| This alone is motivation enough to play this game. |
Sega's recent contribution to the Spring 2012 lineup proves that the all but diminished publisher still has some spark with the recent release of Binary Domain. This third person shooter certainly borrows a few concepts from other popular titles like Gears of War and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, but the Japanese flair of BD makes this title stand out amongst its peers in a nostalgia inducing way. Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing even though this game has been sorely overlooked since its release. Even if Binary Domain comes across as a formulaic and generic third person shooter, there's still plenty here to make it worthwhile for any fan of Japanese action games.
The single player element uses a squad mechanic that is similar to those used in the Rainbow Six and Ghost recon games published by EA, and your success at moving through corridors and arena areas relies on your ability to successfully command your team. The neat thing about this is that you have the option to give commands and initiate team banter through voice commands by using a headset connected to your favorite gaming system. For example, if you want your squad mates to provide cover fire while you flank your enemies, you can shout "Fire", or "Cover me" and your team will provide the appropriate response. This mechanic works well in most instances, but the voice recognition requires a little bit of tweaking to filter out the ambient noise in your play area. If the sensitivity is too high, and a TV is playing in the background, you are bound to have some funky playback issues as a result.
For those who don't like the voice command system, the menu allows you to change to manual command inputs that are issued by pushing one of the shoulder buttons along with a controller face button. This proves to be somewhat awkward during more intense battle sequences, but it works in a pinch. Your squad mates' responses to simple commands are also dictated by their level of trust for your character which is influenced by dialogue responses, time spent in your squad, poor command choices, etc. The more an NPC trusts you, the better they follow your commands or provide automatic combat support functions and vice versa. As you progress through the game, several segments allow you to change which team members will be assigned to your squad. The choice doesn't affect the ultimate outcome of the game like it would in a Mass Effect game, but the dialogue options change to fit different squad members, and the scripting never sounds awkward when squad members are swapped around. Each NPC has his/her own skill set that can give your squad certain tactical advantages, so it becomes important to make wise squad selections on higher difficulty settings.
Binary Domain also makes use of skill points that are doled out during combat as you take out your robotic foes. Effectively, the more damage you deal to enemies before they collapse, the more reward credits you receive. Credits are then used to purchase weapon upgrades and character buffs such as increased health or agility at in game kiosks. The process is efficiently straight forward, and you are only allowed to buy upgrades for characters that are currently in your squad and typical upgrades include increases to rate of fire, damage, accuracy and so on for each character's primary weapon. Additional weapons and grenades are available for purchase at kiosks as well, but only your main weapon can be upgraded, and will therefore be your go to gun for most of the game.
Despite the fact that Binary Domain is fraught with plot holes, over the top drama, and equally cheesy dialogue, the story is what ties this whole game together. Binary Domain is a game that doesn't take itself too seriously, and that is something that has been sorely lacking from many contemporary titles. While it's clear that a great deal of care went into crafting the world of Binary Domain, the plot never hammers you over the head with dark commentary or overly moody atmosphere. The environments are believable and appropriate, but there is just enough over the top sci fi action to keep things entertaining.
There is a multiplayer mode to Binary Domain, but the entire endeavor felt tacked on and somewhat obligatory when compared to how the rest of the game performed mechanically. Online services are really what sets this mode back with continued issues being tied to input lag, and exceptionally spongy enemies with inconsistent hit registration. The multiplayer cooperative mode is definitely not competition with the likes of Mass Effect 3's more polished combat system.
Even though Binary Domain offers little in the way of innovation or dramatic spectacle, Sega knows how to stir memories and emotions of how games used to make me feel before there was such an emphasis on having the best game on the market. I'm not saying that this game doesn't show a level of polish or effort that makes it worthy of being a current gen title, but rather it offers a level of simplicity that hearkens back to older generation games that appeals to me. I remember dumping hours into games like this in the glory days of the Playstation 2 or the original Xbox, and that is what I love about this game. Binary Domain may not hold up well in comparison with upcoming titles such as Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, but it does such a good job of bringing classic elements into the current generation of games.
Overall Score: 3/5
~Krimmit
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