Bionic your life and swng it
Story - 7.5
The Story really isn't anything to brag about. Your an Ex-Bionic commando on death row, a bomb blows up in Ascention city from Bio Terrorists and your recommisioned to stop them at all cost. Early on you also see that there is a conflict with your bionic arm and the love of your life doesn't like your awesomeness. oh well...
Gameplay - 8.5
Now I'll say straight up that the level design is unforgiving. When playing this you'll have to keep in mind that this is a punishing plaformer and if you expected it to be easy like Spider-Man or Prince of Persia then this game will get frustrating. The Combat is what deserves the 8.5. Its fun, fluid and really rewarding if your creative. I had moments where I'm zip kicking a guy and then peppering him dead with bullets backflipping and finishing the job even before I've touched the ground. Other times i'm kicking boxes mid air at soldiers and throwing their commrads around taking out the group before they even managed to land a shot. Its fast and once you master Spencer you'll be wondering what happened when the bodies hit the floor.
Swinging is fun, but UBER percise. You have to plan each swing, each grapple point and make sure you have a plan B ready at all times if you miss your grapple. If you misjudge your swing distance or go head first into area without planning your route carefuly, you will die... a lot. You'll have to master swinging and know the limits of what you can do, experimenting is important or else you'll find it very punishing and frustrating when you redo the same area for the 10th time.
Graphics - 7.5
The graphics have their cool moments and the character models are interesting and cool. Explosions look nice and lighting can be awesome in certain areas. Texture and modeling of the in-game world has its ups and downs. The forest is lush and fun to explore, but I found the city to be bland and uninteresting for the most part. The city ground looks odd with the rubble texture, having an unconvincing look and the blue hue of the radiation looks odd with the building reflections. Particle effects are pretty good, but like I said there is some places that are great and other that need improvement.
Sound - 8.5
This music score is pretty good and fits well with the game. Sound effects of speech, explosions and grapple moments are nicely done. They isn't anything spectacular about it apart from the distance of the sounds. When a soldier is yelling out at you from far away it really sounds like it should in real life which caught my attention immediately which I really liked.
Lasting appeal / Replayability - 7.5
There isn't much replayablility unless you either love this game or your a hardcore player/perfectionist. There are plenty of collectables and challenges in the game, but these have to be collected in a full play through. There is no option to have multiple saves so if you miss a collectable or a challenge you'll have to get it on your next New game or reload your last save. That can be super frustrating for most, but for the large part of the game the first time you play you'll be busy getting used to each level and mastering your swinging skills.
Closing comments
This is a game that if you put the patience into it, you'll be pleasantly surprised. If you are expecting an huge game world where you can swing around like Spider-Man then you wll be dissapointed. Its a game that brings back the difficulty of the first game, choses to be punishing, forcing the player to hone and master the gameplay mechanics. Survival of the fittest. It is a straight forward game, linear in design and while people may hate that it helps keep things simple never getting overwhelming. Combat is top notch and sounds is good. Rent it first unless your prepared to play a game that demands percision and patience.
Final score - 8/10 ( total calculated of each individual score)