Singularity

I'm sorry for the blatant Smirnoff Yakov joke, but you get the jist...

I'm talking about Singularity. The Russian action horror game that delves into even more sci-fi with TIME TRAVEL! It is a mediocre shooter with a nice spin in the mechanics department.

Let me just start with the story. You play as Cap. Nathanial Renko, an American military man sent to the Russian research and development island Katorga-12. That's Kah-tor-guh twelve, for people who need some help reading. The island itself has been undergoing some mishaps of its own, with the main material source, Element 99 (or E-99 it is abbreviated to), is making everything go janky. Kids who are exposed to it are suffering from lesions, drops in appetite, sudden bursts of violence, and even death. Its not just the residents of Katorga-12 that are being screwed on the genetic level, its actual other materials used with E-99, like metals, flora, fauna, and even the time-space continuum.

As Renko, its your job to figure out what is causing this anomaly and as soon as you get there, shit goes down. The island is rundown, disheveled, and is nothing but a shanty-town of what it once was. You find old 33mm audio logs depicting the happenings of the people during the course of fan shitting, scientists' lab notes, and of course, lots of ammo, currency(E-99), and weapon upgrades. These time rifts literally send you back and forth in time changing the time willy nilly. You use a magical device named the TMD, time manipulation device, to either restore things to how they once were, or pulverize them into dust.

With the use of the Seeker, a bolt-action rifle that slows down time which then goes into bullet time and lets you control said bullet, TMD, and the usual first person shooter guns(shotgun, pistol, sniper rifle, grenade launcher, mini-gun, etc.), you take down enemies left from the wrath of some mysterious leaders actions back in the 50's. Amongst all the action, there are some basic scares, like weird creature design, jump scares, and just creepy ambiance, you get some sweet with your sour. Also, just like in the game, there are time specific puzzle elements just thrown in there at the end with no real reason.

The game has multiplayer, in which you can either play as a soldier, or one of the monsters from the game. Regular team deathmatch and then a defend some object in this case 3 beacons, are the two types of games you can play. The soldiers have different classes in which you can level up to unlock different perks, items, or weapons, like every other class-based team shooter multiplayer game.

I love the heft the game gives you with the ambiance, weapons and all around tone, but the gameplay is a little tedious. I found myself only using like three things to take out all the enemies: time bubble to stop time, get up close with the shotgun shoot like 4 times, and walk back around cover to stop time bubble. The voice acting, at times, sounds really pushed with fake Russian accents, guttural moans, or clangs which makes me sad. Its a nice little game with some nice twists and turns at the end. From my dissing of the game and my lite praise, I really like this game.