Singularity (video game)
Singularity is a video game developed by Raven Software published by Activision and released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, Singularity is Raven Software's second title based on Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. The title was announced at Activision's E3 2008 press conference.
Premise
The game takes place on a mysterious island known as "Katorga-12" where Russian experiments involving "E99" took place during the height of the Cold War era. Sometime during 1955, a terrible catastrophe known as the "Singularity" occurred on the island[2], causing the island's very existence to be covered up by the Russian government. The player controls Nate Renko, a Black Ops soldier who is sent to investigate bizarre radiation emissions coming from the island, only to crash land there. After regaining consciousness, Nate finds the TMD (Time Manipulation Device) and discovers that the island is constantly shifting between the time periods of 1955 and 2010. He also encounters Victor Barisov, the scientist in charge of the Katorga-12 experiments who reveals that a man named Nikolai Demichev is on the island to try to restart them on a much larger scale, which could cause an unthinkable disaster. During the quest to stop Demichev, the player will have to deal with hostile Russian forces in both time periods, and the hideously mutated flora, fauna and former residents of the island, some of which have developed time manipulation power of their own.
Plot
During the Fifties, at the very start of the Cold War, it seemed that the Americans would always be the dominating power, thanks to their knowledge of the atomic energy. So, the USSR leader Joseph Stalin ordered to his scientific staff to begin experimenting in that field. Then on a small island near Kamchatka, named Katorga-12, the scientists found the mysterious "Element 99" or E-99 for short, which, despite its inherent instability, was an incredible power source. The studies continued until 1955, when the island was all but destroyed by a mysterious incident. The government erased Katorga-12 from the maps and hid every piece of news about E-99.
In 2010, a sudden electromagnetic surge from Katorga-12 damages an American spy satellite. A military Black Ops team is sent on the presumably uninhabited island, but a second surge makes their helicopter crash. Captain Nate Renko, one of the two survivors, enters the abandoned scientific complex; he's then exposed to a strange energy wave, only to find himself in 1955, during the fire that destroyed Katorga-12.
While in 1955, Renko saves a man from a deadly fall, carrying him out of the burning complex. A group of survivors refers to the man as "Demichev", just before Renko is abruptly returned to the year 2010. Renko discovers that the island has somewhat changed and encounters strange and violent creatures. He is forced to fight through a school and regroups with Devlin, the second survivor. Both soldiers are captured by Russian troopers. The Russian commander starts to ask them for a "TMD"; when Devlin declares that their actions are not legal, the Russian shoots him in the head.
Renko is saved by a woman named Kathryn. It is revealed that she works for an organization called MIR-12. MIR-12 revealed that two scientists helped study E-99. They were Barisov and Demichev. Barisov was claimed dead due to a accident in a lab so only Demichev was left to work on the new found element. Barisov had created a machine called the Time Manipulation Device or the TMD. It was also revealed that MIR-12 discovered a journal saying that only one can save time and that person was Renko. Kathryn tells Renko to find the TMD and use it to go back in time and save Barisov. Renko succeeds and returns back to 2010 with Barisov still alive.
Barisov and Renko plans to fix history by reversing the singularity with an E-99 bomb at an earlier time before the accident transformed most of the residents into mutants. Renko used the TMD to raise a ship called the Pearl for it had a E-99 bomb in its cargo bay. Renko recovers the bomb and returns to Barisov, who informs him that Kathryn was shot and killed while providing a distraction.
The bomb was missing its most important element (the E-99 core), so Renko has to carry it to the Cooker: the giant structure where in the past isotopes of E-99 were created. The 2010 Cooker is destroyed, so Renko had to travel to an earlier time to charge the bomb. Renko charged the bomb in 1955, overloading the Cooker systems: he returns to 2010 seconds before the Cooker exploded. He and Barisov fought into the heart of Katorga-12. Renko traveled back in time and destroyed the facility with the fully charged E-99 bomb. It is implied that this explosion triggered the destruction of the Singularity and mutated the island's population.
When Renko returned to 2010 finding the facility still the same as if nothing happened. He finds Demichev holding Barisov hostage behind him. Demichev revealed that he rebuilt the facility after the bomb was detonated (presumably at another location). Renko shoots Demichev with a nonlethal shot freeing Barisov. Barisov figured out what was wrong believing that the facility wasn't the problem, it was Demichev. When Renko saved Demichev at the beginning of the game, he rewrote history. Demichev also revealed that while Renko was saving him from the fire, another Renko was there trying to prevent himself from saving Demichevs life. Demichev gave a offer to grant Renko unlimited power if he gives him the TMD. Barisov protests and tells Renko to go back in time using the Singularity to power the TMD, and kill himself to turn history back to normal. The player is left with a choice resulting in 3 endings, based on whether Renko shoots Demichev, Barisov, both of them, or himself when after going back in time and thus preventing him from saving Demichev in the first place.
If the player shoots Barisov, he joins forces with Demichev and the team succeed in taking over most of the world with Renko training the Katorga-12 mutants as soldiers and using them as first wave attackers in all of his battles. But with his control of the TMD, Demichev feels Renko is even more powerful than he is and takes precautionary measures against him by starting a weapons research program in the former United States. This settles the world into another Cold War with Renko on one side and Demichev on the other.
If the player shoots both Demichev and Barisov, Renko leaves Katorga-12 and allows the world to fall into chaos. The public believes his very existence to be a myth as he disappears with the TMD in his possession. The Singularity explodes some years later and destroys the eastern coast of Russia and the Western coast of Alaska. Katorga-12 mutants escape onto mainland Russia and wreak havoc. A new leader rises in the former United States and is reported to be very aggressive and tyrannical as he leads the entire world with an iron fist. The in-game cutscenes and narration heavily imply the leader to be Renko himself.
If the player chooses to kill Demichev, Barisov urges Renko to go back in time and kill himself as he is saving Demichev earlier (the player can also do this by just going back without shooting either men). Shooting the past version of Renko sends the narrative back to Devlin and Renko's arrival at Katorga-12. The game's intro credits are shown written in Russian, the helicopters bear the hammer and sickle on the side, and Devlin ,armed with a Russian weapon, comments that nothing ever happens on these missions and that Katorga-12 is a waste of time to be watching. The helicopter moves past the statue area seen in the intro credits, revealed to now be a massive monument to Barisov wearing the TMD. Renko seems to have retained his memories from the rest of the game as he checks his hands when he sees the monument. Renko and Devlin's mission is called off and Devlin refers to Renko as "comrade", implying that Barisov survived the Katorga-12 cataclysm and united the world under Soviet rule using the TMD as his tool.
A post-credit scene shows a dying Kathryn emerging in 1955 from the Pearl wreckage and hiding herself in one of the offices. With her dying breath, she writes "Renko" in to the Mir-12 journal.
Gameplay
| Requirements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Windows | ||
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7 | |
| CPU | Intel Pentium D at 2.8 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 4800+ | |
| Memory | 1 GB RAM (XP) / 2 GB RAM (Vista / Win 7) 1.5 GB (Windows Vista/Windows 7) 2.0 GB for optional performance (Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7) | |
| Free space | 8 GB of free space | |
| Graphics hardware | 256 MB VRAM – NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT / ATI Radeon X1800, DirectX 9.0c compatitable | |
| Sound hardware | 16-bit DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card | |
Singularity's main gameplay device is an artifact known in the game as the TMD (Time Manipulation Device). This device is powered by a very small E-99 core, and can manipulate timespace on a virtually limitless scale. The TMD can move an object backwards or forwards in time, attract something and hold it indefinitely, or send a pulse of energy that can stun or even kill enemies. The only weakness is that the TMD powers can be applied only to living beings or objects that have been in contact with E-99 (supposedly, almost everything on Katorga-12 is imbued with the element, but in practice, the TMD can only affect a limited set of objects like certain types of crates, tape recorders, barrels etc.). Some living beings, like the Spetsnaz Elite troopers who are covered in a heavy armor designed to repel E-99, are immune as well.
The TMD can also be used in conjunction with special power stations scattered across the island that greatly amplify its power. In some instances, the player can use this to restore entire ruined buildings or wrecked ships to their pristine state in order to progress. However, these major alterations are highly unstable and will begin to revert almost immediately, forcing the player to dash through the restored structures as they start to decay and collapse around him.
Multiplayer
There are two MP modes. Here, the player fights for control of a map playing as either Soldiers or Creatures, each side having its own classes and abilities.
In Game Pop Culture References
The two primary dates the game takes place in, November 5th, 1955 and October 26th 2010 are references to the movie Back to the Future. The first date, November 5th 1955 is the date Doc Brown came up with the idea of the flux capacitor. The second date, October 26th 2010 is the 25th anniversary of the first time travel experiment in Twin Pines Mall.
References
- ^ Magrino, Tom (2010-04-19). "Singularity warps to June 29". GameSpot. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
- ^ Smith, Robbie (2009-02-01). "Mir-12: Viral Marketing for Singularity?". ARGN. Retrieved 2010-05-06.