Singularity was released in 2010 and was developed by Raven Software. The game was published by Activision and released for PC, Ps3 and Xbox 360 and was the final original IP that Raven software ever worked on. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd never heard of Singularity much less actually played the thing but I'm here to tell you that you should think about picking it up. Here's why I actually quite liked Singularity.
A first person shooter with some interesting timey wimey mechanics and a decidedly cheesy military sci-fi theme Singularity might, upon first impressions, seem very run of the mill and in fact it is. The gun play is average but competent, the weapon selection is average but competent, the graphics are aver... You get the drift. I realise I'm not selling this particularly well BUT as someone who loves story driven single player experiences the STORY is the main draw here. This game suffers from what I like to call the "Spec Ops: The Line" syndrome; An average game-play loop but with a very intriguing tale to tell. That's not to say that Singularity shares much story wise with Spec Ops: The Line because it doesn't but what it does have is an excellent eye for environmental storytelling and a main story so bonkers that it actually becomes entertaining.
You play as American army man person named Renko and you're sent along with your team consisting of Nathan Drake and some unimportant non Nolan North characters to the Russian owned Island of Katorga-12. Some exposition is given through cut-scene at the start indicating that a new resource had been found on the island, the Russians did some bad shit yada yada and so here you are to clean up the mess for some reason. Your arrival on the island is made messy when a giant pulse of energy wipes your chopper out and kills most of your team, you wake up alone on a dock and thus Singularity begins.
First off the sounds design is incredible. From the first second stood on the dock the chills are real, the creepy night shrouded island given extra weight with an eerie, minimal soundtrack and some genuinely spooky ambient sound. As you explore the island you uncover some of the horrifying events that took place there leading up to your arrival and this is where environmental storytelling comes in. If you like Bioshock then you'll enjoy this, audio tapes, letters and video projectors galore reveal some well written and voice acted titbits from Katorga-12s inhabitants. You'll hear from scientists, soldiers and even the civilians who made the island their home as you traverse the ominous abandoned streets and buildings, the tensions rise quickly way before the first enemy is even encountered and as you listen to the panicked whimpers of a civilian running from some unknown horror on an audio log you can't help but to just allow the tiniest bit of poo out.
I won't go into detail about the larger story-line and enemies as it would spoil the fun and hopefully you'll go play this for yourself! However I can talk about the time travel mechanics. Introduced a bit later into the game, your character gains the ability to manipulate time in some interesting ways courtesy of a device called the (pictured below) TMD or Time Manipulation Device (imaginative). You can rapidly age enemies so drastically that they turn into dust, you can point at some rubble blocking your path and reverse time to move it out of your way, you can send out a pulse of energy that will stun or knock back enemies amongst other more elaborate uses. The TMD is a great addition to the game and it gives slightly stale FPS mechanics just enough oomph to remain fun later into the game. I'm pretty sure in fact that the TMD directly inspired a certain level in the awesome campaign of Titanfall 2, so you know it's a good addition.
All in all, Singularity was a depressingly under advertised and criminally underhyped game that Activision didn't seem too bothered about. The game undersold (surprise surprise) and Raven Software never made an original game again, instead being shifted to work with other developers on future Call Of Duty titles. Singularity was never going to be revolutionary, it was never going to define a genre or tread new ground, it was never going to sell millions of copies or break records but it was a damn fun game with an excellent atmosphere.
Available on Steam, Xbox 360 and PS3
(Also it had multiplayer but the less said about that the better)
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