_Binary Domain Demo Impressions
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Rage review - Binary Domain is a sci-fi third person squad based shooter centered around cyborgs taking over the world. For this particular Gamer Blog article i played it on my Xbox 360. Binary Domain was developed and published by SEGA for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It releases February 28, 2012.
Rage review - Lets start with the title screen. Menus included: Campaign, Xbox Live, Options and Exit. Button layout via the Xbox 360 gamepad: A-evade/hide/dash/climb over, X-melee attack, Y-focus, B-pick up/examine, RS-look, D-pad-change weapons, LS-move, Back-toggle member info, Start-pause, LB-display voice commands, LT-aim, RB-reload/shock burst, RT-shoot.The menu screens all had a futuristic cyber-punk look. As far as the controls go they were clunky for many movements. The melee always gave me problems for some reason. I know you can most likely map buttons accordingly but i normally stick with default.
STAGE 1
Next i choose Campaign which has two separate demos, Stage 1 and Stage 2. I choose Stage 1 first and picked Rustem Up for my difficulty. Whats nice about Binary Domain is that it is a squad based third person shooter much like Ghost Recon. You can pick different squad mates (two) who represent different classes and have different characteristics. Squad members in the demo included Big Bo who is a Heavy Gunner with High Stamina. You have Faye who is a Recon Specialist and Expert Marksman. Charlie is Spec-Ops and is a Tactical Specialist. Last you have Rachel who is Demolitions Class and a expert in CQC. I choose Big Bo and Faye.
You can give orders to squadmates in-game by holding down LB which opens u a menu of commands. Commands include: Y-hold, X-regroup, B-retreat and A-move. Many times during the demo squadmates talk to you bringing up a Y button promp to answer questions. Depending on how you answer squadmates they will follow your orders or ignore you (if you piss them off). The latter has to do with the Trust Level gauge between Dan (protagonist) and squadmates. The latter is pretty cool if it wasn’t for the bad AI in Binary Domain. Stage 1 looked like a shantytown in a futuristic Tokyo. It did not take long before i started firing on the “Scrapheads”. You can immediately pick up and play Binary Domain if you played Gears or War or Uncharted.
What Binary Domain sorta reminds me of is Terminator Salvation (yes i platinumed it). I say that because the robots crawl towards you as you shoot them apart. In Stage 1 you mostly fight simple grunt bots who provide little challenge in 2080 Tokyo. The challenge comes at the end of the demo when you fight a Lancer. Lancers are huge heavily armored bots. You have to knock its shielding off with a Rocket Launcher then jump on it head holding on for dear life and shoot. Stage 1 was short but the Lancer battle at the end makes up for it. For the most part your going cover to cover giving orders to your squad while shooting Scrapheads.
There is a store in Binary Domain’s Stage 1 demo. Its called Ammunition Transit Japan. There you can buy first aid kits and Nano Machines that can boost specific attributes of each squad member permanently. You can also upgrade your weapons in all sorts of ways. You can buy ammo and many other useful items. The stores are located in-game and stops the action when you use them. All guns can be modded on the following statistics: Rounds, Fire Power, Range, Accuracy, Fire Rate, Shock Burst and Bosonic Charge. As far as guns go Dan used an assault-rifle and pistol with a few grenades. I picked up a shotgun, sniper rifle, LMG and Rocket Launcher in-game. All of the guns had average kickback and feel. Aiming was decent.
STAGE 2
Stage 2 takes place in a train station and this time your not bringing the fight to the Scrapeheads. You’re actually being hunted down. Your team for this sequence included Faye and a robot named Cain who had a thick French accent and is a splitting image from the robots from i Robot. Stage 2 really shows how bad the AI is in Binary Domain. The enemies were pretty mindless running past you while in cover. Sometimes they stand around not doing anything. Your squadmates aren’t any better. They get in your way when your trying to shoot Scrapheads and you will get a small penalty from your AI partner for shooting them.
For the most part your running through a train station fighting waves of robots trying to capture Dan, Cain and Faye. Mid-way through the short level you have to fight a “Heavy” bot. You can give squad members orders or take their advice while dealing with the monstrous robot. You continue on making your way through a slew of bullettrains till you reach the ticket counter. At which time a huge robot appears and a cutscene pops on then demo over. Stage 2 had a much different pace than Stage 1 as well its scenery. It also showed off the bad AI as well.
Other Stuff
When you just sit down and play Binary Domain its pretty fun. The gameplay although wasn’t nearly as polished as i hope however i did have a goodtime shooting Scrapheads in 2080 Tokyo. What did get annoying however was the bad voice dialog of my squad, it was terrible. Look, i love cheesy lines when done right ala Vanquish. But Binary Domain wasn’t even funny, just bad. The visuals in the game are decent featuring nice electrical effects when you shoot bots apart.
Visually i have to see more settings of the game. The character models in-game were good. The animations not so much. Moving cover to cover, sprinting and melee attacking robots looks wonky. The sound design minus the voiced dialog was decent. The robots sound like robots. The gunfire and the futuristic effect of the Shock Burst sound cool. The music was decent and had a cyber-punk sci-fi vibe to it.
Binary Domain’s demo didn’t impress me as much as i hoped. It is a good third person squadbase shooter. I really like the game’s atmosphere but the overall presentation really is rough around the edges mostly dealing with AI. Thanks for reading.
Rage review - Binary Domain is a sci-fi third person squad based shooter centered around cyborgs taking over the world. For this particular Gamer Blog article i played it on my Xbox 360. Binary Domain was developed and published by SEGA for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It releases February 28, 2012.
Rage review - Lets start with the title screen. Menus included: Campaign, Xbox Live, Options and Exit. Button layout via the Xbox 360 gamepad: A-evade/hide/dash/climb over, X-melee attack, Y-focus, B-pick up/examine, RS-look, D-pad-change weapons, LS-move, Back-toggle member info, Start-pause, LB-display voice commands, LT-aim, RB-reload/shock burst, RT-shoot.The menu screens all had a futuristic cyber-punk look. As far as the controls go they were clunky for many movements. The melee always gave me problems for some reason. I know you can most likely map buttons accordingly but i normally stick with default.
STAGE 1
Next i choose Campaign which has two separate demos, Stage 1 and Stage 2. I choose Stage 1 first and picked Rustem Up for my difficulty. Whats nice about Binary Domain is that it is a squad based third person shooter much like Ghost Recon. You can pick different squad mates (two) who represent different classes and have different characteristics. Squad members in the demo included Big Bo who is a Heavy Gunner with High Stamina. You have Faye who is a Recon Specialist and Expert Marksman. Charlie is Spec-Ops and is a Tactical Specialist. Last you have Rachel who is Demolitions Class and a expert in CQC. I choose Big Bo and Faye.
You can give orders to squadmates in-game by holding down LB which opens u a menu of commands. Commands include: Y-hold, X-regroup, B-retreat and A-move. Many times during the demo squadmates talk to you bringing up a Y button promp to answer questions. Depending on how you answer squadmates they will follow your orders or ignore you (if you piss them off). The latter has to do with the Trust Level gauge between Dan (protagonist) and squadmates. The latter is pretty cool if it wasn’t for the bad AI in Binary Domain. Stage 1 looked like a shantytown in a futuristic Tokyo. It did not take long before i started firing on the “Scrapheads”. You can immediately pick up and play Binary Domain if you played Gears or War or Uncharted.
What Binary Domain sorta reminds me of is Terminator Salvation (yes i platinumed it). I say that because the robots crawl towards you as you shoot them apart. In Stage 1 you mostly fight simple grunt bots who provide little challenge in 2080 Tokyo. The challenge comes at the end of the demo when you fight a Lancer. Lancers are huge heavily armored bots. You have to knock its shielding off with a Rocket Launcher then jump on it head holding on for dear life and shoot. Stage 1 was short but the Lancer battle at the end makes up for it. For the most part your going cover to cover giving orders to your squad while shooting Scrapheads.
There is a store in Binary Domain’s Stage 1 demo. Its called Ammunition Transit Japan. There you can buy first aid kits and Nano Machines that can boost specific attributes of each squad member permanently. You can also upgrade your weapons in all sorts of ways. You can buy ammo and many other useful items. The stores are located in-game and stops the action when you use them. All guns can be modded on the following statistics: Rounds, Fire Power, Range, Accuracy, Fire Rate, Shock Burst and Bosonic Charge. As far as guns go Dan used an assault-rifle and pistol with a few grenades. I picked up a shotgun, sniper rifle, LMG and Rocket Launcher in-game. All of the guns had average kickback and feel. Aiming was decent.
STAGE 2
Stage 2 takes place in a train station and this time your not bringing the fight to the Scrapeheads. You’re actually being hunted down. Your team for this sequence included Faye and a robot named Cain who had a thick French accent and is a splitting image from the robots from i Robot. Stage 2 really shows how bad the AI is in Binary Domain. The enemies were pretty mindless running past you while in cover. Sometimes they stand around not doing anything. Your squadmates aren’t any better. They get in your way when your trying to shoot Scrapheads and you will get a small penalty from your AI partner for shooting them.
For the most part your running through a train station fighting waves of robots trying to capture Dan, Cain and Faye. Mid-way through the short level you have to fight a “Heavy” bot. You can give squad members orders or take their advice while dealing with the monstrous robot. You continue on making your way through a slew of bullettrains till you reach the ticket counter. At which time a huge robot appears and a cutscene pops on then demo over. Stage 2 had a much different pace than Stage 1 as well its scenery. It also showed off the bad AI as well.
Other Stuff
When you just sit down and play Binary Domain its pretty fun. The gameplay although wasn’t nearly as polished as i hope however i did have a goodtime shooting Scrapheads in 2080 Tokyo. What did get annoying however was the bad voice dialog of my squad, it was terrible. Look, i love cheesy lines when done right ala Vanquish. But Binary Domain wasn’t even funny, just bad. The visuals in the game are decent featuring nice electrical effects when you shoot bots apart.
Visually i have to see more settings of the game. The character models in-game were good. The animations not so much. Moving cover to cover, sprinting and melee attacking robots looks wonky. The sound design minus the voiced dialog was decent. The robots sound like robots. The gunfire and the futuristic effect of the Shock Burst sound cool. The music was decent and had a cyber-punk sci-fi vibe to it.
Binary Domain’s demo didn’t impress me as much as i hoped. It is a good third person squadbase shooter. I really like the game’s atmosphere but the overall presentation really is rough around the edges mostly dealing with AI. Thanks for reading.