There's just something missing
Around this time of year there's always that game that has novel features, looks pretty good but it's just missing something integral to a great experience. This time it's Bionic Commando. From start to finish the game refuses to give you a clear and coherent reason for giving a damn about the story or characters but the swinging mechanic constantly revived my interest in finishing the game.
The single player surprisingly lasted a little longer than I expected with around 9-10 hours for my first play through. Most sections of Bionic Commando feel like they should be better connected than they currently are as each transition feels fairly awkward. The story doesn't help either as Nathan and Joe are almost the only driving forces for the plot and they other very little input or depth to the situation. It's fairly cheesy and there are some rather shallow support characters that just move the story forward a little when other characters are absent, there's really no reason to care for any of the characters.
For a game like this the focus must be on the main mechanics and especially in this title. Let's face it , swinging about is a lot of fun and massively satisfying. The only errors with the system are when the environment around you is too restrictive or when you make an error in judgment while starting a jump. Unfortunately the game doesn't take most of advantage of it in boss battles which feel for the most part lackluster and out of place, especially the finally that doesn't take advantage of the bionic arm at all!
It seems they've taken this concept fallen short of potential in the multiplayer as well. This is massively disappointing as it just turns into a cat and mouse chase with very little depth. I wouldn't expect the community to last very long at all.
For what this game offers it still shows it's qualities in abundance during the majority of the campaign and it's only a glimmer in the multiplayer component. What they have delivered is a polished, fairly linear experience that's lacking in any kind of meaningful story and an insufficient multiplayer experience, but still the meat of the product offers a pretty good experience if you know what to expect out of it.
