Bionic Commando
fast game with modern day graphics with easy controls that moves from location A to B to C and so on,
good amount of action and special effects

good game.

I will never understand how this game sank a developer...

High quality, just ignore the dreadlocks.

This game reviewed badly.
The press hated it, and the community didn't get it.
The story was gaped at and lambasted as being one of the worst in gaming.
It caused the death of its development studio, Grin.

And yet, it's still one of my favourite games.

Originally, I bought this when it came out on PS3, having thoroughly enjoyed Bionic Commando: Re-Armed.
I didn't read any reviews, and trusted in Grin to deliver a cracking bionic experience, and they delivered in spades.

It's all about the arm you see; you CAN play it as a straight-up third-person shooter with occasional swingy bits, but to do so is to miss the point entirely.
You should be swinging, punching and throwing at every opportunity. You should be concentrating on evading the enemy through being a target that's impossible to hit.
You should be damn good if you're to get the most out of this game.

And that's what people didn't get; they were fooled by how it looked and were expecting a more open experience. So they played it as such and moaned when they didn't get much out of it in return.

Bionic Commando is a linear game, and it makes no bones about it. It's not trying to be an open-world roamer; it's giving you a series of tightly packed scenarios to let loose upon as you see fit, encouraging you to experiment as much as possible with the sublime tool it's giving you.

And boy, does it reward good play; it has the best use of an achievement system I've come across, even better than Dead Rising (although it definitely took a few queues from there).
Under all other circumstances, I hate achievement systems; they're poorly implemented checklists of things you're likely to do anyway most of the time.

Yet here, the achievement system rewards you in game as well as with achievement points (less noticeable on the PC where they're simply challenges and the subsequent rewards without the Steam achievements).
Manage to kill 3 grunts with one grenade? Congrats, have an upgrade to the amount of nades you can carry!
Taken out 3 grunts with one grenade launcher shot? Aces, your grenade launcher radius is improved!

And each completed challenge may lead to another, more difficult one, meaning you'll scout out opportunities while playing the levels that'll let you complete those challenges. It's rewarding you for excellent play in the best way possible, and never completely overpowered.

On top of this, you have an incredibly well realised vision of a city hit with a recent disaster of apocalyptic scale and some of the best music in gaming. The first encounter with Polycraft, BC's flying mech suits, is a particular early game highlight, with a dramatic, pulse-quickening tune driving your emotions higher as you swing between buildings kicking robot suits out of the air.
It's exhilirating, and makes you realise that BC is one of the best "Super-hero" games out there.
Many games that claim to be about more traditional super-heroes end up feeling flat and distinctly non-super, but BC at its best outclasses them all.

It's about larger-than-life caricatures, ridiculous technologies, moustache-twiddling conspiracies and ♥♥♥♥ing sweet bionic ♥♥♥♥.

Oh, and swinging like a loon through a post-apocalyptic city while Mike Patton hollers like a howler-monkey on cocaine.

It's not without its flaws, and could really have done with a little longer in development. Being able to revisit earlier levels with some of the sweet unlocks from later in the game would have been nice; a New Game + a la Demon's / Dark Souls would have been fantastic.

But ♥♥♥♥ it. This is a near-perfect slice of third-person arcade action, bombastically delivered by people who had an obvious love for the source material.

Age and SSDs has also given it that wonderful Meatboy instant restart feel, positively encouraging you to fail, so that one time in 100 you'll pull off something so incredibly sweet you'll punch the air then sadly realise you don't have an awesome bionic arm like Spencer in real life.

Well, you can't have a bionic arm.
But you CAN have Bionic Commando.

Buy it.

This game is an underrated gem. The controls are unique and work very fluently. Shoot your enemies. Punch your enemies. Throw cars at your enemies. Throw enemies at your enemies. Swing above your enemies and pound them to the ground. Swing around more elegantly than Tarzan. This game just gives you this rare feeling that you can do something really cool with your keyboard and mouse.
It's one of my all time favorites in the action genre.

Let me try to put in to words how I feel about this game.

I wanted this game desperately when it released and was shocked to hear the negative reviews. Though in time the overall view of the game has rightfully improved, at the time it was a resounding "meh."

As luck would have it, days before it released my console would break down. Being a poor teenager with no income, I wouldn't have a functioning Xbox for months. And then, when I *did* get a working console... it was defective and lasted only a few weeks. So did the second and third ones.

So Bionic Commando, understandably, had to wait on the back burner.

April 2010. The fate of GRIN, and the future of Bionic Commando, was already sealed. It would get another Rearmed, (which I admit I did scream in joy at when I saw the E3 reveal trailer...) a follow up to the remake of BC, and that would be it.

But hell, it was $10 and I still REALLY wanted to play it. Sign me up.

What I played quickly cemented the game as one of my favorites of all time. I will never forget the moment when I came up from the underground tunnel into Ascension City Park, swinging from branch to branch and flipping through the gently swaying leaves. Or when faced with snipers, fortified and watching the path I needed to take. Quickly swinging from building to building, using them as cover as I climbed. Punching the snipers out or grabbing them with my arm and sending them blasting off in a way that would make Team Rocket envious.

And when finally granted a sniper rifle of my own? Slowing down and painting the ground with the brains of my enemies, all the while a (wonderfully deranged) Mike Patton voiced a jeering Spencer, mocking his dead opponents after every successful headshot.

Or, as anyone who has played the game will know.. The Archives. Little needs to be said about the moment where Groeder sends an entire army raining down into the claustrophobic arena while the games standout track, The Gauntlet, cheers you on to overcome the odds and beat some BioReign ♥♥♥.

The swinging is easily likened to Spider-Man, but isn't quite as mindless. Your bionic arm will not automatically connect with anything just by pressing the attach button; you must aim your cursor and find a spot yourself to latch on to. It can be tense, especially when you're trying your best to get out of a hailstorm of bullets, or trying to get in a better position to attack a Biomech that is mercilessly hounding you.

The music is phenomenal. From "Enhanced Tunnel Vision", to "Hunters of the FSA", down to "Groeders Theme".. every song is incredible. And yes, of course, the standout track that everyone instantly thinks of when playing this game-- The Gauntlet. I still feel a rush of adrenaline when I hear that song... though I might just have something wrong with me.

I want to keep going on about this game and why I love it. The challenge/upgrade system, the multiplayer, even further into the grappling system, Mike Pattons insane dialog, the BEAUTIFUL scenery... but I've received criticism before on writing way too much.

There is only one thing the critics got right: The story. It is... goofy. And that might be a tad bit generous.

Finally, I want to address something a lot of people might not be aware of: The developers behind this game, GRIN, closed shortly after releasing this game.

Those devs went on to create Overkill Software (yep, the Payday guys!) and Ulf Andersson, the genius designer on BC, ended up becoming Wolf in the Payday series.

Try and imagine how different things would be had this game sold as well as it deserved to.

Like Spider-man with guns.

This game is so underrated, sure it's got outdated mechanics like having weapons just be powerups that last for a short while, and the levels are boxed in by radiation that kills you instantly, but it's just so much fun to swing around the levels shooting at stuff, using your bionic arm to pick people up and throw them, just so much fun can be had with just that arm and a little pistol (and sometimes a few shots of a more powerful weapon if the designers were kind enough to put one nearby).

I picked this game up on the winter sale 2014 for like a buck something and didnt expect to much from it . I thought that due to most ports to PC suck real bad.But then i played this one i think Capcom did a real good job with this one !! It translated to PC very well .Im useing keyboard and mouse it works 100% fine (when does that happen in a port?) !!

The game play is action packed. It starts out a bit slow but finished hard and fast!! The gfx are decent and the controls once set up are fine,bigtime for this being a port!! The plot kinda reminds me a bit of chesse like in Far Cry 3 : Blood Dragon but in a good way (love that game also) !

I say if you are looking for some good old school button masher, pick this one up 100% !! And if it goes on sale you better get this game in you library !!!

"Is that a long health bar or are you just happy to see me?" - Nathan Spencer, the Bionic Commando

Bionic Commando was a game that almost showed enough self awareness to be awesome. As fan of the original, I am happy to see it get a modern mock up. Although it was clear they changed some things (like, the ending), I was happy that the developer brought the classic back in an updated fashion and then used it for the basis of their full on modern sequel. And in this sequel, the game play is tremendously fun. The grappling hook arm left nothing to be desired. Unfortunately that is the extent of the awesome. The story is predictable, passe, and all around dumb. Simply put, it makes little sense (even with having played the original and the reloaded version of it), and, where the voice actors do a decent job with their lines, those lines are frequently so bad that they could only save it if they lampooned it.

If you ignore the story, which you should since it is that bad, and take the game to simply be a long ride with a grappling hook and a variety of challenges, then this game is great. If you care anything about story, look elsewhere.

Spectacular Third-Persnon Action. Cool gameplay with bio-mechanic hand. Nice graphic and great music and ambient. It's worth to be played.
8.5/10

This is a really underrated and underappreciated game.
In my opinion it's one of the best games of the last generation. If you can look away from the somewhat bad acting and the fact that it-s linear and not open world like it should've been, it's an amazing game. And don't get me wrong, the game has a great story, just not well acted.

I really love the bionic arm, swinging around is not like in Spider-Man, here you have to aim your swings on your own and it feels great, doing an awesome swing while shooting an enemy hearing the epic main theme in the background is something you'll never forget, it makes you feel like a badass.

To anyone that wants to play this game, I recommend you play Bionic Commando Rearmed first. This is a sequel to that game after all. And if you see something called Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, get away from that disaster as fast as bionically possible. That game ruined the amazing franchise that is Bionic Commando.

I also love this game because it's a swedish game, and I'm swedish. Its one of the first games I mention when someone asks what games come from Sweden.

I'd rate it like 9.0 out of 10. It could've been a 10 if it was open world and had a cast that can actually act.