Short Version: While it received little to no hype and borrows from numerous games before it, Singularity is an extremely fun shooter that provides some of the most satisfying, visceral action I've seen recently.

Game Rant's Ryan Blanchard reviews Singularity

Sometimes, the hype used to promote a game can prove to be its downfall, generating high hopes that the final product can't possibly satisfy. In recent years, this has become all too common either through developers' making grand promises that they can't possibly live up to. Such as Peter Molyneux, or just through the marketing taking on a life of its own, creating so much excitement that no game could ever satisfy. Then, there are games that practically come out of nowhere providing a truly surprising gaming experience. Singularity is one of those games.

While it is by no means revolutionary, Singularity takes concepts we've seen in games before and melds them together into a hybrid that just works. Like Bioshock, you wield both a gun and a super-powered hand of sorts. In the vein of Timeshift though, rather than shooting fire, ice and locusts out of your bare hands, you will have control of time itself. Then, mix in some Half-Life 2 and a truly creepy and interesting environment like Bioshock's Rapture, and you've got Singularity in a nutshell.

Story And Sound

Lately, I've been finding it difficult to allow myself to be drawn into a game's narrative. While it may not provide a needlessly complex plot full of twists and turns, leaving you hanging on its every word, I really did enjoy the story being told in Singularity.

You take control of Nate Renko. As a black ops soldier, you are sent to a mysterious island named Katorga-12, fearing another Chernobyl, to investigate suspicious amounts of radiation. Needless to say, things go wrong and you end up stranded on the island fighting for your survival and, at the risk of sounding cliche, the fate of the world. It turns out that this island was used during the Cold War by Russian scientists experimenting on a newly discovered element: E99. Then some sort of catastrophic event led to the abandonment of the island. Years later in the present, 2010, Katorga-12, previously hidden from the world, is the stage of the events comprising Singularity.

While the story is definitely interesting, it's nothing groundbreaking. What really helps it though, and sets it apart from the majority of the games on the market, is the amazing atmosphere that is created along with the expert sound design. When I first began exploring Katorga-12, I felt the same feeling I'd felt back in 2007 when I played Bioshock and stepped into Rapture for the first time. That feeling of stepping into the unknown where anything can happen. It keeps you on your toes. This is accentuated by the fact that you are constantly being thrown back and forth in time between the present and the island's heyday during the Cold War. This makes for some extremely interesting moments where you're witnessing two situations from two different time periods as they are being bent and manipulated by the powers at play on the mysterious island.

Helping to further this feeling of being trapped in the unknown is the amazing sound design. You'll constantly find yourself jumping at sounds just down the corridor, wondering if it's just the island playing tricks with your mind, or if there's some sort of creature waiting to tear into your skull. You never quite know what's real or not on Katorga-12. Stuck between two different time periods, it's not uncommon to run into something only to find it intangible and not of the current plane.

Now, I may just be a sucker for government conspiracy stories in games and the post-apocalyptic style aesthetic, but I really felt immersed in the story Singularity right up until the credits rolled, which has been a rare occurrence for me as of late in relation to gaming. It may not be for everyone, but if it seems at all interesting to you I urge you to give it a chance, as it really draws you in.

Gameplay

Before this game had come out I'd heard little to nothing about it. I understood the basic premise that you would have the ability to control time in order to aid you in battle and that's about it. Having played Timeshift in the past and knowing the similarities between the two games, I was worried that this game would end up with similarly lackluster gameplay. Thankfully, I had nothing to worry about.

While I felt a bit iffy at the beginning of the game, armed only with basic weaponry and fighting off the same, slow enemies over and over, any fears of lackluster gameplay were dispelled as soon as I got my hands on the Time Manipulation Device (TMD). That's when the game suddenly opened up.

This device gives the player abilities ranging from controlling gravity, stopping time, and, my favorite, aging objects. Not only does this allow for many possibilities in puzzle solving, it also opens up many strategic options as far as combat goes. Has the cover nearby been destroyed? Return it to its pristine, undamaged condition by reverse aging the structure to that of its form in the past. While this simple action of aging objects, enemies and creatures may seem simple, each enemy type deals with the process differently and there are enough unique ways to use the power that you won't be feeling any deja-vu throughout the game.

It just all feels so satisfying. It's one thing to shoot an enemy to kill him and move on, but the action here is so visceral. With one gun, the Seeker, you can control the bullet as it flies through the air, and, upon hitting the enemy, tears through them severing nearby limbs and reminding me of my old days playing insta-gib on Unreal Tournament. It just feels good to run up to an enemy holding a shield and blast him with the shockwave-like impulse, sending his torso and shield flying backwards, leaving his legs firmly planted on the ground. While the violence isn't hyper-realistic, it still feels like everything you're seeing is possible, and, in a sadistic way, just makes me smile. It's this feeling that got me hooked on the Gears Of War series.

Now, I mentioned puzzle solving above, but let me assure you that this is a traditional run and gun FPS at heart. This isn't Portal after all. While there are some minor puzzles to solve, there's nothing that will leave you scratching your head. They merely serve as distractions, breaking up the action every once and awhile, and, while they aren't difficult by any stretch of the imagination, they don't take away from the game and at times, while still simplistic, have quite interesting results.

I really can't stress enough how satisfying the action in this game is. Whether you're aging someone to the point of them turning to dust or you're stopping time around you while you run around the room popping off headshots on your unaware enemies, you'll have a smile on your face the whole time. Sure, it doesn't break any revolutionary new ground, but the options that Singularity presents you with in the way of dealing with your enemies is more than worth the price of admission.

Graphics

While I absolutely loved the gameplay, there's nothing groundbreaking graphics-wise. Sure, the graphics aren't bad, but also don't break any new ground. If you've played a game set in a post-apocalyptic setting before such as Fallout 3, odds are, you'll be immediately familiar with what you're seeing. Again, that's not to say that you won't enjoy what you're seeing. While the graphics quality isn't anything you haven't already seen and it takes place in the well established post-apocalyptic landscape, the location, taking place on an island, is still able to provide enough new content so that you're not driven insane by deja-vu.

Also worth mentioning are the enemies you will encounter. While the standard human enemies aren't anything to write home about, some of the creatures you encounter fit the location perfectly, complementing the sound design and providing a few good scares along the way. In that respect, the graphics felt like they fit. While the graphics don't have the fidelity of something such as Gears Of War 2, the way that Katorga-12 is sculpted just fits with the tense atmosphere, not knowing what to expect around each corner.

Conclusion

This isn't a perfect game by any stretch the imagination, but if you want a fun, satisfyingly violent shooter, there's a lot of fun to be had with this title. While there certainly are cons in the form of lackluster graphics and the fact that almost everything in this game has been done before, that doesn't take away from the fact that Singularity does what games are meant to do: Entertain. If anything I've mentioned interests you in the least, I encourage you to give the game a try. It may not have received the hype it deserves, but this game pleases on a basic level that most games completely miss out on.

For more information, head over to the official Singularity website.

Singularity is available now on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.