I'm not sure why I'm writing this review when you've already played Singularity countless times before. Don't worry, though. Your memory isn't failing you. Quite the contrary, it's working far too well.

Now now, you've gone and got a head of yourself

You see, you fought Singularity's amorphous mutants in Dead Space and its exploding arachnids in Halo; you were unnerved by its ghostly apparitions in F.E.A.R, and you were thrilled by its gravity gun in Half Life 2; and, most pertinently, as its narrative unfolded through audio tapes, you augmented its weapons and abilities at upgrade stations in Bioshock.

But while it wears these imitations on its shirt like gaming chevrons, Raven Software's latest FPS has enough tricks up its sleeve to make for a thoroughly enjoyable romp.

You play as Nate Renko, an American Airforce pilot sent to reconnoitre Katorga 12, an abandoned Russian scientific compound on a remote island in the Bering Strait. Katorga 12 was the scene of a devastating disaster some 50-years ago, where, in a bid to combat the American atomic threat, those pesky Cold War Ruskies began experimenting with a newly discovered element called E99.

Unimaginably powerful, E99 fuels the game's various Einstein-bending technologies, from zero point energy and anti gravity, to time travel. But it's also extremely volatile, producing disastrous side effects, such as mutations and temporal phasing. No wonder, then, that the experiments went horribly wrong, leaving the island in ruins and overrun with mutants.

Hmm, this place looks safe

Next page: Singularity doesn't take itself seriously...