Swing is not enough
I loved the first game but this next gen sequel should have stayed longer on the cooker, 20 years was not long enough.
Gameplay
The game runs with the premise that you have been sent in to scout out the ruins of a WMD'ed city crawling full of bad bionic dudes. The levels are designed to allow you to exercise the swing mechanic as often as possible. Great concept when you add a nifty swing mechanic to the simple shooter layout most games have with the controls of a Xbox360. But they seem to lose and not as sharp as one would expect from a AAA game. Especially one which is loved by so many and had such a great showing when it was 'Re-Armed'. The controls needed work and it hurt the unique gameplay mechanic that should have shinned.
Yet it fails, too many times I'm aiming at the wrong item when a context sensitive area is nearby such as the airdrop smash areas but when you move to higher ground to get the drop on the enemy the game moves you to the context area. Speaking of which the weapons are generic and boring and fail to create any impact with their use. They are at most bland and vanilla when I was expect some cool new toys in a game that was pushing the 3rd person shooter.
The Swing is the last bit of the gameplay that needs to be looked at. It skipped the auto swing styles of the Spiderman games and picked a more controlled manual style to swing with. If the controls were up to the task that is. When the game is tight and reactive the swinging is even more rewarding then the above mentioned Spiderman games. But some times and often enough it's a critical time the controls fail to work with you. Worst is the level design, in a game where freedom of movement is so exalted the well placed radiation prevents you from truly exploring the swing aspect of the game trapping the player in a 3rd person shooter with a neat movement mechanic.
Graphics
The game is blocky and the enemy models are dated. It fails to present any crisp textures and interesting levels with the bland ruined pallet of the city. When done right the ruins of a great city shine bright next to the ever deep darkness of it's own shadow. Bioshock created a great graphic presentation of a ruined metropolis. Accention City fails to feel lived in or even at one time important. The horror of the unleashed WMD is left to the scripting instead of showing a vibrant place suddenly snuffed.
The enemies are generic and Joe your old friend and ally looks sinster. His long face with a wide misplaced smile makes him look like the Joker ala 'Killing Joke' by Alan Moore. The enemies are boring and the simple colour change to the reticule for different actions is lazy. It quickly blends into the background when the fighting gets frantic and you begin to move about.
Audio
The Music started off as brilliant. The starting theme softly as a cherished memory creeps up to you showing the new face of the franchise. Even queued during some of the bigger battles the soundtrack was great and truly pushing the player into the fight.
To bad the voice acting fails. Poor timed and out of place retorts and comments from the characters, from after head shots to poorly written and then delivered dialog. The voice acting seems disconnected to the rest of the games experience.
Closing
Rent the new Bionic Commando or get the 'Re-Armed' version of the classic off XBL.
