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Players take the role of Renko, a US soldier sent to investigate an abandoned Russian research facility called Katorga-12 after rumors surfaced that the current regime was interested in reviving a secret weapons program from the 1950s. Research centered on a rare element called E 99, which holds nearly limitless power and can be used to manipulate time itself. However, there's a lot more to Katorga-12 than a bunch of crumbling buildings on a remote island. The same catastrophic accident that forced the facility to shut down also mutated many of the inhabitants. At the same time, tears in time cause the island to shift back and forth between present day and 1955. Here starts an adventure that includes time bending, vicious creatures, a Russian military bent on world domination... and more than a few temporal paradoxes.

Singularity shares some very strong similarities with BioShock. There's an abandoned city inhabited by mutated people, the ability to throw powers from one hand while shooting from the other, along with both weapon and TMD upgrade stations scattered around the different levels. Backstory is told through a number of orientation/propaganda videos (conveniently left in good condition inside running projectors), temporal ghosts reliving key moments in history, and personal audio diaries recorded on large reel-to-reel tape recorders. However, given the size of these audio recorders, it seems absurd that these characters, many of whom are running for their lives or dying, would be inclined to lug them around for the sake of recording their final thoughts. Although the functional research buildings of Singularity don't match up with the art deco style architecture of BioShock, they both have a style that's rooted in the 1950s and a dark and dreary world that was once lively but left to crumble away.

Ironically, the game involves a bit of time travel but it's one that's a little late to the party. Many of the gameplay features were used in other games. For example, slowing time down to a crawl to get the upper hand was also featured in a relatively obscure 2007 game called TimeShift, although we'll admit that enough time has passed to make these powers feel new again. Levitating objects and grabbing grenades in the air to throw them back at enemies has also been used in numerous games. In short, there's not a lot Singularity's arsenal of tricks to surprise us with. Even the weapon selection is pretty straightforward with the exception of one gun, and they all have the same generic upgrades: increased clip size, faster reload and improved damage. This is supposed to be an advanced weapons research laboratory, and those are the only upgrades? Not to mention, improving damage on a one shot kill sniper rifle seems wasteful. There aren't a lot weapon upgrade points available, even if you purchase them with E 99, so you're encouraged to stick with one or two weapons throughout the game. Players have opportunities to use an advanced E 99 rifle where they can control the bullet, but the gun becomes unusable once it runs out of ammunition or if the player steps through a time rift. While on the topic of upgrades, there are numerous character augmentations that aren't worth investing in, like the improved accuracy or getting a little bit of TMD energy each time you pick up ammunition. Also, the flickering upgrade stations can get annoying really fast.

One of the only stand out features is Age/Revert, which is used to solve over half the puzzles and occasionally comes in handy when dealing with certain enemies. Players can age enemy soldiers to dust, and with some augmentation, cause them to mutate into malevolent creatures that will attack its former allies. However, it turns out the power is actually quite situational in combat. It takes quite a bit of energy to use Age/Revert on a living target, and it only works on one enemy at a time. It's way simpler to throw a time distortion bubble (aka Deadlock), slow down everything inside of it, then run up and unload shotgun blasts into their heads. The power can be used to age cover into dust, but it only works on certain barriers, and the feature becomes extraneous once the player becomes skilled in using the assault rifle or sniper rifle. Especially since the sniper rifle includes an adrenaline fueled time slowing mode, making it easy to take out multiple targets without using the TMD.

However, the game gets points for doing its best to keep the pace up. The game has players time hopping back and forth between the present day and 1955, when Katorga-12 was at its prime. Environments include dank tunnels, warehouses, labs and a crumbling freighter ship. There are also some impressive sequences where the character steps into a power booster to rebuild gigantic structures. Creatures, even the little Phase Ticks, do a lot of damage, so players should treat them as serious threats until they can get a few upgrades installed. Singularity also features some spectacular boss battles, but in an overall sense the game is generally unremarkable. The campaign is short and completely linear, with the possible exception of choosing an ending at the last scene. We also figured out most of the little plot twists pretty early on.

The game has quite a few annoyances. A rigid autosave system doesn't allow players to revisit previous chapters, and there's nothing so great about the story that it deserves more than one playthrough. Many of the TMD energy enhancing upgrades are pointless, since players become nearly unstoppable by the end of the game. Enemy soldiers can chuck plenty of grenades, but oddly, players don't get any. The 'R' key is used for both interaction and reloading, which is a little counter-intuitive for FPS veterans and can be awkward when fighting near an interactive object. But the game's biggest problem is in a major graphics glitch. Textures will suddenly lose all quality and everything will look like a blurry mess for long periods of time or until the game is restarted.

Multiplayer initially seems promising, since it includes multiple classes that use powers in different ways and features soldiers vs creatures combat, but there isn't much substance beyond that. There are only two game modes: Extermination and Creatures vs Soldiers. Extermination is a version of Attackers vs Defenders, where the creature team has to stop the soldiers from rebuilding a series of beacons. Creatures vs Soldiers, in addition to having a redundant name, is just team deathmatch mode. Games are playable online only (there's no LAN option) and uses Activision's player matching service. Players can host private games, but there's no obvious way to host a public match with a few friends and let others join midway. While multiplayer has a some nice features, like the healer being able to heal himself by helping others in a sort of feedback loop, and the option to play as a Phase Tick to possess enemy players' bodies, they're not enough to make the game really stand out.

Although time manipulation make for entertaining effects, and the endings are very clever, there's no getting around the fact that Singularity is little more than a straight action shooter. It's a worthy distraction for those who are getting a little tired of military shooters, and the story is decent enough. However, this isn't a game that screams to be played, and we doubt many people would miss it if it were lost to time.