Bionic Commando - A harsh mechanic

RATING: 7/ 10
PLATFORM: XBox360 / PS3
GENRE: Adventure
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Only for the Serious Gamer

Good games don't always get good reviews:
So I was very shocked when I heard the initial reviews for Bionic Commando. A game that looked so cool and appeared to be a strong contender to get only sub par scoring. Well I put the reviews a side and decided to give Bionic Commando a swing before passing judgment. My finished results is a 7/10 (which for me means it is a decent game) and the only reason this game did not get a 7+ was cause Bionic Commando is freakin frustrating.

A Swinging good time:
Bionic Commando did a great job with the swinging game mechanic which is the bulk of the game. It was simply amazing flying through the beautiful levels grabbing on to piratically anything in your reach. The controls though complicated get the job done and make the game handle very well. Once you get over the learning curve you can really let loose in this game.

Water, Radiation and stun stick oh my:
To sum up this overall gigantic paragraph if a game makes a player frustrated so much that he or she is not enjoying the game your doing it wrong. More details keep reading:

What really killed Bionic Commando was its penalty for death combined with how easy it is to die. Now I am not saying all video games need to be easy but I do think there is a balance of how much you penalize the player for dieing. In Bionic Commando every time you die you are faced with a load screen that does nothing more then mocks you for 30 seconds. Bionic Commando had way to much loading time in general but the fact that every death meet more loading just added to the overall frustration meter. Now all of this would not nearly be that bad except for the fact that Bionic Commandos have some major weaknesses. If you so much as touch water you begin to drown which means you have about 10 seconds to figure out why you did not bring a floaty. Also no matter how clear the water is from the surface once you begin to drown it becomes muddy then the Hudson making it impossible to see. Radiation game mechanic though there to say this is not a Sandbox go away, is simply to quick to kill. I am sorry level designer I landed on a building i am not suppose to so do not freaking kill me before I can jump off the building. Lastly stun sticks seem to be the secret weapon to destroy all bionic commandos, I can take multiple shot gun rounds to the face but two taps with a stun stick and I am dead now that's retarded.

Story and Game progression no one cares about:
Bionic Commando is about a guy no one cares for trying to defeat an enemy no one cares about to save a world that once again no one cares about. Thank goodness the levels were lush a gorgeous because seeing new landscape is all I really that to look for in this game progress. From level one I had the plot figured out cause it was that much of a cookie cutter and even the little details I did not were basically pointless fluff. Really this a big budget game with a really interesting game mechanic how about spend some time on coming up with a unique story. Game progression is ok until the end when you qiuckly learned that the last two boss consist of a button mashing quick time event and a boring game of roll and then shoot. A rule of Game progression a Finial Boss should be the most challenging even in the game.

Yea for prettys:
Bionic Commando is B-E-A-Uitful. The eviornments cover a destroyed urban city, gigantic cayons and lush forest. Im really glad that my extra long loading time was going to good use because I never felt lag while playing the game. Unfotunatly the prettys are not number one for me so sorry bionic artist.