Binary Domain

The game is definitely showing its age, but I still found it quite enjoyable for the most part.
The settings launcher is pretty awful and getting controls to work took a little bit of tinkering.
If you're using a controller, plug it in after the game starts! - Then it will work as intended.

As for the story and gameplay, I had fun. Finished the game over 2 days and got hooked fairly quick.
Shooting and upgrades feel decently impactful, though the bosses with a million health felt super tedious to fight.
They heavily encourage to use your microphone to say voice commands to your squad, but honestly, who is surprised when I say it worked a quarter of the time? - Seems like a fun gimmick, but that's all it is. It can be easily turned off in the in-game menu settings.

Story wise it is not a masterpiece but parts of it is entertaining enough.
It reminded me of the good old PS2/PS3 era shooters with a serious and silly story line, kinda like Timesplitters but way less humorous, but it has that feeling from back then.
Cheesy voice lines and 'murica character.

Performance wise it ran just fine for me, no issues there. Ran at 1440p at 240hz with V-Sync enabled.
Loading screens are pretty much non-existent, but hey the game looks like its 15+ years old.
Set up the graphics and Field of View settings in the configuration client, and after that it will be a more pleasant experience.

For whatever reason, I decided to play on the highest difficulty. I can't recommend doing that since some parts are ridiculously unforgiving meanwhile other parts are a breeze. Either there's some serious balancing issues or I just need to git gud considering I died ton of times and had to restart parts of levels multiple times.
Just play on medium difficulty, the frustration is not worth it.
I mean.. Unless you want to be part of the 6% of people who went through the suffering like me. :)

I'll rate it a solid 7/10.
The remaining 3 points are for the incredibly tiring bosses that take a few thousand bullets (I wish I was kidding...), unforgiving areas with one-shot kills from enemies and fairly repetitive gameplay loop.

Some reviews here complain about not being able to redo keybindings or adjust mouse sensitivity or such. That's not true anymore, there is a set up mode to adjust these things when you boot up the game.

The game itself feels old and "gamy".. which is a fresh thing weirdly nowadays. To have a fast paced under 10 hours straight forward single player campaign with great boss battles and set pieces. The action is solid and I love the "shooting parts off robots" mechanic. It kept me interested in the action right to the end. The story is fascinating but silly, the characters are campy/cringe but some of them are a bit cool or offer some deep thoughts occasionally.

To be honest I had more fun with this game than I have with most current AAA games. I recommend Binary Domain.

Back to play this game again after 7 years, and this Steam copy is the second copy that i bought... STILL GOOD AS HECK!!!

COME ON I'M DYING FOR A GOOD SEQUEL HERE!

Binary Domain. Yes.

I am impressed with the game and have gotten into it. I appreciate the personalities of the characters as well as the storyline; nevertheless, the combat is extremely good and a little frustrating because to the camera shakenness. But generally, I enjoy the game.

خساره اذا ما جربتها تستاهل كل فلس

Binary Domain has a strong and interesting story, good dubbing and good character writing. It also has an interesting party system, where you can mix-and-match party members to take into the extended combat sequences, which is fun. The game is pretty tight and cinematic, rarely dragging long enough between cutscenes, action setpieces, or boss fights to overstay its welcome. On the other hand...

actually playing feels like death by a thousand cuts. Funky camera controls, an absolutely awful settings menu that needs to be launched separately from the game (yes, you have to set your keybinds, then close the whole setting exe, then open the game and sit through the opening screens), and the tendency for your aim to bounce so hard you can barely land shots as all of the enemies on the stage light you up like a christmas tree. Some boss fights are criminally unfun, with missiles feeling extra punishing because you have to choose between looking at them, or running away from them and it's pretty tough to do one without the other. Getting knocked around by explosives or later enemy types makes you feel like an idiot, though that feeling is partially offset when you do something cool during a regular enemy section and get the entire party complimenting you. In one moment, Dan is an exemplary action hero, and in the other, he's running around cover-to-cover, getting pelted with bullets, sort-of ragdolled by explosions, wondering whether the boss just has a ton of health or if he doesn't understand the gimmick to kill it.

Overall it's like a 5.1/10, a game I'm deeply thankful I don't have to play anymore but still look at with strange fondness.

Janky mouse movement, abysmal controller maping and configuration. Even the one unique thing to this third person shooter being the microphone system where you can command your squadmates via voice commands does not work in the pc version of the game. Despite all of that, why am I in love?

Story - I was honestly expecting some run of the mill humans vs. robots terminator shmuck but that all got flipped upside down with the certain themes that this game brings up. I won't spoil much, but the whole lore about the "hallow children" had me hooked and my eyes glued to the screen wanting more information on their heritage and purpose. The world of Binary Domain was also rich in diverse locations having you ascend up the ruins of Japan to their new dystopian upper reaches, and the game really had a nice feeling of progression the more and more you traversed. A huge A+ for me is the replayablity this game gives you. There is a loyalty system that ties you to your crew's bonds and at first I thought this was all gameplay related (which it is aswell, having the higher loyalty give your team mates more of a reason to follow your commands while having less loyalty gives them a reason to ignore it), but it turns out its also immensely story related. I'm not talking about, picking a crew member for a specific mission and just having different dialogue play out (though I cannot imagine the amount of voice lines recorded for this game, the variety is nuts), I mean depending on how well you participated in battles, and gave optimal enough commands, that could affect the character's fate or actions by the end of the game. I was completely blown away when I found this out, and blown away again on my second playthrough when I found out I could save certain characters from the choices I unknowingly made in my first playthrough. I'm not saying the story is perfect, but it definitely fulfilled what I wanted out of a game about blasting through robots. Its just dumb fun.

Gameplay - So yes, as stated at the start the game has some stiff mouse movements, if you want to play on a controller good luck and find a guide for that shit, old pc config (so you have to relaunch the game everytime you want to change settings for EVERYTHING), etc. However, as a third person shooter, its pretty solid. The main appeal to me was definitely the commanding system, where you call the shots for your team mates on how to persue different situations. Like charging down weak wittled defenses, or holding contested ground. Another cool thing about the system is that your crew mates sometimes give feedback on your shot calling like if you stayed back and let them do all of the work they would acknowledge that and call you a fucker, good stuff. I was though heavily disappointed with the mic system does not work since that was my draw in from actually playing this game.

Multiplayer - Funnily enough there was a multiplayer mode in this game that features the standard matchmaking of team deathmatch, free for all, etc. Aswell as invasion mode which tests you and your team's mettle against waves of robots in round based gameplay. Unfortunately, the no one is playing the multiplayer. Thought i'd mention it though.... because I wanna play it...... so if anyone gets the game or already has this game..... add me so we can play the multiplayer... please.

If you're in the mood to try out something different and have some cash to burn, go ahead and give this game a whirl. Even if you only stick around for one playthrough this experience will leave an impression on you.

By far one of the most stupid games I've played, which is its strength.

Terrible controls, poor point of Third Person camera, nearly impossible enemies to kill and they look at you and you die. I tried playing it and got far but one boss was invincible and could not damage it so could not progress into the story. Cool characters and good storyline but a near impossible game to beat.

The controller mapping on this is truly abysmal. Why is this so difficult? It states you can setup Xbox 360 controls in the configuration, but when you start the game it's fubar.

A game with this title being released today would be... complicated. All jokes aside, this is a fantastic action game. It's worth playing now because it looks amazing on modern hardware.

Fun gameplay with an unique enemy limb destruction mechanic. Good story that isn't overly dramatic. The voice commands are really janky and is much better if you use the button prompts instead. Overall a really fun game.

Seems like it should be fun. If you have high tolerance for poor design choices and other bs it might be. Get ready for the gigantic weapon selector menu to cover your screen every time you touch an interactable object, having your other controls locked because they want you to focus on moving only, or having your current weapon being reset to your primary every time there's a hint of a cutscene. If you can't deal with that, stay far far away.

Oh and don't even think about playing this with mouse and keyboard unless you want to run a 3rd party program (found in discussions for this game) to fix the insanely bad mouse acceleration.

U CAN HAVE SEX

The clunky keyboard and mouse controls may take some getting used to, but the story, the characters, and the action are all great. This game feels like a bit like Half-Life in terms of variety and scenic views.

Combat AI could use a little more work, but the gameplay as a whole is pretty decent.
Loved the story.
This game deserves more love.

Binary Domain is an underrated third-person sci-fi shooter that offers a gripping story set in a futuristic world where humans face off against human-like robots. The game features smooth, cover-based combat with varied enemy types and a unique "consequence system," where your squadmates' loyalty changes based on your decisions and actions. The story explores themes of AI ethics and what it means to be human, adding emotional depth to the action-packed gameplay. While the voice command system can be hit-or-miss, the overall experience is engaging. Its is a hidden gem for fans of sci-fi shooters looking for a mix of action and narrative depth

chris evans in credits

bought this because i'm a yakuza fan and wondered what a third person shooter by RGG would be like. ended up with an extremely fun shooter that i enjoyed thoroughly despite some minor jank here and there. not super long but it has multiple endings and is only 3 dollars when on sale. can't recommend it enough

Truly a non-binary domain

combat can be clunky, and a couple of boss fights are unfair just for the sake of being annoying. when a fight is based on luck and timing, not skill or strategy, it's not fun.

the sound is mastered HORRIBLY, and there are numerous sound errors throughout the game.

voice communication is very broken, and the few options they give you as button dialogue options, aren't very helpful. i found myself using them less than 5% of the game.

mouse sensitivity is a big issue. i had to cheese one boss because turning my character even 90 degrees would take 5 or more BIG swipes of my mouse. i even restarted with sensitivity maxed out and it didn't change anything.

other than these comparatively, SMALL infractions, this game is a 9/10 on any day.

fantastic voice acting, funny dialogue, meaningfully built relationships. there are a ton of good twists and turns in the story, leaving you guessing till the end!

arcade style point system for killing enemies etc. those points are then used to upgrade things like weapon damage, and passive abilities, purchase first aid kits etc.

there is no "death". you get knocked down and have to use a medical kit to 'revive' yourself. the checkpoint will only restart if you've been downed and are out of med kits. not sure why this is such a big point for me, i just really enjoyed it lol

most of the combat is really fun! great physics of being able to blow off individual limbs from robots. take out their legs, they start crawling toward you. take out their arms, they close the gap to try to kick you.

the weapon variety isn't crazy, but every gun is fun to use. 4-5 different types of grenades to experiment with. snipers, smg, AR, RPG, stingers, mines, shottys, and a couple i'm forgetting i'm sure.

i would recommend this to any type of gamer. massively slept on indie gem with brilliant looking cutscenes(for 2012), great acting, a GREAT story, and MOSTLY fun and rewarding combat :)

EASY nice out of ten

it´s good

Voice commands don't work as they should, but action and story are great. really enjoyed the charachters and combat. Wish they did a second part!

No controller support, reload doesn't work on keyboard, and neither does sprint, terrible pc port of one of my favorite games growing up, refunded sadly

TL;DR: Binary Domain is a thrilling cover shooter that is not without its flaws. Some boss encounters are a little too tanky and the controls have a very slight jank to them being ported over from a console. The story takes a while to pick up but has lots of twists and poses some philosophical questions.

[hr][/hr]

Binary Domain is an exceptionally thrilling cover shooter from start to finish. I haven't played a whole bunch of them, but among the ones I have played, this one seems a step above as far as the cover shooter aspect is concerned. Everything about the game is pretty thrilling including the gameplay and the story, all of which have a strong Japanese influence.

The story revolves around Dan Marshall in the year 2080, an IRTA RUST operator who is on a mission to infiltrate Tokyo and arrest a man called Amada for creating sentient robots, a direct violation of the international treaty on robotics and AI. The story takes a while picking up the pace and for the most part, you'll find yourself trying to infiltrate Amada Corp. In that regard, the pacing could definitely use some work with all its diversions. The game is also pretty cutscene heavy and features an action packed narrative with a plot that gets totally upturned by the time you reach the end. Essentially, it poses a few very interesting philosophical questions about ethics and life and identity and attempts a very believable forecast of the future. It also does a good job of showcasing the different strata of human society and the inherent xenophobia to something alien. The romance, however, could use some work.

The gameplay primarily switches between cover shooter and rail shooter with some Quick Time Events thrown in between which are all pretty exhillerating. The QTEs are pretty random and you can never except when the next one will show up. Thankfully, they decided to include enough time for you to respond to them so that you don't die needlessly when they appear out of nowhere. One of the few negatives that I can think about this game, however, is the fact that it literally spams you with boss fights. Sometimes levels will outright start with them and you'll typically run into another boss every twenty minutes of progression. It makes the regular enemies feel more like filler material. Some of the bosses have puzzle mechanics to them while some of others are a little too tanky to the point where you can't really tell whether you're making a dent. The Gorilla boss is probably the worst in this regard since it doesn't even have any phases. The designs are also out pretty over the top with a few of them and most of them seem to be animal inspired. The second nitpick comes by way of how the game handles impacts and explosions. If Dan is ever subject to any kind of concussive force, he'll stumble and often fall. While this is realistic, it can become overplayed to the point where Dan is almost stun-locked at times. You'll also find it interrupting the flow of the more thrilling or time-sensitive sections of the game where it is more of an annoyance in the latter. As far as the difficulty is concerned, the game is mostly on the easier side since it was meant to be played on a controller but it has some pretty difficult sections thrown in between. Consequently, the handling feels just a hair off on M&K.

The game also features teammates for you to handle. These folks don't really do much by way of gameplay, but add a little bit to the plot and provide a challenge for you in the form of party mechanics where you often need to manage their trust levels. The trust levels are important not only to ensure that they follow your commands, but how much trust you have with all your teammates also determines what kind of ending you'll get. The trust levels themselves can be raised or lowered depending upon your dialogue choices and how effectively you fight. In specific circumstances, being prompt to follow their orders or being too slow will also affect how they trust you. Needless to say, don't shoot your teammates. However, that last bit of advice becomes rather difficult when some of them like to keep walking right into your line of fire. Furthermore, finding teammates who are compatible with each other can also be a challenging task. You're only allowed to take at most two teammates, but if you choose two members with opposing personalities, gaining the trust of one of them will invariably result in losing the trust of the other. There also times when the characters aren't precisely clear with their instructions and get upset when you don't get the assignment. But the biggest flaw of the entire Trust Based JRPG Party system is how you have to essentially play the role of a two-faced yes man for the most part and agree with the subtext of your teammates for the most part if you want to keep their trust levels high.

Apart from that, you also have a diverse selection of weapons from which to choose in the game. And you can even upgrade your primary weapon by spending the credits you get for destroying robots. But the vast majority of them don't really feel all too different especially by mid-game. The LMGs and the SMGs just feel like cheap knockoffs of your assault rifle and only the sniper and the shotgun seem to have an identity. But even there, there are hardly any areas in the game where you can effectively use the sniper in your engagements for the AR typically does the job just fine. The grenades, however, are very diverse and varied in their design and every one of them achieve different results. Choosing the right grenade can make a huge difference when fighting off a horde or a boss. You also have a pistol with infinite ammo, but it's weak and the only time you ever use it is during some QTEs, when you're down, or when you're out of bullets, which is pretty rare occurence.

The graphics in the game are pretty gorgeous and it paints a dystopian picture of the future which perfectly captures whatever vision the developers were trying to drive home. This rich visual lore combined with the vast variety of backdrops do a good job of displaying the various ways that humans have adjusted to life in this version of the future in a way that is very believable. Even the characters are pretty well-written and most of them do get enough air-time and importance to not be totally sidelined. The sounds in this game are also rather well made, even though the directionality can be a bit lacking. But apart from the various, beautiful soundtracks, the silence can be indicative of an impending encounter and the whirring, clanking, and tapping of machine parts are distinct enough to tell you what you're facing without you ever needing to see the enemy for yourself.

Apart from the issues that I mentioned above, the only bug that I found in the game was regarding the revolutionary voice command system that could have been very immersive. Sadly, and perhaps it's because of my non-native accent, but the game couldn't recognise half my voice commands. Thankfully, this is an optional feature that you can turn off from the menus. It would have been really immersive if it worked as intended though.

All in all Binary Domain is a very thrilling cover shooter that often likes to switch up the formula and even though it spams you with bosses, most of them are pretty entertaining to tackle and do not let the game get stale. The trust system is a challenging bit of party management that can be a fun part of the game, but it too, needs some improvements, especially if the game is to be considered a proper RPG. Despite its dysfunctional voice command feature, the visual storytelling and the plentiful cutscenes tell the story of Binary Domain in a very gripping way that asks some important questions that will only get more relevant as time passes and eventually flips the entire table by the end. I'd call this game an underrated gem and would definitely recommend that you play it.

Not Bad...!

Its like mass effect... but only part 1... we need a sequel!!!

Bro this is a hidden gem

the other dude keeps asking me to say something and then i say it and he doesn't understand and thinks i've said something else so i'm gonna refund

I played this years ago on the 360, just wanted to play on PC first to see if it ran well before I reviewed it. So far, it runs fine, the few settings you can max at a locked 60fps, no stutters or crashes. I will not that controller support is weird; it didn't read my controller when I launched the game from Steam with the controller already connected, but when I launched it from my homepage and connected the controller at the title scree, it read the controller fine but still displayed keyboard buttons for actions, so you will have to get used to that.

Now, the game itself...I am so upset this game didn't take off when it came out on the 360 because it is genuinely a GREAT game. It has a great story, great characters and humorous writing, fun shooting with a dismemberment mechanic, as well as a score mechanic that acts as credits you can use to upgrade each character's main gun as well as an upgrade grid in the form of Nanomachines(Armstrong approves!). There is an affinity system where how you respond to characters during conversation moments, as well as how you act/perform in battle, that leads to increased squad performance but more importantly, can significantly impact the narrative of the game as maxing out affinity(or, conversely, not having it high enough) will alter pivotal character moments. Fun boss fights, a good variety of enemies and a great variety in level locales make every chapter fun.

The game also has a horde mode and a PvP mode, I'm going to assume the multiplayer community is basically dead unless you seek out a discord group, but it was a lot of fun when it had players and Horde mode can be played solo, at least.

Overall, even at the $19.99 regular price, this is a must buy for ANYONE who enjoys third person shooters, especially Gears of War or Mass Effect fans. But it goes on sale for $4.99(even cheaper, on sale for $2.99 right now or $3.19 with all DLC) and for that, it's a no-brainer. If you're one of the many who bought SM2 and are looking for another experience of when games were just fun and simple, albeit one with a surprisingly good narrative and well written characters, please buy this game. We'll never get a sequel but this is one Sci-fi TPS you don't want to miss! If any devs ever see this, just know you're game was AWESOME and I'm so happy to have played it!

yes

RGG's B team did a fantastic job in this new genre for them, even if voice commands are a bit janky (understandable for the time). Real shame it never got its recognition nor a sequel.

Downloaded a Steam Input community layout for my Xbox Series X controller and everything is working perfect. Just disable the voice command in game and you'll be blasting Hollow Children in no time! 9/14/24

are we human?

TL-DR: This original cover shooter stands out in a sea of generic cover shooters.


Binary Domain is a PS3/360 era underrated classic. You face off against all sorts of Robot's with your ally's who will obey or disobey your commands depending on how much they trust you.

PROS:

+ Fast, fluid action

+ Beautiful cutscene graphics (Same team that do the cutscenes for the Yakuza series so no wonder)

+ Runs like a dream on a decent old GPU

+ Fun banter between characters in cutscenes

+ Headshots are so satisfying. *PING!*

+ Great action OST (Albiet far too quiet in game)

CONS:

- A little short

- Some frustrating moments including Quick Time Events and stopping Robots from blowing up a fuel tank which took a bit of trial and error

- The music is very quiet for some reason

- The a.i commands are next to pointless, I found myself very rarely using them

- Final Boss is one tough S.O.B on Normal difficulty and above

Overall, Binary Domain took me 7 and a half hours to complete on the easiest difficulty. It provided a consistant challenge throughout and I'd give it an 8/10.


TIP FOR WORKING 360 GAMEPAD CONTROLS AND ICONS:

.Launch the Config File from the games installation folder and choose 360 Pad under controls.
.Now, launch the Binary Domain.exe from the games installation folder. NOT through the Steam Client!

This is a top game, even for today's standards. The gunplay is great and overall storyline is amazing, loved every second of it. The game is filled with cut-scenes making it a bit like a movie, though gameplay is still quite enjoyable. Only bad that I can say about this game are janky controls and somewhat bullet-sponge enemies. I'm honestly sorry this game flopped at the release, could've honestly been a great franchise.
Maybe we get a sequel in the future, you never know when these games can come back!

I give it 8.5/10. A truly overlooked classic.

A great shooting game from RGG studio. Looking forward sequel.