Pre-Release Thoughts: Bionic Commando

So, here it is, Sunday, and I'm just a few days away from playing Bionic Commando, provided GameFly doesn't screw me over. Lately I've been thinking about how my near-constant ingestion of gaming news/previews/reviews/podcasts may (or may not) be affecting my gaming experiences. So, as a bit of an experiment, I've decided to type up my current, pre-release, expectations of the game, then compare those with my post-release thoughts (to be written later, obviously).

To begin, let me just say that I've been annoyed by what I've been hearing about how the game is being received so far. Specifically, alot of anecdotal tales of thrown controllers, gatling-gun profanity, and screaming fits on the part of some reviewers during office hours. Now, there's no doubt that there's some general frustration going on, but what is the source of that frustration? Most will conclude that the game itself is to blame, that shoddy controls or poor design are causing reviewers to go apeshit. I'd likely believe this also, save for the fact that, in addition to reviewer meltdowns, I've also heard (and seen) alot about BC that leads me to believe that the game is quite difficult. So, holding both the aforementioned circumstances as true, one must consider what truly is the most likely source of many reviewers' frustration with this game.

The question is, are reviewers frustrated by Bionic Commando because of it being a bad game, or are reviewers frustrated because the game is forcing them to work overtime due to its difficulty level?

I, obviously, am leaning towards the latter. Based on what I have seen of single-player gameplay and experienced with the multi-player demo, Bionic Commando seems to be a truly "hardcore" game--that is, a game designed to engender a sense of achievement in players who successfully surmount significant in-game challenges. This is the sort of game I like, but it is also the sort of game that can frustrate me, even without the worry of having to write a review on a deadline. This in mind, I predict the majority of scores for this game to be unfairly low, with a few gleaming reviews interspersed, these written by either especially skilled reviewers or those who had alot of time to play the game.

...Tune in a week or so from now to find out if I'm full of shit or not.

(3)

Demian Linn

May 18, 2009

I'm about halfway through and my opinions are mixed...I love moving through the world via swinging, but I hate falling in the water and dying within four seconds. I don't mind the challenge, but the save points could be closer together or better positioned (before and after tough spots rather than often just after). We'll see how the rest goes, I hear the second half is better than the first.

Redmond Carolipio

The experience as a whole picked up for me once I recalled the ability to throw things with the arm. However, some things really bothered me about the game:

1) I can't stand the main character. He's almost too angry to be taken seriously. The rest of the voice acting makes me want to mute the TV.

2) The story seems haphazardly thrown together as simply a mild effort to transition from one action sequence to the next. I didn't really care for it. CHEW ON THAT!! EAT THAT!! YEAH!!

3) I am with you on the near-instant water deaths, especially when I am near stuff that I can grab to pull myself out. Apparently, Spencer skipped underwater training. I didn't have much of an issue with the save points (though, I was very lucky in some spots).

4) I'm curious as to what you make of the ending.

Christopher Walton

As concerns the positioning of save points, I tend to give developers a lot of latitude as the task seems to be a tricky sort of art in and of itself. Checkpoints that are positioned too closely to a difficult obstacle tend to undermine any real sense of satisfaction and pull the player out of the experience to some extent (see the latest Prince of Persia). Checkpoints positioned too far from such can result in extreme frustration and pull the player out of the experience in much the same way as the opposite situation. Add to this the wild variations of individual players' perceptions of difficulty and you start to feel sorry for the poor sap that has to make these sorts of decisions.

*sigh* I just hope this game doesn't get the same treatment as Lost Planet. It was a great (albeit tough) game that got nit-picked into obscurity by reviewers who blew minor hiccups out of proportion to justify their personal sense of frustration with the game.

WHAT THE HECK IS A BITMOB?