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Activision’s latest fps hit, Singularity, has been a highly anticipated release since its announcement. It’s instantly very clear that they’ve taken a large step, rather, a leap away from the realism of the Call of Duty titles in this time-travelling, Ruski-shooter.

The convoluted and, at times, disturbing plot is far from simple; in brief, you play as Nathan Renko, a captain in the US Army, sent to a secret Russian Island, where the Soviets have been experimenting, for what of a better word, in time-travel. Of course, when you arrive at the island, the game immediately begins to seep with predictability; you get split up from your partner, you get ambushed several times by admittedly creepy mutants, you find your partner, he gets killed by an angry Russian, and you get saved by a female rebel, who believes that you are the saviour of mankind. Drawing any parallels yet?

Thankfully, before starting the game, you’ll be subjected to a five minute long introduction, which explains the intricacies and history of your new found scenario. For those of us who are able to sit for this period of time and listen; it helps a lot later on, and is the precursor to the main feature of the game – flitting between Cold War era, and present day 2010 in order to fix the time line, or something. For those of us who can’t, publishers Raven Software have mercifully included the option to skip, allowing the impatient players amongst us to try and catch up later, something we strongly recommend against!

The game instantly throws you into what can only be described as a zombie fest; these hideous mutants hide around every corner, giving players the much appreciated opportunity to dish out the goods on these creatures, with a small, but interesting variety of weapons. As you progress further throughout the game, presuming you haven’t taken a sledgehammer to your console in utter frustration (even on easy difficulty, the game is pretty hard), then you will be rewarded with the TMD, or Time Manipulation Device. This gadget is more than just a gimmick. The TMD brings a freshness to the game, first perfected by Timeshift, it gives the player the ability to age enemies to dust, it can create a time bubble, slowing anything inside it to an almost stop, repair or age staircases, ammo crates and voice recordings, the latter helping to give you a deeper insight into the game, provided you can be bothered to look for them.

Best of all, the TMD can be upgraded as you progress and so can many of the weapons! The grenade launcher, for example, has alternative ammo; imagine one grenade multiplying into many, causing destruction on a massive scale. Puzzle solving, although mostly simple, helps to ensure a diversity in the game; there are a few puzzles which will certainly make the gamer of average intelligence stop and think, and even give those more smartified gamers, like us, pause for thought. These mechanics combined give the game real gusto, and ensure that the going is constantly different. The sonar device equipped to the TMD ensures that the player will never be lost for long, and greatly helps when trying to solve a complicated puzzle, or, when presented with multiple routes, the fastest way to go. It all adds up to create an absorbing fun to play campaign.