My Love-Hate Relationship with Bionic Commando

In an earlier post I talked about how much fun I had with using the grappling hook to explore the island of Panau and Just Cause 2. I also talked of having another game in my Steam Library that made use of the grappling hook game-play mechanic. The name of that other game is Bionic Commando. This week, I was finally able to play the game and I can't say I hate or love it right now. But I will say that it has left an impression on me like no other game that I've played in my library. Below is my initial impression of the game.

Gameplay – Mixed

Using the grappling hook is hard. My main issue with it would have to be the timing needed for swings. It takes a lot of skill (I'm playing on Normal difficulty mind you!) and frankly, there were times where I just wanted to throw my keyboard and mouse at the screen because I always missed latching on to something because I swung too late! That's how frustrating it was for me. And yet, for some reason I can't seem to put down the game. I'm really going to finish this game before going to Manila next week.

I also couldn't help but compare the open-world setting of Just Cause 2 to the linear gameplay of Bionic Commando. BC would have really worked if it used an open-world environment instead of sticking to linear gameplay.

The freefalls were great!

Another thing to take note of is the fact that this game was developed for consoles first and foremost. I haven't tried playing this with an XBOX 360 controller yet. Using one to play this game is probably better than using the mouse and keyboard.

Unlike the original Bionic Commando and BC: Rearmed, initially you'll be working with limited ammo. Not sure if this is only for the early levels though.

Story – Doesn't matter if it's not really that great, still liked it.

One thing that I noticed about this game is that it really forces you to watch through the cut scenes. Not sure if it's because I'm a noob at playing videogames or what but I just can't skip the cut scenes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though. In fact I liked am enjoying the story so far. The story is also one reason why I'd want to finish the game.

Overall Impression – Challenging game. I'm going to finish this SOB.

Never has there been a game that has compelled me to play it over and over again even though I utterly suck at it. Sure the game isn't as fun as Just Cause 2 but it is in my opinion more challenging. As to which game is better? I'm more inclined to say that, even though I'm not a big fan of it's game-play, I feel that Bionic Commando is more challenging and for me, more compelling.