Singularity

[JonCole]

I recently started playing this game and was wondering if anyone else was too.

I was initially turned off from the game because it seemed like a bandwagon Eastern European/Old-Timey/Bullettime situation, which it... actually kind of is. But strangely enough, emulating games like Bioshock can be done well and I feel like Singularity does that and more.

It's set in present time, but in a world where the Soviet Union discovered this new element that has practically unlimited power. Experimentation with that element both won them the Cold War but resulted in a major catastrophe at the testing facility.

Throughout the game you get to explore some of fruits of this technology which ultimately feel like plasmids from Bioshock, but center around time travel. For instance, you can age enemy soldiers to dust or reverse-age plants into sprouts.

The big hook is that through your time traveling, you get the chance to alter the past and change your present. For instance, saving a person can change the whole timeline, or you can do something as mundane as break into a building in the past that isn't accessible in the present.

Anyways, I'm not much of a pitch man, but those are kind of the basics of the game and I'd encourage people to check it out... I'm having a lot of fun so far. Anyone else have impressions?

[miffy495]

On top of the fact that it looks "ok" but I have a backlog of stuff that I'd rather play, I'm avoiding it for what may be a very stupid reason. It's the title. Specifically, the way that it's written with the semi-Cyrillic font that drives me crazy. An "R" that looks backwards to English speakers is not pronounced like and "R" goddamn it, it's a "ya." And a backwards looking "N?" It's an "ee" sound. Their title is then actually "Sieegulayaty," which is stupid. I've been playing Cyrostasis, lately, which does that on its loading screen, but at least it only replaces the "D" with a character that looks like a triangle but is actually pronounced "D" (it looks like a delta from the Greek alphabet). The title and other things where changing the characters would actually change the pronunciation are left alone. I don't know why that bothers me as much as it does, but it drives me crazy. Any game that adds in Cyrillic characters for no reason really gets on my nerves. For me, it's like the Thi4f thing. Seeing ads for Sieegulayaty is enough to convince me that every time I loaded up that game I'd get pissed off at it, so I'll hold off.

[JonCole]

On top of the fact that it looks "ok" but I have a backlog of stuff that I'd rather play, I'm avoiding it for what may be a very stupid reason. It's the title. Specifically, the way that it's written with the semi-Cyrillic font that drives me crazy. An "R" that looks backwards to English speakers is not pronounced like and "R" goddamn it, it's a "ya." And a backwards looking "N?" It's an "ee" sound. Their title is then actually "Sieegulayaty," which is stupid. I've been playing Cyrostasis, lately, which does that on its loading screen, but at least it only replaces the "D" with a character that looks like a triangle but is actually pronounced "D" (it looks like a delta from the Greek alphabet). The title and other things where changing the characters would actually change the pronunciation are left alone. I don't know why that bothers me as much as it does, but it drives me crazy. Any game that adds in Cyrillic characters for no reason really gets on my nerves. For me, it's like the Thi4f thing. Seeing ads for Sieegulayaty is enough to convince me that every time I loaded up that game I'd get pissed off at it, so I'll hold off.

Haha, that's awesome. I never knew the pronunciation of that stuff, but now I get to see that every time I hit a loading screen. Thanks!

[spindrift]

I finished this and it's pretty good, actually. It's a straight-up linear shooter and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. It's fun, it's got a cool story (for a video game about shooting people in the face) and it's got some pretty interesting art (despite lapses into overindulgence. backwards Rs, etc).

These days I am hard pressed to finish a linear FPS without losing interest, but I flew through this without problems.

ps, finding out that the stupid font thing makes the pronunciation "Sieegulayaty" only makes me like it more.

[Garden Ninja]

I got it from Gamefly. Played a bit of it this weekend.

I want to like it. I'm a sucker for time travel, so I'm enjoying the story so far. The time powers are pretty cool, and the gunplay is well done. There have been a couple of spots that where I ran out of ammo, even though there was ammo around, because I didn't happen to have the right weapon, but that wasn't a big deal.

But now I'm at the beginning of the sewers and the phase ticks (or whatever they're called) are absolutely infuriating. I don't think anyone actually enjoys grenade spam. These things are grenade spam with legs, that flank you, and wait until they get close to you to explode. The two or three times I've actually managed to survive the first wave, I get about 50 feet down the tunnel and they spawn more behind me, probably from the pods that I wasn't allowed to destroy. I did just get the Deadlock ability, which supposedly makes the game super easy, so I must be doing something wrong. I'll give it another shot, but right now this section feels like a game breaker, at least since you can't change the difficulty mid-game.

Regarding the pseudo-Cyrillic letters in the title, I thought it was silly. I can understand how it would be rather annoying if you knew what the letters actually were.

[spindrift]

Just time shift one of the phase-ticks, they grow big and all the others turn on it. I don't think I ever killed one of those things directly.

[Garden Ninja]

Just time shift one of the phase-ticks, they grow big and all the others turn on it. I don't think I ever killed one of those things directly.

I've tried that, though I didn't notice the others turning on the aged one. Now that I know how it works, I should be able to use it to my advantage. Thanks.

Edit: OK, I got past that part and it has gone back to being good again. Part of the problem with that section, is that I got there without any E99 vials, so I could only age one tick, and throw a Deadlock bubble before I was out, and had to revert to guns, since the E99 doesn't recharge fast enough. Then I waited until I was recharged and deadlocked my way down the tunnel. I still think that was a poorly balanced section, and phase ticks still suck, but supposedly that is the hardest part of the game, and if that's the case, I should be able to enjoy the rest of it.

Edited July 8, 2010 by Garden Ninja

[JonCole]

I've tried that, though I didn't notice the others turning on the aged one. Now that I know how it works, I should be able to use it to my advantage. Thanks.

Edit: OK, I got past that part and it has gone back to being good again. Part of the problem with that section, is that I got there without any E99 vials, so I could only age one tick, and throw a Deadlock bubble before I was out, and had to revert to guns, since the E99 doesn't recharge fast enough. Then I waited until I was recharged and deadlocked my way down the tunnel. I still think that was a poorly balanced section, and phase ticks still suck, but supposedly that is the hardest part of the game, and if that's the case, I should be able to enjoy the rest of it.

Yeah, I'd definitely agree that the section you're talking about is the hardest part of the game. Later on, I'd recommend using Impulse to swat them away... with TMD Equipment and more E99 at your disposal, a couple of Impulses can wipe out 20 or 30 of them with no sweat.

[MrHoatzin]

On top of the fact that it looks "ok" but I have a backlog of stuff that I'd rather play, I'm avoiding it for what may be a very stupid reason. It's the title. Specifically, the way that it's written with the semi-Cyrillic font that drives me crazy. An "R" that looks backwards to English speakers is not pronounced like and "R" goddamn it, it's a "ya." And a backwards looking "N?" It's an "ee" sound. Their title is then actually "Sieegulayaty," which is stupid. I've been playing Cyrostasis, lately, which does that on its loading screen, but at least it only replaces the "D" with a character that looks like a triangle but is actually pronounced "D" (it looks like a delta from the Greek alphabet). The title and other things where changing the characters would actually change the pronunciation are left alone. I don't know why that bothers me as much as it does, but it drives me crazy. Any game that adds in Cyrillic characters for no reason really gets on my nerves. For me, it's like the Thi4f thing. Seeing ads for Sieegulayaty is enough to convince me that every time I loaded up that game I'd get pissed off at it, so I'll hold off.

Man, I am right there with ya. In addition to the font being super dumb as a result of this quaint design fuckery, I can never actually READ the stupid thing because my brain is already wired with the understanding of proper Cyrillic. Every time I see this shit in the wild, I have to ask someone else to read it for me.

[Irishjohn]

I finished this and it's pretty good, actually. It's a straight-up linear shooter and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. It's fun, it's got a cool story (for a video game about shooting people in the face) and it's got some pretty interesting art (despite lapses into overindulgence. backwards Rs, etc).

These days I am hard pressed to finish a linear FPS without losing interest, but I flew through this without problems.

I'm really intrigued by the game actually, kind of hoping for the same experience. I seem to play so many FPS games purely for story that I don't think the other problems guys here are having here would really bother me.

Unless those grenade spam with legs things put me in an early grave.

[Garden Ninja]

I just beat this game. Except for the first contact with the Phase Ticks (frustration mentioned above), I really liked it. The stealth section of the sewers was kind of stupid, but not hard, since I had the spike shot and could take out the Reverts one at a time.

I even liked the story, but I have a beef with the ending.

Your given three options

1. Kill 2010-Demichev Go back to stop yourself from saving 1955-Demichev

2. Kill Barisov, and rule with Demichev

3. Kill Barisov and Demichev to rule by yourself

I did all three endings. 2 and 3 were fine, but there is a dumb logic to the first. Barisov tells you to go back and stop yourself, and Demichev pipes up with "'Kill yourself', you mean". Uhm, no -- I just need to make sure Demichev doesn't make it out of the fire alive -- but I figured it was just Demichev being manipulative and paranoid. So I kill Demichev, then go back, and see myself running down the burning hallway with Demichev on my shoulders, I bring my gun up, it go into slow mo and I shoot Demichev in the head. And... the game just reloads the last checkpoint. The game won't progress until you shoot yourself. What. The. Fuck? A body shot work, and you are heavily armored, so maybe it didn't kill you; and doing so immediately reverts you to the beginning of the game, only the Singularity doesn't explode this time, but still. Talk about rail-roading, nevermind the devs Failing Logic Forever.

Minor issue, in an otherwise decent game with a decent story, but it bugged me.

[JonCole]

I just beat this game. Except for the first contact with the Phase Ticks (frustration mentioned above), I really liked it. The stealth section of the sewers was kind of stupid, but not hard, since I had the spike shot and could take out the Reverts one at a time.

I even liked the story, but I have a beef with the ending.

Your given three options

1. Kill 2010-Demichev Go back to stop yourself from saving 1955-Demichev

2. Kill Barisov, and rule with Demichev

3. Kill Barisov and Demichev to rule by yourself

I did all three endings. 2 and 3 were fine, but there is a dumb logic to the first. Barisov tells you to go back and stop yourself, and Demichev pipes up with "'Kill yourself', you mean". Uhm, no -- I just need to make sure Demichev doesn't make it out of the fire alive -- but I figured it was just Demichev being manipulative and paranoid. So I kill Demichev, then go back, and see myself running down the burning hallway with Demichev on my shoulders, I bring my gun up, it go into slow mo and I shoot Demichev in the head. And... the game just reloads the last checkpoint. The game won't progress until you shoot yourself. What. The. Fuck? A body shot work, and you are heavily armored, so maybe it didn't kill you; and doing so immediately reverts you to the beginning of the game, only the Singularity doesn't explode this time, but still. Talk about rail-roading, nevermind the devs Failing Logic Forever.

Minor issue, in an otherwise decent game with a decent story, but it bugged me.

It took some thinking as this was a bit of a confusing part, but the way I read it was Barisov tells you that the man in the hallway was you, as though you didn't know. The reason you have to kill yourself and not Demichev in the past is because you would have simply gone back in time again and tried to stop yourself from killing Demichev. It's a fairly circular plot, but the implication is that you tried at least one other time to change things but the only real solution is to kill yourself at that first occurence after a time jump, namely while you were saving Demichev. You were the first problem and created the more apparent problem of Demichev's survival, so you have to stop yourself first.

Hope that isn't too unreadable.

[Garden Ninja]

It took some thinking as this was a bit of a confusing part, but the way I read it was Barisov tells you that the man in the hallway was you, as though you didn't know. The reason you have to kill yourself and not Demichev in the past is because you would have simply gone back in time again and tried to stop yourself from killing Demichev. It's a fairly circular plot, but the implication is that you tried at least one other time to change things but the only real solution is to kill yourself at that first occurence after a time jump, namely while you were saving Demichev. You were the first problem and created the more apparent problem of Demichev's survival, so you have to stop yourself first.

Hope that isn't too unreadable.

Your's was fine. Hope this is coherent.

I just replayed the beginning to jog my memory. As a side note, it is pretty cool that you can see yourself, trying to tell yourself not to let Demichev live. I didn't notice that the first time.

I get what you're saying, and it may be what the devs intended, but I still don't think it makes sense. The story is clearly trying to hint at a Stable Time Loop that you have to break free of (the whole bit where you were the one leaving all the notes was fairly obvious), and it mostly works.

You're right that you are the first problem: You need to stop yourself from saving Demichev. Killing your other self would do that; however, I don't think shooting Demichev, instead of yourself would cause you to go back again to save him, for a couple of reasons.

You save Demichev in the first 15 minutes of the game. You're in the helicopter, the EMP bomb goes off, grounding said helicopter. As you try to regroup with Devlin, you stumble into the room, right as a rift opens (or the Singularity explodes, or whatever that was supposed to me), sending you back to 1955, with the building on fire. You run into Demichev, throw him on your shoulders, and skeedaddle. Now, when you meet yourself in the hallway, other you shoots and kills Demichev.

Whether you hear the gun shot over the fire, and whether you notice he is dead right away doesn't matter. Eventually, you make it back to the lobby area, with or without Demichev's corpse, and shortly thereafter are returned to 2010.

At this point, you have no idea what just happened. You don't know that you were sent back in time; you just know there was a flash of light, and suddenly the building is on fire, then it wasn't and the lobby looks different. You and Devlin were supposed to head for extraction anyway. Since Demichev died in 1955, he and his men don't ambush you in 2010, Devlin isn't killed. You never meet Barisov, and therefore never learn about, or get to use, the TMD. You and Devlin get picked up, and you spend the weekend drinking, wondering what the fuck happened.

Even if you somehow stumbled upon the TMD and it was working (pretty sure you got it in 1955, so without another random rift it would be busted), and you figured out how it worked by yourself, you would have very little motivation to go save Demichev: he was just some random dude, you weren't able to save. Considering you are a Marine (I think), there is a good chance there was someone actually important to you that you might want to save. But those are a lot of ands. More than likely, if you did find it, and knew it was important, you would report it to your CO and leave the island.