are on the precipice of doom on levels, so getting them once may be dumb luck, but going after them again could lead to more frustration. It would be interesting to go through the game again in order to get all the collectibles though now that I have better control of the arm.

Finally the multiplayer must be touched upon. When I downloaded the multiplayer beta I wasn’t very impressed by the bionic arm and playing through the early stages of the singe-player portion of this game it became apparent why I didn’t like it so much: I didn’t have a handle on the bionic arm. I’ve only played a few multiplayer matches after playing through the game, but they are significantly more enjoyable now that I understand how the arm works. The multiplayer component isn’t going to set the world on fire, but the arm does mix it up a bit from the regular multiplayer options in other games.

My experience with Bionic Commando is much like the one I had with Assassin’s Creed, but in reverse. The boring and frustrating part of this game was in the beginning and AC’s problem was the repetitiveness after roughly four (4) assassinations. Many will probably not like this game or get frustrated by it early on, shut the game off and never return. This game is a difficult one, but getting past the tough sections gives you a real sense of accomplishment. I personally really liked this game and GRIN has done a good job after its recent missteps (supposedly Wanted and definitely Terminator Salvation). It took me about 12 hours to beat the game with somewhere in-between 1 and 2 of those hours spent restarting sections. That is a rather good length for an action game and is one that could be replayed on a different difficulty level (Normal, Hard and Commando) or to go through and get all the collectibles and achievements. Remember back to playing the original game and how difficult it was and give this game a chance, you just might find a needle in a haystack. A sequel is a definite possibility even with things left up in the air at the end.

Score: 4 out of 5 CoGs


Loren says, "Bionic Commando is a good game that many people will overlook. It is a more difficult game than your standard fare this day and age. Getting used to the bionic arm early on will cause you frustration, but once you battle the first boss, see the large levels and get used to the arm, the game begins to change and becomes more exciting. At least rent the game and see if you can handle possible frustration, but purchase it if you like it."

*Note - Review based upon the 360 version of game

[Kelegacy]

Hmm. I hadn't read a single good review about this game until yours. I have a feeling I'd really like the game. I'm going to wait on a price drop, but I look forward to it.

Also, did you take these screenshots yourself? They look good, but they look like you used a camera and took a photo of the screen. Game looks gorgeous.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Kelegacy

Hmm. I hadn't read a single good review about this game until yours. I have a feeling I'd really like the game. I'm going to wait on a price drop, but I look forward to it.

Also, did you take these screenshots yourself? They look good, but they look like you used a camera and took a photo of the screen. Game looks gorgeous.

Nope, didn't take the shots, got them from elsewhere. I chose them because they looked nice and one showed off the sun that I talk about in the review. There are other reviews out there at 4/5 or above, so I'm not the only "good review" out there:

Giant Bomb 4/5
IGN 8/10
Team Xbox 8.2/10

I have no idea if the rest made it through the whole game or not. Game Informer gave it a 6.75 once the two reviews are averaged and they do talk about the "twist ending" which leads me to believe they finished it, but I wonder if other places just got so frustrated in the early parts and didn't finish it or they felt the game as a whole didn't overcome those early parts.

[Kelegacy]

Oh, I wasn't implying that since you were an anomaly that you shouldn't be trusted. I think the negative reviews that are in my mind were Gamespot and Game Informer. But thanks for pointing out those other reviews. Makes me less fearful. I was really upset when I first read that the other review sites didn't like it. GRIN did a great job with the remake and I was hoping they'd be able to do a good job with the sequel.

Anyway, thanks! I'm more optimistic now.

[AgtFox]

Oh, I didn't mean to count myself as an anomaly or make it sound like I couldn't be trusted. I just wanted to point out other places that actually liked it. Game Informer is a weird one because if you read the main review he talks about the instant deaths, but he also talks about some really great gameplay in the game as well. They also point out the one line that sounds stupid in the game, but overall the voiceovers and story aren't all that hard to follow.

GRIN has had a bad track record lately with Wanted (supposedly, never played it) and Terminator Salvation. It is obvious where the majority of their development group was tasked too, although the same Director is attributed to both this and Terminator (Ulf Andersson). Granted, I'm sure BC's budget was larger than either Wanted or Terminator and the whole package certainly shows that.

They did do good on Rearmed, so it is good to see them return.

[Wilkz07]

Great Review.

I was going to pass on this game because its done by GRIN and almost snapped the disc when I fell from what looked like an obvious area to grab to my death repeatedly. I'm still in the early stages and its supposed to get better. I like how the collectibles are the retro game icons. Music is pretty good too.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Wilkz07

Great Review.

I was going to pass on this game because its done by GRIN and almost snapped the disc when I fell from what looked like an obvious area to grab to my death repeatedly. I'm still in the early stages and its supposed to get better. I like how the collectibles are the retro game icons. Music is pretty good too.

Yes, I forgot to note the music (this is one of my longer reviews). The music really does a good job of reaching into the original and creating its own versions of those classics as well as creating its own patriotic score as well.

The best thing I can say in regards to the instant death sections is to keep Spencer behind where you want to grab onto, meaning keep him behind the mine (for instance). For some reason he can only grab onto things like this that are in front of him on the screen. If you overshoot the mine you're dead, you can attempt to turn around, but he won't fire off the arm because the mine is off screen behind him.

The trick I learned is as soon as you let go of the arm to propel forward hold the arm button down again and try to aim Spencer (using the left analog stick, you do have some control of Spencer's trajectory) close to the next item and he will automatically shoot the arm if it is possible. Saved me on a bunch of occasions, even in the later on sections where you're moving from building to building without necessarily fear of death from a fall.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Wilkz07

Great Review.

I was going to pass on this game because its done by GRIN and almost snapped the disc when I fell from what looked like an obvious area to grab to my death repeatedly. I'm still in the early stages and its supposed to get better. I like how the collectibles are the retro game icons. Music is pretty good too.

And yes, things are extremely frustrating. I found it helped to take a break and come back and I could usually complete the section. I think I did roughly 6 sessions with this game, the longest of which were 3.5 and 3 hours. Much of the time I was in the 2 hour session.

Where are you...are you at the first mine section? I about threw my controller when things just weren't working right, but I made it through eventually. I about threw my controller later on too when having to traverse mines after a long absence of such a thing over an ocean.

[Morangie]

How bad are the loading screens after dying? Long load times with insta-death sections destroy any game for me.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Morangie

How bad are the loading screens after dying? Long load times with insta-death sections destroy any game for me.

Not bad...I'd say 15 seconds at the highest, probably lower than that. The loading screens never bothered me.

[Kelegacy]

Did you install the game to the HDD? That could speed things up a milisecond I suppose. I find GTA IV loaded up faster yesterday with it installed.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Kelegacy

Did you install the game to the HDD? That could speed things up a milisecond I suppose. I find GTA IV loaded up faster yesterday with it installed.

I always install games on the hard drive. If you read in my Terminator review I couldn't get past the initial loading screen to the main title until I installed it onto the hard drive.

Have no clue the difference with loading times between installing and not installing on Bionic Commando though.

[Grifter]

I wrote this the other day in the other Bionic Commando thread so I'll just copy it here.

I love the momentum based swing mechanic and I think it works perfectly for this game, as long as you have an understanding of how the momentum works in this it should be really easy to pick it up. Unfortunately everything else seems mediocre at best, I'm almost finished but it just seems that this game some how manages to be less than the sum of it's parts. The music is a mixed bag, some tracks have a light industrial sound and really works with the game while others sound more like rifts pulled from some cheesy 80s straight to video action flick. The remixed tunes from the original work really well though and gives you that tinge of nostalgia we all love so much.

Graphically this game is a mixed bag as well, the character models (other than Nate) and their textures leave quite a bit to be desired. They are not necessarily bad but they are at the very low end of what I consider acceptable in a current AAA title. The environments on the other hand look polished though some of the textures are still pretty weak fortunately the overall design of the destroyed city's looks really good and works perfectly for the game. The water effects as with pretty much all current games look good but don't get to close, it seems bionics can only hold their breath for about 5 seconds before they die. The lighting in some of the later levels are what really shine and bring a level of atmosphere to Bionic Commando that is much needed.

Apart from the graphics the level design is exceptional and the fact that you can't swing on thin air really makes you want to study your environment to find the best (funnest) way through it. Most of the swing points feel like natural parts of the level and I rarely saw any that stood out to the point where it felt forced or gives you that "well that's obviously the way" feeling yet I never had a problem knowing where to go. I never really had a problem with the radiation, although it sucked (bad design decision) and retards the need/want to explore the levels (which I feel hurts this game quite a bit) I was never shocked by an irradiated zone because there are almost always plenty of warnings and if you remember not to climb to high on horizontal levels or to wide on the vertical levels you should be ok but it is a bit annoying at times.

The combat to me never felt quite right, on the ground Nathan is sluggish and unresponsive and there are times when fire fights boil down to standing face to face with the enemy shooting him faster than he can shoot you. When you gain some of your new abilities later in the game the combat livens up a bit but it never feels quite as satisfying as you think it should and Nate's sluggishness is a constant downer. That being said there are scenarios in the game that give you plenty of room to kick some ass from a distance and that's where Nathans abilities shine, there is nothing more satisfying than taking out a group of baddies with a car from 50 feet away or dropping on them from the top of a building.

The story itself isn't too bad at this point other than there is not much of it but the real problem is your character is an over emotional douche bag. I can't ever remember actually not liking the main character of a game, there have been games where I didn't care but Bionic Commando is the first time I can think of where one actually annoyed me to the point of me dreading him saying anything and in turn causing me to want to slam him into the side of a building and watch him fall to his death. The voice acting and dialog are also complete shit, I believe they were going for a bit of tongue in cheek humor like in the recent remake of the original but they failed miserably.

All in all I believe the game to be worth playing as a rental and while the flaws are numerous it still does what a game is supposed to do and that is entertain, the gameplay is fun and when I'm not playing I have the urge to go back and do so... so long as I don't have to listen to Nathan speak.

If I had to score this I would give it 3 out of 5 cogs and I think Bionic Commando for all it's flaws will be one of the few games that will hold my attention until completion... gaming ADD can be a real bitch sometimes.

Time to go finish it, I have to start Resident Evil 5 this afternoon.

Originally Posted by AgtFox

Have no clue the difference with loading times between installing and not installing on Bionic Commando though.

They are noticeable which is to say the loading times if you don't install the game are irresponsibly long and obnoxious considering how many there are. Installing it helps but they still suck

[Sazime]

I want to know why the hell we haven't seen pics of Radd in his classic costume.

[Wolvie]

From everything I've read, this is a sure renter. Too much negativity behind the reviews and reactions from other gamers. I'll hold off judgement until I play it though.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Sazime

I want to know why the hell we haven't seen pics of Radd in his classic costume.

He is in his classic costume in the training sections.

[Kenzington4short]

I became rather frustrated with the game over the weekend. The game gives you mini challenges to get upgrades to weapons and such. I'd go through an area and complete 3 or 4 challenges only to die before a save point. I kinda wish the game had a few more check points sprinkled here and there.

And the radiation. That damn radiation. There is a blue hue to the irradiated areas in the distance, but I found it rather difficult to see up close, especially on roof tops. I frequently found myself swinging up to a roof, only to find out it's irradiated and not have enough time to get off before I'd die.

I'll definitely stick with it though, as AgtFox's review says it gets better in the second half. I just want to be able to do all of the stuff I did in the tutorial.

Originally Posted by AgtFox

I always install games on the hard drive. If you read in my Terminator review I couldn't get past the initial loading screen to the main title until I installed it onto the hard drive.

Have no clue the difference with loading times between installing and not installing on Bionic Commando though.

Originally Posted by Grifter

They are noticeable which is to say the loading times if you don't install the game are irresponsibly long and obnoxious considering how many there are. Installing it helps but they still suck

Hunh. Guess I'm the only one who ran into weird audio syncing issues when I had the game installed. Guess I'll try it again and hope it was some weird fluke. I hope this isn't a sign of a failing hard drive or 360.

[Aggort]

This game has solidified the fact in me that one of the single most important things in a game is controls. Sure, I know most people would agree, but it definitely makes or breaks a game for me.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Aggort

This game has solidified the fact in me that one of the single most important things in a game is controls. Sure, I know most people would agree, but it definitely makes or breaks a game for me.

So, did it make or break this game for you? Only reason I ask is because I could see at the beginning that it could break the game for you, but if you push through you'll find the bionic arm becomes second nature and as it gets more abilities you can utilize it even better than just swinging around.

[Grifter]

Originally Posted by AgtFox

So, did it make or break this game for you? Only reason I ask is because I could see at the beginning that it could break the game for you, but if you push through you'll find the bionic arm becomes second nature and as it gets more abilities you can utilize it even better than just swinging around.

The arm was never the issue for me, it's the sluggish ground/combat controls that stole some of this games thunder.