Binary Domain is a tremendously silly 360-era cover shooter from some members of the Yakuza team. Following on from Kalimba last week, it's another Back Page Pod recommendation - very much 'One of those sevens' - but I'd say I enjoyed it more than that cursed appellation suggests — it's great.

On the face of it, like a lot of third-person games of its time, there's a resemblance to Gears of War, but this feels a lot lighter on its feet both in terms of gameplay and tone. Instead of meaty aliens with lots of gibs, here you're fighting robot enemies who have a wonderful habit of shattering in a cascade of scrap metal each time they die. Shoot their heads off (with a dopamine-inducing 'PING!' every time) and they lose their marbles and turn on each other, which is always good fun to watch. There are a handful of bosses and set pieces, including an arbitrary power-sliding-down-a-long-slope bit, a shoot-enemies-from-a-moving-car section, and a for-some-reason-there-are-jetskis-in-this-sewer-so-we-can-copy-the-bit-from-the-end-of-Resi-4 episode, but they're all good fun.

The shooting is punctuated frequently by cut-scenes which tell you the luxuriantly stupid story. You play all-American Dan Marshall, Super Action Soldier and leader of a crew of unlikely military types. They're on a covert mission to Neo Tokyo to take out evil genius robot designer Yoji Amada. Alongside Dan, there's Big Bo, your muscle-bound, machine-gun-wielding sidekick. He has an afrohawk, unnervingly protrubent eyes, and he says things like 'Aw, shit' and 'Hell no' a lot. There's also Charlie and Rachael, two Cor Blimey, Guv'nah! Brits who have been sent along to keep them two crazy Yanks in line. Then there's Faye, the beautiful yet mysterious Chinese (though voiced by American actress Laura Bailey) sniper who's hiding a secret behind those dark eyes of hers.

Best of all, however, is my good boy Cain, an outrageously Fahrrrrech android who murders the baddie robots by bludgeoning them to death with his endless supplirs of baguettes and accordions. Not really, but for the amount of "Zut alors", "Mon dieu"s and "Merci monsieur"s he gets through in every single encounter, you'd be forgiven for thinking so.

Anyway, Binary Domain is eight hours long, it runs brilliantly on the Steam Deck, it cost me about three pounds, and you'll probably get through the entire game without dying once. What more do you want?

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios second take in shooters is a pretty good one. The entire team are so experienced with action that they can handle turn based, hack and slash, shooting mechanics, beat up or even help with things like adventure just fine.

Binary Domain is very much like Gears of Wars but the entire concept of picking this and putting Persona 1 concepts in the game with Ninja Gaiden 2 style of action made everything feel way more unique. The entire squad is fun to dealt with, the multiple way the campaign can go on makes me want to try again some other time, the enemies are all very fun and even the story is very cool. It isn't RGGS doing masterpieces like they are used to but I can't find anything that bothers me besides knowing that the studio can be at the same level as Takeshi Kitano or Kinji Fukusaku if they want to.

My only problem with the entire game is two things that never bothered me in ANY Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios game and let me very sad because of this. The soundtrack and boss fight, both are so forgettable and generic that is the only thing that make strange RGGS making this game. But overall, very good stuff.

Cain is the coolest character ever btw

Very generic linear story-driven TPS with a bad story and a stupid voice gimmick.

It keeps pestering you with dialogue options that don't matter. You can reply to most questions with "Damn", "God Damn" or "Shit", which I don't even know what these responses are supposed to mean in yes-or-no questions, but it's pretty funny. I wish the protagonist was voiced though.

Every character is unlikeable or cliched. You can give out tactical commands, but they don't matter because the game is so linear and simple. You're basically just blasting through tunnels of enemies with occasional cutscenes, scripted sequences and boss fights (which are atrocious). The art design is very plain, the music is forgettable. There's a tacked-on upgrade system which is needlessly complicated (who wants to play tetris when choosing upgrades?), so I simply ignored it.

The AI companions are so stupid and annoying, they constantly get in your line of fire or push you out of your cover, or die and need rescuing. On this one boss fight, one of them died and the other one was like "do you wanna help him?" and I was like "No", and she was like "well, I can't!", only to change her opinion a few seconds later, when I already exposed myself to try and save that idiot, and go "do you want me to help him?", and I was like "yeah!", and she was like "ugh, alright". As a result we all got murdered. Brilliant.

I went into this game having mostly only heard of it offhandedly via a joke from the Starship Amazing crew, so I thought I might get some giggles out of it and maybe play it for like an hour. Eight straight hours later I was watching the credits back, holding back crying at the happy ending (and I'm very much a sucker for a happy ending).

On the technical side, the game isn't anything totally groundbreakingly amazing: It's a 3rd person cover shooter. Though it mixes things up with upgradable guns, and passives you can buy to toggle in and out of your various squad members, those don't really add too much. There's a kind of squad maneuvering system where you actually talk into your microphone to issue commands to your squad to give them instructions beyond their AI, but I felt way too embarrassed to really give it any decent attempt, and there are hotkeys you can use by holding TAB anyway, so it's really just a novelty. I personally never used the squad system much, but maybe it's one of those things that's only necessary on harder difficulties.

The one bit I did think was pretty cool was, because most all the enemies you fight are (at least vaguely) humanoid robots, you can shoot off their limbs, and their combat tactics will shift accordingly. Lose their gun holding arm? They'll pick it up in their other one and keep firing at you. Lose their legs? They'll crawl at you, "Aliens"-style, graspin' at ya, and you'll have to shoot them off your leg if they get'cha. And, if you shoot off their head without damaging them too much before hand, they'll start firing on their robo-comrades, giving you an incentive to be accurate.

The game also has tons of really big and varied boss battles, most of which I can't imagine doing on a controller because your shots would need to be so precise, but damn, that final boss was a tough bastard.

The combat was fun and fast-paced enough that it let me really enjoy the story. The story is almost a BattleStar Galactica-type deal, but before any of the actual show. It's 2080, and robots have become a big deal in replacing humans in the workforce after climate change-induced flooding kills 75% of the world's population. Although, recently robots completely indistinguishable from humans have shown up, so good they don't even know they're robots, and humans are understandably upset about this. Your mission is to break into a fascist-run isolationist Japan and find the robot-producing company owner you think is responsible.

The main character doesn't seem like he has too much personality at first, especially with how you, the player, are kind of intended to provide his voice usually during the game-play's banter, but he starts talking a lot more after the first chapter. Your squad mates though, they're where all the great stuff is. I found just about everyone from pig-headed, one-liner quipping Big Bo, to the no nonsence Faye all very griping, and it really had me by the throat to see the conclusion.

Conclusion: This is another little single-player (though it does have online) gem that really flew under the radar of most everyone last gen, it seems. It's nothing incredible in terms of innovative gameplay, but it tells a great and compelling story, and considering it's on PS3, 360, and PC and routinely goes for under a fiver for each, it's a great way to spend half of a day.

I'm calling it now, Binary Domain is the best shooter I've played, period. Whether that speaks volume to my own personal tastes, or the game itself is up to you to decide, but I'll try my best to explain. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios added something really special to this game, from the writing being both corny and endearing, to the slower non-shooting segments of the game where you walk down some pretty densely detailed environments filled with NPC's to listen to and teammate conversations to participate in. There's a lot in this that reminds me of the best parts of Final Fantasy XIII right down to the neofuturistic world design, font choice for subtitles, menu ui, and the upgrade stations being little shopping kiosks sprinkled throughout the linear level designs. While the story wasn't all that original, it really leans into the tropes of the genre with complete sincerity. This is all carried by the characters. It really struck me during the opening mission that Dan and Bo have such a natural way of speaking to each other. Dan himself is just very charismatic which is such a breath of fresh air for one of these military man type-main characters. I think Charlie and Rachel were the only 2 characters I didn't care too much for only, especially come the last couple chapters where everything gets a lot more serious and predictable in-fighting starts happening.

Speaking of talking, this game has voice commands that work some of the time. There's a huge plethora of voice lines that you can shout out mid-combat to varying degrees of success and functionality. While I did ultimately turn it off part-way through, it did provide a lot of entertainment when screensharing the game with friends. It's completely unnecessary since turning them off still allows you to communicate with your teammates with the 4 most vital combat commands, showing just how irrelevant pretty much all of the others are.

Something about the combat that felt really good was the almost Resident Evil 4-like interaction you can have with enemies. Shooting different parts of them can lead to different interactions, like if you take out their legs they'll start crawling toward you, taking our their arms makes them run up to you to melee instead of shoot, and popping their heads makes them turn into a very temporary ally. By the end I was pretty much always aiming for headshots, but it was nice knowing if someone or a group was too far away I could spray and pray my way through most combat scenarios.

The bosses were pretty much all great too, I loved their designs especially the huge ones. They really make you use your primary gun's blast attack since it provides a temporary stunned state to the boss, most of which have very aggressive melee attacks that can knock you down in one to two hits so getting those stuns as windows to move away or have your squad riddle it with bullets is essential.

The only things I didn't really like were the Mad Max / Gears of War outfits that you have on the entire game. They are just a bit too generic looking for my liking, especially after the really cool sci-fi scubagear wet suits Dan and Bo had on in the first chapter. Also like I mentioned earlier, a lot of the charm in the writing is lost toward the end of the game.

I liked this one a lot. I might even say that I loved it.

Not : Bu yazı Steam incelemesidir Steam hesabım profilimde mevcuttur. Öncelikle oyun çok güzel yani ben baya beğendim açıkçası oyunu almanızı tavsiye ederdim lakin edemiyorum çünkü indirim dönemi bitti ve maalesef bu fiyata birazcık pahalı gibi önceki incelemelerimi okuduysanız burada'da aynı olaydan gideceğim artılar,eksiler ve son söz öncelikle artılar'dan başlayalım.

+ Vuruş Hissi : Tamamında robot vurduğumuz bir oyuna göre epey sağlam vuruş hissi var robotların sıktığımız yerlerinin parçalanması büyük robotları öldürdüğümüz zaman gelen o tatmin hissi yani kısacası vuruş hissi baya iyi.

+ Karakterler : Bu oyundaki karakterler nedense iyi yazılmış karakterler ben oyuna başlarken öyle sıradan ver komut yerine getirsin denen ruhsuz boş karakterlerden sanmıştım ama öyle değil her bir karakterde ruh var en kötüsünde bile size konuştuğunu hissediyorsunuz özellikle Faye, Bo, Dan baya iyi en azından benim en sevdiğim bunlar oldu oyunun sonlarına doğru baya şaşırtıcı olaylar oluyor oyunu oynadıkça yanınıza aldığınız karakterlerle onlar size konuştuğunda verdiğiniz cevaplarla çatışırken size fikir söylediklerinde sizin evet veya hayır demenize evet dediğinizde ne kadar fikrine uyduğunuza göre'de oyunun sonu değişiyor bu baya iyi olmuş oyun beni bu konuda baya şaşırttı. (biraz fazla abartmışım)

+ Bölümler : Neredeyse her bölüm farklı oyunu zevkli kılan unsurlarla dolu temelde az çeşitlilik oyun bazen uzun koridorlarda bazen araba kovalamacalarında bazende büyük bir alana bırakıp ya boss yada küçük robot vuruyorsunuz ki bu bence zevkli yinede tekrar ettiğini inkar edemem.

+ Hikaye : Oyun 2080 yılında geçiyor Türkiye süper güç olmuş insanlar robotlar eşliğinde güle oynaya hayatlarını sürdürüyordur ancak Amada adlı şerefsiz şirketin amacı başkadır (buradan sonrasını kendiniz oynayın üşendim yazmaya) kısaca oyunun hikayesini bir şeye benzetmek gerekirse Detroit Become Human ve Ben Robot filminin karışımı yani hikaye iyi bence bir göz atın baya ilginç olaylar var. (DİKKAT!! SPOİLER BİR SONRAKİ ARTIYA GEÇ) ağzına sıçayım'ki oyunun sonunda devamı gelecekmiş gibi açık kapı bıraktılar sizin yapacağınız işi sikeyim amk japonları.

Üşendim o yüzden şimdi eksiler.

- Kontroller : Oyunun kontrolleri o kadar rezalet değil ama biraz ham biraz kütük kalmış yinede aşırı rahatsız etmiyor oyunu aka aka oynayıp bitirebiliyorsunuz.

- Grafikler : Maalesef zamana göre bence biraz kötü grafikleri var grafikler en yüksekte olmasına rağmen daha iyisini beklerdim.

- Final Boss : Maalesef oyunun son boss'u o kadar iyi değildi daha iyisini beklerdim baya sönük kalmış yinede çatışma eğlenceli olduğu için sabredebiliyorsunuz.

SON SÖZ : Bu oyun zamanında hiç yüzüne bakılmamış inceleme puanlarına aldanmayın baya keyifliydi oyunun mic den konuşma ayarı varmış ama iyi çalışmıyor boşuna deneyip kanser olmayın oynun düzgün türkçe yaması'da yok sadece translate çeviri var ona göre ben çok sevdim bu fiyata alınır(dı) 10 saat için bence iyi bir fiyat 10 üzerinden 8.