Yesterday me, Pheonix Blood, Anus McPhanus and McSnow went back to Capcom Europe to try out the upcoming Bionic Commando game. Since
McSnow didn’t really like the game and
Anus did it seems like he said that the game may divide people. I’m going to explain how I felt about it, and how the rest of the day turned out.
After being led to the same room as
before, the three other Dtoiders and I sat at our screens, with 4 other people (including a guy who flew from Norway to try the game out!).
As soon as we walked in we notice a T-Shirt on each of our chairs. We were told they were for us! The shirt is pictured above! Then we were talking about Dtoid and Chiara, the Senior Online Marketing & Community Manager told us that she had something for us Dtoiders! We were all given a cool holographic Resi 5 poster, except for Anus,
since he already won the game from them!
The playthrough:
From pushing start on the controller, we were placed into the tutorial, which teaches you the basics of the game as well as a few of the moves. To grapple objects (and people!) the L-trigger is used. At first I (as well as a few others) experienced difficulty timing our swings. I was releasing my grapple at the height of the swing, meaning that I was flying vertically into the air, rather than horizontally and vertically as I wanted to To successfully swing forward, we were taught when to release the grapple, which is at the 45 degree angle from the centre point (if you know what I mean). When you get the swinging down though, you’ll be gliding through the air with ease like… a hang glider… that grapples and stuff.
The tutorial also taught us how to hook objects and pull ourselves towards them, as well as combat moves such as the “zip-kick” (I think that’s the name) which is where you grapple someone and reel yourself in kicking your opponent in the process. This was easy to execute on the stationary “enemy”, having to simply hover my reticule over the enemy, press the L-trigger to grapple them, and then push A (X on the PS3 controller) to reel myself in. I would soon find out that things would not be so simple in multiplayer.
Other than that, we also learnt about other moves, such as the ability to uppercut objects into the air, then jump and hit them into enemies (the object locks on apparently) and being able to grapple objects and throw them into enemies (the object also locks on in this case). I was sad to learn that these features are not available in multiplayer however.
Upon completion of the tutorial, all 8 players linked up via system link to play some multi-player. Here we got a chance to test out our skills that we picked up in the tutorial.
*Anus looking very relaxed…*
The first map was a grassy area with roads and a motorway, that all looked as though the land had hit by an earthquake. Armed with a simple pistol I made my way through the level, zip-kicking my foes while having fun swinging around and getting shot at. Then I found my first weapon, a machine gun. Simple but effective I pursued my enemies until I suddenly dropped dead.
I was confused, until I realised what had happened. I had been sniped. I decided it was time to take action and avenge myself (if that’s possible). I picked up the sniper rifle and began sniping. It seems that it doesn’t matter where on a person you shoot, it just takes one shot to end someone.
Here I should probably note that there’s no form of radar, but names hover above opponents and weapons can be picked up simply by waling over them. They also seem to respawn quickly, with me guarding the sniper rifle spot, while waiting to it to respawn so that I could have more ammo. Also when falling from a height, if you hammer the Y button you land heavily, and you perform “death from above” on those within a small radius of where you land.
The game continued, and I got a fair share of kills until I was taken out by a player with a rocket launcher. I was annoyed to have been killed, but damn it was cool seeing my ragdoll of a corpse fly across the level. The same thing happens when you zip-kick someone!
After a few deathmatch games we played two rounds of Team Deathmatch, of course it was Team Dtoid VS the rest of the players. They took the first round, after what was a very close match. There were points in the game where everybody was within a 50 metre radius, just scrapping it out trying to get rid of each other, it was pretty exciting if I do say so myself.
Team Dtoid took the next round, this was set on a level based on the first level from Re-Armed, with the typical yellow building, the red walk-ways and even the water!
(note: If you fall in the water you’re given like 3 seconds to grapple onto something or face certain doom) It was a nice tribute, and Team Dtoid mainly stuck together taking on our opponents as a fully functional team, like Charlies Angels, except even hotter!
We then played a game of Capture the Flag, set on a level called the Rumble in the Ravine I think. Basically it was like a canyon, with paths, water and a lot of rock. We didn’t function too well here, but after the opposing team got a point we managed to come back and end the game with a draw. At one point it was McSnow holding the opponents flag (since the opponent had our flag and you can’t score if your flag isn’t back at your base) and I just taking on everyone who came to reclaim their flag. I felt pretty badass to be honest.
Following this people seemed to show interest in the single player, so I and others went into that mode. I won’t talk about the story, but I will say that there’s some collectibles that take the form of icons from the NES game (I think) in each level which is pretty cool.
After a while playing the single player, we were told there was only time for one more game. We decided to return to Team Deathmatch, since it was currently a draw with each team having won one round. This time the level chose was called “Train Station” and it’s all played inside. Team Dtoid managed to pull through the fire and give the other team quite the ass-whooping (we won by around 10 kills).
Seeing that we won overall, we were each given another T-shirt, which I have to say I like a lot, mainly because of the placement of the CAPCOM logo on the back!
Capcom also gave us free pizza and drinks and McSnow and Anus won socks because they won the deathmatch matches!
*Also socks! (Yes I’m sorry for that horrific pun.)*
My overall thoughts on the game:
I enjoyed playing the game, the multiplayer was fun, and the swinging mechanic added a new idea to the gameplay. Aiming was sometimes hardly, especially when trying to grapple people, since they're always moving but I sort of liked that factor, since it made things more difficult. Granted, it often resulted in me grappling to the floor and reeling myself in at a high speed to the floor when all I wanted to do was grapple someone and zip-kick them, but I suppose practice can make almost perfect.
The gameplay isn’t very difficult from a lot of other games when you remove the idea of the grappling arm. It’s still your typical run and gun game, and those looking something innovative and fresh may not find that here. I personally liked the gameplay for what it was, though I’ve disagreed with the general consensus before, for example I thought Assassin’s Creed was a really good and enjoyable game. . In a sense I can see the game getting boring after a while, but a lot of good games do, doesn’t make them any less of a good game (well not in my book). I’d call this a try before you buy purchase.
Bonus note: In the training level we played with the “Classic RAD Spencer” costume, which was pretty nostalgic, you unlock it in Bionic Commando rearmed, which is a nice little bonus for owners of the game.
What we did after:
After our playthrough we headed to a Japanese restaurant/bar with two Phoenix’s mates and Jack where we ate as well as all had a good laugh and chatted about random things from cosplay to the history of Dtoid. After McSnow, Pheonix and her pals left, Me, Anus and Jack returned to Trocodero where we played sum vidya gayms. At the Street Fighter 4 arcade booth, there was some guy who was ripping people apart as Akuma. Jack and Anus had goes, but I was too fearful, since although I’m pretty good with a pad I’ve never played Street Fighter on a stick.
From there, we decided to take leave since the setting sun was getting ready to shine on the other half of the world.
I’d like to thank Hamza, Destructoid, Chiara & Capcom for the opportunity and the swag. I’d also like to thank Anus, and he knows why! Finally I’d like to thank my dog, Tamoto, we made it; I knew we could do it!
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