Bionic Commando (PC Port)

[OPIE]

Ahh the memories of this game. The old school one was a lot of fun and this game raises the bar. It starts you off 10 years after the first one. You play War hero Nathan Spencer who was betrayed and sent to prison on death row just for doing his job. The public has turned on bionic commandos in fear that they are not "fully human"

The story picks up where Nathans execution was stopped because the military needs him. Terrorists have struck a major blow and they need someone with Nathans capabilities.

Judging from the keyboard controls this game definately plays better on a controller for the originally intended Xbox 360. The tutorials still say push X or Y or Left Trigger or Right Trigger ect... but if you take a look at your key bindings in the options menu and do a quick memorization of them you get the feel and hang of the keyboard controls real quick. This is a 3rd person perspective action type game that will launch you from behind the back camera to over the shoulder camera angles while aiming. The game play is smooth and fun. I've never had so much fun using the bionic arm to grapple ledges and swing from street light to street light. Its kind of like spidey but this time you can't just web sling straight into the sky and attach to nothing.

The health system plays similar to that of gears of war or Rainbow six. The more damage you take the more your screen starts dimming or flashing red to indicate "HEY RETARD! STOP LETTING THE BULLETS HIT YOU!" As for attacking, you get the choice of a silenced pistol with an oversized magazine (compensating?) a selection of other weapons as a secondary from a Machine gun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher and a buffed up shotgun that would make chuck norris quiver in his manly beard. You also get grenades and you WILL need to utalize them very carefully. The enemy AI is fair, they act upon "HEY LOOKIT! SPENCER! KILL!" to "ITS SPENCER! MAYBE I SHOULD HIDE A LITTLE!" but it keeps it fun and fast paced and the AI is far from stupid...just straight forward. The battles and boss fights are a lot of fun, making you use everything you've got to stay alive. Your bionic arms abilities are great! You can latch onto someone and reel yourself in to kick them in the face and while your flipping backwards away from them you shoot them in the face to finish them off. Or you can knock a car into the air, jump and then kick the car on them to redefine the definition of roadkill.

Over all its a fun game and the boss fights are really well done and literally make you tense up dodging attacks or timing things just right to land a devastating blow. The good kind of tense though, you know the one where your adrenaline starts to course through your veins.

8.9 out of 10

Worth a purchase...or in my case...a different way of obtaining a copy :-P

[Afterthought]

a different way you say???

I always liked the original, I'll have to check this out sometime.

[OPIE]

I could send you the files  

the only thing is the installer is in russian. You can install an english version. On the final steps of installing you get a choice (in russian) You know where you get to select where the dot goes in which circle :-p Choose the bottom option or the funny looking A. Let me know if you want to download the files off me. We could transfer them via AIM.

:SPOILERS:

If I may say the story is kind of grim and actually struck an emotional chord with me. The whole point spencer is helping out the government, the people that turned against him, is because they have information on his wife, who supposedly left him. Come to find out in the end his wife was killed when Spencer had his accident and lost his arm due to a grenade blast. They used his wifes brain/heart/personality what ever you want to call it, to form a close bond with Spencers bionic arm and him. So his wife is alive...inside his arm.... He has flash backs or what I would call more of lucid dreams and sees his wife who tells him shes always been with him and will always be by his side (ironic) but that he is the one that is lost. So Spencer gets the motivation after watching MAG (I WAS SO PISSED SHE WAS KILLED) die and goes for one final attempt at revenge. You kill the guy who betrayed you and then plummet to your death. Basicly in the end, everybody died including spencer. Tragic story none the less but really good. There is a cliff hanger in the end too.

The music is amazing and really pulls you into the moments of action and crazy boss fights.