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Bionic Commando: New gameplay, new boss

• By Travis Moses
• December 09, 2008 17:29 PM PST
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In an exclusive unveiling, GamePro witnesses the opening cinematic of Bionic Commando and plays the entire first chapter of "Broken City," parts of "Fissure," a later chapter in the game, and fights a new boss you haven't seen or heard of anywhere else.

Bionic Beginnings

The game begins with a falsely imprisoned and armless Nathan Spencer (Bionic Commando), and a proposition for freedom. The new Bionic Commando takes place 10 years after the NES adventure. During this time, the great bionic purge seized and imprisoned Nathan Spencer for affairs he had no part in. But after an experimental nuclear weapon explodes in Ascension City, Nathan is offered a second chance to redeem his name and bionic origins by investigating the radioactive dustbowl.

Accepting the mission, Nathan is dropped into Ascension City, now called the "Broken City," and this is where you start playing. Your first mission is to find Nathan's bionic arm, since the government deemed it unsafe to equip the arm before the mission. Equipped with only the Tungsten pistol and a couple of frag grenades, which are proximity fused and can be used as conventional mines, you'll fight through a few basic grunts before discovering Nathan's bionic arm. When the arm is painfully installed, Nathan slips into a trance and enters a flashback, which is a virtual training session, and plays as the original Nathan "RAD" Spencer.

300 LBS. of Steel

Immediately after the tutorial stage, the real game starts and the difficulty ramps up. One hundred stories above ground, you look out over the nuclear blast site. Clearly the only way forward is straight down. You leap from the high perch and dive toward the ground. If you time it correctly, you'll latch on a nearby neon sign and swing away to safety; if you miss, Nathan will smash into the ground and the epic moment is lost. Aww...

Much of the first chapter consists of basic swinging and small shootouts with weakling grunt enemies. It's nothing too special, but it offers a chance to take in the visually breathtaking scenery; there are also plenty of objects to swing from so you can get the "hang of things" at a comfortable pace (pun intended).

A nice addition to the core gameplay is the implementation of "Active Challenges". Active Challenges are in-game achievements that boost your skills in particular fields. For example, the first in a long line of Active Challenges for explosives requires you to kill two enemies with a single grenade. This will increase the damage and blast radius of your explosives. The second explosives challenge requires you to kill four enemies with one grenade and will further boost your explosive expertise and so forth; there are similar challenges for shooting and swinging as well.

Continue reading to find out about a later level called "Fissure" and a surprise boss reveal!

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