I like western movies, I like shooting guns, so I thought this game would be fun to play... but I was wrong, there are some parts of this game that are fun but the parts that take over your gun and force you to shoot it their way really aggravated me and if I were not such a completionist I would have uninstalled this game before finishing it. The forced repeating cut scenes did not help either but I guess if you really like western themes and pay a couple bucks for this on sale you might just be satisfied.
I really like Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 better but this first version is worth a play thru on sale, most of game play is fun sniper stuff but when the game switches and forces you to use an assault rifle the fun drops to zero, the accuracy of your gun goes to 0% and the enemies goes to 99% even if they are on the other side of the map. I do like a challenge but I don't know what the dev's where thinking here. I own the whole series and this one falls in the middle.
I have never played any XCOM games and I do not plan to, they are not my style. I don't understand the 'controversy' and I don't want to. So this review is not biased from a playing history of other XCOM games. What I really, really enjoy in gaming is FPS Shooters and if they have great graphics, a decent story and the controls are not whack I tend to enjoy them and finish them..., lust like this game 'The Bureau', defiantly worth your time and money (on sale) if you crave quality shooters with a twist. I do have a couple warnings for this game that may or may not bother you. 1.) No manual saves, game used random like auto-saves that lock you out of map areas, I never like this and wish all devs would get a clue... most gamer's I know hate this. 2.) Squad play with semi-dumb AI teammates that you have to place on battle field and pick their targets and different weapons also you must occasionally stop playing and heal them (they heal you too). Now I usually avoid this gaming style but I must admit I did 'mostly' enjoy it on this game, it just seemed to work. It was more challenging and rewarding than I expected but it did not convert me and I'm still not a fan of this gaming style. I really hope they ignore the criticism and do another in this style, their plan worked if it was to attract gamer's that would never play the other XCOM games.
If this were a movie it would barely be PG, it's very light hearted and easy going in a Disney type of way. There is no rush and you will not die, take your time, puzzles are not hard and the graphics feel hand drawn by a talented artist leaning more towards realism and not cartoonist in any way. I used this game as a way to relax, to take a break from harder games and/or life. If you like point and click adventure games you will enjoy this little gem. The GoG version does not come with a manual and its so easy to play it confused me a little at the beginning so I'll list some helpful playing tips here so you can get started right away. (Mouse and Keyboard Space-bar are all that is needed to play) 1.) Pressing the space bar or the magnifying icon at bottom right shows all the active spots and exits in the screen. (right/left mouse buttons do different actions on these spots) 2.) When the characters' icons are seen on top of the screen; switching characters is enabled. 3.) Double click makes the character run and hastens going to the next screen. 4.) Right click skips dialogue. (very useful to know) 5.) Some items need to be combined or broken apart before you can use them. You can search and find the manual on-line but it's not really needed unless you want to read the included diary to get the full back story and... that's not really needed either.
The Good: Graphics are a bit unique and a pleasure to play in. Story is engaging with excellent voice acting but skip-able if you want. 'Some' gunfights are really fun Realism is spot-on and engaging 'most' of the time. Runs fine @ 4K with no lag and good FPS. Well worth it if purchased on sale. The Bad: Frustrating auto-save, forcing replays if you F up, cut-scenes and all. Checkpoints that lock you out of areas, pick up wrong gun and your fun goes way down Clunky game mechanics, takes awhile to get used to, never feels natural. Game sometimes grabs you to force look at things, rubs face in it like a dog in carpet crap. Game sometimes forces you to walk slow for effect that is just aggravating. Sometimes your actions feel like flat-out murder. The ESRB Rating is no exaggeration, intense violence was a big part of the devs game plan they also wanted it to feel like a movie with your gun-fights loaded with realism, I think they pulled that off and I hope they learned from their mistakes, if they didn't hold your hand so much it would be 5 stars.
I found Singularity to be very engaging as a story with some very fun weapons to play with, it reminded me more of Dead Space (weapons, upgrade stores) and Wolfenstein: Old Blood (graphics, story-mode) than Bioshock or Half-Life but I can see others seeing it that way too. Well worth playing when purchased on sale. The trick for full enjoyment (and getting your money's worth) is to fully immerse yourself in the story without taking the combat to seriously (enemies are pretty easy and weapons become over powered) and find clever/interesting ways to kill enemies (freezing and fire bombs my favorites) I did find myself looking in every nook and cranny for the power up$ more than I ever have in any other game. Now the bad... Auto-Save(s) and doors closing behind you, yeah that gets aggravating... the game is designed to encourage exploration (for rewards) but as your looking around you can get locked out of an area without the ability to go back and get what you missed and with only a single auto-save sometimes that is permanent. The best way to prevent that is to use the "ping" that is a part of your glove, to show you the path (glowing footsteps) you are supposed to take and make sure you follow that path last thus ensuring you get to explore entire areas before getting locked out. One last thing, the best guide in on GameSpot, search for it and refer to it when needed, your game play will make much more sense with maximum enjoy-ability.
This game is epic, truly a must play for any FPS fan and if you have been following the Wolfenstein series then do yourself a favor and play both The New Order and Old Blood. What a treat, I enjoyed every freaking moment of game play, the first play through I did most of it stealth style and then on the second go around I went in guns-a-blazing everywhere, both styles are fun with this game and the eye candy graphics along with the epic story make replaying this game pure joy. I'm leaving it installed as I'm sure I'll replay it many times or just jump into my favorite chapters for a quick fix of fun. Unlike most GoG games, I had to do very little tweaking to get it to play the way I wanted out of the box. One very important fix is to create game/texture cache folders because the install does not by mistake and things run much smoother if you do. (make sure to create the path/folder(s) below) %LOCALAPPDATA%\AppData\Local\MachineGames\Wolfenstein The New Order I played this on 4K 4096x2160 @ 60 fps with no problem on a i5 PC with only 8 gigs of RAM (the GTX 1660 Super helped)
