PREVIEW: Bionic Commando

Let’s face it, certain genres in the industry today lack imagination. I’m sure, like me, you’ll be well aware of how many times you’ve directed a group of squaddies into the battlefield against a rag tag mob of terrorist scallywags. Now there’s nothing wrong with this per se, but where’s my Radd Spencer protagonist? My hoards of imperialist Nazis attempting to resurrect Hitler? And my genetically engineered super arm? Well apparently they’re all waiting just around the corner in the revitalized Bionic Commando series. Except the Nazis.

After 20 years in the gaming wilderness Bionic Commando looks set to make the transition from 2D to 3D very nicely. Radd Spencer and his bionic arm have been betrayed by the organization they worked for back in 1988 and sentenced to death for crimes they didn’t commit. Cue a bunch of radical terrorists (yawn) detonating an experimental bomb, demolishing Spencer’s home city, allowing him to escape, and once again swing into the third person action.

The vast majority of your time in this newly dilapidated environment will be spent either swinging through the cityscape or engaging the terrorists. You may not be surprised to hear that your eponymous bionic arm will play a central role in both of these activities. The way in which Radd traverses the environment will be immediately familiar to those of you who have experienced the Spiderman games as his arm-come-grappling hook proves an adaptable mistress.

The girders and crumbling platforms of tower blocks act as grapple points for Radd to fire off hooks to, this then allows him to leap off whatever he’s standing on and swing to another platform. Fortunately, the environment has been created so the player is never short of grapple points allowing you to enjoy the ride rather than be frustrated into stopping and starting, always looking for your next point of progression. Once you throw some aerial acrobatics into the mix, traveling throughout Bionic Commando’s universe looks set to be one of the games main draws. If developer GRIN can add some incentive for exploration, perhaps something akin to Crackdowns power orbs, then this part of the game is likely to become a real highlight.

When a player’s path brings them into contact with an enemy the bionic arm will once again come into play, providing Radd with a variety of choices over how to take down his aggressor. The most common use for the arm is as a sling shot, allowing you to grapple onto items as large as vans and hurl them, from a distance, towards an adversary. Many of these makeshift projectiles will react with their environment, breaking up as they’re sent hurling through the air or even exploding upon impact.

When the demo of Bionic Commando ventured into the, frankly quite stunning, jungle landscape, some further attacks were demonstrated. One of the most spectacular was the ‘zip kick’, which allowed the player to grapple onto an enemy and fling himself into his chest, causing him to be sent hurtling backwards. Needless to say that this move will be one of many spectacular stunts, leaving you with barrel full of ways to abuse your foes.

In addition to your bionic abilities you’ll also be provided with an arsenal of customizable firearms, which should help mix things up a bit. These may come into play more in the multiplayer modes than in the solo campaign, as with players using their bionic abilities to hurl themselves across the skyscapes, targeting with the arm could be a very hit and miss affair.

So far Bionic Commando looks like it’s made a top notch transition from 2D to 3D. Though the enemies seem to have gone through the bland-o-meter, everything else looks fresh and vibrant, which is quite some achievement for a 20 year old idea. No release date has been set for PAL territories yet but we think it’s fairly safe to assume that when Radd Spencer does make his long awaited reappearance there’ll be reason for celebration.