never played the first game... so here's my short review after beating the first stage

User Rating: 8 | Bionic Commando: Rearmed PS3
bionic commando (rearmed) has all the elements that I want in a game for now. Its challenging, and extremely skill craving. Yep, you need to master the arm first before you go ahead and pounce your way into the game. Although, its a game that you can just pick up and play as the learning curves to master it is not that steep. Only that I've never played the original game and all that I was exposed to back then was the Contra series, in which you jump, instead of grappling. But I later found out that by implementing the grappling element, the developer has successfully open up some new dimensions to the game in terms of gamers skill in solving puzzles, killing enemies with style and sharpening and focusing the gamers' aim towards the goal.

Bottom line: Worth every single penny I've spent on it in PSN Store. (And I'm only now about 3 hours into the game)