Bionic Commando Review

Where the wild thing's arm.

Version tested: Xbox 360

What with videogame worlds getting bigger and bigger, it's no surprise that we get correspondingly excited whenever someone comes up with a new way to lob ourselves across them - whether it's jumping between rooftops in Crackdown, zooming along Halo in a Banshee, or swinging around the crumbling remains of Ascension City like Tarzan meets Robocop in Bionic Commando. If we're going to commute between the fun, better to do it in style.

And although it takes a while to comprehend, Bionic Commando's swing mechanic is very stylish. As you fall from the rooftops you make a grab for lampposts, jutting girders and carved-up monorail by compressing the left trigger as they flash past, firing out a grappling hook from your bionic arm and slingshotting smoothly beneath at a matching pace, before releasing to send yourself in a preferred direction. Maximum respect goes to the programmers behind the context-sensitive icon that shows where you can hook on, because the distances are intuitively consistent, and with a bit of application the learning curve flattens out and you're able to manoeuvre swiftly and impressively, and catch yourself when you brush up against the limitations of your own dexterity.

But then, of course, Crackdown wasn't really about jumping between rooftops, and Halo wasn't about zooming around in a Banshee, so Bionic Commando can't afford to be about protagonist Nathan Spencer's impressive Spider-Man antics alone. Instead it's most frequently about a succession of fights that call upon different areas of Spencer's expansive arsenal.

'Bionic Commando' Screenshot 1

The story of pro-bionic terrorists opposing a government-led clampdown on implants, with old friends and foes bouncing off one another on either side, would be more compelling if Spencer didn't sound like such a prat. Good popcorn fodder though.

On the basic end, he has a pistol and grenades, which you can apply with typical if not particularly great effect. More elaborate weapons, like a multi-firing rocket launcher that locks onto multiple enemies as you tag them with the probing reticule before release, and grenade launchers and sniper rifles, are provided by support pods fired into the city, but the enormity of their influence is mediated by a shortage of ammunition. Handily though, Spencer gradually recalls other things he can do with his bionic arm, like whipping or punching wreckage across the landscape, and latching onto enemies with his hook before reeling in to deliver a kick to the face - the latter even more handily rebounding you into the air for a follow-up.

There's enough of a toolbox there to enforce experimentation, and the menagerie of beastly biomechanical monsters often has you rummaging around. Gorilla-like berserkers are susceptible at the rear and if you can penetrate their facial armour, but close the gap to the player at dangerous pace, forcing you to work quickly if you're limited to smacking them with the scenery, and to reach for stun moves like 'death from above', which allows you to clatter to ground with dizzying force. The aerial polycraft flyers keep their distance, wary of damaging zip-kicks, and the less animalistic but no less predatory human snipers have you dancing between their visible sighting lasers as you struggle for cover and tactics. A range of mini challenges (with corresponding Achievements) gives you new ideas, too.

'Bionic Commando' Screenshot 2

It may take you a while to get to grips with the bionic swing, but it's impressively versatile when you do - with levels designed to make the most of it.

But it's when the more interesting battles are brought together with the swing that Bionic Commando stands out, as when you're dodging snipers in the industrial district (and later as you work through the park), trying to maintain aerial momentum to evade the beams. My favourite though was a battle with a Buraq helicopter on top of a skyscraper, where the exposed steel framework creates a jungle-gym or potential manoeuvres and the threat of the chopper's machineguns and backup polycraft compel you to make use of it. By the time you have secured enough rocket launcher rounds to outdo your hawk-like aggressors, you know you've been in a fight.

Not that the game tries to leave you in any doubt about that once it gets going. The plank-brained grunts of the terrorist occupation force are barely worth the more elaborate ends you can put them to, but when they're reinforced by machinegunners, or deployed in greater numbers, they're sufficiently pesky to kill you. And it's in this way that developer GRIN aims to regulate the difficulty level: more enemies! Checkpointing is generally only worth the odd grumble, but there are a few real spikes, including a very frustrating battle in the FSA Archives building late on, where the enemy force goes through several waves of fiddly projectile-spitting fodder, which comes off as cheap - especially as it's merely the filling between not being able to access something and suddenly receiving authorisation. What tactical depth should be available is neutered by density.

Less frustrating, but more surprising, is that Bionic Commando never goes properly open-world, preferring a halfway house that offers freedom as far as the eye can see and then a slow radioactive death to dissuade you going any further. You're forever working your way to the next yellow checkpoint icon on the mini-map, which is often a relay beacon that disables aerial minefields, opening up the way to the next waypoint. There are a few hidden 8bit capsule-toy style icons to uncover per area, but between the orienteering and frequent load screens you come to accept that this is a corridor action game - it's just that the corridors are broad and nicely decorated.

And this they are, and only occasionally to the detriment of the frame-rate. Ascension City may be on its last legs (if not knees, or slumped over in a pool of its own effluent), but it's as imposing as Crackdown's Pacific City and as detailed, and in its haunting desolation and abandonment, almost as characterful as GTAIV. The haze is sometimes off-putting, and I do wish we didn't have to go inside or underground so much, but the water, lighting effects and sheer scale are achievements, particularly in areas like the glass-domed park and cavernous fissure running beneath the city.

'Bionic Commando' Screenshot 3

If you've acquired certain items in Bionic Commando Rearmed, you can open special doors. However, the autosave system and linearity means you won't be able to bookmark the location and come back to it.

There's variety too, as illustrated by the diversity of multiplayer playgrounds for the eight-player online games, within which you can gather for deathmatch and CTF variants. As you may have discovered in the recent Xbox Live demo, however, it's a dangerous place to tread if you're still a novice with the bionic arm, and a rudimentary lobby system also does a poor job of recommending it. Where it ultimately falls down though is in the relationship between players, which can't match the battles between a fully tooled Spencer and increasingly overpowered, Capcom-spec enemies in the single-player campaign.

By the time I reached the end of that campaign, I was experiencing mixed emotions. GRIN has certainly taken the load off combat boots wearied by too many open worlds with great effect, but although you travel over rather than along them, they are still highways of debris passing beneath your feet, and all you are doing is pausing occasionally to dispatch the people you meet and consult the A-to-Z. The result, though stylish and engaging, is something rather more primitive than the more enjoyable battles - where the bionic swing and core combat work in closest collaboration - really deserve. Bionic Commando succeeds in resurrecting a good idea lost to the Capcom archives, and giving it a new lease of life, but it falls foul of a few old standards in the process.

7 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy

Comments (39) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Reggiez #1 3 years ago

    Well this might just be worth looking into. Always like games with a certain original take to them.
  • galerian86 #2 3 years ago

    This seems quite alright. Still, a demo on PSN would be nice.
  • andywilkie35 #3 3 years ago

    Reckon I'll grab this when it comes down in price a bit
  • figaro7 #4 3 years ago

    Bargain bin methinks, not worth the asking price of $100+ AU.
  • ZuluHero #5 3 years ago

    Yeah agree with you there Disc. That MP demo was far too damaging for me (and alot of other ppl, i suspect)

    Surely a snippet of the single player campaign would have been a better choice? I can only but wonder the marketing behind that decision...
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/09 @ 00:15
  • Hunam #6 3 years ago

    I also played the MP demo as was utterly put off the game. Was ugly and just didn't feel right at all.
  • frankfurter209 #7 3 years ago

    GRIN is a 7 developer, like Ubisoft. They make good games, but no one will remember them after a month.
  • Darren #8 3 years ago

    A 7/10 from EG seems to suggest this game isn't too bad after all although it doesn't look like it's a classic or anything. Looking forward to playing this on my PC next week... it's only costing me £20. :)
  • muscleblade #9 3 years ago

    Im really not sure about this. I love Capcom, but Grin hasnt exactly proven to be one of the best developers around.
  • asphaltcowboy #10 3 years ago

    Well, I've been looking forward to this for ages and you can already get it for £28. That cheap enough?
  • asphaltcowboy #11 3 years ago

    Er, EDGE gave it 6, no?
  • fiery_jackass #12 3 years ago

    I'll back the yapping about the MP demo. I may have missed something, but what's the point of that? I spent 5 minutes looking at a matchmaking screen that was going nowhere, knowing that even if I DID manage to get a game I'd be getting pasted whilst trying to figure out what the hell the buttons did or what the point of anything was.

    Completely shit idea, that.
  • menage #13 3 years ago

    Both Games TM and Edge gave this a 6?

    Mmm, I had high hopes for Grin when they did Rearmed, but I think 3 IPs in a row might have been pushing it. I'd rather have they would have concentrated on this one and had ditched the whole Wanted crap.
  • muscleblade #14 3 years ago

    Jeff Gerstman gave it 8/10.

    edit: Normally i would buy this. But i have already won the probably not to good Terminator Salvation game with movie premiere tickets.
    And i wonder how Prototype turns out. The UFC game is also tempting.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/09 @ 09:29
  • CARL05 #15 3 years ago

    I agree with people's points that the demo was quite damaging, the swing mechanic did need to be explained before sending us to online slaughter.

    But it still looks like an interesting game and I should be getting mine for the fabulous price of free if Mr. Bramwell and Capcom have kept to their word. (I won the BC:Rearmed Eurogamer level comp) :D
  • TheBlackBandit #16 3 years ago

    I think I'll rent this. I'm just a sucker for alternative travel routes. Assassin's Creed was one of my favourite games full stop, purely because I could perform impossible jumps around a city.
  • menage #17 3 years ago

  • Zebula77 #18 3 years ago

    Seems like this is one of those love it or hate it affairs. Just read a review on a Norwegian site that gave it 5/10. The reviewer was apparently very frustrated by the bionic arm system and the aiming reticule being iffy.

    Hoping for a SP demo of this on PSN, but so far I'm skeptical about this one.
  • Gearskin #19 3 years ago

    Personally, based on my experience so far with the campaign (70% done) and the multiplayer demo (can't find games online right now)... I'd go higher than a 7.

    I think it's great.

    It does have a few sore spots but, all things considered, it' a slick, stylish and very unique shooter. It makes Gears feel far too... well... grounded.
  • Twin_snakes #20 3 years ago

    It's more of a 5 for me, far to generic.
  • muscleblade #21 3 years ago

    How long does it take to finish?
  • smernicki #22 3 years ago

    thought interview read better than a 7...
    prob get this when it goes on special deal in a month or so as it inevitably will
  • JayKwon #23 3 years ago

    Seems just what I expected. Not to great after all, but still good.
  • Rirekon #24 3 years ago

    Saw that coming, my interest slipped dramatically while playing the MP Demo - it didn't bode well for the SP gameplay
  • Sonic_D #25 3 years ago

    Running commentary while I read the review:

    8..8...8?..7...next page...7...8...9!!!....eh? 7
  • stoopidgreg #26 3 years ago

    well that score was entirely expected
  • Cappy #27 3 years ago

    I don't think any score would have persuaded me this was a worthwhile purchase.
  • samk #28 3 years ago

    fiery_jackass: "I spent 5 minutes looking at a matchmaking screen that was going nowhere, knowing that even if I DID manage to get a game I'd be getting pasted whilst trying to figure out what the hell the buttons did or what the point of anything was."

    This was pretty similar to my experience, and I'm yet another who was utterly put off by the multiplayer demo.

    Several minutes faffing around in matchmaking then dropped into the middle of a deathmatch game not knowing what the hell was going on with the mechanics. A few players were clearly up to speed and had easy pickings charging around slaughtering everyone else. Changed server, same thing occured; a few guys absolutely caning everyone. So fuck that, quit and delete demo.

    Which knobhead thought an MP-only demo was a good idea??
  • Retroid #29 3 years ago

    I hate MP-only demos of games when I'm far more interested in the SP campaign.

    7/10 is good enough for me to pick up when it drops a little in price; been looking forward to this for a while, especially after the *superb* XBLA / PSN remake of the NES game!
  • Vin #30 3 years ago

    Worth punt for 15 notes, I reckon.
  • Unclebenny #31 3 years ago

    I must admit, i picked up the multiplayer pretty quickly, once i just treated it as multiplayer version of the spiderman games. I def share people's annoyance ast having just a multiplayter demo though. It wasn't the most intuative thing to be thrown into.
  • andromeda #32 3 years ago

    MEH

    all that build up and then a dull old 7

    surely EG, you've been following it for so long that you almost couldve seen this coming, and hence not wasted so much time on previewing it?


  • PrivateFloyd #33 3 years ago

    still getting it when my xbox is fixed ....loving old-skool games at the minute.

    pure.popcorn.perfection.

    i am happy with a 7, doubt i will dabble in the multiplayer though.
  • Devil Dancer #34 3 years ago

    Is the protagonist as annoying and stereotypical as he looks?
  • ChocNut #35 3 years ago

    Exact same opinion on the MP demo here. Who the he'll makes these obviously wrong business decisions? Whatever board member pushed for this hasn't a clue.

    I was excited and interested in this game until I played the demo. I'll be waiting for a bargain priced copy too.
  • Turambar #36 3 years ago

    I like games that get 7/10. Games that score higher are often disappointing, games that score lower often suck. I know what I'm getting with 7/10.
  • smelly #37 3 years ago

    >Both Games TM and Edge gave this a 6?
    >Jeff Gerstman gave it 8/10.


    (to be read in your best "captain kirk" voice ):

    GAAH!!! Reading... Comment.. Thread.. Intelligence... Melting....
  • spookyzombie #38 3 years ago

    I played the full game last night and didn't like it all that much. The main problem for me was I found his bionic arm annoying to use. The graphics are very average too.
  • fluff_the_tiger #39 3 years ago

    Right now 17.11 at Asda
    This is actually a very good game, if you can put up with it's linearity and take it for what it is it's great as you gradually get better with the arm.

    8.5 /10 for me, the cutscenes have that Capcom mix of ham and glitz, if it was a bit more openworld and didn't have the bloody loading screen every 2 minutes it could have been a true classic.