Raven Software offer a time-travel FPS on Katorga-12 island with a very satisfying object aging system. The combat is snappy, the staging evokes BioShock, and this is an unjustly overlooked curio worth rediscovering by sci-fi shooting fans.
Your verdict
Category
First-Person Shooter1 player18+
Description
First-person shooter by Raven Software and Activision, June 2010. An amnesiac soldier awakening on a 1950s Soviet island discovers the TMD time manipulation weapon allowing aging or rejuvenating objects and enemies. Time travel mechanics triggering paradoxes and a sci-fi storyline. Innovative FPS with original temporal manipulation mechanic.
Singularity review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
3/5
Music
★★★★★
"Memorable"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
The island reads as two superimposed eras: a Soviet complex of the fifties, propaganda posters intact and valve machinery, and the same place eaten away fifty years later, cracked concrete and vegetation. An arm-mounted device lets you age or rejuvenate an object in front of you, a stairway rebuilt or a door reduced to rust, the transformation playing out in one second on screen.
The story starts from a Soviet nuclear accident which, travelling back in time, you discover was caused by the character you play. Saving one man in 1955 makes the Second World War Soviet and America occupied, and the game closes on three endings in which no choice truly restores the earlier world. Few time-travel stories own their dead end this plainly.
North American (NTSC-U) edition of Singularity, a Raven Software FPS that grafts time manipulation onto a Soviet science-fiction narrative, a pleasant surprise left in the shadow of its era's big shooters. Still common, its collector interest rests on this status as an underrated gem and a niche demand rather than scarcity. An interesting piece for fans of singular FPS on the console, valued for its concept.
An underrated gem
Released without the slightest promotion, this Raven FPS hides a delightful gadget: a glove able to age or rejuvenate matter and enemies. A touch generic and quickly wrapped up, it left no mark. But its inventive time-bending mechanic and its anxious Russian atmosphere make it a pleasant surprise for fans of forgotten single-player shooters.
Is Singularity still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2010 on Xbox 360, Raven Software's Singularity is an underrated first person shooter built around a glove able to manipulate time, letting you age or rejuvenate enemies and objects at will. This mechanic, at the heart of combat and puzzles alike, gives real originality on a Russian island frozen by a temporal catastrophe. The BioShock inspired atmosphere and the nervy pace appeal. The story stays conventional and the length modest. But the time power idea is brilliantly exploited. For fans of concept shooters and science fiction, this overlooked title keeps a real interest today.
