Singularity brings you to Katorga-12, a fictitious island filled with Russian soldiers, hordes of monsters and as much blood and guts as you can handle. In the 1950′s, Soviet Russia discovers a new element called E99 that is found only on Katorga-12. They begin research on time manipulation weapons when an experiment goes horribly wrong, causing the island to become closed and forgotten.

Fast forward to the year 2010, shortly after the United States detects an immense amount of radiation coming from the island. Fearing another Chernobyl, they send in a team to investigate. After a crash landing, soldier Nate Renko finds himself at the epicenter of a series of events that will change the world.

Burn, baby burn!

Singularity takes cues from games like Bioshock, Doom and Halo. Combining a bit of horror with fast-paced gunplay, it brings various gameplay styles into one bundle. The game keeps the pace by mixing up the action. One minute you’re fighting a giant mutant creature, the next minute you’re solving puzzles and going back in time. The game adds some RPG elements with plenty of guns and upgrades to pick up and advance your character.

The one object that is as much a part of the story as Recko is the TMD or time manipulation device. This little gadget allows you to manipulate time in a few ways and is the primary component for almost every puzzle. The TMD lets you pick up objects, throw them at your enemies, or create a deadlock cipher which will slow down time, allowing you to kill with ease. All of these elements combine to create a well designed and gritty world that incorporates exploration with a linear path.

Where this game really shines is the combat. A good variety of weapons combined with the TMD abilities makes the combat very enjoyable and a lot of fun to play. With all the weapons available, there is no shortage of things to kill. One of my favorite parts of the game are the seeker moments. The seeker is a super advanced sniper rifle. It shoots a guided bullet that you can pilot much like a guided missile, making nowhere safe to hide. Being able to fire a round off then guide it down a hallway and through a door is a lot of fun.

While there is much to praise within the game, it does have its issues. To start, the puzzles feel lacking. Most puzzles are solved by simply moving a box from one end of the room the the other. Many of the features of the TMD leave you wanting more. After you use them a few times they lose their appeal and it never truly lives up to what you want it to be. The single player game is pretty short with about 5-7 hours of gameplay. After beating it there isn’t much reason to play it a second time. The story is fine but feels lacking in a few key aspects. The AI seem weak even on hard difficulty settings. The enemies often seem to just be waiting for you to kill them. None of these issues break the game, however, they are merely hiccups that make me feel like the game should have a spent a little more time in development.

Taking serious damage

All that’s left to touch on is the multiplayer portion of the game. There are two types of multiplayer modes which both pit humans against creatures. You have your standard deathmatch and a point control, which are pretty straight forward. You choose a creature type or soldier class, outfit your character and then you’re ready to fight. The humans have some special abilities depending on the class you pick so they are on an even playing field with the creatures. The creatures come in a few different shapes and sizes ranging from small mind-controlling bugs to a large heavy-hitting spider. The biggest difference between the two is that the creatures are played from a third-person perspective while the humans are played from a first-person perspective.

This game isn’t the best game out, especially with games like Bioshock 2 and System Shock 2 on the market, but it is hardly a bad game. It’s a good game to play to burn some time until the fall releases hit. I had a very good time playing this game and will give it a  7.5/10

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