The best thing about the minigun is that according to the developers, the reason why the magazine has such a small model for such a high-capacity weapon is because it’s not a magazine - it’s a power cell. The gun works by rewinding time so that it can fire the same bullets over and over again
That's such a kickass way of explaining it, I wish we still had that creativity with gun functionality these days. Newer Doom is sort of doing that with the dossier, but still.
I dont get it..... I played call of duty back in 2007... 2009..? Dont remember the exact time, anyway, I had friends that were fucking crazy about the game (series) and then the first black ops came out, and I thought, "yup, this is it, the reached their peak" but then, a fucking call of duty game came out each year, and I thought, wtf??? The franchise is not that fucking good, it's a military shooter, that's it, and boring most of the time (imo) so..... yeah, here we are, more than a decade later and cod is still alive.... and well...? Idk. We need fps games like what they used to be back in the day, doom, duke nukem, shadow warrior. Contemporaries like that, Doom 2016, metro exodus, prey, shadow warrior (reboot, I know, I know.... but tried!), rage 2( it has so much potential to become much... MUCH more), ION FURY, you know, multidimensional fps games, with a single player campaign that's more than 10 hours long , secrets, collectibles, secret missions, side quests, health pick ups, weapon wheels with different and interesting weapons to choose from depending the situation and a huge variety of enemies.
Blame lies on us for not buying Wolfenstein 2009 and Singularity. The failure of both sales wise led to Raven Software's current fate. Really could use a new Soldier of Fortune...
I mean, it just looks like a bland ripoff of Bioshock. How would more time have improved it? I'm sure they keep saying they didn't have enough time to design good levels. So instead, they spent a whole bunch of time developing bad levels, I guess. Maybe it just wouldn't have been good no matter what.
@@gladspooky9455 You need time to chip away at the bad stuff and leave the good. A sculptor starts with a block of marble. He doesn't add material, he refines the material present. I enjoyed the game very much, but I think more time to refine and tune the product would have made it a hit.
Actual Russian here. Katorga (Каторга) in Russian means forced labor. You know, like in a labor camp. It would be an understandable name for a labor camp island, but Katorga-12 isn't one, it's a secret science facility where those scientists live with their families. Voluntarily. What I'm saying is it's kind of like if Americans made a secret island facility where they studied magic rocks and called it School Shooting 69.
I think it's supposed to be intentionally like that. Make the states give it no mind. Place 11 more regular Katorgas, bing-bang-boom, you've hidden your base perfectly.
Oh definitely that too. I was mildly amused when I learned about the american R being remarkably simillar to our Я and it was a bit amusing, but for God's sake, can't people just use actual Russian? I know for a fact they don't mess up nearly as badly with other foreign languages.
@@SpecShadow No, nothing like that. Even though STALKER had to be cut down somewhat the first time it was still amazing, besides you can still play the old\cut version through mods.
@ScopeDog I was talking about them being bigger projects, that were later cut from ideas and content before final release. Shadow of Chernobyl is nortorious in that regard.
That was the generation where "AA" games died and Japanese games were absent. Japanese gaming came back in 2017 and AA games still haven't made a comeback.
Same. My game shelf is full of nice enough but unknown games. Not shovelwear, not AAA, cost $40 at release and haunts the nerd shop vidya section. The last game I can really think of as an AA shooter was probably Metro 2033. Come Last Light they just went full AAA and the rest of gaming has kinda just done that ever since. MAYBE Spec Ops: The Line if you're feeling generous. Regardless, the AA shooter is gone.
@@brianmead7556 All of Platinum Games (and most Japanese games in the past decade) could be considered AA. The AA Shooter is basically gone, but the indie shooter and the classic shooter revival is going mainstream now.
@@niespeludo yeah because japan had issues during the hd era until recently alot of developers took advantage. now we are back to where alot of the great games come from japan again.
Additional awesome about the minigun Civvie didnt mention: That reload? thats not hte bullets, youre putting more e99 stuff in and REWINDING the bullets back into the gun
So here's how the timeline went. The beginning is the unaltered timeline. Renko is a USMC captain and Russia is the Federation we know today. They're dispatched to Katorga-12 at which point Renko saves Demichev because Renko has a heart of gold. Unfortunately, in saving this person who needs help, Renko's niceness proves to destroy everything, as Demichev launches E-99 bombs across the entire world and conquers it. He buries the existence of Katorga as it is a threat to his power. Renko, after claiming the TMD, is sent back in time to the '50s, where he causes an incident and the survivors of his fight across the area report him as the assailant. Demichev recognizes him and comes to the realization that time travel is possible. Renko goes back in time to save Barisov from Demichev, who killed him in the original corrupted timeline, thus creating another alternate timeline where Barisov is still alive in the future. During his collection of the E-99 bomb, Kathryn is mortally wounded, but is thrown back in time due to a time portal created by fluctuations of E-99. She manages to write her knowledge of the Renko situation down in a logbook and sneaks it into the island's mail room to get it into the hands of the person who founds Mir-12 before she succumbs to her wounds and dies, thus meaning Kathryn is ultimately responsible for the creation of Mir-12. Following this, Renko has his showdown with Demichev. He ultimately chooses to go back in time to kill himself, and pre-TMD Renko dies in the burning building and his body remains there. TMD-equipped Renko also dies in the building and his body also remains there, thus setting the timeline back. But! Katorga-12 authorities find the corpses of both past and present Renko and report their findings to Barisov, who has become the head of the island. Finding two identical corpses of a future looking soldier, who is equipped with futuristic technology and has dogtags identifying him as a US Marine captain who was born several decades in the future on both of the corpses, along with the charred remains of the TMD, Barisov realizes that the TMD is possible and so is time travel. Using the TMD found on present Renko's corpse, Barisov creates the TMD and somehow takes over the world. Although based on his friendly personality and the fact that Devlin seems to admire Barisov, it is implied that he is significantly less heavy-handed in ruling the world then Demichev or past Soviet dictators were.
>Russia is the Federation we know today. Doubtful. Today's Russia routinely drives off incursions in it's airspace by NATO JETS. And Renko is cruising over the border in a fucking choppa...yeah.
It just doesn't make sense considering his characterm he's a scientist not a military leader or political ruler Singularity is just one of those games where every ending sucks
Or just go back to when the EMP goes off and stop it from going off in the first place. Hell, go back to the helicopter and team up with yourself to save yourself.
@@CheffBryan But wait, if that was in the timeline before the split happened where the player saved the dude... You'd have to prevent that in the first place before returning to the present, otherwise you're trapped in the wrong timeline... except does this game operate on split timeline rules? No because the player was always there in the beginning, except you were able in that position to change history instead of shouting, but how...
@@demonintellect9834 Just because it doesn't reuse a cutscene and insteead re-uses art assets doesn't mean it's not a real cutscene. they both bait for. a sequel as well, so that can't be a qualifier, either.
The game suffered from a general overuse of the time manipulation gimmick in games (Prince of Persia, Timeshift, several indie games) and as such was negatively received although the mechanics are different here. Also the audiologs made people complain it was aping Bioshock where it wasn't. I got the game used later for my PS3 and for what I've played, I really liked it., then bought it on PC on GOG during a serious sale (full price of almost 30 bucks is a bit too high). It moight not be a stellar game, for what it is, but the gunplay is solid and all in all the game has a nice atmosphere to it. "Soviet steampunk" is not used enough to my taste. I really hate how Activision killed many projects by under-marketing them and shooting the team in the leg during work, they do that way too often. Just sabotaging projects that are not big-name promos like Cawadoody or Transformers movie games (they basically sacrificed the Transformers Cybertron series to make way for the movie games, which were simply not as good).
@@Cyclobomber I remember a time when audiologs were an OK way to sell stories in slower, more atmospheric games, and nowadays everyone either calls them a "Bioshock ripoff" (while they were in use WAY before Bioshock) or complains that slower, atmospheric games with a story have a story and try to tell it.
@@aleksanderolbrych9157 yeah, agreed. System Shock 1 did it in '94, first one IIRC. It feels like players have severely divorced gameplay and storytelling, it's weird to me.
@@MrGrimlocksmash Oh yeah, I agree, I enjoyed the game plenty, but it could have used more clever use of the time mechanic rather then just being a more visually interesting door key for the most part.
So… this game has Nolan North, Steven Blum (faking a Russian accent, no less), and Troy Baker? Damn! At least Kathryn isn't voiced by Tara Strong - or is she? LOL
Just missing Laura Bailey, then we would have had that "Generic VA Starterpack!" (No disrespect to them, by any means, but they do turn up a little too often)
I thought that was Troy!... Wait, so does that mean our main character's just another alternate Booker DeWitt? I mean, with the heavy Bioshock elements this game has and its dabbling with alternate timelines, not the most far-fetched conclusion to come to.
"8000 hours of exposition" You can't scare me with that, I'm a Legacy of Kain fan. We get a small Shakespeare productions every cut scene with a dissertation defense for every casual detail the mc notices.
@@bonefetcherbrimley7740 Damn straight. Legacy of Kain had a pretty strong story. IIRC, it even had a pretty solid way of doing time travel without being too messy.
@@ZorotheGallade He didn't have to do anything, the Renko in the epilogue is born in the new timeline. That said, he didn't try to do anything to prevent you from being born or kill you as a baby or anything, either. He ends up as a "good" dictator who wants to make the world better with science. Your original timeline versions died, which was what let him take control of the world. So yeah, he might feel gratitude to the new timeline version of Renko, even if the new version didn't actually do anything to help him he definitely wouldn't try to harm you.
Singularity is a bitter sweet experience, rife with inconsistences and a paltry length, it still retained that Raven pulpy charm thats much needed. But Actvision needs its sacrifices.
Activision did that to Raven Software because both Wolfenstein 2009 and Singularity did not sell well. Or at least to the expectations Activision wanted.
@@Gruntvc To be fair here, Even if Singularity and Wolfenstein 2009 sold to Activision's expectations they still would have devoured Raven Software, citing the successes as flukes and spending the profits on another Cosby yacht™.
Good, entertaining, honest review, again, thanks for this. While this was a difficult development experience where a LOT went wrong, there were some really fun moments working on it (I did the weapons - like the seeker, which I never thought would make the final cut, I did the TMD interactions vs enemies like age/reversion and impulse... and the phase ticks... heh). A lot of the story was cut and the original ending was much more ambitious originally. I had personally wanted to do more time travel mindfuckery, too, but none of that made it in the final game. The team that came on in the end (the X-Men: Legends/MUA team that went on to become Raven’s Call of Duty single player campaign team - a really rock-solid team) not only made the game run and shipped it within 6 months, they also created the entire multiplayer part of the game in that time and did a really great job with it. It can’t be overstated how much that team kicked ass to get that game out the door and keep up the quality level. They didn’t just try to wrap it up and shit it out - they cared and worked their asses off to make it the best they could in a ridiculously short amount of time. A couple other notes: 1) The layoffs are a bit misrepresented, here, they weren’t to refocus Raven on DLC - they were to reduce headcount, that is all. 2) Singularity was NOT Raven’s last non-COD game. There was another...
The seeker is I think the best sniper gun in any game ever. Singularity was damn imaginative which made up for any of it's shortcomings. Your Wolfenstein though was a bloody masterpiece.
It's heartbreaking to see ambitious games like this one being shoved out the door too early. I'm a huge sucker for time-travel in games and would have loved to see this in its full glory.
except weapon upgrades were still slightly newish in 2010 and today it seems like every first person shooter made has to have weapon upgrades. Earliest Popular game I can think of was Bioshock. Im sure you can fine some other immersive sim titles that may have done it earlier.
@@pauls4522 re4 and bioshock were the first shooters to do it really successfully and thus make it popular... but afaik deus ex is the original "the weapons can't hit shit without upgrades", so it's no surprise it took a few more years to catch on.
@@HappyBeezerStudios The difference is that the base weapons in Wolfenstein 09 are still decent without upgrades. They just get better with upgrades, and the enemy threat increases in damage, health, and numbers to compensate. Yeah, 09 was the last good Wolfenstein. Everything after was either "okay" or "dogshit."
@@NiCoNiCoNiCola really I always thought that's the basic ending since I merked demichev and borisov just stands there, looks at me and nothing happens so I kinda get impatient and just end up merking him as well
Remember TimeShift? It kind of got the same raw deal with a rushed ending that left you hanging for a sequel or at least another couple hours of story awesome weapons locked behind a 2 weapon limit (some of my favorites in any game, triple barrel shotgun and Thermite Uzi with under-barrel flame thrower for the win) Kickass time powers that maintain the physics of your actions when they turn off, and constantly making you feel like a boss as impossible enemies become possible with its use but not so much its a cake walk. Just amazing lighting that helps it still hold up, and the rain *kiss* GOD I still want a sequel to it
I keep a backup of a save right before the first Seeker section. It's so relaxing to have a cramped indoors ambush filled with enemies with shields and automatic weapons turn into a test of how close you can get the bullets to the scenery without triggering an invisible hitbox, and other kinds of trick-shots. The answer is pretty close.
And also the Soldier of Fortune games. Maybe even the X-Men Legends games and the first Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (assuming he somehow acquires those for the PC).
I remember years ago seeing the first game play reveal and trailers of this game, loving what I saw and waiting for it's release. Originally, Renko was supposed to be an Air Force Pilot flying over Katorga-12, before an EMP/Time Wave forced him to land (essentially the same concept, just different delivery) and Renko would wake with the TMD already attached to him. He would be guided along the island by a character called Yuri, who is mentioned in one of the final game's early audio logs (the same house you first meet the large skinny mutants in) and would try to uncover what was happening. You had fully rendered third-person cutscenes that showed Renko's full appearance, one of which involved raising the ship, which is still in the game but COMPLETELY different, and him talking to Barisov in the past after a time wave occurs. The story and gameplay in general seemed much tighter and more fluid; and just better overall. Needless to say, when this version came out, I was pretty disappointed. Still, I enjoyed it for what it was. I will say though, the tacked on multiplayer (Spetznaz vs. Island Mutants) was not needed... I honesty believed that was part of the reason we got this version. Raven being forced to work on some shitty little multiplayer that didn't need to be in the game. and now that I know the back story of what happened during it's development, it's pretty obvious why it was changed so much.
I thought the multiplayer was surprisingly good, actually. If the game hadn't flopped, maybe they could have released updates with more multiplayer maps and stuff... the Extermination mode where the Spetsnaz need to repair and activate beacons to clear an area of mutant players was a really great twist on control point gameplay. And playing as the mutants was really fun.
I still have the Game Informer magazine that covered the in-development Singularity. I had always wanted to play it after that. I finally played it a about 4-6 months ago and was disappointed.
@@RockorSomething83 I didn't know E3 was a thing back then. I just got Game Informer and that was my main source of information for a while. I just LOVED what I read about and always wanted to play what they *wanted* to make. Using the internet was really weird for me back then. I just didn't really use it that much until a few years later (partially because I had limited access to computers and the internet, and because the computers we had at home were pretty... bad... it was a chore and a half to get anything done on them).
That ain't Renegade tho. There was supposed to be a bridge between RA and TD where early Brother-soviets duke it out with GDAllies over early tiberium patches, that one would fit the description, but it was canned.
...Renegade didn't have time travel and soviets. Renegade was a Command and Conquer game, not a Red Alert game. So it's GDI vs NOD, not Allies vs USSR.
@@Shenaldrac He might be referring to the canned Renegade 2, which would have bridged the Tiberium/Red Alert timelines. There's concept art you can still find of it, with a sort of Soviet-Nod hybrid faction that has a logo of a Sickle that curls into the Nod scorpion tail shape, with the Red Star in the middle. I think the idea is this faction is post-collapse USSR becoming amalgamated with the Brotherhood. The original Westwood version of C&C would have also bridged the timelines, but as we know that version never saw the light of day.
@@Henskelion Yeah but OP mentioned that they were talking about the game that Civvie should review, and he can't really review a game that doesn't exist. Just going by Occam's Razor I find it more likely that OP got the two series mixed up; everyone makes mistakes.
@@thememesjack6128 For me definitely ! I'll be honest, the game won't blow you away BUT it's plot is a breath of fresh air for FPS, something different from the usual military boring stuff. As a shooter it's fun and it uses some clever weapons (as seen in the video) like the chrono device or the remote controlled bullets to spice things up !
Yeah I don't think it really is supposed to be an EMP, it's some random time-wave shenanigans. Devlin calls it an EMP, but... why would he? Has he ever seen an EMP before? Are they bright blue shockwaves? Pretty sure an EMP is invisible! Ryo leo is right, Devlin should have just said "Oh shit what's that?!"
honestly this is one of my favorite games of all time. The atmosphere is superb, i never felt so lonely and scared in a game. the enemies gave me genuine terror and with actual scarce amounts of ammo at times you really think about what to do if a certain type of enemy shows up. The story and lore behind the game is so well done, i never had a time where i wondered how something worked in this world or why. The little recordings are intricate and really sink you into the environment. the weapons were fun to use and unique with their respective styles of play. enemies were ok and never felt cheap to me. I do wish the game would've been made nowadays with a much stronger console/pc where a larger story with no lose pieces and a expansive game world could be done.
@@maxducks2001 It's 2020, 5-hours-ago, losing time on a 4 month old mistake due to being non native to a language, random randomer. Still knows better, but means lesser and lesser. Have a good growing bad leaf. :)
I remember getting this a few weeks after it came out. It was int he same era of bioshock, Resistance, and deadspace so it got overshadowed. I enjoyed it and don't regret having purchased it. I did dig the lore and everything you kinda glossed over but to each their own. Glad to see you covered this forgotten gem.
Ah, a fellow reloader/gun enthusiast. Yeah. It always amuses how games/Hollywood show cases ejecting from guns, but will also ocassionally show an entire cartridge in flight in slow-motion. Seems like there should be consultants for that.
This was one of my favorite shooters of the last generation, though it had some flaws, mainly: That you can't use the guns that the 1955 Soviet troops use (AK-47, trench gun, Makarov pistol) The two weapon limit (the weapon wheel was cut from earlier versions of the game) No new game plus mode, and the stamina limit
For the phase ticks, use the age button (Q) on them. It ages them until they explode and you can do it when you first see them. The effect spreads to the others and cause a chain reaction that blocks a whole pathway to you. The rest can be easily shot or Impulsed. Saved me so much frustration when I was playing on the hardest difficulty.
I remember getting this game after seeing an article about it in a magazine. I had some good times with it. Sad to see what happened with the devs though. They deserved better.
Watching your review motivated me to finally play through it and I am having fun. I really love that the sniper rifle is able to gib limbs too, making it almost more satisfying than just going for the head. Also the primary fire of the TMD seems for effective than the TMD blast against the tick enemies, they all kamikaze into the targeted one when you do it, making these sections much easier.
They also use "clip" a lot, and many other improper terms and designs. Not enough shoot-bang developers (who almost exclusively make Shooters) actually know anything about firearms or do research, and just leave it at them looking cool. It's just something that has grinded my gears for a decade and a half.
@Valanway if the games bother you that much you're gonna *love* hollywood movies. Kiss realism out the door for 90% of the firearms "entertainment" you've ever consumed.
Someone copyright claimed a song that was played, most likely the Curb your Enthusiasm theme, youtube now lets you edit videos to get rid of claimed audio so civvie did that and just deleted the audio from that part of the video and threw up a message saying "hey yeah a third party copyright claimed this and i don't wanna give all the money i'm making from this video to them so enjoy this lack of a joke".
This game reminded me so hard of RAGE, it was Bethesda's first attempt at a RPGFPS and so is this for Activision. This game was so much fun to play. I loved the different ways you have to attack the many varieties of enemies, they actually thought them out and made it a challenge instead of dropping reskinned bullet fodder in front of you. The scenery looked like GOW + Fallout and even has support for 1440p. I had a blast and will be replaying this for a while. This is one of the only games that melded Time Travel into their game mechanics and it fits perfectly without feeling out of place. It makes it add a 3rd level to your weapons and gives you over 5 different powers each one manipulating the environment to progress, and sometimes puzzling the player with challenge to figure what needs to go where. The gigantic Leviathan style bosses made me fuzzy inside, I miss days where the entire screen would be a boss. 1000/10
Not exactly, it was published by Bethesda but developed by id. Yes, the guys who made Doom and Quake. Bethesda themselves (their development studio, not their publishing company) had already made Fallout 3 years ago by then, which was their first RPG FPS game.
Wait holy shit that stone stepping sound is the same stock sounds they used in the first Half Life game, just without that crunchy 90s audio compression
Thing that annoys me is that civvie forgets to mention all the alternate endings you can get including one where you kill everyone and become the lord of murder mountain and rule the world with an iron fist
The fact that those other endings are just storyboards with no cutscenes makes me wonder if they were rushed in or an indicator that killing yourself in the past is the canon ending. However the scene with Katherine writing the log book in the past shows up after all of the endings so...
I remember being reminded of this game when playing through the back half of Titanfall 2. I feel like they got some inspiration from this game for that one.
The part at 27:22 feels like it’s trying to do some kind of epic twist like “Would You Kindly”, even those snapshots and that brownish tint are the same.
Fun fact: If you take forever to pick a guy to shoot Steve Blum just picks up the gun and shoots you. He might have killed the other guy but it's been so long since I've played this game.
A bit late to the comments on this one but, thanks for pointing out how good Raven was... I will forever hold them dear in my heart, because of their first game -- Black Crypt. And oh boy... It was my Dungeon Master and my Wolfenstein3D (I only had an Amiga at the time, so...); it was the first first-person game that really did it for me and it sparked the love for grid-based dungeon crawlers and FPP presentation in general. Ofc, it was ever only released on the Amiga, so it's been naught but forgotten. :( Anyway, thanks Civvie. #FreeRaven
When someone mentions Singularity I'm always like "yeah, that's the cool game where you can slow, stop and rewind time!", then I realize I'm thinking of Timeshift and never actually played Singularity. Not sure if I want to, Raven has a special place in my heart. That brings me to - SoF when, Civvie?! I really hope it's high on the list.
When the info popup said "This joke has been claimed by a third party" I got scared for a second. Edit: Wait, did you just bring back the test for the assault rifles at 13:16? Damm, that was stealthy
I remember playing this on a whim, and beat it all the way through. Felt like the least-smelliest fart in my memory, but I'm glad you covered it. It also felt way too similar to BioShock, with the upgrades and the way the island was introduced in the beginning. I'm sorry to see such a talented studio's swan song go down like this.
( Police squad theme plays ) CIVVIE'S DUNGEON! in HD! Starring: CV-11 Also starring: H4MMER Special guest star: Gordon Ramsey Tonight's episode: The Broken Promise ( The Last Raven )
I'd like him to review re7... That was a cool fps survival horror. He might enjoy that one... Though the enemies are a bit repetitive. That, or re2 remake. Id also love to see him rip into re: operation racoon city.
Hey it looks like Civvie finally got around to playing a game we've been asking him to cover for ages, we should really take this moment to thank him for listening to the interests of the community an- *PRO QUAKE WHEN CIVVIE!?*
any of the raven guys end up with old infinity ward when they split and formed respawn? because titanfall 2 called and they want their one level gimmick back.
The algorithm recommend this channel and I was like yeah I'm bored I'll give it a watch and then the naked gun music played and I was like and subscribe. You make these videos incredibly amusing.
A montage of great Raven Software games made with iD's engines and you didn't include Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force? The only good Star Trek game? The one that runs on the Quake 3 engine and has a really fun long single player campaign with the entire cast of the show PLUS a great Q3 style deathmatch component with tons of maps? This kind of unfortunate thing wouldn't happen if there wasn't a copyright dispute with Viacom preventing it from being updated and re-released on modern storefronts like GOG.
![YoungBoy Never Broke Again - Missing Everything [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dTYeMZGzOzw/mqdefault.jpg)
The best thing about the minigun is that according to the developers, the reason why the magazine has such a small model for such a high-capacity weapon is because it’s not a magazine - it’s a power cell. The gun works by rewinding time so that it can fire the same bullets over and over again
that's actually really awesome and creative, wish it had a sequel as well as Bulletstorm
@@agbrenv Oooh, Bulletstorm when, Civvie?
I'm not even memeing, I wanna see that.
That's such a kickass way of explaining it, I wish we still had that creativity with gun functionality these days. Newer Doom is sort of doing that with the dossier, but still.
That's basically the same functionality as in Clive Barker's Jericho (2007) but I remember people laughing about it on that game
@@BSoDproducciones In Jericho you "downloaded" the ammo to the gun, it's way different.
Shame Raven is now condemned to making call of duty map packs. A fate worse than death
Much like Bioware, Ravensoft of today is so in name only. Most of the people who made them great are long gone.
And call of duty online
I dont get it..... I played call of duty back in 2007... 2009..? Dont remember the exact time, anyway, I had friends that were fucking crazy about the game (series) and then the first black ops came out, and I thought, "yup, this is it, the reached their peak" but then, a fucking call of duty game came out each year, and I thought, wtf??? The franchise is not that fucking good, it's a military shooter, that's it, and boring most of the time (imo) so..... yeah, here we are, more than a decade later and cod is still alive.... and well...? Idk. We need fps games like what they used to be back in the day, doom, duke nukem, shadow warrior. Contemporaries like that, Doom 2016, metro exodus, prey, shadow warrior (reboot, I know, I know.... but tried!), rage 2( it has so much potential to become much... MUCH more), ION FURY, you know, multidimensional fps games, with a single player campaign that's more than 10 hours long , secrets, collectibles, secret missions, side quests, health pick ups, weapon wheels with different and interesting weapons to choose from depending the situation and a huge variety of enemies.
Blame lies on us for not buying Wolfenstein 2009 and Singularity.
The failure of both sales wise led to Raven Software's current fate.
Really could use a new Soldier of Fortune...
@@Gruntvc preach it, brother!
13:01 Civvie just played the drum intro to Painkiller on the assault rifle. Nice.
I'm so glad someone else noticed this \m/
\m/
its his rule for good dual wielding pistols
if you cant play painkiller on em, theyre shit
god it was right on the tip of my tongue! I was like _I know that he's playing a tune with that thing but what is it!_
@@dickmarrinator9057 Good dual wielding weapons and machine guns, I watched the whole postal playlist yesterday, because I got bored.
Singularity would have been Raven's Bioshock if they had been given time.
I mean, it just looks like a bland ripoff of Bioshock. How would more time have improved it? I'm sure they keep saying they didn't have enough time to design good levels. So instead, they spent a whole bunch of time developing bad levels, I guess. Maybe it just wouldn't have been good no matter what.
@@gladspooky9455 You need time to chip away at the bad stuff and leave the good. A sculptor starts with a block of marble. He doesn't add material, he refines the material present. I enjoyed the game very much, but I think more time to refine and tune the product would have made it a hit.
Ah yes, the Fall or Success of Raven. (Depending on how you look at it) Good games, not financially successful. Bad games, financially successful.
@@gladspooky9455 this game is so much more fun then bioshock in my opinion bio shock drags on and the shooting feels awful
No
Actual Russian here.
Katorga (Каторга) in Russian means forced labor. You know, like in a labor camp. It would be an understandable name for a labor camp island, but Katorga-12 isn't one, it's a secret science facility where those scientists live with their families. Voluntarily.
What I'm saying is it's kind of like if Americans made a secret island facility where they studied magic rocks and called it School Shooting 69.
I think it's supposed to be intentionally like that. Make the states give it no mind. Place 11 more regular Katorgas, bing-bang-boom, you've hidden your base perfectly.
Actual American here, were you annoyed that they spelled "Каторга" as "Катояgа"? 'Cause I was.
Oh definitely that too. I was mildly amused when I learned about the american R being remarkably simillar to our Я and it was a bit amusing, but for God's sake, can't people just use actual Russian? I know for a fact they don't mess up nearly as badly with other foreign languages.
@@DashingSteel Don't play the new MW3, as if you had to be told
The worst part of Singularity is that it is a pretty good game ,but you can see the makings of a great game that died in it.
so just like STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl?
💯
@@SpecShadow No, nothing like that. Even though STALKER had to be cut down somewhat the first time it was still amazing, besides you can still play the old\cut version through mods.
Yeah, this is a spot-on assessment.
@ScopeDog I was talking about them being bigger projects, that were later cut from ideas and content before final release. Shadow of Chernobyl is nortorious in that regard.
I miss these middle-market, unpretentious, yet decently made video games.
That was the generation where "AA" games died and Japanese games were absent. Japanese gaming came back in 2017 and AA games still haven't made a comeback.
For me, Necrovision is worth the horrible load times. I got it to speak Polish with English text, so I'm happy.
Same. My game shelf is full of nice enough but unknown games. Not shovelwear, not AAA, cost $40 at release and haunts the nerd shop vidya section. The last game I can really think of as an AA shooter was probably Metro 2033. Come Last Light they just went full AAA and the rest of gaming has kinda just done that ever since. MAYBE Spec Ops: The Line if you're feeling generous. Regardless, the AA shooter is gone.
@@brianmead7556 All of Platinum Games (and most Japanese games in the past decade) could be considered AA. The AA Shooter is basically gone, but the indie shooter and the classic shooter revival is going mainstream now.
@@niespeludo yeah because japan had issues during the hd era until recently alot of developers took advantage. now we are back to where alot of the great games come from japan again.
Additional awesome about the minigun Civvie didnt mention: That reload? thats not hte bullets, youre putting more e99 stuff in and REWINDING the bullets back into the gun
The game is full of awesome shit
My personal favorite is that you can age people until they turn to dust
I want to reinstall the game again
I never noticed that, and you know what? That's metal af
It stands for "high tungsten explosive"
@Kyros Droztamyr I hope not, because tungsten explosives are actually called HMTA.
In your rush to be offended, you missed both jokes. If we can find someone smart enough, they could explain it to you.
So here's how the timeline went.
The beginning is the unaltered timeline. Renko is a USMC captain and Russia is the Federation we know today.
They're dispatched to Katorga-12 at which point Renko saves Demichev because Renko has a heart of gold.
Unfortunately, in saving this person who needs help, Renko's niceness proves to destroy everything, as Demichev launches E-99 bombs across the entire world and conquers it. He buries the existence of Katorga as it is a threat to his power.
Renko, after claiming the TMD, is sent back in time to the '50s, where he causes an incident and the survivors of his fight across the area report him as the assailant. Demichev recognizes him and comes to the realization that time travel is possible.
Renko goes back in time to save Barisov from Demichev, who killed him in the original corrupted timeline, thus creating another alternate timeline where Barisov is still alive in the future.
During his collection of the E-99 bomb, Kathryn is mortally wounded, but is thrown back in time due to a time portal created by fluctuations of E-99. She manages to write her knowledge of the Renko situation down in a logbook and sneaks it into the island's mail room to get it into the hands of the person who founds Mir-12 before she succumbs to her wounds and dies, thus meaning Kathryn is ultimately responsible for the creation of Mir-12.
Following this, Renko has his showdown with Demichev. He ultimately chooses to go back in time to kill himself, and pre-TMD Renko dies in the burning building and his body remains there. TMD-equipped Renko also dies in the building and his body also remains there, thus setting the timeline back.
But! Katorga-12 authorities find the corpses of both past and present Renko and report their findings to Barisov, who has become the head of the island. Finding two identical corpses of a future looking soldier, who is equipped with futuristic technology and has dogtags identifying him as a US Marine captain who was born several decades in the future on both of the corpses, along with the charred remains of the TMD, Barisov realizes that the TMD is possible and so is time travel. Using the TMD found on present Renko's corpse, Barisov creates the TMD and somehow takes over the world. Although based on his friendly personality and the fact that Devlin seems to admire Barisov, it is implied that he is significantly less heavy-handed in ruling the world then Demichev or past Soviet dictators were.
Yeah. Then option 3 where you say fuck that and gun both those men down, take the TMD, and then become an evil tyrant who takes over the world.
>Russia is the Federation we know today.
Doubtful. Today's Russia routinely drives off incursions in it's airspace by NATO JETS. And Renko is cruising over the border in a fucking choppa...yeah.
@@doktahv8837 I did that on my first playthrough, and I HIGHLY respect the game for allowing me that option
It just doesn't make sense considering his characterm he's a scientist not a military leader or political ruler
Singularity is just one of those games where every ending sucks
There are 3 possible endings to the game :
1) Kill Demichev (like in the video)
2) Kill Barisov
3) Kill both
15:42 *"Here at Aperture Science, we fire the whole bullet! That's 65% more bullet, per bullet!"*
Should've just gone with the other ending where you kill both of them and win the game.
Or just go back to when the EMP goes off and stop it from going off in the first place. Hell, go back to the helicopter and team up with yourself to save yourself.
@@CheffBryan that's not a real ending though...
@@CheffBryan But wait, if that was in the timeline before the split happened where the player saved the dude... You'd have to prevent that in the first place before returning to the present, otherwise you're trapped in the wrong timeline... except does this game operate on split timeline rules? No because the player was always there in the beginning, except you were able in that position to change history instead of shouting, but how...
That's what I did. If there's going to be an authoritarian leader, then it's gonna be me!
@@demonintellect9834 Just because it doesn't reuse a cutscene and insteead re-uses art assets doesn't mean it's not a real cutscene. they both bait for. a sequel as well, so that can't be a qualifier, either.
It flopped mostly because activision didn't market it at all. When it did get reviews they tended to be pretty good, since the game was pretty good.
The game suffered from a general overuse of the time manipulation gimmick in games (Prince of Persia, Timeshift, several indie games) and as such was negatively received although the mechanics are different here.
Also the audiologs made people complain it was aping Bioshock where it wasn't.
I got the game used later for my PS3 and for what I've played, I really liked it., then bought it on PC on GOG during a serious sale (full price of almost 30 bucks is a bit too high).
It moight not be a stellar game, for what it is, but the gunplay is solid and all in all the game has a nice atmosphere to it. "Soviet steampunk" is not used enough to my taste.
I really hate how Activision killed many projects by under-marketing them and shooting the team in the leg during work, they do that way too often. Just sabotaging projects that are not big-name promos like Cawadoody or Transformers movie games (they basically sacrificed the Transformers Cybertron series to make way for the movie games, which were simply not as good).
@@Cyclobomber I remember a time when audiologs were an OK way to sell stories in slower, more atmospheric games, and nowadays everyone either calls them a "Bioshock ripoff" (while they were in use WAY before Bioshock) or complains that slower, atmospheric games with a story have a story and try to tell it.
@@aleksanderolbrych9157 yeah, agreed. System Shock 1 did it in '94, first one IIRC.
It feels like players have severely divorced gameplay and storytelling, it's weird to me.
Worgen33 it’s actually pretty good. It’s Russian bio shock.
@@MrGrimlocksmash Oh yeah, I agree, I enjoyed the game plenty, but it could have used more clever use of the time mechanic rather then just being a more visually interesting door key for the most part.
27:31 That’s actually Troy Baker, the other guy in literally everything
I'm just happy it's not Belethor.
So… this game has Nolan North, Steven Blum (faking a Russian accent, no less), and Troy Baker? Damn!
At least Kathryn isn't voiced by Tara Strong - or is she? LOL
Hi critical nobody I love you I saw you on Redlettermedia too I keep seeing you lol
Just missing Laura Bailey, then we would have had that "Generic VA Starterpack!"
(No disrespect to them, by any means, but they do turn up a little too often)
I thought that was Troy!...
Wait, so does that mean our main character's just another alternate Booker DeWitt? I mean, with the heavy Bioshock elements this game has and its dabbling with alternate timelines, not the most far-fetched conclusion to come to.
I died at
“I can give you more power than you can ever dream of”
“Nah, thanks I already have a minigun”
Demichev: "What do you say, Renko?"
Renko: "..."
Renko: "Do I get a minigun?"
Demichev: "What?"
Renko: "Oh wait, I ALREADY got one."
*BANG*
I really need to steal that line for a indie game I'm working on.
If Caleb can use half of Ash's lines, I can use half of Civvies.
2:42 LOL
13:00 I'll know the painkiller drum intro no matter what form it's in
Yes, fuckin' yes!! I knew I've heard it before... Thank you kind sir
Also Doom but yeah
YESSSSS
Your gun has to at least fire as fast as the drums
Knew it it had to be that
"8000 hours of exposition" You can't scare me with that, I'm a Legacy of Kain fan. We get a small Shakespeare productions every cut scene with a dissertation defense for every casual detail the mc notices.
Cool, Legacy of Kain has good voice acting.
YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT!
@@bonefetcherbrimley7740 Damn straight. Legacy of Kain had a pretty strong story. IIRC, it even had a pretty solid way of doing time travel without being too messy.
@@GmodPlusWoW That too!
28:12 "Use the TMD on the Singularity, travel back in time and k i l l y o u r s e l f"
He couldnt roast you better for fucking up the world could he
It's kinda implied he used the TMD to resurrect you afterwards, so that's all good in the end.
vine_boom.mp4
@@ZorotheGallade He didn't have to do anything, the Renko in the epilogue is born in the new timeline.
That said, he didn't try to do anything to prevent you from being born or kill you as a baby or anything, either.
He ends up as a "good" dictator who wants to make the world better with science. Your original timeline versions died, which was what let him take control of the world. So yeah, he might feel gratitude to the new timeline version of Renko, even if the new version didn't actually do anything to help him he definitely wouldn't try to harm you.
He sounds so cheery about it too lmao
Singularity is a bitter sweet experience, rife with inconsistences and a paltry length, it still retained that Raven pulpy charm thats much needed. But Actvision needs its sacrifices.
Activision did that to Raven Software because both Wolfenstein 2009 and Singularity did not sell well. Or at least to the expectations Activision wanted.
Could be worse. They could've gone out making Haze the way Free Radical did.
Now that'd be a great example of modern jank for Civvie to do a video on.
@Ubersuntzu, Singularity is definitely better than Haze.
Think Civvie11 would like the Timesplitters trilogy?
@@Gruntvc Hard to say. He seems almost exclusively focused on PC games.
@@Gruntvc To be fair here, Even if Singularity and Wolfenstein 2009 sold to Activision's expectations they still would have devoured Raven Software, citing the successes as flukes and spending the profits on another Cosby yacht™.
Good, entertaining, honest review, again, thanks for this. While this was a difficult development experience where a LOT went wrong, there were some really fun moments working on it (I did the weapons - like the seeker, which I never thought would make the final cut, I did the TMD interactions vs enemies like age/reversion and impulse... and the phase ticks... heh). A lot of the story was cut and the original ending was much more ambitious originally. I had personally wanted to do more time travel mindfuckery, too, but none of that made it in the final game.
The team that came on in the end (the X-Men: Legends/MUA team that went on to become Raven’s Call of Duty single player campaign team - a really rock-solid team) not only made the game run and shipped it within 6 months, they also created the entire multiplayer part of the game in that time and did a really great job with it. It can’t be overstated how much that team kicked ass to get that game out the door and keep up the quality level. They didn’t just try to wrap it up and shit it out - they cared and worked their asses off to make it the best they could in a ridiculously short amount of time.
A couple other notes:
1) The layoffs are a bit misrepresented, here, they weren’t to refocus Raven on DLC - they were to reduce headcount, that is all.
2) Singularity was NOT Raven’s last non-COD game. There was another...
Will you guys ever be released from the CoD mines? 😭
What was last game please tell
The seeker is I think the best sniper gun in any game ever. Singularity was damn imaginative which made up for any of it's shortcomings. Your Wolfenstein though was a bloody masterpiece.
@@sapphiredawn4321 ruclips.net/video/YmxxzmZxZ8U/видео.html
It's heartbreaking to see ambitious games like this one being shoved out the door too early. I'm a huge sucker for time-travel in games and would have loved to see this in its full glory.
This entire games reeks early 2010s shooter energy.
"Which was the style at the time" fits so well.
except weapon upgrades were still slightly newish in 2010 and today it seems like every first person shooter made has to have weapon upgrades. Earliest Popular game I can think of was Bioshock. Im sure you can fine some other immersive sim titles that may have done it earlier.
@@pauls4522 re4 and bioshock were the first shooters to do it really successfully and thus make it popular... but afaik deus ex is the original "the weapons can't hit shit without upgrades", so it's no surprise it took a few more years to catch on.
@@ghoulsarefree yup, Deus Ex is one of the Immersive sims I alluded to. It's a pity Deus Ex has had such as hit and miss reputation.
The 2009 Wolfenstein, also by Raven, had those as well. So while the idea isn't really new itself, they already had some experience with it.
@@HappyBeezerStudios The difference is that the base weapons in Wolfenstein 09 are still decent without upgrades. They just get better with upgrades, and the enemy threat increases in damage, health, and numbers to compensate.
Yeah, 09 was the last good Wolfenstein. Everything after was either "okay" or "dogshit."
This era of FPS was so damn obsessed with terribly faked Russian accents.
To be fair they had a lot of voice actors on this game who actually do speak the language
"Cheeki Breeki ive Damke"
NUCWEAR WESSELS!
@MrNahual2099 STALKER
@MrNahual2099 Stalker...
"Fucking Rawwww" is my favorite recurring bit on the internet. Please never get rid of it.
I'm more of a "Nice fucking model!" kinda person but agreed.
27:21 I'll bet it took extreme restraint to avoid splicing in a "Would You Kindly" flash from Bioshock during editing.
haha, "splicing"...
MMMM i love being the 69th like
@@ilactatejazz4928 [high fives]
Surprised that Civvie didn't talk about the "secret" ending. That would've been hilarious to know that Civvie got so free that he conquered the world.
He probably knew since he did point at him for a bit
The Department of Special Corrections probably forbid him to play that ending cause they may have thought it would inspire Civvie to rebel...
@@NiCoNiCoNiCola really I always thought that's the basic ending since I merked demichev and borisov just stands there, looks at me and nothing happens so I kinda get impatient and just end up merking him as well
@@NiCoNiCoNiCola eh oh well
@@Foxhunter258 I did the same the first time - shot Demichev, now the two of us just standing... ok... awkward... Barisov, bite the bullet, too.
Remember TimeShift?
It kind of got the same raw deal with a rushed ending that left you hanging for a sequel or at least another couple hours of story
awesome weapons locked behind a 2 weapon limit (some of my favorites in any game, triple barrel shotgun and Thermite Uzi with under-barrel flame thrower for the win)
Kickass time powers that maintain the physics of your actions when they turn off, and constantly making you feel like a boss as impossible enemies become possible with its use but not so much its a cake walk.
Just amazing lighting that helps it still hold up, and the rain *kiss*
GOD I still want a sequel to it
I still have my TimeShift and play it occasionally, it’s god awful, but it’s so fun at times too
Boy, do I wish Mandalore would come around to review it one of these days :(
Less good game, but it does have its moments.
My pick for best timecrud game would be Second Sight.
Kinda surprised Civvie didn’t do the “take over the world for yourself” option
He might not have known it was a thing. lol
@@fuzzydunlop7928
He very specifically focused on the red cursor over the other guy, he knew he just didn't go for it.
Civvie is a humble man.
@Zoomer Waffen The word you're looking for is knowledge, not intelligence.
To be honest, I didn't even know that ending was in the game until years later by pure accident.
Excellent use of the Police Squad theme in this ep.
IN COLOR!
Although the joke hinges more on its use in The Naked Gun.
13:01 I see you're still judging by the "Judas Priest - Painkiller" rule.
I knew that rhythm sounded strangely familiar!
Faster than a bullet!
Jack Coleman Terrifying scream!
@@viyhexe131 Enraged and full of anger
I heard one of the Castlevania 2 tracks. Can't remember what one.
I stand by the statement that Raven made the best freaking gunplay and weapons in FPS games. From Soldier of Fortune to Quake 4 to this... amazing.
I keep a backup of a save right before the first Seeker section. It's so relaxing to have a cramped indoors ambush filled with enemies with shields and automatic weapons turn into a test of how close you can get the bullets to the scenery without triggering an invisible hitbox, and other kinds of trick-shots. The answer is pretty close.
Speaking of Raven Software: Hope to see Wolfenstein (2009) someday.
The kar98 in that game is one of my favourite guns in any game ever
Man, i love that game!
Hope to see him play Wolfenstein (2009) and Quake 4
And also the Soldier of Fortune games. Maybe even the X-Men Legends games and the first Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (assuming he somehow acquires those for the PC).
Good luck getting that game on PC... Piracy is literally the only way
The time notes are actually WRITTEN by you...different versions of you and ones who died and REWOUND time, stuck in loop at times too....
I remember years ago seeing the first game play reveal and trailers of this game, loving what I saw and waiting for it's release.
Originally, Renko was supposed to be an Air Force Pilot flying over Katorga-12, before an EMP/Time Wave forced him to land (essentially the same concept, just different delivery) and Renko would wake with the TMD already attached to him. He would be guided along the island by a character called Yuri, who is mentioned in one of the final game's early audio logs (the same house you first meet the large skinny mutants in) and would try to uncover what was happening. You had fully rendered third-person cutscenes that showed Renko's full appearance, one of which involved raising the ship, which is still in the game but COMPLETELY different, and him talking to Barisov in the past after a time wave occurs. The story and gameplay in general seemed much tighter and more fluid; and just better overall.
Needless to say, when this version came out, I was pretty disappointed. Still, I enjoyed it for what it was.
I will say though, the tacked on multiplayer (Spetznaz vs. Island Mutants) was not needed... I honesty believed that was part of the reason we got this version. Raven being forced to work on some shitty little multiplayer that didn't need to be in the game. and now that I know the back story of what happened during it's development, it's pretty obvious why it was changed so much.
I thought the multiplayer was surprisingly good, actually. If the game hadn't flopped, maybe they could have released updates with more multiplayer maps and stuff... the Extermination mode where the Spetsnaz need to repair and activate beacons to clear an area of mutant players was a really great twist on control point gameplay. And playing as the mutants was really fun.
I still have the Game Informer magazine that covered the in-development Singularity. I had always wanted to play it after that.
I finally played it a about 4-6 months ago and was disappointed.
AdamofBlastWorks Yeah. I remember following the game religiously when I saw the E3 coverage and gameplay. Then we got the version we have now...
@@RockorSomething83 I didn't know E3 was a thing back then. I just got Game Informer and that was my main source of information for a while.
I just LOVED what I read about and always wanted to play what they *wanted* to make.
Using the internet was really weird for me back then. I just didn't really use it that much until a few years later (partially because I had limited access to computers and the internet, and because the computers we had at home were pretty... bad... it was a chore and a half to get anything done on them).
The entire concept for this game was perfected and beautifully done by that one mission in Titanfall 2
what if Effect and Cause was an entire game, and that game was You Are Empty
I have many issues with this comment that I am not going to rant about
@@lavetissene339 alright
not really
30:51 "Layoffs Cut Into Raven Software", a headline that echoes even to this day in the deepest pits of the COD mines.
Time travel and Soviets winning because of some magic mineral.... you sure this isn't C&C Renegade that you have yet to review?
That ain't Renegade tho.
There was supposed to be a bridge between RA and TD where early Brother-soviets duke it out with GDAllies over early tiberium patches, that one would fit the description, but it was canned.
...Renegade didn't have time travel and soviets. Renegade was a Command and Conquer game, not a Red Alert game. So it's GDI vs NOD, not Allies vs USSR.
@@Shenaldrac He might be referring to the canned Renegade 2, which would have bridged the Tiberium/Red Alert timelines. There's concept art you can still find of it, with a sort of Soviet-Nod hybrid faction that has a logo of a Sickle that curls into the Nod scorpion tail shape, with the Red Star in the middle. I think the idea is this faction is post-collapse USSR becoming amalgamated with the Brotherhood.
The original Westwood version of C&C would have also bridged the timelines, but as we know that version never saw the light of day.
@@Henskelion Yeah but OP mentioned that they were talking about the game that Civvie should review, and he can't really review a game that doesn't exist. Just going by Occam's Razor I find it more likely that OP got the two series mixed up; everyone makes mistakes.
sound like 'Original War' to me
Love seeing Singularity get more attention, such an underrated game
Very enjoyable game ! Imagine if they had more time. :(
So if I have a chance to get it I should
@@thememesjack6128 For me definitely ! I'll be honest, the game won't blow you away BUT it's plot is a breath of fresh air for FPS, something different from the usual military boring stuff. As a shooter it's fun and it uses some clever weapons (as seen in the video) like the chrono device or the remote controlled bullets to spice things up !
@@giannisc.5254 cool I will keep it in mind when I am in the pawn shop
@Moist Tony It's a diamond in the rough, flawed, yet still precious.
The use of the “Naked gun” theme was absolutely genius! 😂
15:44 "The gun is mightier than the sword" - Hol Horse
The funniest part is that he is the biggest exception to that rule.
Civvie, ever heard of a funky band called "Test Dept"?
For the life of me I can't figure out why you commented this but it's a good band so thumbs up anyway
Terra Firma rules. Pax Britannica is also underrated despite being heavily orchestral
So what does an EMP look like? Just like a nuclear detonation, except it's blue! And electricky!
Sure, yeah, that's exactly how that works.
NNNNNGGGHH
and nobody dies, only evil robots!
I think the worse part is you could fix it by having the guy say “oh shit what’s that!?!” Instead of calling it an emp
Yeah I don't think it really is supposed to be an EMP, it's some random time-wave shenanigans. Devlin calls it an EMP, but... why would he? Has he ever seen an EMP before? Are they bright blue shockwaves? Pretty sure an EMP is invisible! Ryo leo is right, Devlin should have just said "Oh shit what's that?!"
Blame Goldeneye for that. The blue light is probably supposed to be cherenkov radiation considering everyone turned into a time ghoul.
@@phantomspaceman Cherenkov radiation doesn't turn you into a monster though, it just makes you die horribly over the span of a week or two.
Oh shit I remember this.
I loved the whole 1950s propaganda theme, and the time mechanics.
Plot was predictable tho.
You have 300IQ if you predicted the plot
I really enjoyed this game when I finally got around to it. Such a shame we never got to see the original story as it was planned.
honestly this is one of my favorite games of all time. The atmosphere is superb, i never felt so lonely and scared in a game. the enemies gave me genuine terror and with actual scarce amounts of ammo at times you really think about what to do if a certain type of enemy shows up. The story and lore behind the game is so well done, i never had a time where i wondered how something worked in this world or why. The little recordings are intricate and really sink you into the environment. the weapons were fun to use and unique with their respective styles of play. enemies were ok and never felt cheap to me. I do wish the game would've been made nowadays with a much stronger console/pc where a larger story with no lose pieces and a expansive game world could be done.
Such a shame it was on Generic Unreal 3 Engine! The game was so well done for what it was built on.;
Game: Here is a stealth section
Civvie: James Jonah Jamison laughing intensifies.
There isn’t a hyphen in Jamison
@@gub4941 Thank you for letting me know. Have edited the comment now.
J. Jonah Jamison. Not James. No one knows what the J is for.
@@youtubecommenter2527
I'm pretty sure it's spelled " *Jameson* "
@@demizson576 Be funny if it was like The Simpsons where the J. is just Jay shortened.
I didn't know until now how much I missed those Ramsay clips.
Fucking *RAW*
What a pleasant surprise. Glad you've spent time on this one, Civvie.
How is this comment from 2 days ago when this video is only 13 hours old?
@@hankhill1964 Shhhhhh
5:30 "This joke has been claimed by a third party"
...
...
...
...
Is this the real world anymore ?
It’s 2020, 4-months-ago commenter. It doesn’t get better.
@@maxducks2001 It's 2020, 5-hours-ago, losing time on a 4 month old mistake due to being non native to a language, random randomer.
Still knows better, but means lesser and lesser.
Have a good growing bad leaf. :)
@@Peanutela He didn't give you any shit, what are you talking about?
@@unverifiedbiotic yeah I re-read the first two comments twice over the second comment had no animosity at all
I remember getting this a few weeks after it came out. It was int he same era of bioshock, Resistance, and deadspace so it got overshadowed. I enjoyed it and don't regret having purchased it. I did dig the lore and everything you kinda glossed over but to each their own. Glad to see you covered this forgotten gem.
The Seeker is such an awesome gun that it launches an intact round, complete with casing and primer.
Ah, a fellow reloader/gun enthusiast. Yeah. It always amuses how games/Hollywood show cases ejecting from guns, but will also ocassionally show an entire cartridge in flight in slow-motion. Seems like there should be consultants for that.
That's 65% more bullet per bullet!
the time travel magi- I mean, energy is so time travel that the bullet reverts to its pre-shot state due to time travel
I mean it is a sci fi missle seeking gun, maybe the casing is like a gyrojet rocket engine?
@@drakep.5857 it almost does look like a gyrojet, it's just missing the exhaust plume.
This was one of my favorite shooters of the last generation, though it had some flaws, mainly:
That you can't use the guns that the 1955 Soviet troops use (AK-47, trench gun, Makarov pistol)
The two weapon limit (the weapon wheel was cut from earlier versions of the game)
No new game plus mode, and the stamina limit
For the phase ticks, use the age button (Q) on them. It ages them until they explode and you can do it when you first see them. The effect spreads to the others and cause a chain reaction that blocks a whole pathway to you.
The rest can be easily shot or Impulsed. Saved me so much frustration when I was playing on the hardest difficulty.
I remember getting this game after seeing an article about it in a magazine.
I had some good times with it.
Sad to see what happened with the devs though. They deserved better.
I wish there were more games like this made today. Singularity reminds me of one of my favorite games, Timeshift.
Watching your review motivated me to finally play through it and I am having fun. I really love that the sniper rifle is able to gib limbs too, making it almost more satisfying than just going for the head.
Also the primary fire of the TMD seems for effective than the TMD blast against the tick enemies, they all kamikaze into the targeted one when you do it, making these sections much easier.
-Lost gem
-'weird science' military shooter
-made by once-great development team
PsiOps: The Mindgate Conspiracy when?
Oh man, that is a blast from the past. I vaguely remember that game. It was... strange to say the least.
WHY DOES THE MAGIC TIME BULLET STILL HAVE THE CASING ON IT!?
You see Ivan when fire whole boolet from gun, thats 65% more bullet per bullet and you keel enemy faster.
Ask no questions Tovarisch, we don't pay you to.
(we don't pay you at all.)
They also use "clip" a lot, and many other improper terms and designs. Not enough shoot-bang developers (who almost exclusively make Shooters) actually know anything about firearms or do research, and just leave it at them looking cool. It's just something that has grinded my gears for a decade and a half.
@Valanway
if the games bother you that much you're gonna *love* hollywood movies. Kiss realism out the door for 90% of the firearms "entertainment" you've ever consumed.
It wasn't actually fired; It's traveling through time, not air... 🤨🤔😏
"This joke has been claimed by third party" What?? I don't get it but I still clicked "Cool!"
Someone copyright claimed a song that was played, most likely the Curb your Enthusiasm theme, youtube now lets you edit videos to get rid of claimed audio so civvie did that and just deleted the audio from that part of the video and threw up a message saying "hey yeah a third party copyright claimed this and i don't wanna give all the money i'm making from this video to them so enjoy this lack of a joke".
@Lil' Connor Peterson a third party, dummy.
who claimed it though, i totally want to go buy their products and not harass the people that support them financially.
@@valberline It's almost funnier now, really
@Jesse Rodriguez I doubt it, the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme doesn't have copyright
I knew one of their engine programmers, one hell of a guy, and one hell of a programmer. He worked on this one.
This game reminded me so hard of RAGE, it was Bethesda's first attempt at a RPGFPS and so is this for Activision. This game was so much fun to play. I loved the different ways you have to attack the many varieties of enemies, they actually thought them out and made it a challenge instead of dropping reskinned bullet fodder in front of you. The scenery looked like GOW + Fallout and even has support for 1440p. I had a blast and will be replaying this for a while.
This is one of the only games that melded Time Travel into their game mechanics and it fits perfectly without feeling out of place. It makes it add a 3rd level to your weapons and gives you over 5 different powers each one manipulating the environment to progress, and sometimes puzzling the player with challenge to figure what needs to go where.
The gigantic Leviathan style bosses made me fuzzy inside, I miss days where the entire screen would be a boss.
1000/10
mmm Didn't activision own Raven when they did Wolfenstein 2009. Wasn't that RPGish too with the upgradable weapons?
Not exactly, it was published by Bethesda but developed by id. Yes, the guys who made Doom and Quake. Bethesda themselves (their development studio, not their publishing company) had already made Fallout 3 years ago by then, which was their first RPG FPS game.
Wait holy shit that stone stepping sound is the same stock sounds they used in the first Half Life game, just without that crunchy 90s audio compression
So. Time travel, huh?
...when are you going to cover the TimeSplitters series, Civvie?
13:00 Were you doing the Judas Priest Painkiller thing again?
Yes he was, I'm glad you commented first so I didn't have to
Yep that is Painkiller
@@walterw8223 *This is the painkiller
Thing that annoys me is that civvie forgets to mention all the alternate endings you can get including one where you kill everyone and become the lord of murder mountain and rule the world with an iron fist
The fact that those other endings are just storyboards with no cutscenes makes me wonder if they were rushed in or an indicator that killing yourself in the past is the canon ending. However the scene with Katherine writing the log book in the past shows up after all of the endings so...
I love the fact this got into my suggestions, I loved singilarity back in the day
I remember being reminded of this game when playing through the back half of Titanfall 2. I feel like they got some inspiration from this game for that one.
Your maniacal laugh is fantastic. Always a good episode when that crazy bastard pops his head out.
This game has amazing atmosphere. Unique setting. I have good memories. Sadly we want see another game like this from Raven.
"some damn fine games...
and Hexen"
never change, Civvie
It's funny, but Hexen is my favourite Raven. Tastes really are like assholes.
@@MasterSoto is that a direct translation? We have that saying in Swedish, but I don't see how the pun carries over into English 🤔
The part at 27:22 feels like it’s trying to do some kind of epic twist like “Would You Kindly”, even those snapshots and that brownish tint are the same.
Fun fact: If you take forever to pick a guy to shoot Steve Blum just picks up the gun and shoots you. He might have killed the other guy but it's been so long since I've played this game.
Blood is what fuels the COD engine. They'll switch from developers to babies soon enough.
Implying they blow all that money on hookers and coke only to not sacrifice all those unplanned pregnancies to Bill Gates.
It's actually the Quake 2 engine + some fixes and optimizations over the year...
I'm here for the MIDI version of the Naked Gun/Police Squad theme
The maniacal laughter at the "sneak by" part was my favorite
A bit late to the comments on this one but, thanks for pointing out how good Raven was... I will forever hold them dear in my heart, because of their first game -- Black Crypt. And oh boy... It was my Dungeon Master and my Wolfenstein3D (I only had an Amiga at the time, so...); it was the first first-person game that really did it for me and it sparked the love for grid-based dungeon crawlers and FPP presentation in general.
Ofc, it was ever only released on the Amiga, so it's been naught but forgotten. :(
Anyway, thanks Civvie. #FreeRaven
13:01 Painkiller \m/, a good callback.
This is literally the best gaming channel I have ever seen #freecivvie
When someone mentions Singularity I'm always like "yeah, that's the cool game where you can slow, stop and rewind time!", then I realize I'm thinking of Timeshift and never actually played Singularity. Not sure if I want to, Raven has a special place in my heart.
That brings me to - SoF when, Civvie?! I really hope it's high on the list.
SoF was my first Raven disappointment . Also 'sof' is dutch for failure , fiasco . Sorry , i'll get me coat .
@@FlockOfHawks Why was it a disappointment for you? I have some minor issues with it but it still is a great game.
FlockOfHawks my first too. Not at the time, but playing it for the first time, yeah, I expected a lot more. SoF 2, though? Kick. Ass.
When the info popup said "This joke has been claimed by a third party" I got scared for a second.
Edit: Wait, did you just bring back the test for the assault rifles at 13:16? Damm, that was stealthy
I remember playing this on a whim, and beat it all the way through. Felt like the least-smelliest fart in my memory, but I'm glad you covered it. It also felt way too similar to BioShock, with the upgrades and the way the island was introduced in the beginning. I'm sorry to see such a talented studio's swan song go down like this.
15:42 I absolutely love all the references that you put into your video Civvie.
Found your channel, watched all your videos, and woke up this morning thinking "Damn it, have to wait for the next D:" and saw this on my feed :D yay
Well done
Welcome to the dungeon
( Police squad theme plays )
CIVVIE'S DUNGEON! in HD!
Starring: CV-11
Also starring: H4MMER
Special guest star: Gordon Ramsey
Tonight's episode: The Broken Promise ( The Last Raven )
Now that is an obscure reference, considering most people know Naked Gun but not the original Police Squad! :D You get a complementary "RAAAAW!".
Kojak intro when civvie?
16:00 the music and first person guidance of explosives made me feel like I was watching someone using the sentinel from Nightfire. Nicely done
I love how every single Civvie video has a good amount of editing and funny jokes.
Civvie when:
Chex Quest
Chex Quest 2
Chex Quest 3
Chex Quest brutal ?
I'd like him to review re7... That was a cool fps survival horror. He might enjoy that one...
Though the enemies are a bit repetitive.
That, or re2 remake.
Id also love to see him rip into re: operation racoon city.
@@reaperaf9511 oh well only time will tell
Pro Chex Quest when?
@@capthavic ah indeed I forgot to add that good sir
@@reaperaf9511 Probably one in top 5 fps horror. Not plain FP though. FUCK those games.
Watching this brought back memories of an old , ukrainian studio, FPS called "you are empty" from 2007
Weird game but nteresting concept and atmosphere, I had the chance to try it a few years ago, and for what it is I think it was quite good.
He reviewed it :)
@@marcellofunhouse1234 i know; i'd like to think it's thanx to me
"Sent to the Call of Duty mines" is a fuckin' perfect little phrase, by the way. Jesus.
20:44 my laughter turned to crying...
Yeah man... I was so hyped for that section of the game when I played it...
I love that you champion Raven Software the way you do. They deserve so many props
Almost 100K Subscribers
You will play the game Civvie.
The Forevering is extremely fucking nigh.
Hey it looks like Civvie finally got around to playing a game we've been asking him to cover for ages, we should really take this moment to thank him for listening to the interests of the community an-
*PRO QUAKE WHEN CIVVIE!?*
any of the raven guys end up with old infinity ward when they split and formed respawn? because titanfall 2 called and they want their one level gimmick back.
“This joke has been claimed by a third party” god damn it
So when are we all moving to pornhub?
The algorithm recommend this channel and I was like yeah I'm bored I'll give it a watch and then the naked gun music played and I was like and subscribe. You make these videos incredibly amusing.
I can't believe how many glitches and bugs you encountered.. I've literally never seen an enemy float or its AI break in this game myself o.o
neither have i and i just played it again about 6 months ago.
A montage of great Raven Software games made with iD's engines and you didn't include Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force? The only good Star Trek game? The one that runs on the Quake 3 engine and has a really fun long single player campaign with the entire cast of the show PLUS a great Q3 style deathmatch component with tons of maps?
This kind of unfortunate thing wouldn't happen if there wasn't a copyright dispute with Viacom preventing it from being updated and re-released on modern storefronts like GOG.
I wouldn't say it's the only good Star Trek game, but it's definitely the best one.
My favourite thing about this game was when I got all the endings in one play through
"You're on a chopper and it crashes. I know right?" Hey! Look at the time! Time to rewatch Shammy's outlast 2 review!
20:41 Civvie becomes Father Gregori from Half-life 2