Sega has a problem. The Saturn was great, the Dreamcast was incredible, their games are amazing, and yet nearly all of their endeavors under perform, commercially. In an age where Gears of War is a house hold name, Binary Domain should have been a revelation. By now, we should have been hearing rumors of the highly anticipated sequel. Unfortunately, Sega just doesn't know how to market their products. Not only was there zero buzz for this game leading up to its release, look at the cover; it's terrible! The scene it depicts never even happens, and in no way does it even begin to get across how amazing the game truly is.
Binary Domain is a third person, squad based shooter. While the concept isn't anything new what elevates this game passed series like "
Gears of War 3
is something that rarely shines in modern gaming; its characters. Say what you want about Marcus and Dom, they are cardboard cutouts when placed next to Dan and Bo, the first protagonists you encounter in the game. It has always struck me how clumsy and unnatural in game dialogue has become and that is what sets Binary Domain apart; the dialogue is incredible. I felt like I was in the middle of an exciting Hollywood blockbuster every time the characters spoke. Witty one-liners, catch phrases, sharp retorts, playful banter, casual flirting; this game does it all and, more importantly, does it incredibly well.
Now, all that wonderful dialogue in the world doesn't mean a thing if the gameplay isn't there to back it up and thankfully Binary Domain exceeds expectations. I jumped in on the most challenging difficulty first available and I never felt overwhelmed. If I died, it was on me. Dan, the character you play, moves well, and while I found the cover/run mechanic to be sticky at times, I can honestly say it never once caused me to die, and that is a lot more than I can say for other games in this genre. Each character has a main weapon, which you can upgrade through the stores littered throughout the game, with scrap you have collected from your enemies. This is a point of the game that I love, and it ties into another big part of the games; how much your teammates trust you.
Binary Domain features a system where you can use your mic to order you team around. My mic isn't working at the moment, but the game lets you use buttons just as easily so it isn't an issue. The more your teammates trust you, the more likely they are to listen to you when you ask for cover. How do you earn their trust? Well, there are scripted moments where you can speak with them and provide common sense answers, but the best way to earn their trust is to be great at the game. Getting head shots, mulit-kills, melee enemies, and just being a beast in battle overall earns you respect with your squad, as well as nets you plenty of scrap to use on items, weapons, upgrades, and status boosters. It is so refreshing to play a game that actually rewards you for playing well. Be careful though; you can lose your teams trust through instances of friendly fire, or not holding up your end in battle.
So, the dialogue is the best I have heard in a game in years, the gameplay mechanics are rock solid and reward players who do well; what about the story? I am happy to say that it, like the rest of the game, is amazing. In the future, after major flooding, humanity came to rely on robots. One day however, a man attacks the worlds leading robotics experts, and it is revealed that the man was actually a machine and didn't even know it. The government labels these beings as "Hollow children", which they believe are being made in Japan. They send a "rust crew", the protagonists, to take care of the problem. From there, the moral and philosophical laws of humanity are questioned, but it never becomes preachy or gets in the way of the blasting of "scrap-heads". It is, far and away, the most satisfying story in a third person shooter, I have ever played.
Now for the handful of negatives. There is online multiplayer but it is very bare bones and there is hardly anyone online playing it. While your primary weapon is more than serviceable, the way the secondary weapons are handled could have been better. You will never find ammo for them laying around, not all stores carry ammunition for all secondary weapons, and they aren't upgradeable. Lastly, while the bosses are big and epic, the fights themselves drag out, on average, about five minutes longer than they should. Each boss has multiple forms, and certain weak points, but on the higher difficulty the amount of health they have is absurd, and the fights go from thrilling to monotonous very quickly. None of these minor quibbles are enough, in my eyes, to take away a star from the score, but they are there.
For all you achievement/trophy hunters out there, Binary Domain is a mixed bag. The single player achievements range from story and chapter awards, a handful of skill awards, and lastly trust awards. The multiplayer achievements are more difficult than they should be just for the fact that so few people play this game online, and even fewer play seriously enough to get the achievements. Two achievements worth mentioning are "Big Bo Rescue" and "Comrades in Arms". The former comes towards the end of the fifth chapter, and on the higher difficulties is a pain, just because of how much health the boss has, so I recommend going for it on the lower difficulties. The latter achievement comes if you are trusted by a certain teammate, and for me, makes the ending much better.
Overall, Binary Domain is incredible, and it is a shame that Sega did so little to promote it. The story is engaging, the characters will stay with you, the gameplay is fast and fun, and it is probably my personal game of the year. I highly recommend it. A new classic and a must buy.
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