What the Game’s About
Bionic Commando has you playing as Nathan “Rad” Spencer, protagonist of the original game released in arcades and on the NES, only this game takes place 10 years after the events of the original. Long story short, the government betrays Spencer and imprisons him for crimes he didn’t commit. On the day of his execution, a terrorist attack leaves Ascension City in ruined shambles, forcing the government to bite the bullet and say “oh yeah, our bad,” sending Spencer to right all wrongs once again. How does he go about doing that? The only way he knows how – by kicking ass, taking names, and shooting himself and other objects around with an extendible mechanized arm.
What’s Hot
Bionic Commando’s driving mechanic is the usage of Nathan Spencer’s left arm, converted into a mechanical limb that has the ability to extend outwards a good 20 feet or so (though that’s just a guesstimate). By latching onto objects with this mechanical arm, you can basically swing yourself around through the environments – think of the swinging mechanics in the Spider-Man games (Spider-Man 2 if you’d like to think about the best one). And just like the swinging mechanics in Spider-Man 2, zipping around through the air is really fun. In fact, as I noticed while watching one of the developers play through a demo level, there’s a certain beauty and gracefulness to forcefully grabbing poles/walls/ceilings/anything else once you get the hang of it. Another plus is that practically anything stable can be used as a grappling point, meaning you can latch onto building edges to climb to the top or even latch onto the ground so you can pull yourself out of the air and onto the floor even quicker.
In addition to its primary feature of transporting Spencer, the arm can be used for other tasks as well – hacking computers, throwing around heavy objects (cars come to mind), and it can even be used in combat. I didn’t have the wit to test it out myself, but I watched intriguingly as a developer used the arm to grab onto enemies and toss them around. Speaking of combat, Spencer is equipped with a decent arsenal of weapons to help take out any hostile enemies – a pistol, machine gun, and these interesting grenades that reminded me of spike grenades from Halo 3 but with a bigger blast radius. Combat is fast-paced and pretty easy, allowing you to shoot around on the fly or utilize a shooting camera that’s activated by clicking the right joystick.
What’s Not
As fun as the swinging mechanics are, I’d be lying if I said they were easy to get the hang of. Upon playing the game the first few times, chances are you’ll be having trouble letting go of an object at just the right time to achieve the perfect momentum to hit the next platform of land. In other words, the learning curve of the swinging is fairly steep – it’ll take a while for you to master the art of seamlessly swinging from object to object, grabbing onto walls left and right, changing direction while swinging and all that jazz. Also, unlike the Spider-Man games which automatically pick a latching point for you, you’re required to pick the exact point that you want the arm to grab onto via an icon in the middle of the screen. This can get difficult when you’re whizzing through the air at high speeds, and it’s hard to get a feel for just how far the arm extends – often you’ll find yourself thinking you’re close enough to grab the next object but end up falling short.
Combat also feels like it’s lacking substance. This isn’t too big of a problem considering that the game’s focus is (as it should be) the swinging, but there’s something about the whole system that makes you wanting more. Then again, the original NES game wasn’t too great on the combat side either, so maybe they’re just trying to stay faithful to it? I don’t know.
Outlook
When it comes down to it, Bionic Commando is a really fun game to play just for the swinging mechanics. As a fan of the original game, I was excited but concerned when Capcom announced a 3D sequel to the game. For the moment, my concerns have been put to the rest as the build of the game that I played seemed fairly solid. In short, Bionic Commando for the 360 or PS3 is definitely a game to look forward to if you’re a fan of the series, and maybe even if you’re not. Combine this game with Bionic Commando: Rearmed (the remake of the original game) and you should be in for a swingin’ time.