Singularity
Preview
Adjust time to your liking
by Ryan Cope
previewed on X360
Tick Tock
Time is such a fickle thing. It either goes by too quickly or too slowly, but never at the right times. Sometimes being able to control time would make life all that more fulfilling, make our mortality seem like nothing. Well, there’s been plenty of playing around with time, from novels to films and even to games. The Prince of Persia series showed us that if time could be reversed then life as an acrobatic, combat efficient prince would be made a lot easier if you accidentally fell down a hole. While Timeshift was a First Person Shooter set in the near future, that combined the usual FPS elements with time powers.
Oh yes, time travel and manipulation have been in games before, but now Activision is working on something new, something different that should give the whole sci-fi “time” genre a twist. Singularity is unlike those previous games, it sets itself apart from the rest by going against what you would expect. Like Timeshift, it will combine a First Person Shooter with time power abilities as you fight for survival and struggle to unravel an epic mystery. Travelling between the present and the past will give the game a unique variety.
Time To Tell A Story
Singularity is set in the year 2010, where a small island off the coast of Russia suddenly gives off some strange readings. As if that wasn’t perplexing enough, the area is supposed to have been desolate and deserted for years. The US airforce gets a whiff of the suspicious goings on and sends out a recon team to find out more. You play as a pilot of one of the fighter jets sent on the mission to the island. Things seem all right at first but, as you home in on your target, there are some unexpected problems, leading to your plane being sent tumbling to the ground in a jumble of metal and fire.
It doesn’t take you long before you realise that something on this island is very amiss. Things here are all messed up and you’ll soon be fighting for your life against the Russian Spetsnaz, who are out to kill anyone who’s not supposed to be there (namely you). As if that isn’t bad enough, there are some fast and deadly mutated human creatures called Zeks, who are out for anyone’s blood. Throw into the mix a giant blue time wave that unexpectedly swoops over you and sends you back into the 1950s and the days of the Cold War, where you’re up against (once again) the Russians.
Back in the day the Russians found a substance that dropped off the radar a long time ago, called Element 99. With this substance they created an infinite energy source in the 50s. However, this energy accidentally overloaded and exploded, scattering across the island with disastrous consequences i.e. Zeks and huge time warps. It’s now up to you to unravel the mystery of what happened as you pop back and forth through time between 2010 and 1950, fighting the Russians and saving the world. To help you on your way, you quickly get your hands on a tool called the TMD (Time Manipulation Device) that gives you some very interesting powers indeed.
