Bionic Commando
Preview
A sequel worth the wait
by Howie Howard
previewed on X360
Enemies
Enemy forces are numerous and extremely powerful. New bosses have been designed and they are programmed to make Nathan have a bad hair day time and time again. BioReign is composed of former Imperial soldiers and rogue TASC bionics. Together they make up a large and committed infantry force that oozes experience.
The BioReign bionic troops are equipped, like Nathan, with a Bionic Arm. Other troops are comprised of “mechanical” units and run of the mill “normal” foot soldiers. The foot soldiers come with radioactive protection suits and face masks. They lack the sheer firepower of the mechanical unit and the bionic but they make up for that weakness with sheer numbers. What evil enemy force can afford not to have the all important cannon fodder unit?
The Arm
Nathan Spencer is refitted with a new and improved bionic arm along with numerous new weapons such as the shotgun, the “Tungsten” machine pistol and various other weapons of mass destruction. However, the Bionic Arm remains Nathan’s main battle implement and he uses it to quickly dispatch his foes. The Bionic Arm has been redesigned during the ten years since the Imperials were defeated. It now supports a greater range of motion, which allows our hero to use it as transportation. He can swing much like Spiderman does from tall buildings. He also uses The Arm as his main weapon and can tear down surrounding objects and use them as weapons and shields. In addition to being able to perform a super human punch, Nathan can throw heavy objects much further then a normal human can too.
If you know the original Bionic Commando game you might remember that The Arm had a few shortcomings. One of these flaws was that your swinging progress would sometimes stop if you somehow missed a beat. If this occurred you would fall to the ground below and die. Thankfully you would always magically re-spoon and could continue on your way, hopefully remembering not to make the same mistake twice. Now in the redesigned game you can use the shotgun to provide a bit of a thrust to start you swinging on your merry way again.
Worth the wait
Well folks, what else can I say except that the buzz on the net about a new Bionic Commando is becoming louder and louder with each passing day. This new incarnation will, from what I have seen, surely please. The updated graphics, sound, gameplay and well, everything, is going to be worth the 20 year wait for a sequel to come along. Like I mentioned before, it should come our way sometime this spring and it will appear first on Xbox Live Arcade. Then later it will be available for the Play Station Network and yes PC fans, for that platform as well a bit later. Enjoy!
