Singularity™

I played and completed this game a couple of years ago. It's a linear, story heavy, classic, first person shooter. It has elements of horror, but it is definitely not a horror game. It has elements of time travel and a spoonful of sci-fi. There are some minor puzzles you can solve with your special..."power". Thankfully not in levels which change the taste of what it really is. A fun shoot everything before they shoot you fps. I am not going to go into the story, it's better to experience it first hand. All I am going to say is for one reason or another you are in soviet land, at a time when the USSR has defeated the USA. Shooting mechanics in this game is superb. Not to be surprised considering who made this game. Raven is behind several awesome games. If you liked the feeling of shooting/guns in games like the 2009 Wolfenstein, you are going to feel right at home with this one. :) For me this is one of the best FPS of its generation. It's not a very long game, but it will provide a good 9-11 hours of classic fps action. I did a complete let's play of it a few years ago (not my best work), you can have a look here if you wish https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtpqh8ebqvxcsuT87ocjNkns4QXAg4cZ5 but I highly suggest to skip it and just buy this game. Unless of course you do not like single player FPS games, then, obviously don't.

This was Raven Software's third and unfortunately their last major title before the doors closed. My interest was instantly peeked when I saw this beauty was on GoG's game list. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, it was retailing at $39.79 AU. OMG. My advice is wait for a sale, or wait for GoG to lower the price to a more sensible, 6 year old priced game. My thought? US$10. So, to write this review, I re-installed my ORIGINAL discs and after downloading all the updates, I sat down and played what I remembered was an interesting game. When I purchased it at release, I was so impressed, I played through many times, just to see everything. The first time, it's like "KILL, plot, KILL, KILL, plot". Second time, it's more of "KILL, KILL, but more attention to the plot. And so on. This time I was more attuned to the graphics, sound (which if you have a GOOD pair of headphones, use them) and the all-over immersion of it. I looking at and appreciated the many different enemy types, and the environments in which you encounter them. The plot makes sense even if some of the level layouts don't. But then, it's a game...it's not based on REAL-LIFE ;p The graphics are made possible by Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3, and of course, Raven's clever programming skills. I must say that the ONLY part of this game I feel lets it down is the enemy AI's path tracking. Sometimes you have a situation where the dopey buggers will run (if you don't shoot them) all the way up to you and then run away again. There were times when walls and chairs had them stumped. Admittedly, no game to date has perfected the AI to simulate true Human behavior, but this game will show you where they were back then ;D If your new to PC gaming, or just looking for an interesting time-travelling quest-er, you could do a LOT worse than this. Its unique game-play and interesting plot will have you return, as I did. I gave this game 5 stars, because the buggy AI still happens in today's games. I therefor cannot fairly fault Raven for their attempt. ENJOY! HISTORY I have been playing computer games now for over 4 Decades (I currently stand at 55 y.o.), with my earliest gaming and programming encounter on a TSR80. I have witnessed the development of games, as well as the Rise and Fall of the Systems (Atari, Amiga, Sega) which played them. This is my FIRST game review.

Raven Software are known for making games that are "just solid good", which tend to borrow best ideas from all other games and are sold in the "mid-range" prices. The middle segment developers, between AAA and indie. And Singularity is another example of their approach. Story-wise it incredibly stupidly fun, in a good way. There're "evil soviet scientists", there's time travel, there's a bunch of hilariously bad "russian" and the style is almost completely ripped of BioShock, but with a soviet twist, rather than something totalitarian. But it works. It looks good, it has some cool ideas and the presentation is very solid. Same goes for gameplay, that rips BioShock and TimeShift but in such smart and great way, that it doesn't feel like a "bad knock-off", rather a totally new thing heavily inspired by the ideas of other games. The upgrades, the time powers and such aren't actually super creative, but they work to create fun gameplay and succeed at that. So yeah, as always, it's a solid game, with lots of fun to have and is, probably, one of the most creative games from Raven so far. Definite buy on sales and a definite option to consider for full price.

2017-07-17: I've never heard of this game before, but I bought it on the "GOG sale" and this game still holds up until today! (Single-PlayerONLY) Good gameplay and nice kick from the guns + decent sound all over, very good voice acting, great variation of freaky monsters! <3 the bullet holes after you hit enemies or you might dismember them, and you can execute soldiers that are trying to crawl away I love the time traveling between soviet era & the post-apocalyptic world! Lots to upgrade, weapons/armor/implants etc The game feels like a mixture of: Metro>S.T.A.L.K.E.R>Wolfenstein>and a little Portal/Half-Life Just download the free program (Flawless Widescreen) and change fov to 80-90, also play on Hard difficulty! We NEED Singularity 2 and more commie killing!