Somewhere in the depths of Bionic Commando, there is a great game in which one can effortlessly swing through war-torn environments while taking down enemies in a variety of fresh and exciting ways. Unfortunately, those depths are rarely reached in GRIN's recent release, and instead, most of your time will be spent in lonely monotony. While the bionic arm featured in this title is well realized and fun to use, the game surrounding this tool is full of shortcomings. With a shallow story featuring an irritating protagonist, poor gunplay, and bad level design, Bionic Commando fails to successfully build upon the franchise.

Years ago, in the world of Bionic Commando, the military developed a project featuring a number of bionic soldiers. In time, these soldiers became too powerful, and threatened their creators. The project was disbanded, and the experimental warriors were torn from their robotic limbs. One commando, Nathan Spencer, was placed on death row as a result of supposed murders that he committed under the orders of a superior. Years later, terrorists attack and Spencer is brought out of his captivity. From there, the player takes control as Nathan is reunited with his bionic arm, and tasked with saving the country and reuniting with his wife if he can find the time. While shallow, the basic plot provides solid impetus to get you playing. The problem comes when one gets deeper into the game and begins to know Spencer a bit better. He is utterly aggravating. While it is understandable that he is angry about his past, his constant cynicism and unrelenting angst never really changes. This makes him difficult to relate to, and this lack of intimacy makes the rest of the experience difficult to connect with as well.

Creating havoc by throwing large objects at enemies is a simple joy.

Like Spencer, the gameplay has a couple of flaws that will keep you at arm's length. While using the bionic arm to swing around like Spider-Man is definitely fun, the elements that involve firing weapons are downright awful. The default pistols feel underpowered, and almost all other weapons are uninspired as well. While you will eventually carry weapons ranging from a shotgun to a grenade launcher, the only gun that seems to truly have any sort of authority is a rocket launcher capable of shooting clusters of projectiles. Taking out helicopters and the like with missiles is very satisfying, but as this only involves a small amount of your time in the game, it is not able to make up for other deficiencies. Instead, one will spend most of the time shooting at enemies with guns that look, sound, and feel weak. While this is excusable to a certain extent because of the relatively fun and diverse nature of the bionic arm, the lack of exciting shootouts effectively saps the game of its energy.

The second major failure of Bionic Commando's gameplay is the level design. You will often be faced with sweeping vistas just begging to be explored by somebody equipped with an arm containing a grappling hook, only to realize that most of the environment before you is clouded by radiation. This radiation is an impenetrable wall that effectively forces the player onto a linear path. There is almost no exploration built into a game that begs for it. Environmental puzzles and platforming elements are also underdeveloped, and for the most part, non-existent. Instead, most levels are as simple as jump over a gap, latch onto a building, climb, fight a few enemies, and repeat.

Most of the world feels deserted and lonely as only a small number of enemies populate each map. It really seems as though the game was designed almost entirely to focus on the high flying abilities of the bionic arm, but without the necessary structure to accommodate that style of play. There are a few places that feel right, but most of the action is too slow paced and solitary to truly capture the rush that a game like this should provide. There are moments when the game breaks out of this monotonous mode, but those incidents serve only to show you how good things could have been with a better focus from the developers.

Making matters worse, the multiplayer feels tacked on, doing little to enhance the overall value of the game. A simple array of modes featuring deathmatch, capture the flag, and team deathmatch extremely limits the online potential. The limitations are then furthered by the fact that most multiplayer gameplay relies on using your guns. The thrill of throwing large objects at opponents with your grappling hook is gone, and instead you are forced to use the weakest component of the game as your primary tool. There is still some fun to be had playing against friends, but that entertainment value is further limited by the lackluster options at your disposal.

It's fun to swing around like Spider-Man.

The presentation is solid for the most part, but nothing really stands out as exceptional. Some of the environments are well designed, but they are also filled with advertisements and blatant product placement that pushes you away from the world. Furthermore, there are a few rough edges around character models and enemies. The audio fares a bit worse than the graphics, and the weak sounding gunfire is especially notable in this respect. Spencer's bitter, constant sneer doesn't do much to help the voice acting either, which is decidedly average throughout. This underwhelming audio-visual experience is good enough that it does not get in the way of your enjoyment, but doesn't further your fun either.

While there are many glaring flaws in Bionic Commando, there are definitely moments that are still enjoyable. The bionic arm's abilities are fun to use and really provide the backbone of the game. It also doesn't hurt that the campaign is relatively lengthy for a third-person action title. The problem with Bionic Commando is really that it could have been so much more. If the level design did a better job of integrating exploration, platforming, and environmental puzzles, it could have overcome its deficiencies on the combat front. As it is now, Bionic Commando is only worth a rent or bargain bin purchase.