Bionic Commando

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 20th May 2009
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Gameplay and Gimmick

Functionally, Bionic Commando is a frustrating, occasionally broken and intermittently rewarding third-person shooter. You run around shooting bad guys and trying to make it from one idiotic objective to another in the same way as a hundred other games, but the unique feature here is that you can climb anything and swing anywhere.

Well, kind of. While the marketing hype that’s built up around the game has tried to put the idea forth that the world of Bionic Commando is pretty open, it actually isn’t all that open at all.

Each level is essentially a linear tunnel where you’re fenced in by floating mines and clouds of radiation that are best described as being occasionally blue, but usually invisible. You can’t go in the vast majority of buildings and you can’t swim along the flooded streets, so trying to pretend that the game has more than minimum in exploration is an exercise in delusion – and there are better things to fantasise about, frankly.

There’s nothing wrong with linear games naturally, but the efforts to restrict player movement here is so transparent it’s practically obnoxious. The clouds of radiation are everywhere, their poorly-drawn textures lacing most buildings to prevent you climbing too high or swinging too far, and the mines are a contradictory nuisance. Supposedly they’re there to stop army helicopters – yet the further you go into the game the more prevalent airborne enemies and allies become.

Bionic Commando King of the Swingers
Pray that you don't land in water or a blue radiation cloud

Oh, and don’t even get us started on swimming – the fact that this Bionic Commando can only hold his breath for six seconds is pain enough, but the camera work when you fall underwater is so atrocious it all but guarantees your death. Then it’s back to the last of the awkwardly far apart checkpoints after a 30 second load period, usually followed by another immediate insta-death.

Manoeuvring through this trilogy of annoyances is a difficult affair and while the grappling-hook mechanic feels broken and stiff for the most part, it’s also occasionally rewarding. Dodging snipers and flipping through the air on the rare occasions you can actually get the timing right is a rare treat and the spiderman mechanics add a lot to otherwise unremarkable combat.

Still, don’t take the praise to heavily as, for the most part, moving through the world of Bionic Commando is about as much fun mixing powdered glass into your morning coffee. The physics of the world feel stiff and unconvincing and the animation work is often laughable, with Spencer bouncing dully off of buildings and enemies when he swings into them at full speed. Zip-lining yourself round huge overhangs and vaulting catastrophically into the air is something you’ll eventually learn to rely on no matter how ludicrously stupid if looks.

Bionic Commando King of the Swingers
Literally, the most fun a robot-handed man can have by himself without serious injury

Granted, in the urbanised sections of the game this stuff isn’t actually too bad. Watching how poorly Spencer reacts to his environment may be a bit distracting, but you can at least move quickly around the areas and the level design does offer plenty of challenges for combat. Some sections of the game, particularly the sniper-infested industrial district are actually a whole lot of fun and whizzing from tower to tower is an entertaining way to kill some time.

Unfortunately though, the further you progress in the game the more truculent the level design starts to become and the more often you find yourself having to pendulum yourself across expanses of water or radiation, held aloft only by deactivate floating mines.

These areas of the game are spoiled by the obviously faulty physics of the game that cause Spencer to drop like a dim-witted stone if even attempts to release his swing at the apex of his arc – and the faults are further undermined by how hard it is to attach yourself to such specific points. The incredibly limited reach of the bionic arm makes matters even more difficult too; a Spiderman simulator this most certainly is not.

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