Binary Domain Review
- Thread starter WMDogma
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Mmm the plot does awfully sound similar to this cgi animated film Vexille (Japan is isolated itself due to having doddy technology so they send a team to investigate it).
Still from the look of the game it does look good.
Still from the look of the game it does look good.
Cover Based combat: check
Watered down RPG elements: check
Squad Loyalty affecting the game: check
Awesome ass-kicking smart-ass robot sidekick: check
I'm getting a real Mass Effect 2 vibe from this, and you know what? I'm okay with that. This is one of those times where a game I would never heard of otherwise crosses my path thanks to a review, and definitely looks like something I will be purchasing at my next opportunity.
Watered down RPG elements: check
Squad Loyalty affecting the game: check
Awesome ass-kicking smart-ass robot sidekick: check
I'm getting a real Mass Effect 2 vibe from this, and you know what? I'm okay with that. This is one of those times where a game I would never heard of otherwise crosses my path thanks to a review, and definitely looks like something I will be purchasing at my next opportunity.
Sega: Yet again proving that provided the game doesn't have the word 'sonic' in it's title, chances are the games actually somewhat good. (Until they release at-least one more good sonic game, I'm gonna count Generations as just a lucky game that wasn't bogged down with as many bugs as it's predecessors).
Also Sega: When can we possibly expect another 3D shinobi outing on Consoles? Seriously, enough is enough. I know we had the 3DS game but, cmon, can we get another console Shinobi game already? ...Please?
OT: Ok, honestly, this game doesn't look too bad and i might give it a look at a later date when i can. Plus, french Robot side-kick..what's not to love about that?
Also Sega: When can we possibly expect another 3D shinobi outing on Consoles? Seriously, enough is enough. I know we had the 3DS game but, cmon, can we get another console Shinobi game already? ...Please?
OT: Ok, honestly, this game doesn't look too bad and i might give it a look at a later date when i can. Plus, french Robot side-kick..what's not to love about that?
Never heard of this game until now, and it does sound and look pretty interesting.
That French robot just might make me get it.
That French robot just might make me get it.
The shooting is fairly decent and the enemy robots come apart in a satisfying spray of sparking metal scrap.
But there's so much missing or should have been missing from this game.
The reputation mechanic is unnecessary and frankly idiotic: a hardened squad of trained soldiers - even mercenaries - isn't going to decide not to take care of flanking enemies just because you stole their juicebox from their lunch. The kind of juvenile attitudes the characters bring to the fore is more akin to a team of 13 year-olds trying to start a rock band, while playing the game Rock Band. I don't like having to pander to each character's petty issues just so they won't throw a big sulk while robots are trying to kill them. A better game would develop the team to match the player's leadership style, and not the other way around. If I were the main character of this game, I'd tell them to shut the damn mouths and do their jobs, or they can start swimming to China right now: I don't have time for their B.S.
Second, the game is a little too challenging. Not in the "well-designed gameplay" kind of way, more a "we've never made a CPS (Covered-Person-Shooter) before, but we played a little Gears of War and thing we can wing it" kind of way. The enemy AI is pretty decent, but your teammates are complete morons, shoving you out of cover, charging on ahead of me while I'm pinned down and getting us all flanked, refusing to shoot at prime targets, and more.
Finally, I felt there was a great chance to add fear and horror into this game, and they completely fumbled it. The trailers and the game itself label themselves as being a game in the same vein as the classic Sega CD game Snatchers, but the idea of a machine race slowly replacing humanity - without us even knowing it - is a frightening thought and it could have opened up a lot of disturbing elements to the narrative: even the implication that a squad-mate (or even YOU) are a replicant android serving some secretive machine conspiracy would add so much depth.
But the game barely touches on the subject: you go into the game fighting blank faced mannequins and you even get one as a squad member, as if to say "robots are innocent, blameless creatures; it's probably those meddling humans that are the REAL threat." I haven't gotten through the entire game and probably never will, but I would not be surprised if the bad guy is a stereotypically Japanese human villain nihilistically convinced he's creating a better world by replacing the human race with robots.
But there's so much missing or should have been missing from this game.
The reputation mechanic is unnecessary and frankly idiotic: a hardened squad of trained soldiers - even mercenaries - isn't going to decide not to take care of flanking enemies just because you stole their juicebox from their lunch. The kind of juvenile attitudes the characters bring to the fore is more akin to a team of 13 year-olds trying to start a rock band, while playing the game Rock Band. I don't like having to pander to each character's petty issues just so they won't throw a big sulk while robots are trying to kill them. A better game would develop the team to match the player's leadership style, and not the other way around. If I were the main character of this game, I'd tell them to shut the damn mouths and do their jobs, or they can start swimming to China right now: I don't have time for their B.S.
Second, the game is a little too challenging. Not in the "well-designed gameplay" kind of way, more a "we've never made a CPS (Covered-Person-Shooter) before, but we played a little Gears of War and thing we can wing it" kind of way. The enemy AI is pretty decent, but your teammates are complete morons, shoving you out of cover, charging on ahead of me while I'm pinned down and getting us all flanked, refusing to shoot at prime targets, and more.
Finally, I felt there was a great chance to add fear and horror into this game, and they completely fumbled it. The trailers and the game itself label themselves as being a game in the same vein as the classic Sega CD game Snatchers, but the idea of a machine race slowly replacing humanity - without us even knowing it - is a frightening thought and it could have opened up a lot of disturbing elements to the narrative: even the implication that a squad-mate (or even YOU) are a replicant android serving some secretive machine conspiracy would add so much depth.
But the game barely touches on the subject: you go into the game fighting blank faced mannequins and you even get one as a squad member, as if to say "robots are innocent, blameless creatures; it's probably those meddling humans that are the REAL threat." I haven't gotten through the entire game and probably never will, but I would not be surprised if the bad guy is a stereotypically Japanese human villain nihilistically convinced he's creating a better world by replacing the human race with robots.
Actually sounds pretty good to me. I won't be picking it up at full price, but it'll definitely be making my short list of titles to keep an eye on for as far as price drops.
Probably the one who played the Strider arcade game.WMDogma said:
SEGA, y u no let me play as the awesome French robot?! Ah, maybe this is weird, but I always get annoyed when a game creates awesome robots and forces me to play as Military Meatsack #411. Games are about escapism and I am a meatsack every day so why won't they let me be a robot?
Hmm, kinda reminds me of Vanquish. Looks interesting, but probably nothing I haven't seen before.
Scarim Coral said:
Hmmm, well my thought was that it seems like someone tried to do Hard Reset or the most recent Terminator-themed shooter with a better budget. No offense to the article writer, it does seem like a theme we've been seeing A LOT over the last couple of years, maybe not as omni-present as zombies or aliens yet, but I think robots are the thing people are looking towards to mix things up as they can be considered "neutral" to avoid inspiring the rage that real world groups do. It's not something we haven't seen "in recent memory".
As far as the theme of technology and humanity, I think the game pretty much covers that fairly well by saying robots and such are okay, but building machines with emotions is not, largely to avoid a lot of the touchier issues brought up in science fiction, without having to stagnate the development of technology. I'd imagine the issue is hard to address in a context like that where the "big issue" has been dealt with in a sensible fashion, and generally speaking your dealing with aberrations to that policy, where any questions raised are pretty much covered under "this giant pile of suck and emotional conflict is why we didn't go here to begin with".
That said the central theme reminds me of "Bubblegum Crisis" with the players being set in the role of early AD police (when they started and were fairly effective) actually, but that's just me.
Given the relative success of Deus-Ex, I do expect a lot of games that get philsophical about the relationship of humanity and technology in the near future, I sort of expect that while this will still seem fresh for a while, it will be crazy painful in short order, I don't think it has the "staying power" of all the stuff attached to zombies to hold on for years and years which is why it hasn't been used more often. It works best in small doses, but I sort of predict we're going to see a major media bombardment, especially with politicians who seem to be increasingly technophobic, and in the end I think a lot of it is going to wind up with the typical Frankenstein-esque "major Tech development is bad".