Raven Software have been around for a while now churning out some not so brilliant but enjoyable games such as Wolfenstein, X-Men Wolverine and Soldier of Fortune. This may explain why Activision didn’t do a big promotional push on this game. As it seemed to sneak out under the radar last week.

Things have changed this time for Raven with their latest release Singularity is pretty good. Borrowing ideas from such brilliant games as Bioshock, Half life, FEAR and Dead Space. Ravan have put together a hogbosh of other ideas and surprisingly it works. While you will instantly spot the bits they have borrowed it doesn’t take away from the game in fact it makes it feel somehow familiar but not like its been ripped off which is very difficult to do. In fact this game is very well put together with an interesting story good graphics, a great control system some intelligent puzzles and some good weapons and powers and of course Raven’s trademark gore!!

The back story explains that after the second world war the Russians (they are at it again) have been developing a new technology to re address the balance of power after the USA have flexing their atomic might. The new technology comes from the processing of a mineral called E99 which holds the potential to power the whole world and of course new weapons.

The processing takes place on a island called Katorga 12. In 1950 a Russian scientist Barisov triggers an explosion which causes a catastrophic outcome for the whole island.  The island is shut down and quarantined and the whole world soon forgets about it.

Skip forward to 2010 and the Americans have picked up mysterious activity emanating from this island. Fearing another Chernobyl disaster they scramble a stealth flyby to check out the island. This is where you come in, playing the part of Captain Nathaniel Renko a member of an elite Special forces recon squad. As you approach the island you are struck by a EMP and the choppers crash. Waking up on the island you struggle to understand where you are and what is going on. Only one other survivor from the crash remains and your first job is to meet up with him.  

This is where the Bioshock similarities really start to appear, a crash in water near a mysterious island stuck in the 50’s. Taped messages and videos (with a similar cartoon style) from the past help you piece things together.

The explosion in the 1950’s leads to an event known as the singularity which effects time and space. Time travel features heavily in the game and quite quickly after you arrive you are sucked back into the 1950’s and as you know when you go back in time you shouldn’t change anything or it will have dire consequences. Simply saving a scientist from a burning building as you do changes the whole world. Explaining any more will ruin the story but needless to say you now have to jump forward and back through time trying to fix your mistake and make sense of it all as you continue to make more and more mistakes changing everything over and over again.

I love time travel games that are done properly and this is done very well. Things make sense the story unfolds nicely in front of you and keeps you guessing as you get clues from the past and future about people and events. 

The game play is very smooth. I didn’t encounter one single glitch from the full play through. The controls are smooth and responsive which after playing Sniper ghost warrior and Transformers this week make a welcome change. Graphically it is quite impressive nothing mind blowing but they should be commended on building a good looking game again glitch free, no screen tearing or any of the usual falling into walls or boxes etc. You move from floors to ladders and into tunnels with an ease that is welcome.

The weapons then are an all new technology in one hand you have variants of the usual hand gun, assault riffle, sniper, shotgun, chaingun and grenade launchers. About one hour into the game you discover the TMD (Time Manipulation Device) which fits onto your left hand. This gives you extra powers over time, space and gravity. It allows you to age people and things instantly or to bring them back to their original state. This is used a lot in puzzles to crush boxes so they fit through gaps then reinstate them to their former glory. Aging a soldier in a second so he turns to dust is pretty cool or giving them a blast from the TMD that causes them to blow up with plenty of blood and guts is also pretty dam cool.

This is also where you start to notice the influences from the other games.

Bioshock : Of course having powers in your left hand and guns in your right is straight out of Bioshock. Using the TMD in combination with the guns to slow enemies and then shoot them is great fun but nothing new.

Halflife : The ability to catch projectiles in mid air and fire them back at enemies and lift crates and barrels is basically the same concept as the gravity gun in Half life. Its used to solve many of the puzzles too.

FEAR : The ability to slow time around you allowing you to run around enemies filling them with bullets and then restarting time and watching them all fall to the ground is straight from the similar ability in FEAR.

Dead Space : Less to do with the weapons and more to do enemies that are mutated humans going bizzerk and trying to kill you. Also the atmosphere that Raven have created is very similar with spooky noises coming from all around you and enemies pouncing out giving you quite a few shocks.