Singularity (2010)

This game is a sci-fi FPS with survival-horror undertones that blends action, atmosphere, and time-bending mechanics. The story shifts between 1955 and 2010 on a mysterious Soviet island, you use a tool called Time Manipulation Device (TMD) to age enemies into dust, restore decayed objects, freeze time, and unleash destructive energy bursts. This serves as a soft-puzzle mechanic as much as a narrative instrument, and as a secondary use, also in combat.

The plot leans heavily on Cold War paranoia and pulpy science-fiction tropes, gradually unfolding through exploration, audio logs, and environmental storytelling, which where traits very common for story-telling in shooters and action games in general, at the era in which this game was released. Combat is varied and satisfying, with the TMD ensuring encounters rarely feel repetitive. The game offers a tight, linear campaign that rarely overstays its welcome. While it features serviceable shooting mechanics, the time powers are the real draw, elevating otherwise familiar FPS gunplay into something more creative and memorable.

Visually, Singularity delivers a moody, retro-futuristic style, though the PC version suffers from dated textures, limited graphic settings, and a lack of modern audio support. Though short and with limited replayability, Singularity has earned cult status among players who appreciate its blend of inventive mechanics and engaging narrative. It remains a compact but memorable experience that stands out as one of the more underrated shooters of its generation. I consider this one of the best shooters focused on narrative, such as Half-Life for example, since we don't really get to see many of those compared to other shooters such as competitive and/or multiplayer ones.

Overall, a good but not great entry in Raven's 'pre-CoD support studio status' catalogue. I had this in my backlog for several years, having missed it upon release. My favourite parts of a Raven Software FPS were all there - a well realized world, good set pieces and some interesting tweaks to the FPS genre.

What I didn't enjoy was the gunplay - it felt stiff and I wanted to be doing a bit more damage to the enemies especially earlier on. In fact, I almost gave up on the game before I even gained the 'TMD' because the first hour's shooting hadn't sold me.

I enjoyed the general progression - unlocking new abilities felt well paced, and when I finally had a few unlocked along with some unique weapons, the gam really started gelling - as well as it could, at least. The time mechanic allowed for some simply puzzles and kept me on the look out for goodies or audio logs off the critical path, trapped behind a mutated branch I had to warp back in time, or what have you.

The ability to move objects a-la the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2 was welcomed, but paled in comparison in what it allowed me to make happen on screen that it will forever live in the GG's shadow. It's not good when you are always thinking about that better version you could be playing right now...

Lastly, while they did set up and create a well-realized world, it was not one I enjoyed inhabiting - it was extremely drab, brown and unoriginal. None of the enemies were really all that interesting either - they effectively shot at me from behind cover, if they were soldiers or ran at me mindlessly if they were anything modified by the time McGuffin.

I was very excited for this game as someone who is really into the Cold War and has a tendency to play FPS games, however almost immediately upon loading it, I knew I wasn't going to make it far.

I'm not usually a stickler for language stuff, because there is a certain degree of suspension of disbelief when it comes down to video games, however the annoying constant use of incorrect cyrillic lettering (this annoys me most of the time, as I can read cyrillic, and this letter, я, is not an r, it is pronounced like ya, but I digress) began to irk me. For example, the name of the island would literally be pronounced Katfyaga instead of Katorga (it's spelled катфяga literally everywhere and g in cyrillic is г so it's kind of a gross miss-mash of two alphabets and I personally think it's a dumb look)

So already, annoyed by the game. I also have an auditory processing disorder, so I rely on subtitles to help me understand what is going on through the course of the game. I couldn't figure out if I was looking in the wrong place trying to toggle subtitles, until a quick google lead me to the realization that they didn't exist in this game. So double digits on the score off from me, because that reeks of not caring about the accessibility of your game.

So cool, I'm annoyed, and I don't understand what's going on because on top of not having subtitles, everyone is speaking in really thick, badly acted Russian accents and it's impossible to figure out what anyone is trying to convey.

Needless to say, I got to the first 'monster' and noped out of there.