What do you get when you mix the squad shooting of Gears of War, the creative team behind the Yakuza franchise, the high-octane stylish action of Vanquish, and lots of armored mechs?

You get SEGA’s Binary Domain.

A totally original squad-based shooter by Toshihiro Nagoshi, the brainchild of the massively successful Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza) franchise, Binary Domain brings a western style attitude to game design that the Japanese game industry have been struggling with for many years. Not only has the action, the animation, the graphics, and the gameplay matched its western counterparts, in many ways Binary Domain even shines brighter than most western-made third person shooters.

Stylish blind firing

At its core, Binary Domain is a straightforward third-person squad based shooter like, for instance, SOCOM 4. But beneath the gameplay lies what SEGA is calling the “Consequence System:” an umbrella feature that combines gameplay features and elements along with adaptive AI that significantly changes how the game plays the player. Depending on player actions, words (through voice-recognition – I’ll get to that later), and choices, Binary Domain will then compile everything and provide players with constant feedback and reactions.

Because this is a squad-based shooter, reactions are doubly important. If players are aggressive, courageous, or cowardly, his or her squad reacts differently each time. This also include conversations with squadmates; piss off one teammate in the heat of battle and players will have themselves rogue team members who disobey orders.

Man versus Machine

Remember the like/dislike feature in Grand Theft Auto 4, wherein if a character likes the player, he or she will offer certain perks and helpful items? It’s like that in Binary Domain, only it’s more immediate. If players are great leaders, the squad will back them up even in grave situations; cowardly players and poor commanders will find that their squadmates are not willing to fight together with them. They’re more likely to ignore commands and do their own thing regardless of the situation.

Then there’s the action; Binary Domain is one intense shooter. Think of the relentless attacks of Reapers in Mass Effect and that’s how dangerous even the lowly foot soldiers can become. These terminator-like machines will run, jump, and crawl towards players until there’s literally nothing left for them to move with. It’s actually pretty cool having to destroy these mechanical oppositions thoroughly to kill them. Because of Binary Domain’s particle system, each shot chips away at the machines armor and breaks them down parts at a time. This is especially cool when fighting the building-sized bosses. Every rocket and bullet that hits the monstrosity breaks away pieces of the mecha’s armor.

Your Squad versus a building sized mech

Players will have to destroy the machines by peppering them with the various weapons available. Players will have to go from cover to cover since these machines aren’t stupid, they’re crackshots, and they’ll try try to get players to move out of cover by flanking, grenading, and/or charging then blasting full force when players are out of cover.

And speaking of cover to cover, Binary Domain’s animation is something that players have to experience to believe. It’s a cross between the tank-style Gears of War cover system with a dash of the high-speed stylish movements of Vanquish with a little bit of SEGA’s The Club in there. Player movement is smooth and transitions between actions are well done animated. Even blind-firing from cover nets players a stylish animation that can only be described as Japanese action.

From what we’ve played here at SRN, it looks like Binary Domain is really a game worth your time and money. If you loved Vanquish and Gears of War, this unique Japanese-developed squad shooter may be a title that you should keep an eye on. More details on the game’s plot and characters on the next part of the preview.

Binary Domain is coming to the PlayStation 3 on February 28, 2012.

Discuss:

Are you looking forward to Gears of Vanquish?