Binary Domain Review: Fun Action, Great Characters, And A Good Game!

Binary Domain Review

Binary Domain
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
SEGA
Shooter

Binary Domain is a squad based shooter that takes place in the future. The main plot of the story involves two companies that deal in robotics. You and your squad, known as a rust crew, are looking into one of the companies for breaking a law that was put into place for creating robots that look like humans. These robots are known as “Hollow Childs” and they don’t even realize what they are. I must say that the game has a little bit of an “I, Robot” feel to it, but I really enjoyed the story. I thought it was presented very well in terms of cut scenes and the way they built up the story line. I also found the writing to be well done and enjoyed the characters as they interacted with each other. The fact that the characters are interesting and have good personalities is definitely a strong point for this game.

The gameplay is most enjoyable as you shoot at the many different types of robots which include some that are very large in size. Some of those larger “boss” battles are very enjoyable and well done. However, they can be difficult to handle at times causing you to run all over the place looking for extra ammo, or in most cases, extra rockets. It really depends on how accurate you are most of the time. The game does a great job of implementing a lot of enjoyable action sequences to keep you interested and waiting to see what comes next. So it’s not purely shooting robots and making your way to the next chapter without much change. Each sequence I found to be overall well done.

The combat is easy to get used to and it’s not too difficult to take down the basic robots. It has a good covering system to use when dealing with the more difficult enemies. You’ll still have to be aware of enemies that fire missiles at you which can give you a mighty hard time should you not be aware. However, if you take a direct hit, you don’t die instantly as you can carry health packs with you to use in case you do go down. If you don’t have any you can call in one of your squad members to heal you. That’s also another great feature with the game; you can give orders to your squad by voice or by button command. This includes options like telling them to hold, charge, or regroup. You’ll also be communicating with your team members when they ask you questions by simply selecting what is basically a yes or no answer. It’s not real deep or detailed and you could have gone without it, but it’s fine addition.

You’ll be able to upgrade your character by upgrading your character’s gun. There are kiosks scattered throughout the game that will allow you purchase these upgrades for your gun which will make it better in multiple ways, including firepower and accuracy. You can also purchase items that will improve on your characters health, defense or offensive capabilities. Also, should you need more ammo or weapons of any kind; you will be able to use the kiosks for that as well.

Visually I was very impressed with the game in both background details and character animations. It has a lot of great looking moments in the action scenes that I am sure you will enjoy. The cut scenes also look great. The soundtrack is pretty decent as well, and the voice acting is very good which also helps with the enjoyment of each character.

I loved Binary Domain and I was easily hooked on the single player campaign. It has great action sequences that you will enjoy, a decent story with great characters to go along with it, and I thought it was very well written. There is more to enjoy with online capabilities, but this game should be experienced for the single player campaign. If you like shooters and you find the story to be interesting, or even somewhat interesting, you need to check this out. If you think the story sounds bad….you need to check it out!

Score: 9/10