Target the head and other appendages to gain extra credits when turning robots into scrap.In yet another cautionary tale about how self-aware robots will one day turn on their human masters, Binary Domain casts you as Dan Marshall, a soldier leading an international covert-ops squad in what could most neatly be described as Gears of War meets The Terminator. When convincing human-like robots begin infiltrating the highest echelons of society in the year 2080, your team is ordered into Tokyo to blast scrap-heads and find their enigmatic creator. The derivative storyline packs in plot twists that you’ll see coming before you even open the box, although it gamely attempts to evoke emotion from the “robots that don’t know they’re robots” theme that’s been exhausted by the likes of Battlestar Galactica.
For this third-person squad-based shooter, you and your A.I. teammates journey from one ferocious firefight to the next, punctuated by big set-piece events, impressive boss battles, and fast-moving vehicle chases. Robot enemies range in size from skittering spider-like annoyances to a building-sized arachnid defeated only by destroying the gearworks on each leg. It’s fun targeting individual body parts on robots — especially the humanoid ones — for procedural damage (no head makes them shoot indiscriminately; no legs reduces them to a literal crawl), and every part blasted off earns you credits you can trade in for more ammo and weapons, skill advancements for you and your squadmates, and weapon upgrades. Though sometimes repetitive, combat is tense, frantic, and structured in such a way that a big new boss or new challenge is always around the corner.
Bosses tend to copycat the animal kingdom.More of a dud is Binary’s Consequence System, which tracks your in-game actions and teammate interactions, allegedly affecting how well they’ll take your orders. In practice, the system is shallow and seems to have little effect on gameplay. To make matters worse, the game encourages you to interact via headset, but the spotty speech-recognition system frequently misinterpreted our commands and confused ambient sounds for random obscenities.
Binary includes several co-op and versus multiplayer modes, but they’re mostly forgettable and robot-free. Competitive modes for up to 10 players are generic human-vs.-human exercises and co-op merely sends your squad against wave after wave of machines. Considering the solo campaign’s sequel-friendly conclusion, don’t be surprised if Sega gets a second-chance to fine-tune the formula for Binary Domain II.
PUBLISHER: Sega • DEVELOPER: Ryu ga Gotoku Studio • ESRB: Mature • MULTIPLAYER: 10 on Xbox Live • ACHIEVEMENTS: Steady • COST: $60
+ Fast-moving, robot-blasting action.
+ Several cool bosses and set-piece events.
– The Consequence System is of no consequence; co-op and versus multiplayer don’t add much to the package.
? Has any other game had a French-robot ally?
Colin H
February 25, 2012 at 3:46pm
Sorry to put this here, but I didn't know where else to ask. Is there any way (probably one I am missing) to tell what content from the website (like this review) is going to be in the magazine? Living in Canada, my magazines come in bunches (usually none for a couple months, then two in a couple days). And sometimes when they come I find a bunch of the articles are already on here. I don't buy a magazine for breaking news, but neither do I want to wait a couple months and then read a magazine where half of everything is a repeat that I end up skipping. As a result, I don't read anything on the site here, so as not to spoil the magazine. The other option was to unsubscribe to the magazine, and only come here. Could it be made clear somehow when something is "website only" so I can use the site and the magazine (and awesome podcast of course, which is the best part of the whole lot), without one of those spoiling the other? Of course, as I said, this probably is already clear somewhere and I'm just too dense to see it. Thanks.
