Binary Domain is a confused game. While it's relatively easy to follow and understand, the game doesn't know what it wants to be. The story and weapon upgrades and skill choices make it seem like a fairly traditional role-playing game with a couple of philosophical and ethical questions, but Binary Domain plays like a cover-based tactical third-person shooter action-adventure title. In some ways – assembling the squad, changing and upgrading gear, purchasing items from kiosks and so forth – it feels very much like Final Fantasy XIII, but there's one key difference: Binary Domain may be confused about what it is, but it doesn't suck. However, that does not necessarily mean that Binary Domain is good, either. It's likely to be most enjoyable for folks who like science fiction or traditional RPG party mechanics, and can tolerate characters who are little more than cardboard cutouts and serve only to advance the plot.

Players, regardless of their gender, take on the role of Dan Marshall, an American member of a United Nations response team that deals with violations of the New Geneva Convention, which largely seems to deal with robotics, sentience and artificial intelligence. Oddly, the United Nations no longer seems to apply economic sanctions or debate topics endlessly – instead, it sends out Rust Crews to covertly enter sovereign nations, destroy robots and kidnap citizens. By the end of the game, those Rust Crews turn into literal U.N. death squads.

Depending on how much players search or how carefully they play, Binary Domain can be a relatively short game (my single-player campaign took about 10 hours to complete) but it doesn't really feel brief, unlike games such as Medal Of Honor and Battlefield 3. Perhaps part of that is due to the price I paid for it, but Binary Domain offers a fairly satisfactory gaming experience for people who rent it or don't pay too much.

It's worth noting that Binary Domain supports voice response and often requires players to respond when NPCs talk, even though the game doesn't require voice interaction. However, the voice recognition accuracy can vary widely and the voice commands are tremendously disruptive to any form of immersion the game manages to offer. Manually interacting with NPCs in the game requires pressing the left bumper to respond with scintillating dialogue options such as “Yeah,” “Sure,” “Damn” and “Love You,” even if the game doesn't say much about what those dialogue options actually mean. It's easier – and more fun to play the game – to just disable that feature and thankfully, Binary Domain allows plays to turn it off.

After that, Binary Domain is a typical third-person tactical shooter – take cover, shoot robots, fight bosses, shoot some more robots, fight a mini-boss for variety and then shoot more robots. In between extended sequences of shooting robots, Binary Domain waxes philosophical about what it means to be human – I won't get into any specific points of contention because even identifying the debate would spoil parts of the plot, but these questions don't seem nearly as meaningful as the designers likely hoped. Binary Domain isn't a thought-provoking game, it's a robot-shooting game – the sanctimonious moments when it pretends otherwise are usually what make the game seem less enjoyable.

Ultimately, the problem with Binary Domain is that it isn't great and it isn't terrible. It's serviceable as a game and demonstrates at least some competence in design since it's somewhat short and doesn't really feel like it, but – as Gertrude Stein observed about Oakland – there just isn't much there there.

Accessibility Issues / Concerns:

Binary Domain offers a number of accessibility challenges. The voice command feature isn't really an issue since the game allows players to disable it in the Options menu, but there are a number of other noteworthy concerns.

The boss fights and a chase sequence in Binary Domain are the most problematic elements and may make the game unfinishable for gamers with mobility concerns. The game requires precision and aiming, and it can be quite difficult, even on the easiest difficulty setting. While ammunition seems relatively common and it doesn't take too much to overcome the waves of robots players face, later stages of the game become increasingly challenging as players will have to shoot down numerous missiles in one boss fight and target specific areas on other bosses to do any damage. Naturally, those areas aren't always visible to the player, meaning that players will have to survive for lengthy periods of time until the boss moves in such a way that it becomes vulnerable again. At the same time, enemies in later parts of the game move significantly faster and are much harder to hit. In one stage, players have to shoot from a moving and swerving vehicle. If the player is in cover when the van swerves, actions continue uninterrupted. If the player isn't in cover and is trying to fight enemies or reload when the vehicle swerves, those actions are disrupted for several seconds and can mean the difference between completing or having to restart the stage.

There are other mobility concerns as well – the options menu lists two levels of aim assist, but playing on the easiest difficulty setting with the beginning level of aim assist seems to offer no help in aiming. The reticle doesn't snap to the nearest target, regardless of how close the reticle is to the target and that would seem to be the primary purpose of aim assist. Likewise, aim assist doesn't seem to lock onto a target, so despite listing aim assist in the menus, the assists don't actually seem to offer any functional assistance. There are only two controller schemes and neither seems especially well-suited for players who only have use of one hand. Binary Domain features quick-time events which require precision, as well as pressing and releasing buttons at specific times (similar to Gears Of War's active reload minigame) and failing them results in having to repeat part of the stage again. The only real accessibility accommodation it offers is the difficulty level and nearly every game offers that.

Gamers with visual concerns will likely have a slightly better experience with Binary Domain. The game offers gamma correction and brightness sliders, and although it doesn't offer a color-blind mode and the targeting reticle turns red when aiming at hostiles, the reticle doesn't turn green when it's aimed at allies.

Deaf gamers may experience some challenges. While Binary Domain does have subtitles and displays them in a unique way, the subtitles can be difficult to read. Generally speaking, when a character starts talking in Binary Domain, the subtitles appear in the middle of the screen. The character's name and a small graphic of part of that character's face appear to the left of the subtitles to indicate who is speaking, and there's a thin white line that further sets the subtitles. The problem is that the subtitles aren't very readable at any distance greater than a couple of feet (about .65m), partly because they can blend into the background and partly because the game uses a decorative typeface which makes the letters seem squat and short, and more difficult to read even when the player is close to the screen. With that said, there shouldn't be much, if anything, preventing deaf gamers from completing the game, even if the typeface used for subtitles may mean that deaf gamers can't follow the story as well as a gamer who can hear.

As one final note, especially considering that Binary Domain allows voice commands which may be a concern for deaf gamers, it is critical to once again note that the voice commands can be disabled in the options menu, and that players can press the left bumper to access a menu of responses.



Review Hardware:
Xbox 360 Slim Console
32” LCD HDTV w/HDMI cables
Razer Onza Tournament Edition gaming controller

Accessibility Scores:
Mobility: 2
Visual: 4
Hearing: 5

Original Purchase Price: $24.99

Recommended Purchase Price: Rent.



At A Glance:

Precision: Precision is required, and the difficulty of some boss fights, even on the easiest difficulty setting with the beginner aim assist enabled, may prevent gamers with mobility and precision concerns from finishing the game. The game also features mandatory quick-time events and emphasizes timing in minigames similar to active reload in Gears Of War.

Deaf Gamers: The game is subtitled, but the subtitles are displayed in a decorative typeface which makes the subtitles difficult to read at a distance greater than about two feet or .65 meters. Subtitles can also blend in with the background. Speakers are generally identified. Binary Domain supports using the Xbox headset to give voice commands to squad members, but that option can be disabled in the options menu and players can use the left bumper to give those commands instead.

One-handed: There are only two controller layouts, neither of which seems especially well-suited for gamers with use of only one hand. There is no southpaw option or separate option to swap stick functions.

Subtitles: The subtitles are displayed in a decorative typeface which distorts the letters and makes them difficult to read. They can also blend in with the background. Speakers are usually identified.

Visual: The game offers gamma correction and brightness sliders. There is no color-blind mode and the targeting reticle turns red when aiming at enemies. However, the reticle does not turn green when aiming at allies. Game menus suffer from the same problem as subtitles since they use the same typeface which distorts the letters and makes them difficult to read.

Checkpoint / Save System: Checkpoint. The checkpoints seem fairly close together.