Binary Domain

[Choze]

 

A game about love, happiness, guns and terminators.

[Deathjam]

Only thing that interests me is the story. Which is a rarity for me and shooters these days.

[Aimless]

I think this'll surprise a lot of people. Or rather it would if they bought it, as it'll inevitably tank.

 

The Megadrive-style boxart doesn't exactly help its chances.

 

Anyway, day one for me.

[Retro_Link]

Tbh I couldn't even finish watching the trailer, I thought it looked awful.

[Choze]

This looks better than the new RE games. Capcom better watch out.

[Dan_Dare]

EDGE have given this really positive previews. Trailer looks good and from what I hear the developers are taking a really good approach to the game. Yep, very interested.

[Aimless]

The demo's out on both PS3 and 360. You should try it.

 

That is all.

[Shorty]

Sooo... it's pretty generic, and the AI is quite poor... where's the fuss come from with this game exactly? Maybe the demo could've had some more interesting levels... the parts shown in the video after the demo ends look better than any of the parts you get to play.

 

It seemed fun, but it's hard not to be reminded of Vanquish, which I got bored of really quick.

[Aimless]

Having just finished this, after finally taking a break from the Vita, for me it's up there with the best in the genre.

 

It's certainly not without its faults — the framerate can get pretty egregious in places, and the squad communication system isn't executed as well as it could have been — but it's a good length, has great pacing, the script is surprisingly decent for the most part and it has a refreshingly different flavour to Western shooters.

 

Of course the real boon is the combat. Personally I've always found Gears to be somewhat unsatisfying in the way its enemies are bullet absorbing bags of viscera, but here not only does the enemies' tenacity make sense but your shots still feel powerful, with armour plating and parts shattering across the battlefield. Headshots are especially satisfying — and useful, as it disables the enemy's friend-or-foe system — as is the pump-action shotgun.

 

The enemies themselves are nicely varied, too, and conveniently colour coded so you can prioritise targets at a glance. It's excellent fun to shoot out a rush unit's legs as it tries to flank you, take the head off a sniper lurking at the back of the pack and then charge the remaining bots when their attention is drawn away by their own support shooting them in the back. The bosses also mix things up, even if they do follow the classic tradition of forms and glowing weak points.

 

I haven't even touched the multiplayer, and honestly I've very little interest in another competitive online game. I will have to give the Horde-style Invasion mode a go, though.

 

If you've any interest in third-person shooters you should play this game; I'd recommend starting on Survivor difficulty if you're decent. It might not quite have the polish or technical prowess of something like Gears 3, but the shooting is excellent, the story is enjoyable nonsense — with some degree of player influence upon proceedings — and it's unlikely to ever get the chance at a sequel.

[Aimless]

Okay, this is currently £14.86 at ShopTo on PS3 and 360. Now will you take a chance on it?

 

The game's also getting a PC release in April through Steam.

[Cube]

I didn't even know this had been released.

[Aimless]

I didn't even know this had been released.

That's Sega for you. Despite putting out a lot of great games this generation they seem very reluctant to actually market any of them.

[S.C.G]

Hmm should I get this? And then add it to the pile of 'decent games that I picked up cheaply with the intention of eventually playing' right underneath Vanquish...

[Shorty]

If you're in no rush, it'll be < £10 soon enough.

[S.C.G]

This is most likely true... thank you for being the voice of reason Shorty.

 

I have too many games to play at the moment anyway.

[Aimless]

On a general note, I'd be wary of relying on cheap prices once we enter April. The Jersey VAT loophole is getting sewn up, which is bound to impact the likes of Play, Zavvi and even Amazon.

[Cube]

On a general note, I'd be wary of relying on cheap prices once we enter April. The Jersey VAT loophole is getting sewn up, which is bound to impact the likes of Play, Zavvi and even Amazon.

 

Doesn't that only affect Jersey-based companies like Play.com and Indogostarfish (part of Amazon)?

 

Which would mean that ShopTo, The Hut Group (Zavvi) and others won't be affected.

[Aimless]

The Hut's entertainment warehouses are in Guernsey, far as I know. And in this particular instance ShopTo are price-matching Zavvi for Binary Domain, I just went with the former as they offer considerably faster delivery, partly because their stock isn't coming from the Channel Islands.

 

In a token attempt to steer things back on track: Binary Domain features a French robot, complete with comedy accent.

[daftada]

Is this anything like Vanquish? I LOVED that game.

[Aimless]

Is this anything like Vanquish? I LOVED that game.

Tonally and somewhat aesthetically, yes, but it is more of a cover-based third-person shooter than Vanquish. It does have a scoring mechanic of sorts — you earn credits for killing enemies, with bonuses for special methods or multi-kills — but you won't be powersliding through levels.

 

The cover system and core gunplay works more or less as you'd expect — you can swap between cover, blindfire, etc — but the game surrounds those fundamentals with its own flavour. The enemies make up the meat of this, as your robotic adversaries come in numerous shapes and sizes, including the odd ridiculous boss, and all take a fair but of dismantling before going down; they'll crawl or hop towards you if you go for the legs, or attack their own kind if you take off their head. Luckily they don't feel like bullet sponges, though, as your successful shots still have a good effect and feel powerful.

 

Another crease is the reputation system. Throughout the game you have opportunities to respond to your squad mates — either using voice or via a controller menu — with what you choose to say either boosting or lowering their opinion of you; playing well also boosts your reputation, or vice versa. Reputation affects your companions' eagerness to follow orders or help you when downed, although I'm not sure you'd really notice this unless you're an arsehole. More demonstrable is how your standing can tie into how certain scenes throughout the story play out, especially towards the end, and you also get to choose who to take with you at certain points which will naturally change conversations. Honestly it's a pretty hokey system, but it still adds a pleasant extra layer to proceedings.

 

You also have the credits and upgrade systems. As I mentioned earlier you earn cash by defeating enemies and throughout the world you'll come across terminals where you purchase upgrades for your team's signature weapons, new weapons or equipment for your character, and upgrades for your characters themselves. You can swap the latter around whenever you want, with each upgrade having a clear effect — say, a 10% damage reduction — and a specific shape. The shape is important as rather than simple slots you have to fit upgrades into a 6x2 grid, and you can't rotate the 'pieces' so you'll need to pick and choose to get the most out of the skills you have available.

 

Overall I just think it's a really well paced game with a ton of variety to its scenarios, bosses and locations, which I've made a point of not mentioning. It doesn't have the polish of Gears 3, but for my tastes Binary Domain was a more enjoyable, less po-faced experience. Obviously your mileage may vary, but any shooter fan would be doing themselves a disservice by overlooking it.

[daftada]

Thanks, I think I'll pick this up once I've cleared Alpha Protocol (another under-rated game).

[Aimless]

If you can look past Alpha Protocol's foibles I certainly can't see Binary Domain's idiosyncrasies giving you pause.

 

What better way to follow up a Sega-published game no one bought than with another one? Might as well line up a Yakuza marathon whilst you're at it.

[Magnus]

So I thought it was worth bumping this thread to say that this game is worth playing if you're the kind of person who can look past the flaws in a game and enjoy the things it does well.

 

Basically, what Aimless has been saying all along.

 

If you really like flaws, you can do what I did and play the PC version. Then you get to suffer through mouse smoothing and figuring out which of the Xbox 360 controller prompts correspond to which keys. There's no way to change the control setup in-game - instead you have to use a separate configuration file that hilariously resets the graphics options every time you open it. There's a patch that's supposed to fix most of these issues, but all it did for me was add an option for mouse speed. Very helpful!

 

Anyway, my point is that I still enjoyed the game! The action is solid and the bosses are pretty satisfying. The loyalty system is very basic and a bit silly at times, but I still liked trying to be friends with everyone. It helps that the characters are likable. Whether or not your teammates like you also affects the ending somewhat! And speaking of the ending, the story was actually a lot better than I was expecting.

 

I haven't played the demo, but I assume it's part of the first chapter, and that's easily the least interesting part of the game. It doesn't take long for the story to get more interesting, more characters to get introduced and the combat to get more fun.

 

It's not as polished as Gears of War (not even close!), but I enjoyed this a lot more.

[jayseven]

It is less than £10 for 360 now, and the PS3 version is around £12.

 

(it's still like $65 over here - about £43, and that's a halfprice game.)

[Magnus]

No excuses, Jay. :p