Still can afford to buy one more linear-style shooter to go along with your Uncharted 2, Halo 3: ODST, and Bad Company 2? Then check out Raven Software’s latest time-bending FPS Singularity. Honestly, I thought this was going to be another TimeSh*** or something even more subpar than last year’s Wolfenstein. Thankfully, I’m wrong, and here are five reasons why:

- Practical Power-Ups & Weapons: It’ll take you an hour-and-a-half before you get to exploit the game’s “gimmick”: the Time Manipulating Device (or TMD). Even so, said hour-and-a-half lets you play with a nifty shotgun and “time-slowing” sniper rifle. The rest of the weapons themselves are fun; marvel at the Seeker which shoots out exploding bullets that you can direct and pilot, and also check out the exploding shell railgun that highlights enemies for you.

With the many options open thanks to the TMD, you can throw out a time-slowing bubble in the middle of battle, then just use your Impulse melee attack until everything around the bubble’s dead. Or levitate explosive barrels and toss them. Or de-age an already-destroyed barrel and chuck it again. You’ve got a lot of options of dealing death to your enemies; all of them will result in a satisfying blood explosion and a smile on your face.

- Pacing: Few games nail this element of game design down to a tee. If you’re making a shooter, you have to make sure that the shooting comes in variable flavors and makes use of whatever gimmick or feature you tout behind the game’s box.

Singularity gets this part down pat; one minute you’re walking inside a deteriorating ship killing Russian soldiers with a remote-controlled grenade launcher, the next you’re on top of a suspended train fending off a giant spider demon thing while trying not to fall off and die. Other key action points in the game include fending off phase-shifting mutants by renewing power boxes to turn on electric fences circling the area, and also fending off giant lizard-things that shoot laser beams from their eyes. Oh, did I forget to mention one bit where you reconstruct a ship and go searching for a plot macguffin inside it before it rusts and crumbles? In short, it’s hard not to be pumped at every single-player moment in the game.

A bit of forewarning: the last 20 minutes of the game leaves a lot to be desired, seeing as the rest of the game is action-filled.

- Doesn’t Hold Your Hand: Singularity can get tough, and some of its Half-Life-inspired puzzles (which usually involves crates) can be tricky. One particular segment got me riled up for about 15 minutes until I realized that I’m not doing it right (a later part of the game involving a gas mask, a toxic-filled room, and a mechanical door that needs slowing down). But the best part is that at least the game doesn’t patronize me by tossing in random hints.

- Progressive Eye Candy: The game starts off a little too brown for my taste. Then came the bits where I get to look at the vista containing the huge-ass tower emitting the game’s main star: the singularity energy point. And then came the parts where I warped back into the bright shades of the past on the island.

And then the fireworks start pouring out during combat where I pull off the Deadlock field and slow down bullets and enemies within its blue circle. I’m not sure how intensive it gets on the PC version, but it’s veritably shiny and colorful where it counts aesthetically. The only sore point is that the UT3 engine powering Singularity has that habit of loading in textures a little too slow at rare intervals.

- Multi-Player : Singularity’s online component pits Russian TMD users against the legion of time monsters. Deathmatch is fine and all, but the assault/defense type mode is promising as it features two different factions with their own playing style. The Soldiers have TMD-esque powers like teleportation and personal shielding, and are tasked to taking over three different nodes. The Creatures just defend until time runs out. My personal favorite unit is the Phase Tick on The Creature’s side; they can climb up surfaces, are small, and can latch onto a human, kill them, and possess said human without your comrades knowing.