Singularity

[triptych]

Official Trailer
Gameplay
Singularity doesn't come out until the 29th, but I feel like hyping it on here until then

The game takes place on a mysterious island known as "Katorga-12" where Russian experiments involving "E99" took place during the height of the Cold War era. Sometime during 1950, a terrible catastrophe known as the "Singularity" occurred on the island, causing the island's very existence to be covered up by the Russian government. The player controls Nate Renko, an Air Force pilot who is sent to investigate bizarre radiation emissions coming from the island, only to crash land there. After regaining consciousness, Nate finds the TMD (Time Manipulation Device) and discovers that the island is constantly shifting between the time periods of 1950 and 2010. He also encounters Victor Barisov, the scientist in charge of the Katorga-12 experiments who reveals that a man named Nikolai Demichev is on the island to try to restart them on a much larger scale, which could cause an unthinkable disaster. During the quest to stop Demichev, the player will have to deal with hostile Russian forces in both time periods, and the hideously mutated flora, fauna and former residents of the island, some of which have developed time manipulation powers of their own.


Singularity's main gameplay device is an artifact known in the game as the TMD (Time Manipulation Device), which includes five different functions, each allowing the player to achieve a different effect.

• Age Revert: This allows the player to move an object or human backwards and forwards in time. It can be used for instance, to repair broken walkways, by sending them back in time to a point before it was broken, revert an empty oil barrel into a full one, turn a crate that a group of enemies are using for cover into rotted wood, or turn an iron fence blocking your path into a pile of rust. Using it on humans transforms them to a primal state, causing them to turn against friend and foe alike or ages them into a pile of bones and dust.
  
• Deadlock: an ability that allows the player to create a sphere of temporal energy that slows down or stops everything in it. It could be used by throwing it at a group of enemies, resulting in all of them stopping. Then the player can enter the sphere and shoot all the enemies until they die. After the player removes the sphere, all the enemies will die at the same time. It can also be used as a shield to stop or slow bullets or other projectiles.
  
• Impulse: The Impulse function sends out pulses of energy, which cause targets to be thrown backwards and instantly kills small enemies. It can also turn intangible enemies tangible again.
  
• Gravity: When targetted at an object, Gravity will attract the object and hold it while freezing it in time. This may be used, for example, to grab a de-pinned grenade and be able to hold it indefinitely without it exploding.
  
• Chronolight: a "time-invariant flashlight" that allows the player to view things as they were in other time periods in certain areas. Combined with Gravity, the player can pull an object out of a time period to use in the present and solve a puzzle or open a locked door. The Chronolight isn't attached to the TMD from the start of the game and is later given to the player by one of the Russian scientists on the island.

The TMD can also be used in conjunction with special power stations scattered across the island that greatly amplify its power. In some instances, the player can use this to restore entire ruined buildings or wrecked ships to their pristine state in order to progress. However, these major alterations are highly unstable and will begin to revert almost immediately, forcing the player to dash through the restored structures as they start to decay and collapse around him.



Probably one of my favorite feature of the game is this:

The developers also announced in an interview with GameInformer that the player will not have regenerating health such as personal shielding, and will instead have a traditional life bar. Raven believes that this will force the player to slow down, and explore the game, ensuring that the experience is not rushed.

It'll be nice to play a game that doesn't have that same "I'm every FPS ever, sup" rechargable health system again.