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.

Playing Around Panau in Just Cause 2

Today really isn't the best day for me. I sprained my finger while playing basketball and now I'm basically typing with just 9 fingers. So anyway, what have I been doing in the last couple of hours or so since sustaining the injury? Really couldn't help with housecleaning and washing the dishes so I just opted to lock myself up in my room and play games. And since I can't mash buttons on my keyboard the way my arm is now playing Street Fighter IV is out of the question. It's a good thing that I was able to download Just Cause 2 and the Just Cause 2 Multiplayer mod last night through Steam so I thought of giving the game a play-through.

This game is looking good on a 1366x768 screen. Need to buy a better monitor ASAP.

I wasn't really expecting much from the game since I really just wanted to see what everyone was talking about with the multiplayer mod. Sadly though, I've been having problems keeping a stable connection with my carrier's mobile data services as of late so I decided to just ditch Multiplayer for now and focus on the single player game.

Combat and vehicle controls were clunky but were still playable.

So far I've been having fun with playing around in Panau, the fictional island in Southeast Asia that the game takes place in. Much like with GTA you get to play around with a lot of things in your environment from the cars to the buildings using your grappling hook. I'm not really too keen on the story since I've never played Just Cause but like with most of the recent videogames that I've played the story really isn't something to write home about. This however does not mean that the game is bad, it's just that this was the impression that I got from playing it without playing the first game.

Don't know why but I really liked to blow stuff up in this game.

Aside from being able to play around with cars, blow stuff up, and kill enemy soldiers, I really liked my initial foray into Panau. With this being said though, if there is something that I don't like about Just Cause 2 it would have to be the combat system. I just feels clunky or awkward for me at times. This impression might also change if I used an Xbox 360 controller to play the game, which as of now I currently don't have. For third person shooters and platformers, I'd usually prefer to use a controller as opposed to a keyboard. Coincidentally a couple of days ago I also played Bionic Commando Rearmed and I just realized that both Rico (the protagonist of Just Cause 2) and Nathan Spencer both make use of the grappling hook. Granted BC: Rearmed and JC2 are completely different games, I just found it amusing that the games that I played made use of the grappling hook as a major mechanic to further the gameplay.

Once my internet connection is stable enough will give Just Cause 2 Multiplayer a try and will give you guys feedback about it.