Bionic Commando is a game in the Capcom ‘Commando’ legacy series that follows a continuing story from the NES game with the same name. The new game takes place 10 years after Nathan "RAD/ LADD" Spencer and Joseph “Super Joe” Gibson (the original commando) saves the world from the ‘Imperial Forces’. Instead of receiving a hero’s welcome, Spencer and all other Bionics are incarcerated under the government’s ‘Bionic Purge’ act. This causes a backlash between bionics and norms and gave raise to ‘BioReign’, a pro-bionic terrorist group. Their goals are shrouded in mystery, but will go to any length to meet them; which is evident by their nuclear bombing of Ascension City. Now what’s left the city is under the control of BioReign and sending troops in to stop them has been ineffective. Joe, now the Tactical Arms and Security Committee (T.A.S.C) Superintendent, knows only one soldier who can infiltrate the Ascension City ruins and find out what BioReign is up to, and that’s Spencer the Bionic Commando.
Spencer is armed (pun totally intended) for war and gives players many options for taking out BioReign opposition. The quickest method is gunning them down, and the game provides the commando with standard but effective weapons like pistols,
shotguns and rocket launchers. However these conventional weapons have limited rounds and ammo cylinders are few and far between so most enemies will be dealt with in melee combat (which is more fun). The bionic arm doesn’t just get Spencer point A to point B; it also trashes faceless grunts. What’s more, as the game progresses Spencer gains new abilities with the arm such as throwing heavy objects, causing shockwaves by falling from great distances, and the like. This commando is ready for war, but sadly so are BioReign. Their grunts, the weakest of their fighting force, can pack a surprising punch especially when they travel in numbers, which is often. Then there are the battle suits which have greater strength than your arm, deceptively quick, equipped with wrist-mounted shotguns and can fly in small bursts. BioReign also have air support vehicles that maybe small but are difficult to hit and dole out missiles like an MF’er. All of these though are just warm ups to the bosses you eventually have to face, which aren’t pushovers and are many times larger than you. Bionic Commando is a standard action game, meaning ‘you see it, you shoot it.’ No thinking, no experience points, no mercy. Ok, so they try to mix things up by adding combat challenges and finding hidden 8-bits icons of commando games past in stages, but really it is simple text book stuff here. What really set’s this game apart from your standard fare is the Commando’s mode of travel and attack, the Bionic arm. So
far Spencer and his famed arm only handled the 2-D plain in the past, but in this game he has length and width to deal with, and does so like a pro. Don’t be fooled by X-Play’s spiteful words (lacking rhythm and flow, indeed!) about the swing mechanic. All it really takes is some practice to get it down; and before you know it your Spiderman. Blaming a reviewer’s failing on the game is just lazy X-Play. This isn’t an isolated incident though; both Miller and Ben of ‘Game Informer’ seem to mirror X-Play complains about B.C. but none more so than the random pockets of radiation in the game, which can kill Specter in a few seconds. They’re present in most stages and server as a barrier to keep the player on track. A simple annoyance that is EASILY avoidable, but to them it some sort of omni-present grim reaper in radiation form that makes the game too linear. This is incorrect. Halo 3 is a more linear experience than B.C, there’s more than enough ways to move about and take down enemies on the fly before the radiation ever becomes a problem. Both the look and the sounds of the game are excellent, they complement each other well and make the experience feel realistic like ‘Lost Planet: Extreme Condition’. Unfortunately, like that game, it was made mainly for hi-def T.V. playing B.C. without one makes captions hard to read and some graphical details blurry. Combat’s fine (despite opinions to the contrary), but the game definitely leans towards melee and than shooting (which is fine by me).
While I rather enjoyed the voice acting of the characters the things Spencer said outside of cut scenes are really corny, and confusing. Honestly though the game’s true weak spot is it online multiplayer; with only three simple game modes it can easily be avoided (though it is fun Tarzan killing opponents) without consequences of ‘missing out’ anything. Truth be told people I’ve played the NES Bionic Commando back in the day, but I don’t remember much from it other than it was fun. This game is also fun, but compared to ‘infamous’ and/or ‘Red Faction: Guerrilla’ it does seem a little outclassed. However I judge a game based off its own merits and not by its closest competition at the time, but at the end of the day is this game worth anything higher than a silver rating? No. It’s a great game, no question and has gotten a raw deal by E3 bound reviewers; but after beating the single game and playing a lackluster multiplayer there is no other reason to play it again.
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