[Civvie 11:]
Once upon a time, there was a studio called
Raven Software, who made good games. Some of them exceptional. Influential. Closely tied to Id Software, they used their
engines to make, just... good games! Always introducing something new and interesting;
a developer staffed with consummate professionals, people with a deep understanding of FPS design! Maybe not the most financially successful,
but responsible for some damn fine games... ...and Hexen. That was, until the dark times... Now they are slaves, relegated
to the Call of Duty mines... Their inventiveness and talents,
their vision and achievements, shall be lifted... ...nevermore. ...So what happened? Back when I did a video on
a game of theirs, Heretic II, lost to time and stuck in
rights limbo, I wondered this, because I never played "Singularity" – – the very last game they ever made that didn't
have the name "Call of Duty" attached to it. I wasn't even aware of
this game, or its history, or it's troubled development! There was one day in 2009
when Singularity was cancelled... It had been in development for two years,
but it wasn't anywhere near finished. Activison came knockin' and
the game wasn't ready. According to Keith Fuller,
a lead developer at Raven – – who worked on Singularity and a dozen
other games you might've head of – half of the game's maps didn't run on the PS3, others coudn't fit in the
memory of the Xbox 360, and even the PC version couldn't perform. A lot of time and money had been sunk
into an ambitious game about time travel, the Soviets winning thanks to
magic minerals, and, uh... (The story's a bit of a mess in this game,
so don't even ask me about it) The game didn't die. Raven took team members from other projects – – a recently released X-Men game;
the Wolfenstein game they made – and after about seven months, the game was worked into a releasable state
on those previously mentioned platforms. *Seven months* to fix it up and shove it out the door. We've heard this story before, haven't we, kids?
How else could this end but in absolute disaster? Let's start the game, and– OH, no...! No thank you, that's, uh... ...That's not gonna work! I have very few pet peeves
when it comes to games. Really. {BELOW 90°}
But a garbage field of view (FoV) is one of 'em. [Intercom:
"ETA to target: 3 minutes."] [James Devlin:
"Brass must be scared shitless if they're willing to risk
an international incident sending us in like this!"] And if you recognize that voice,
that's Nolan North, who I consider to be the inoffensive voice-acting
slurry tubed into comatose gamers. And I'm like, "Oh hi, Nathan Drake!" Yeah, I've played all the Uncharted
games, believe it or not! I don't hate Nolan North at all,
but is there a way to have him in *less* things? I know the dude probably has a family to feed, but since our [playable] character (Nathaniel Renko)
is a silent protagonist... ...MOSTLY (SPOILERS)... ...he's gotta get us through this. So guess what?
Nolan North is the star of the game. ...Or some dude pretending to
be a Russian; I don't know. ...oh, who is this— Oh, it's Steve Blum! JUST SHOVE THE TWO DOWN
MY FUCKING THROAT, RAVEN JUST RAM IT DO— So Nolan North is talking to you about the mission, the Pentagon is sending you to an old
Soviet installation where stuff happened; y'know, there's an intro cinematic
with an exposition dump. Stalin [Is] Bad;
I mean, obviously. And in the near future of 2010,
a spy satellite gets blinded by a radiation surge. And so, they have to send
a couple of guys to look into it. Just these two, yeah. Now that this whole FoV thing is solved,
we can play the game. So get this: at the beginning of the game,
you're on a chopper and it crashes; I know, right? [James Devlin (Nolan North):
"Oh shit! It's an EMP!"] ["...No!" (general screams and grunts
of terror and struggle) ] [Intercom:
"We're hit, we're hit!"] ["Mayday, mayday! We're going down!"] ["We're h—"] Now look, I gotta give this game some credit, 'cause the first thing you see when you
get to shore is kinda beautiful; it's really well done. Solid stuff from Raven! Of course, you head inside and there's eight
thousand hours of exposition waiting for you there. I've gone through some of it, and it's just like,
'I wanna play this game, that's all I want!' ["Living on Katorga-12" Propaganda Film Narrator:
"The Threat of the West is ever present,"] ["and here on the isolated island
of Katorga-12, we are fighting that threat!"] {90 SECONDS LATER} ["Living on Katorga-12" Propaganda Film Narrator:
"...we must now stand together, for Mother Russia!"] The most important character
in Singularity is the audio log – – I call him Loggy – – he's everywhere. [Unidentified Soviet Individual Audio Log:
"The influx of new scientists and technicians to
Katorga-12 has dwindled to nothing."] ["Rumor has it that Dr. Barisov might become
the new head of Katorga-12..."] ["...but I doubt Moscow has much confidence in him."] I don't even know why this place has power;
what the fuck is happening – – I know where I am; just... STOP So just breeze through this stuff, and you're into it. And the intro section is... actually good! Like, legitimately tense, well-executed... (I have the FoV hack to not be dogshit,
so sometimes you're gonna see this here, (but, otherwise...) You save this guy, and then
you get sent back from 1955 to 2010, and if you *do* listen to the audio logs,
you might notice something has changed... [Unidentified Soviet Individual Audio Log:
"The influx of new scientists
and technicians to Katorga-12..."] ["...has increased tenfold since
Dr. Demichev went to Moscow!"] ["His presentation of our work
must've been very successful!"] ["Additional facilities are being built,
and our research funds continue to grow!"] ["And to think..."] ["Only four weeks ago, Dr. Demichev
almost died in that fire..." Twenty minutes into this game,
I already help the Commies win. I mean, we don't get much context for
how the rest of the world is affected, 'cause we never leave this island... I'll tell you what: the art direction in this game is solid! It's not too brown and everything looks okay;
up to that Raven standard! At some point, this game's
gonna bone me, I can feel it... There's these 'time radiaton zombies'... I'm not sure they have real names,
but they're so generic, I don't even give a— I know there's reasons behind *why* the pistol is shitty... One: You get weapon upgrades in this game,
so all your weapons start out shitty... [sarcastically]
I *love* the 2000s, didn't you? [normal voice]
Anyway, you're traveling through this school
where they would brainwash children, who all seem to die horribly? It's tense, it's moody, it's a little scary, and all you have to defend yourself
is this six-shot shitshooter. And you pretty much need headshots
to bring these things down. The game isn't even that jank! ["E Is For E99" Propaganda Film Narrator:
"...deep underground, here on Katorga-12!"] ["A base was built on this island to study it."] ["You see,"] [bullet wound sound] ["our scientists think that some day, they will be able to
use E99 to accomplish some pretty amazing things!"] There's no regenerating health, which is nice,
unless you unlock the perk for it, but that's WAY, way later;
that's like 4 hours away... And in what I consider to be a masterstroke in design
– one of those good decisions that Raven made – the SECOND, the *SAME SECOND*,
that I said to myself, "I'm sick of this pistol shit!", here's the assault rifle! Don't spend any upgrade points on this one, either – – you get weapon upgrades pretty sparingly
in this game for a long time, and you're gonna wanna save 'em. [wailing monsters in the background;
sudden breaking and falling debris] [gunfire] [James Devlin (Nolan North):
"Renko! You're alive!"] ["Figured you'd bought it!"] [ (grunting) "Ngh... help me!"] ["Son of a bitch, they're coming through the windows!
Light 'em up!"] ["Ngh... Help me open the door!"] ["I'll take left, you take right!"] ["Ready? One, two, three!"] ["Open fire!"] [assorted monster shrieks and gunfire sounds] ["Reloading!"] [assorted reloading clicks] [gunshot] ["Damn, is it good to see you, Renko!"] Yeah, okay! [Gordon Ramsay clip/snippet:
"Fucking raw!"] So... linear game, but wait, there are actually areas
you can find that are similar to secrets, off the beaten path, where you can get E99 tech
which you spend on upgrades... (We'll get into that later.
It's scattered all over the place.) You can also – right, get this! You can jump more than a foot in the air, in an FPS game that is,
for the most part, of the 2000s! I thought it was a fuckin' bug
when it happened the first time! [sniper gunshot, bullet clacking on the ground] [James Devlin (Nolan North):
"Nice shootin'! Let's move!"] [faint sounds of a chopper
amidst the calm howling wind] ["Chopper! And it's not one of ours; get down!"] Oooh, it's *this* part... [♫ Wagner's "Ride Of The Valkyries", manually edited
in to the video/this montage, starts playing ♫] {THAT PART IN EVERY GAME MADE AFTER
HALF-LIFE WHERE THE GRUNTS ARRIVE} [assorted back-and-forth gunfire;
chopper blades whirring] The game gives you a sniper rifle that
slows down time, which is pretty essential – – we haven't introduced any of
the time manipulation shit yet, but the sniper rifle does it. [sounds slow down and speed back up to normal
as the sniper rifle enters in and out of Bullet Time] So like, you changed the past, so the Soviets won
because of Dr. Demichev (Steve Blum), and— Oh, hello! [slowed down Gordon Ramsay clip:
"RAAAAAAW!!"] Hey, now's the time to turn the video off
if you don't want spoilers, but honestly, I don't give flat fuck about
the plot of Singularity, because it's pretty clear that the writers
chopped off, like, 75% of it, and scattered pieces of it randomly throughout
the environment as audio logs. These aren't reel-to-reel audio tapes; they're the rotting pieces of this game's story... ...which was probably pretty cool! {ADVERTISING INTERMISSION #1
(I WILL PLACE ADS HERE BUT SOMETIMES
YOUTUBE PUTS THEM WHEREVER) } [James Devlin (Nolan North):
"Name, rank and serial number..."] ["That's all you get from us, 'Ivan'.
Check your Geneva Convention handbook."] So Nolan North dies – that was fast! Demichev catches you,
and you get saved by this girl... I'm not gonna use this video to complain about
shitty ideas that this era of FPS games had, and... ...honestly, still have to this day. Unfortunately, in the rush to patch
Singularity up to get it shipped, they filled in a lot of holes with
stuff that other games did that worked, and so, we have a shitty stamina limit. You run for three seconds,
and then you're out of breath – – a thing that *I* can outdo, and I'm a fat fucking YouTube idiot
who smokes, like, fifty cigarettes a day! [sudden gunfire] [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"Run, Renko! Head straight for the doorway!"] ["Just follow the open doors!"] So this girl tells you to run for your life,
and three seconds later, you're doing a light jog, because someone decided that being fast
in video games was a bad idea? (And this is *far* from the only time you do this.) ["Overload in T-Minus 30 seconds."]
Get out quick, soldier, or else you're gonna DIE. Oh yeah, also, you can only run for a period of time
less than how long you can safely chug Drano! Did you like that 'immersion'
you had in this situation? Well, FUCK YOU! [assorted gunfire] [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"Go faster!"] ["Turn left!"] ["They're right behind you!"] And every time, I fall for it!
Every time I'm like "Oh, I better get outta here!", I start running and it's like hitting a brick wall! So this girl, her name is Kathryn,
and she works for MIR-12 – – who know the truth about how the timeline
got messed up; I don't know *how*... [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"You must have a lot of questions,
but we don't have a lit of time."] They should've put that on the box! She helpfully brought a laptop
that tells you everything. Press 'R' To Laptop. [MIR-12 Video Voice:
"We are MIR-12."] ["Our mission is to reveal the truth
that's been hidden from the entire world."] ["In the 1950s, a military research base was
built on the island of Katorga-12."] ["To this day, the government
denies its existence..."] {90 SECONDS LATER} ["...It is our mission to locate Captain Renko,
and help him achieve his goal."] ["We are MIR-12.
We will reveal... the truth."] [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"One of the lead scientists on the Singularity
Project built a hidden vault."] ["You *must* find it.
Go through there!"] She gives you that shit pistol again,
which I was kinda mad about, but here's the thing: You can manage your equipped weapons –
you get two at a time... [The Simpsons/Abe Simpson clip/snippet:
"Which was the style at the time!"] And at these weapon lockers, you can upgrade or
equip any weapon you've already found. Before you face a single enemy,
the game gives you access to one, so take the Assault Rifle and the Shotgun. The Shotgun – which is kinda trash until you
give it one upgrade and then it's fine. ["Which was the style at the time!"] [rusty metal door banging and creaking
whilst being opened] [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"Be careful. The radiation unleashed by the Singularity
has mutated the people who used to live here."] ["Keep your eyes open for them."] Yep, there they are! I was lucky enough to break the scripting
to get a better look at these guys! Yeah! Good design, nicely done!
Typical Raven! [gunshots] [reloading] [light swooshing sounds] [oddly quiet mutated monster snarls] [light swooshing sounds]
[oddly quiet mutated monster snarls] [teleporting sound that sounds like
a small explosion and/or sci-fi gun blast] [more quiet mutated monster snarls] [more light swooshing sounds] [rifle gunshots fired to the introductory drum beat
of a certain song by a certain heavy metal band] You gotta get to the old labs and find
the Time Manipulation Device (TMD), which... ...man, that sounds awesome, right? Sometimes I think a lot more interesting stuff got
taken out; I mean... you don't even have Bullet Time! Look at how you put it on!
This is just great! [clicking, whirring, zapping & drilling noises] [loud sci-fi charging energy & electricity noises] [ringing ears noise(?)] [unlocking sci-fi doors/mechanisms noises] [unlocking 'click' noises] Once you actually get this thing,
you start to see what the game wants to do. At a press of a button,
you can age or de-age things – – pieces of the environment, and
most importantly, *your opponents*; and I canNOT... I *cannot* stress enough how awesome that is! [Russian soldiers shouting in Russian] [one of said Russian soldiers screaming in agony
as the TMD does its magic] [more gunfire] Oh, this guy has a shield?
That's cute! You're about to drink from
the wrong grail, motherfucker! [another Russian soldier screaming in agony;
whittling ash/sand/burning hiss noises] Aside from that, there's a force blast that seems to
replace your melee attack entirely, which is fine. When not in combat, you use [the TMD] for— crushing boxes, uncrushing boxes,
moving crushed boxes, {"Did you get tired of using a device that could change
the passage of time to merely renew a crushed box to
non-crushed status? Yeah, so did we. But we did not
have the time to properly create fun gameplay with the
weapon and build well-paced levels around it."
- Keith Fuller
keeping doors open with boxes,
opening doors by uncrushing boxes under 'em, {"Did you get tired of using a device that could change
the passage of time to merely renew a crushed box to
non-crushed status? Yeah, so did we. But we did not
have the time to properly create fun gameplay with the
weapon and build well-paced levels around it."
- Keith Fuller
movin' 'em through tiny spaces by crushing them and
then uncrushing them to jump on top of 'em {"Did you get tired of using a device that could change
the passage of time to merely renew a crushed box to
non-crushed status? Yeah, so did we. But we did not
have the time to properly create fun gameplay with the
weapon and build well-paced levels around it."
- Keith Fuller
so you can reach a ladder,
and then movin' another box... You travel back in time to fight some lightly-armored
guards who get torn apart like tissue paper; you have to save Barisov, this other scientist... [Victor Barisov:
"The TMD! How—?!"] ["You saved my life!"] ["You're wearing the TMD,
and an American uniform..."] ["Something must have gone terribly wrong..."] Okay! You're up to speed! Cool! ["Follow me!"] ["We're running out of time...
Please, age this safe with the TMD."] Okay... [electricity sounds; rusty metal door/safe squeaks] [alarm klaxon blaring in the distance] ["Here, take this.
It is a prototype E99 weapon."] ["It can be unstable, but should help
tip the odds in our favor."] ...I mean, I already have a sniper rifle
that slows down time; how could I– ["Seeker: This rifle fires E99 charged shells that alter
time and allow the operator to *control the bullet*."]
*Oh*... ["Seeker: This rifle fires E99 charged shells that alter
time and allow the operator to *control the bullet*."]
[pitches voice in giddy excitement]
ooooooooOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH—!! [♫ (A MIDI rendition of) The Police Squad/
The Naked Gun theme plays ♫] You only get to use this thing, like,
a half-dozen times in this game, but... ...GOD, it's good! And look at this: I stop to look for some E99 tech,
he runs off, and not only does Barisov not get killed... ...he hides behind this door,
and aggressively doesn't get killed!! That TMD also reveals notes on the wall
which will be important to the plot, as they allude to everyone being wrong, and also the fact
that this isn't the first time someone's tried this, and... And I just wanna try and explain
how these things can show up if history and present are constantly
being altered with time jumps... Actually, I don't wanna
do that at all, so let's not. Singularity is not *quite*
one set-piece after another... ...though you get that impression sometimes. This one here, where you're being
rushed by all these things, and you have to keep repairing these junction boxes
to keep the electric fence goin'? [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"Renko, we have to hold them off until
Barisov gets the power restored!"] [small explosion/sci-fi gun blast-sounding
teleporting sounds] [Victor Barisov:
"The generators are gearing up..."] ["Renko, use the TMD to renew the
power junctions on the fence."] ["That should buy us some time."] I should've played this game on Hard,
'cause this section... First time I played, a few of them got through;
but this time? Not one. It's fine! [a cacophony of the TMD, the electric frence,
the mutated monsters and gunfire] [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"Huh, it works!"] [Victor Barisov:
"Of course it works; I just fixed it!
The elevator should almost be there..."] [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"Finally! Come on, Renko! Let's get to the tower!"] ["This way, Renko!"] [Victor Barisov:
"You've undoubtedly figured out
the timeline has been altered..."] ["Russia rules the world,
and Demichev is the Chancellor."] ["Here, let me show you what happened to the world
after you saved Demichev from the burning building..."] Yeah? Did you edit this film yourself, doc? Did you draw all this concept art that got
repurposed into an expositional cutscene? Did you write these newspaper articles that are— I mean, look at that! That's not even
Russian gibberish; that's just gibberish! {ADVERTISING INTERMISSION #2} Once you leave his lab, you get to the worst part of
the game, which accounted for half of all of my deaths. [ears ringing(?); spider-like monsters
crawling and squishing all around] [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"Renko, can you hear me? Are you alright?"] [squishy, bug-y sounds, searing acid & goo sounds] [sci-fi blast sound coming out of the TMD] Let me introduce you to the Phase Ticks! You know those tiny enemies in games that exist
to be hard to hit and to annoy the shit outta you? Well, here they are! They can fuck off back up Biff Tannen's dickhole! [splattering squishy liquid noise;
insect monster shrieking; gunfire] ...I'm sorry, that was bad. This game is a bit easy on Normal... ...but half of all of my deaths
happened in this tiny section, because of these exploding lil' bastards and their
completely unnecessary inclusion in this game! You use your TMD blast to
take care of 'em easily, right? But there's *lots* of 'em,
and you have to reload your TMD, so there's always a point where
you're absolutely defenseless, and they take off more health
than getting fucking stabbed! I HATE them! You can age their little pods away, but that doesn't
stop them from coming in droves anyway! This is the one part of this game
that I can say that I hate! Okay, onto something positive; one of those
small things that makes a big impact: When you're jumping to get onto a ladder
and you grab the bottom of it, that's it! You don't see it enough! I was excited because the game gave me a railgun, except because it's a game where you upgrade
weapons, it's practically useless when you first get it... (...and the sniper rifle is a better option.) You have to wind the thing up, and it just doesn't do
the kind of damage that you need it to; [the shot projectiles explode] after a couple of seconds,
but it's just not as practical as the sniper rifle. Maybe a pro Singularity player can tell me about
how it's the best weapon in the game or something, 'cause if you aim it off the reflection of the sun,
it one-hits Demichev in his balls, and you can just win the game early? [TMD energy sounds; cassette clicking] [Unidentified Soviet Individual #2 Audio Log:
"It breaks my heart that we realized
too late the creatures are blind..."] ["Alexey needlessly fell victim to them..."] ["Had we just silently walked by the beasts,
he would still be alive..."] ["I'm sorry for failing you, Alexey...
For failing us all..."] Oh, I know *this* dance... You gotta stealth by these guys (Reverts),
or else they'll wreck you— [Civvie laughing joyfully and maniacally
as he proceeds to wreck *them*]
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (I'm gonna play this on a harder skill
next time, I promise...) You get TMD upgrades along the way too, and sometimes, you can kinda tell
they needed to throw one in there... Same thing with TMD Blueprints and new tech... They don't quite belong in this sewer... {SEWER COUNT: 41}
...but they're needed for player progression. It kinda bothers me that the devs
needed to crunch to get this thing out... I don't believe in crunch;
I think it leads to sloppy work... ...and it's cruel and psychologically damaging, I guess? You will get another powerup for the TMD
– that is just great – called "Reversion"; 'cause it turns your enemies into time mutants
that'll attack their friends! Yes! Good! [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
"Watch out, Renko!
More patrols are headed your way!"] [gunfire from enemy soldiers and the player/Renko] [Enemy soldiers shouting in Russian; more gunfire] [more Russian shouting and gunfire] [a soldier screaming in agony as he dies] [even more Russian shouting and gunfire] [player gunfire; more Russian shouting] [just Russian shouting] Fun thing I found out is that I don't exist! How, you might ask, did I come to this conclusion? The Seeker... I turned it around and tried
to see myself... which I couldn't. I'm not there. What's-Her-Name is there. ...What is her name?? ...euh, nevermind... I have some issues with the way this game is balanced;
your weapons do kinda a lot of damage to most things, and sure, you can only carry two of 'em... It's not gonna matter much
when you get the autocannon. Yes, that's a minigun! Yes, it's one of the finest
I've ever used in a game! I love it! It's perfect! It shreds EVERYthing!
It is almost hilariously overpowered in this game! It has a secondary fire wind-up thing...
It doesn't recoil so hard that it's unusable; it just works! Oh GOD, it's... beautiful! It doesn't leave my inventory 'till the end of the game! You can buy ammo with E99 at the weapon lockers,
so forget about ever running dry on it! The autocannon makes this boss fight into a joke. And the setpiece itself is okay, I guess – – the bosses in this game are the 2000s thing where
they have a glowing weakspot that you have to shoot; they change positions, though. On this boss, it's kinda boring, but on the previous one, this thing comes out out of it
and moves and relocates the weakspot, and y'know what? When you're using a cliché like that, and ya' add a
little bit of flavor to it, it's good! It's nice! The hardest part in the second boss battle is
the goddamn Phase Ticks that appear outta nowhere! [rumbling; giant monster roaring] [electric current blasts from the TMD;
more monster shrieking] [Kathryn What's-Her-Name:
(gasping of air/out of breath) "Good job, Renko!"] I'm sorry; WHO are you??? You have to go get an E99 bomb... ...which is, y'know... a big bomb...
and a thing you have to get... And you have to raise
this ship out of the ocean to do it, using time manipulation so impressive
they couldn't do it in-engine like the rest of it... The ship level where everything is decaying
in front of you? It's cool! It's good! It's well-done! (I'm still owning everything with the minigun...) You get a grenade launcher where you can
remote-control the grenades after you launch 'em... ...and that's also cool; it works good! (I have to upgrade the damage before
it's reliably lethal...) [remote-control grenade rolling around and beeping;
low monster snarls] [sci-fi blast-sounding explosion;
monsters shrieking in agony] [launcher shooting out another grenade; sudden random
explosions alongside another proper grenade explosion] Here's the problem – and let me
get academic with you kids here: There's somethin' called "dominant strategy", where the player gets most rewarded for
one action over any other. [H4MMER (in the distance):]
You're not using that right. [Civvie 11:]
Oh, FUCK yo—! And if this game had more time to cook, I'm sure they would've made it so owning everything
with the minigun wasn't so satisfying. But they didn't, so upgrade that autocannon
all the way, and win. I'll tell you what; it IS fun! [frantic Russian shouting, which soon turn to
pained screams; monster grunts and
heavy metallic knocks/thuds] [rapid minigun firing sounds] [reloading clicks; monster growls] [more rapid minigun firing sounds] [Victor Barisov:
"I regret to inform you that Kathryn... well..."] ["I tried to stop her at the dock,
but she woudn't listen to me!"] ["She wanted to draw the soliders' gunfire;
to make sure YOU escaped with the E99 bomb..."] ["She was shot.. just as the ship started sinking..."] ["Kathryn... is dead."] Who???? We're gettin' pretty close to the end here,
and the game is fine! Really! It's not bad! It's not great, [but] it has it's moments! Like travelin' through time and droppin' a pallet
of explosives barrels on some dudes, and then ownin' every single
one of 'em with the Seeker – – the only weapon in this game that
*doesn't* get outclassed by the autocannon! [slowed down and sped back up sounds of gunshots,
explosions and Russian soldiers shouting and dying] (It's not like the other weapons are bad;
the shotgun, when upgraded, is pretty good!) {ADVERTISING INTERMISSION #3} You gotta take the bomb,
go back in time to charge it, then go through time again to plant it at the
Singularity in the past... Then you come back,
and Demichev is waiting for you. [Nikolai Demichev (Steve Blum):
[chuckling] "Hmhmheh... have fun on
your trip down memory lane, Captain?"] Oh man, I remember you! I haven't seen you since [when] you killed
Nolan North, like, four hours ago! (This game's only about six hours long.
But y'know, it's still fine!) (A six-hour game made by people who know what they're doing
is still way better than a 30-hour game made by chuckefucks.) [Nikolai Demichev (Steve Blum):
"Now... give me the TMD!"] [Victor Barisov:
"Don't, Renko! We're missing something,
but we can figure it out..."] ["We can still set things right—!"] [grunt from Demichev as he hits
the struggling Barisov] [Nikolai Demichev (Steve Blum):
"Only the victors rewrite the history books..."] ["...and you LOST!"] This... FUCKIN' guy right here; I saved his life, I made *all* this
evil shit he's doin' possible, and he's gonna sandbag me now—?! NO. I DON'T PLAY THAT. [slowed down gunshot; soft thud as
Demichev's body hits the ground] [Victor Barisov:
" 'Only the victors rewrite the history books'...!?"] ["That's it! The Singularity is not the problem!"] ["You went back in time, and saved Demichev
from being killed in the burning building!"] ["Remember!?"] Yeah; it was four hours ago! ["HE'S what you changed...
and HE'S what you have to change back!"] ["You cannot let Demichev live!"] [Nikolai Demichev (Steve Blum):
(coughing) "It won't work... You've already tried that..."] WOAH! What the fuck you doin'
tankin' a headshot like that?! THIS PISTOL SUCKS! [Nikolai Demichev (Steve Blum):
"Don't you remember who else
was there, Captain Renko?"] ['WHAT IF THIS IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN'] ['HE STARTED IT ALL'] ['MIR-12 IS WRONG'] ['WE'VE TRIED ALREADY'] ['BARISOV HAS IT WRONG'] ['HE IS COMING'] [?????? (Unidentified American Male Voice):
"Renko, stop! DON'T LET DEMICHEV LIVE!"] Uhhhhhhhhh...? [Nikolai Demichev (Steve Blum):
"That other man... was YOU."] [Victor Barisov:
"He's right, Captain... YOU are the anomaly!"] Okay, but I'm pretty sure that's also Nolan North, and this would probably have some impact if I
said anything else during the game, and knew what my voice sounded like... ["...Which means the only way to correct
the timeline is for you to stop yourself!"] [Nikolai Demichev (Steve Blum):
"You mean KILL himself..."] I disagree; but we'll get to that later... [Victor Barisov:
"Renko, don't listen to him! You can save the world!"] Okay, but how do you know
how many times this has happened? How do *I* know?!
If I go back in time and kill myself, then I— Goddammit, I used up all my 12 Monkeys
stuff on that Serious Sam video! ["Use the TMD on the Singularity,
travel back in time and kill yourself!"] [Nikolai Demichev (Steve Blum):
"Hmph... well, that certainly sounds
like an attractive offer..."] ["Or... you can prove your loyalty to *me*,
by killing Barisov..."] ["...and I will grant you unlimited power!"] Nah, I already have a minigun! [gunshot] [Victor Barisov:
"My god... he's dead!"] Are you SURE?? ["To correct history, you must go back in time, and stop
yourself from saving Demichev in the burning building!"] Aauhh, okay!
I think I know how to play this! Just pop Demichev while he's on
my back, right in the ass! And... Nope! If I just capped him in the brain while he's getting
hauled out; no problem! Everything's fixed! Nope... Okay, if I have to shoot myself, I can just
put one in my leg; it's fine! Walk it off, or die in a burning science building! [gunshot] Okay, well, this is a [pre-rendered] cutscene,
so we're back to a shitty FoV, and the titles are in Russian, meaning... ['Red Fleet' Intercom:
"...airspace."] ['Hammer Two One' Intercom:
"Roger that, Red Fleet. Continuing on this vector.
ETA to target: 3 minutes."] [James Devlin (Nolan North):
"I dunno why they keep making us do this run...
It's not like we ever see anything!"] [" 'Military intelligence'... what a joke!"] ['Red Fleet' Intercom:
"Hammer Two One, maintain
present speed and heading."] ['Hammer Two One' Intercom:
"Copy that, Red Fleet."] [James Devlin (Nolan North):
"I never get tired of seein' that!" Okay, but— Wait— *Demichev* was supposed to die; that's what leads
into the start of the fucking game in the first place! Y'know what? NO.
FUCK, this is bonkers! I feel bad for the writers, honestly – – they probably had something better planned out that
would've *also* annoyed the shit outta me... ...but at least it would've made some kind-of *sense*? There's a post-credits scene, too. I don't know who *she* is,
but she's probably important later... So this game isn't even bad! It's on the better
side of decent – even pretty good at times! But then like two thirds of Raven's
development teams were laid off, and the rest were sent to the
Call of Duty mines, and let me tell ya'... If you can take the disaster that this game was... ...and turn the whole thing around in ten months to make
something as decently fun and playable as Singularity... ...you deserve better. [Little Bill!Raven:
"I don't deserve this...!"] [William Money!Activision:
" 'Deserve's' got nothing to do with it."] [gunshot] [♫ "How'd I Do?" (from Rise of the Triad)
by Lee Jackson plays ♫]
I had a blast with this game when it came out and the multiplayer was also fun as hell, and I’m not big into competitive multiplayer. I always hoped it would get a remake/sequel that would really take advantage of the full potential of the tmd, but alas, this game was pretty much dead in arrival because activision didn’t even bother advertising it.
I loved Singularity. One of the first 'modern' games I followed and got excited for after I finally got an Xbox 360. It wasn't perfect by any stretch, a lot of the time powers felt like they were applied arbitrarily compared to stuff like TimeShift, and I still couldn't tell you a single plot beat, but it was still a damn fine game. Especially the gun that let you bend bullets in mid-air.
Side-note, why does this guy talk like he's trying to be heard from the other side of a busy room?
This never got a release in AU which bummed me out. Still can't get it on Steam. It's on GOG now but for $45 which is a bit more than I want to spend on a 9 year old game.
I don't think Ravens Wolfenstein ever got released in AU either (which is now purged from the internet, store wise).
Singularity is a game I bought for whatever reason idk why. I was kid and I barely had money to preorder everything. Idk what made me purchase it but I loved it and it great.