Bionic Commando eh? Hmmm.. sure why not? I’ll check it out. But I doubt I’m going to like it. I predict that the controls will be frustratingly difficult and I will want to drop out of the multiplayer match after just a few minutes. That’s what I said to myself as I was about to start the Bionic Commando multiplayer demo. Well, I was kind of right, but I was also wrong.
First match was obviously just an experiment on how to move my guy around and how to kill any other guy that crosses my path. At first, I found the controls difficult but not actually frustrating. I could overhear other people talking (especially the guy with an amazing 10 kill lead already) saying to just give the game a few tries. On about the 5th time you play it, you should have the controls down and you should be seeing how much fun you can have. For me, the first match was not a shining moment in my life. With 0 kills and 8 deaths, let’s just say I did not do as well as I planned. Ahh forget it, I got pwned! Big time. But again, it was kind of predictable. If I ended up getting the most kills on my first try in a game I’ve never played before, you’d have to call me the Wizard. But the Wizard I am not. Or am I?
Second match I played was quite different than the first. I don’t know what happened to me but the game, the controls, the grappling hook and arm just connected. I started getting into a flow with this new game which felt like a mix of Lost Planet and Spiderman. (Yes, that is a good thing) Being able to swing from beam to beam, building to building was fun especially when you’re chasing after someone and shooting their direction at the same time. It gets crazy when you’re doing that and you have a guy right behind you trying to kill you and the guy I’m trying to kill. I can see some of the matches being a huge conga line of deaths with the guy coming up from behind having the advantage of getting most of the kills. A majority of the time, that guy behind me did indeed kill us both. Wish I knew how.
I found some of my deaths to be unexplainable. There must be a weapon or some type of button you can press that magically sends you flying off the top of buildings because it happened to me many times. It was almost like a shockwave that blew me over the edge and I think I’ll play it again tonight to try and figure out what the hell it was. I had a lot of trouble killing my enemies at first. But I finally found some of the weapons, armor and health spawn points and from then on, I whored ’em like I used to whore the rockets in Halo 2. (yea, that was me that kept killing you over and over again as well as the complimentary teabag) But for me, I finally caught up with the leader in kills by not using the weapons themselves, but by using my big ass arm. Hit your enemy once with your arm and it’s instant death. I can see this being a major complaint in multiplayer.
That’s probably not the best thing for this game. One hit kills in any game can get frustrating for the guy on the other end of my arm. Here this guy is, running and swinging all over the place, trying to shoot me or somehow toss me over the edge to my imminent death, and all I had to do was walk up to the guy and bitch slap his ass. Sure enough, it worked! Instant death. I soon found myself in the lead as I bitch slapped nearly every person in the match. In the end, I tied for first place with 9 kills. First match, 0 kills. Second match, 9 kills. I did not expect to catch onto this game that quickly. But I did, and I found it rewarding. If you see other demo impressions with a negative outlook on this game, it’s most likely because they did not get a chance to feel what it was like to win. Or to at least get more than one kill. I can see myself giving this demo a bad impression if each of my matches were exactly like my first. But it wasn’t, it was better than I had predicted.
When all said and done, I really liked this demo. However, it is probably one of the more shorter demos you will play this year. I think there is a reason behind that as I found myself wanting more. Even though you play on the same, small level each and every time. I wanted to keep playing on different levels and for longer periods, so to that extent, I think the developers were successful. The weapons could be a bit better as some felt extremely weak being shot in third person. And you don’t really aim all that much either. At least, you don’t have time to aim. (There is almost always someone respawning behind you so standing there aiming a sniper is not bright) When I first heard about this game, I didn’t know what to expect. After playing the demo, I can honestly say I was impressed with the ‘fun’ factor and I hope to have even more fun with the single player campaign when the game is released. As for multiplayer? I can see my friends and I playing this a lot if they give it a chance, but then again I thought my friends would be playing Left 4 Dead with me as well. So who knows? This demo is probably going to get a lot of mixed reactions but for me, from The Gamer Report, I definitely recommend you try this out. If you do, feel free to leave me a comment and tell me what you think.
To get another viewpoint (one that is opposite of mine)read another impression over at Ars Technica…
The Gamer Report 
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