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- Bionic Commando
Bionic Commando (360)
- May 18, 2009 09:41 AM PST
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The Big Picture
Bionic Commando occasionally works surprisingly hard to get your jaw to drop. A section of highway disintegrates here, a giant snake erupts from the ground there, and you'll hop from plane to plane in a truly stunning (and yet fundamentally simplistic) sequence that'd bankrupt any Hollywood studio. But the flow of adrenaline is simply too inconsistent to earn the game a place with the classics. For every intense set-piece battle against a boss or battalion there's an inexplicably long section of uneventful cave-traversing, or yet another relay to track down and hack with the push of a button. The big battles reward you with true spectacle; the other business rewards you with unnecessary expository text and frequent load screens.
Even multiplayer is a strange blend of inspiration and worn convention. Players boast arms that stretch significantly farther than Nathan's, so each of the detailed and delicately balanced maps becomes a zoo populated by brightly colored and incredibly agile high-tech spider monkeys. Tragically, you're limited to plain vanilla deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture-the-flag modes with just eight participants. Where are the swing races, the free exploration mode, and the ability to toss debris at each other? Where's the imagination that eventually surfaces to give the solo campaign the most memorable final minutes we've seen in months?
