Singularity (PC)

Pros:

A really neat adventure story!

Superior attention to detail in artistry! Rock solid first impression! Follows the lineage of other shooters but did not disappoint!

Unique effects and game play similar to Bioshock (1 and 2) or perhaps Gears of War (1 and 2).

May not be receiving the credit deserved...highly recommended for mature audiences/players!

#1 for the action shooter fan club! I play many shooters; I'm pretty sure I love this one just about as much as Bioshock.

Can purchase on Steam (more expensive?).

Cons:

Can't save at any location...must save at check points.

Sad story of fear and tragedy.

No futuristic undersea vehicles or advanced jetpacks (but not applicable).

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I had a lot of fun with this game. Many people compared it with Bioshock. While the color pallet and some of the graphics look similar in style, for me the game felt completely different in atmosphere. It's very difficult nowadays to find a first person shooter that's totally original because they are so well established. So Singularity does seem to borrow elements from past shooters, but it does have it's own feel and style as well.

The ambient sounds were creepy and had me constantly looking over my shoulder. Monsters were interesting and the phasing back and forth between the present and the past added some tense moments. There's nothing like walking into a room full of soldiers frozen in the 50's then finding them phasing into the present and opening fire on you to test your skill.

I also like the fact that there was minimal cussing in this game. I'm not a big fan of games that over use foul language. For me a lot of cursing adds nothing to a game.

I do not like the current trend of the auto save versus being able to save when you want in PC games, so that was a big negative for me. It seems that everyone is going that route now though. Another negative for me was that the game was too short, another recent trend. Just when I was really getting into it, I was done. I guess it does say something positive for a game when you are disappointed that it's over. It does have some interesting multiplayer to extend your play time though. Those two cons kept this from being a 5 star game for me.

Overall I had a great time with this game and was glad I bought it.

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I've got to give props to Raven for making such a great game! Singularity is a whole lot of fun and I had a blast playing it. From the moment you start the game and see the Raven logo being affected by a Singularity time wave, to seeing distortions occur while navigating the main menus, this game simply breathes awesomeness. The story is good and always keeps you engaged and wanting to find out what happens next, and the atmosphere and set pieces are fantastic! I also felt that the music was exceptionally well done and added so much more to the experience.

This is a game that never forgets it's a shooter. It always retains its focus and I never felt like I was doing a task for no reason. The weapons are solid and I especially liked the special purpose Seeker rifle, which lets you fire special E99 bullets you can guide around corners. It definitely added some extra flare to the game.

With that said, I do have a few (very) minor gripes and a couple of wishes....

You can't control the refresh rate from within the game. I had to use an external program to lock the refresh rate of my monitor while playing as it kept defaulting to a lower refresh rate. I wish Raven would have put just a little more effort into putting an option in the game to control this.

While the single-player mode is excellent, the multi-player mode does feel a little like an afterthought. It's still fun to play but there are only two game modes. It also lacks dedicated servers so you're forced to wait quite a while at times before being able to begin a match. It's too bad because dedicated servers could really help this game live on for years and years. I could even see some modders making some fantastic new game modes.

I wanted more boss fights! You only get to fight two actual boss enemies with a few other mini-bosses. There's a certain point in the game when you see how E99 has affected some plant life, with one of the mutations looking like a Venus flytrap. The specimen is small but I have to admit I kind of wanted to fight a giant "boss" version of the plant.

I also wish there was some kind of "super-crazy-hard" mode that tripled the amount of enemies and made you fight two bosses at the same time. My first play-through was on Normal difficulty, and while challenging enough for the first run, I found the Hard difficulty to actually be a little too easy for my second play-through. The only difference between normal and hard is that the enemies hit a little harder and take slightly more ammo to kill.

But other than that, this game is great! Raven made a rock-solid shooter that's a whole lot of fun to play and I definitely recommend it. My only hope is that Raven makes a sequel. Even after winning the game there are still unanswered questions, and I'd love to have more adventures with the Time Manipulation Device!

DRM (Digital Rights Management) INFO: This game uses SecuROM but only for a disc check. There are no online activation requirements.

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