What would happen if you inadvertendly saved the life of someone who went on to become an oppressive dictator?
That's the basic premise of first-person shooter Singularity, released on PC, Xbox360 and PS3 in 2010. This blind buy ended up being one of the best gaming surprises of the last decade.
At its core, Singularity is a fairly typical FPS and it heavily draws inspiration from Bioshock. The time travel and parallel timelines, the 50's Soviet aesthetics and the various powers you pick up over the course of the game gave me a Bioshock vibe in all the best ways.
The thing that truly makes this a unique game in a sea of Call of Duty clones is the tools you're given to advance through this adventure. Your primary tool is the TMD, or time manipulation device. Much like the plasmids from Bioshock, the TMD gives you secondary abilities you can use for combat, defense or environmental manipulation. It essentially creates a small localized time field that lets you rewind or fast forward an item or small area.
Target a soldier and you can thrust him forward in time, turning him into a pile of dust. Rewind a destroyed staircase to its former state to access higher platforms. These tools are used in clever and creative ways throughout the game. Your TMD is powered up every hour or two, adding new abilities. For example, you later gain a gravity-gun like upgrade that lets you grab and throw items around the environment.
The game was a huge surprise and sucked me in with its great environments and creative gameplay. If you're looking for something new and never played this, get it now. Used copies on PS3/360 are currently only around $5.
Highly recommended.
