If all of this sounds overly ponderous, it’s important to note that Binary Domain’s campy tone keeps it from ever becoming too self-serious. Binary Domain is a game about robots and international conspiracies, sure, but it never loses sight of how these topics actually impact everyday people. Living on the margins of a technologically based city, their lives are based on the whims of the corporate entities who create and maintain the very foundation of their country. When the shit hits the fan, as it does toward the end of the game, its the poorest members of Tokyo society who suffer. Without over-emphasizing its own intelligence, the story subtly highlights the dangers inherent to a society where massive corporate interests control the technology needed to maintain government, economic, and military interests. Binary Domain raises questions regarding how we define what constitutes life and what role humanity, given our failures to protect our home from the environmental devastation that backgrounds the game’s events, should play in the technologically-driven advancement of our species.
The setting seems to be made up of little more than boilerplate sci-fi conventions on its surface–there are gun-toting Terminator lookalikes, giant, anime-style mechs, and Blade Runner-inspired cyborgs called “Hollow Children”–but, as the story progresses, Binary Domain shows far more interest in exploring the implications of its plot elements than its pulpy exterior suggests.Īssuming control of a multinational squad-a “Rust Crew”-sent to investigate the breach of an international robotics building regulation, the player soon finds themselves taking part in events that will decide the future of human evolution.
Its action takes place decades in the future, against the backdrop of a world where robotics technology has had to rapidly advance in order to rebuild nations ravaged by global warming.
Ravaged buildings anime landscape Pc#
The third-person shooter garnered favourable, but not glowing reviews upon its 2012 release (the PC version holds a 68 on Metacritic), but it seems to have been largely forgotten in the years since-a shame for something that, however imperfect, deserves far more attention than it’s received.Īs rote as it seems at first glance, Binary Domain’s plot is its greatest strength. Yakuza Team’s Binary Domain hasn’t made a lasting impression.