Binary Domain Review

Japan's filled with robots? In the future? Wow, didn't see that one coming...

I might not be the greatest FPS player on the planet (I'm looking your way, Ku'ulei), but I do know when a project has trouble following through on a good idea. Binary Domain is that kind of project: it starts out fine, has a few interesting bits and pieces, but doesn't take those ideas through to fruition. It's just not very-

Wha-? What're you doing in here? You're not supposed to b-*SMACK* Sorry, don't hurt me!  Y-you're… you're actual Yakuza!? Wait, your programmers are Yakuza Studi… oh, crap! I wasn't about to say anything bad, I promise! I mean, I love this game! It's the best… it's… it's really good!



What? The plot? The plot is, um, cool! It's a little Terminator meets Wall-E, with robots thinking they're people, but it's great! Sure, it plots along in short bursts and some store moments are left wide open but that leaves more space open for the same robots in, like, four colors. It's everything I want in generic current-generation TPS set in Tokyo. More robots! Wait, sorry... You can shoot off limbs and stuff to get money to power your squad up. Oh, please, don't take my finger! I need that to keep hat-- I mean, playing your game! I need them to reach the reload button!

When that one guy's shot in the face and you see the skeleton of the robot like Schwarzenegger, that's really cool. It looks real... and good... and they kinda look like real faces, but not... not that's it's a bad thing, it's just… not very good. C'mon, their mouths get kinda messed up, you have to see that! And the skin is a little shiny, and the robots all look the same. What do you EXPECT me to say?!



You're just gonna kill me, aren't you? You might as well say it.... Fine then, the voice acting sucks.  Even the characters around town who are supposed to be speaking Japanese as a first language sound born and bred in the US. The British characters' accents sounds shoddy, the American spouts nothing but bland one-liners and obvious-fake emotion, and Big Bo is the biggest stereotype in gaming since Barrett in Final Fantasy VII.  Seriously, he's nice, but otherwise he's just a big-gun-toting mess.  Is this what you guys thought constituted Americans? It's insulting, really.

Binary Domain controls well at least, I'll give that to you, so you can put the gun down already. The controls are easy to grasp since they're the same as every other third-person shooter, though taking cover is irritating when the run button and cover button are the same, and if you're near cover you'll automatically. See? There's something good, even if the most common enemy is just a few more plates of armor and another paint job. Did you only have one color or something?

And what's up with the money system? Shooting off body parts and armor from any enemy automatically gives money, and that money can be used to buy supplies and power up your squad. It's that easy, no customization other than powering up one of the seven stats of your guy (and the five stats of everyone else). It's rudimentary.  Bland. Doesn't even seem to work sometimes. Oh, I can spend 8000 credits to have my gun fire a round 0.14 seconds instead of 0.15. How can I resist?



The online is like every other shooter, and that's the problem. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, a horde mode, and few other standards—not very imaginative, are you? It's smooth playing online, so it's done well enough.  There, another good thing about a shooter from Japan. Does that make you happy?

Wait, don't I get any last words? Everyone can stand constructive criticism, right? Well, that's a very cold gun barrel. Can't we even warm it up? Last words… OK… it's not bad but not worth paying full price. Sixty bucks feels too high especially when Mass Effect 3 is- *BLAM*