This draft originally written 12/09/2009
This game has a beautiful style and the story is definitely interesting as it works off the NES original, but a lot of gameplay elements make it very frustrating to play as well as tiresome.
For instance, having to hold down the left trigger constantly is not convenient; it makes your hand cramp up less than 20 minutes into the game. There should have been a toggle option for the bionic arm so you didn't have to keep holding the trigger down in order for it to be engaged, especially in instances when you adjust your finger and end up dropping Nathan from a perfectly executed swing.
It was also very frustrating having to re-collect the collectibles and as well as re-do any challenges after dying, and believe me that dying in this game is very easy to do. This game failed in making it easy for people to save their progress whether in auto-save or manual save. If I die, I don't want to have to go through the entire level all over again just to get the collectible icons that I already collected before, and repeat the in-game challenges that I already completed the first time around.
Even Prototype, a game I'm not wholly impressed with but do enjoy playing, auto-saved every time you collected an orb or completed an option side mission. Shouldn't this mechanic have been utilized in Bionic Commando, especially since the gameplay is more complex?
