Singularity (video game)

Plot

A mysterious electromagnetic pulse from the abandoned Soviet island Katorga-12 knocks out an American spy satellite. U.S. Recon Marines, led by Captain Nathaniel Renko, are sent to investigate. A second pulse forces their helicopter to crash on the island. After the crash, Renko starts slipping between the present day and 1955, the year a terrible accident occurred there.

He lands in 1955 just as a scientist named Nikolai Demichev is about to die in a fire, and Renko saves him. Back in the present, Renko learns Demichev now rules the world. Demichev’s soldiers capture Renko, but a resistance fighter named Kathryn rescues him. Her group, Mir-12, found a journal suggesting Renko can stop Demichev using the Time Manipulation Device, or TMD, invented by Victor Barisov.

Since Demichev killed Barisov in the past, Renko travels back and prevents that murder. Their new plan is to go to 1955 and destroy Katorga-12 with an E-99 bomb, the same material that caused the original disaster. The bomb sits inside a ship called the Pearl. Renko uses the TMD, boosted by an electrical platform, to raise the ship and grab the bomb, barely escaping as the vessel falls apart.

The bomb is uncharged, so Renko must find the E-99 processing facility, travel back in time to charge it, and then plant it at the singularity tower with Barisov. After planting the bomb, Renko finds Demichev holding Barisov at gunpoint. Demichev explains he rebuilt the facility, keeping history on track. Barisov realizes the mistake was saving Demichev in the first place and asks Renko to stop his past self from doing that.

Demichev offers Renko a place in his empire for the TMD, revealing that the mysterious figure who warned Renko not to save Demichev was actually Renko himself.

Development

The game's premise came from Brian and Steve Raffel’s recollections of the Cold War and exploring derelict sites, such as a WWII military base near Madison, Wisconsin. Its 1950s sequences drew from pulp sci-fi films.

Raven Software’s Keith Fuller noted the project faced a difficult development and nearly got scrapped by Activision. After delays with Singularity, Raven cut about 40 employees in October 2010, reducing its development teams to one. Since then, Raven has primarily supported the Call of Duty series.

Reception

Singularity received generally favorable reviews on all platforms according to Metacritic. Activision was disappointed with sales, which came out under 400,000. Destructoid praised the Xbox 360 version, calling it a great summer shooter that feels like its own thing despite being pieced together from previous FPS games. IGN was less enthusiastic, stating that while gunplay is solid and there are memorable set pieces, the game is limited by a lack of imagination, handcuffing a neat time-manipulation idea to a by-the-numbers first-person shooter.

Some reviewers criticized similarities to other games, such as BioShock. In Japan, Famitsu gave both console versions a score of 29 out of 40, while Famitsu Xbox 360 gave its Xbox 360 version a score of 31 out of 40. The A.V. Club gave the Xbox 360 version a B+, calling it worth playing for its incorporation of the best ideas from the last decade of first-person shooters and its chilling atmosphere. The Escapist gave it four stars out of five, calling it a solid and entertaining effort.

The Daily Telegraph gave it seven out of ten, describing it as a fun and engaging title that Activision did not give the attention it deserves. Metro UK similarly gave it seven out of ten, calling it an enjoyable attempt at a more cerebral shooter. Edge gave it six out of ten, stating that while the game is stuck in the FPS past, Raven proves it can stand the test of time.

Did You Know?

• There are two multiplayer modes: Creatures vs. Soldiers and Extermination.
• In Extermination, soldiers try to capture beacons while creatures defend them, then roles switch.
• The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were ported and published by Square Enix in Japan on September 22, 2010.