14 DAY TRIAL // 
Capcom set off, back in 2009, to revive its Bionic Commando franchise and produced, with the help of the now-defunct development studio GRIN two very different experiences: a full-pledged reboot, titled simply Bionic Commando, which received lackluster sales, and the much more popular Bionic Commando Rearmed, which added some next-generation polish to the classic gameplay of the old arcade titles and became an instant classic.
Now, Capcom, with the help of FatShark, a studio composed of members from GRIN, has released Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, a sequel to the surprisingly popular original.
Nathan "Rad" Spencer is back, this time sporting a rather peculiar mustache, as well as quite a lot of brand new features and skills.
By far, the biggest one is the ability to jump, which has been widely criticized by purists that wanted to rely only on Spencer's robotic arm to get past chasms or even small boxes or barrels.
In case you're one of them, you might want to relax, as the game's levels don't actually require you to jump, and, once you complete the game, you can even turn off that "feature" altogether and complete the levels once more using just the bionic arm.
You won't really feel that urge though, as jumping feels extremely natural and it's a welcome addition to Spencer's skill set, without being too overpowered.
Besides this, the hero can now equip special items and powers, ranging from passive ones, like a health regeneration system, to active ones, like a grenade launcher or arm uppercut upgrade.
New weapons were also introduced, with Spencer slowly but surely building up a massive arsenal of firepower throughout the game.
Sadly, you won't really have much use for the aforementioned weapons or powers, as the game doesn't throw that much at you.
Facing off against the small number of different enemies, you can rely just on the regular bionic arm, the pistol with unlimited ammo and, probably, on the health upgrade, to defeat them quite easily.
The challenge really increases when you encounter bosses, as they always require some sort of special tactic to defeat.
This may not be so bad, as experienced Bionic Commando players will easily spot the only strategy, but it's really made uncomfortable by adding in the necessity of executing special moves, which are gimmicky to say the least.
The special power jump is particularly aggravating, as you need to use it in almost every battle and the buttons to activate it register extremely hard, meaning you'll probably be just jumping towards certain death most of the times and you will need to restart the boos battle altogether.
The platforming can also be quite tricky, with Spencer losing the ability to actually swing like a ‘normal’ human being with a bionic arm attached to him. He retracts his arm on just a slight hint of movement from the thumbstick, usually meaning you'll be falling towards the nearest platform or, most of the times, towards the nearest water or quick sand portions, which spell instant death.
The game changes things up in a few certain levels, as you'll be able to control sniper or helicopters. You'll be guiding a bigger reticule throughout the level and eliminating any potential threats that might have caused you some problems if you were alone.
Once you complete the regular campaign, you can tackle some of the really difficult challenge rooms for a place on the global leaderboard, or go back through the campaign and find all of the hidden items as well as complete them without jumping.
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 once again has a local cooperative play, meaning you can get a buddy and go through all the levels together. Check out a cooperative gameplay video below.
The graphics look a bit better, but you won't really notice that big of a difference between Rearmed 2 and the original game.
Sound-wise, things are once again top notch, with the team at FatShark adding a variety of 8-bit tunes to the regular gameplay and some really catchy ones to the menu screens.
Overall, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 is a pretty decent platformer, but doesn't really add all that much over its predecessor, except the jumping feature, and can cause quite a lot of nerves in certain stages.
