Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 22 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 41 Ratings

  • Summary: The first true sequel to the classic 1988 Nintendo Entertainment System original, Bionic Commando sees the return of the bionically-enhanced Nathan "Rad" Spencer, voiced by Mike Patton, the former lead singer of Faith No More. Time has not been kind to Spencer: 10 years after his heroic defeat of the Imperials in the original game, he has been betrayed by the government he swore to serve, imprisoned for crimes he didn't commit, and sentenced to death. On the very day of Spencer's execution, terrorists detonate a massive experimental weapon in Ascension City, unleashing an intense earthquake that has turned the city into rubble and wiped out its population. With the terrain in ruins and the city's air defense grid now in the control of a massive terrorist force whose goal remains unclear, the FSA have only one option left - a behind-the-lines assault. The perfect job for a Bionic Commando. Bionic Commando transposes the swing-and-shoot gameplay of the 8-bit original to a stunning 3D environment of towering buildings, suspended roadways and monorails, deep canyons and sheer rock faces, where every environment is scalable using swinging, scaling, climbing and wall-walking techniques. [Capcom] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 22
  2. Negative: 1 out of 22
  1. Capcom did a great job with the conversion of the console hit, especially when it comes down to the very complex controls. Beginners may find themselves frustrated and overwhelmed by the possibilities, but once you learn how to handle your character, the game unfolds its whole fascination.
  2. It stats a bit slow, but once Nathan has learned all his special attacks, the fights turn out to be quite a show – despite their occasionally high difficulty. Once you manage a jump combination without touching the floor once, you'll feel euphoric.
  3. Just like a cheesy action flick, Bionic Commando is a satisfying rollercoaster of explosions, profanity and bizarre plot twists. [Sept 2009, p.82]
  4. 40
    A sloppy port of a game I found to be fairly mediocre.

See all 22 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 20
  2. Negative: 5 out of 20
  1. RADS
    9
    Excellent sotyline, epic experience, liked the game from the very start to the ending. Game mechanics works like a charm and boss fights were interesting. Expand
  2. WilliamC
    8
    I love this game. GRIN have nailed the swinging mechanics and its just a lot of fun to swing around the dilapidated city. The game is pretty linear and there are only a few ways to dispatch of enemies but if you can get past that you will find and amazing game with a great online component. Please buy this game so we can see more like it. Expand
  3. 5
    This game is a lazy console-port and the devs haven't even bothered to fix the most basic stuff when porting this to the pc. Now most of this is only superficial. The game works great with mouse and keyboard and i had no problem whatsoever with getting the game to work. But i think that it is just plain respect-less that they didn't take the small time required to fix this. Now with that out of the way lets focus on the game. The gameplay in the game is surprisingly fun. The swinging is really satisfying and the combat is quite enjoyable. There is also a couple of quite cool areas that you get to visit in the games campaign. Sadly is the games campaign kind of short (around 5-6 hours) and its story is pretty bad. The checkpoint system is also pretty messed up. Its quite far between checkpoints, collectibles doesn't stick and enemies that was already dead when the checkpoint was triggered has a tendency to respawn behind you which can be kind of awkward. This combined with the radiation manages to take the fun out of exploring which is kind of a shame since the swinging is the part of the game that works best and that is the most fun. Some other things that annoyed me were some quicktime-events and that a couple of things in the game wasn't properly explained. I might sound a little bit to negative here so i should point out one last time that the swinging is pretty damn great. And i enjoyed the game despite its problems.The game do however have its fair share of flaws but i will despite that recommend checking this game out if you are into the genre since the game has its moments. Expand
  4. TruthS
    1
    Gave it +1 for good graphics. Gave it -9 for horrible controls. It seems these idiots at Capcom just don't understand the golden rule : good controls = good gameplay. If you've ever tried their other horrible ports to the PC such as Resident Evil 4 and 5 (I'd rate these two poor excuses for a pc game a measly 1 as well), you'll know what to expect. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME, it is utter garbage. How bad is this game, let me put it this way, on screen indicators make reference to the X or Y buttons on your non-existent xbox360 controller for the PC!!! Idiotic. The controls for grappling are so frustating you swear the idiots at Capcom never even playtested the pc version of their POS game. If you buy this game, you're merely supporting their negligent attitude towards the pc platform. For some reason, the moronic japanese developers just don't know what the f-kin mouse is for, or don't know what good HCI principles entail. Frustrating experience. Two thumbs down for this garbage. Expand

See all 20 User Reviews