Bionic Commando: a decent way to spend a couple hours

Alright, so this review is a bit behind. To be honest I’ve been struggling to catch up on games of recent. I found myself with a plethora of games sat beside my TV and wasn’t exactly sure where to go first. But after playing around with a few games I decided to push through Bionic Commando.

Anyone that had a chance to read my write up of the Multiplayer Demo earlier knows that I’m a big fan of the franchise. I loved the original game, and the remix was just fantastic. So of course I was eager to see what Capcom did with a reboot of the franchise for the Xbox 360 in a three dimensional retelling (sequel technically) of the original NES classic.

The first thing you’ll notice when you crack into Bionic Commando is that Capcom has opted for a darker and grittier story telling mechanic this time. Nathan has been disbanded from the military and is on death row at the top of the game. It isn’t long though before he’s called back into action by his old mentor “Super Joe”.

Honestly though most of the game’s story is pretty forgettable. I’m sitting here trying to recall some of the plot points after wrapping the game less than 10 minutes ago and I don’t have much to say about it. It’s your basic rouge agent gets brought in by the government to save the world plus girl scenario. It plays out like a standard action movie, with the downside of Nathan now being a brooding emo.

A few moments in the game will lead you to believe that Nathan is a bad-ass, but all in all he’s pretty whiney throughout the majority of the game. So for the rest of the review, let’s just pretend there isn’t a story because it doesn’t matter. The story is just flat-out not good.

The game play is decent; it’s a fairly standard third person shooter for the most part. The controls are solid, and I didn’t have any problems hitting my targets when I zoomed in. In fact I’d say they were a lot sharper than I originally planned for. The pistol gets you head shots pretty consistently and the grenade launcher isn’t the standard lob and pray. Instead you can pretty much just shoot the thing straight all the time. The only situations where I missed with the grenade launcher were the few times I over compensated assuming I needed to arch the shot to hit a ranged target.

Along with the already mentioned handgun and grenade launcher you could avail yourself to: a sniper rifle, Super Joe’s machine gun (classic!), a shotgun, and the tarantula (multipoint lock on rocket launcher). All the guns in the game are pretty satisfying in their own way. But the addition of using your arm for combat is where things got the most interesting.

Making your way through the game Nathan will “remember” how to use different functions of the arm which you got a brief look at through flashbacks earlier in the game. The single most important function that you’ll get is the throw. Using this maneuver you can grab objects and people at a distance. From there you can: throw the object/person into enemies, kite an enemy in the sky and shoot at them for a bit, or smack them/it down into the ground for a devastating AOE (area of effect) attack.

The other functions of the arm that you’ll come across will include: punching things into the air to follow them and punch them forwards, “death from above” the ability to drop from heights and cause a shockwave to take out a group of enemies, and a “rip” ability that allows you to strip pieces of enemies, or pull down objects.

Of course the main function of the arm is to get you from point A to point B. The swing mechanic is all new. After playing a lot of other swinging games, like Spider-man, Bionic Commando will take some getting used to. Firstly it’s not auto in the sense it will just latch on to whatever is closest. You need to pick your shots and make sure you’re within range of an object to be able to swing up/forward. Secondly there’s a physics engine present, meaning that you can't just let go and always be moving forward, timing your release determines how far forward you’ll fly, and how fast. If you hold on for a bit too long you’ll find yourself arching up into the sky instead of hurdling forwards.

All in all the game is pretty solid. If you’re looking for a fun action title to burn a couple of hours on then I would recommend it, probably as a rental. If you’re looking for a good story, and extended replay value then this probably wouldn’t be the title for you.