The year is 2080, global warming has caused a rise of sea level resulting in the flooding of all coastal cities across the globe. Humans have adapted to their new world by building on top of their dead cities. With so much of the population devastated by the rampant flooding, humans are forced to assemble robotic assistants for the construction of the new world. Two countries specialize in manufacturing these robotic construction workers, the United States and Japan, making them the two top nations in the world. Behind the scenes, the American company, Bergen, steals years of research from the Tokyo research plant known as Amada. This theft puts the USA on the top of all other nations.
In response to a growing fear of robots, the united nations signs a new agreement which bans research into robots which can pass as human. Of course, science ignores this edict, and "humans" which turn out to be robots without even knowing it begin to appear across the globe.
Players take the role of Dan Marshall, the leader of a "Rust Squad", a team of highly trained warriors tasked with eliminating robotic threats. The Japanese company Amada is believed by the United Nations to be the source of the human-like robots known as "Hollow Children". Marshall's multinational squad is sent to Tokyo to destroy the robot threat, and to bring Amada's company head in for jailing, a task which will pull them deep into a worldwide conspiracy.
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| "I swear, I had no idea I was a robot, sure I drank oil and never ate..but still!" |
Binary Domain's gameplay should be familiar to anyone who has played many of the modern, cover-based Third-Person shooters. Combat becomes nearly impossible without making strategic use of the cover strewn throughout levels, as the enemy AI seeks to flank or overwhelm players in the open.
While the gameplay mechanics aren't completely original, Binary Domain offers a couple of features which help it to stand out from other games in the now standardized genre. The first of these features is that when taking damage, enemy robots actually have body parts destroyed which can affect their movement and attacking behaviors. I'll also mention that the physical damage looks quite stunning as you blow pieces of metal and plastic off of enemy bots, exposing their inner-workings.
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| It wasn't unarmed before, but it sure is now! |
Another big difference between this game and others in the genre is that players command a team of two operatives in addition to directly controlling Marshall. While in similar games, you may work alongside two AI companions, Binary Domain gives you the ability to actually command your squad via in-game commands. Making this ability even more interesting, the game allows players to use their gaming headset's microphone to issue commands and respond to teammates.
Responding to your squad is actually extremely important in Binary Domain as the game includes a trust/mistrust system for each squad member. Trust can be gained or lost depending on your treatment of a character, including friendly fire, how you respond to them, how you respond to other squad mates talking about the character, and even if you support them in combat. Depending on their level of trust for Marshall, teammates may act differently in combat. This trust even affects how teammates react in their decisions, changing the storyline of the game.
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| "A grenade? No! I command you to run up there and punch it right in the face!" - Dan Marshall R.I.P. |
Binary Domain features many gigantic bosses that you must defeat using different strategies. While these battles are quite entertaining, they are also my major complaint with the game. Bosses take way too long to defeat. Basically every boss battle drags on to the point of becoming either boring or extremely frustrating. In order to balance the massive amounts of damage these robotic monstrosities can take it seems that Sega reduced their lethality. What results are long, drawn-out battles in which you are never in much danger. This equation equals boredom. Checkpoints are also spread pretty far apart in these usually multi-stage battles, meaning that if you do end up dying in the fight, you're sent sometimes quite far back into the fight, making you redo that same boring battle over and over.
While Binary Domain's story isn't exactly breath-taking, it's more than sufficient to keep players venturing forward and blasting apart security bots by the hundreds. A diverse cast of squad members that can be chosen from for your team add a bit of spice to the otherwise mundane corridor by corridor adventure. I will say though that the characters have some pretty bad dialogue every now and then.
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| "And then, the robot was like 'sorry, I only listen to metal' get it? metal!? he's a robot!" |
The single player campaign lasts around the standard 10 hours for an action game. Things might go on a bit longer though, thanks to the annoying checkpoints forcing players to replay long sections of battles.
While Binary Domain does feature a multiplayer component, the online community is pretty much dead. From what I could tell, the game modes were all pretty par for the course and nothing really stuck out as interesting, so I don't really feel that I missed much by not getting to play online. The one thing I would have liked to have seen in the game was online or split-screen cooperative play, but there is absolutely no support for either in the game.
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| "Another boss fight...seriously?" |
Even with Binary Domain's mostly unoriginal gameplay and annoying boss fights, I still found the game to be fun overall. I can't express how fun it is to blow off chunks of metal from enemies as they shamble towards you in a zombie-like horde. Since the game is lacking in some aspects, I can only really recommend that it be purchased at less than full price, and only if you're interested in single player. Given these allowances, Binary Domain is an enjoyable, robot-blasting, Third-Person Shooter.
Amulets and Ale Rating:
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