IntroI've got about 5 hours into
Binary Domain (PC) alone yesterday. I've been playing the Single Player Campaign...and it is really good, so far.
ControlsThe game controls fine on KB/mouse, most of the time. As long as you config the controls to your liking in the Config tool that you have to run before you boot the game up, you should be fine - when you're on-foot and shooting things. You can configure the controls to play like most third-person squad-based shooters, if you like. I pretty much set my controls up similar to how I had my KB/mouse layout for Mass Effect 3. Only time it didn't play well on KB/mouse so far was w/ a certain vehicular section in the game - and I plugged in the X360 controller for that and it worked fantastic with that.
That was the jet-ski section of the game, BTW.
The combat's really good. The boss fights have been awesome; the action is just awesome when just battling enemies; and slaughtering robots to pieces is just a blast. Take Gears of War's squad-based combat and replace monsters w/ robots, this is what you get with Binary Domain. Like some of the enemies in the Dead Space series, robots fall apart from where you shoot them. Shoot a robot in the leg enough, it eventually will lose its leg. Even after that, it'll likely crawl and still keep coming at you! Kill enemies, you get credits (money) for the kills and more $ based on how you actually do kill them. Like Dead Space, there are kiosks spread throughout the game-world where you can buy equipment and even upgrade your main character's specialty weapon. Each character as a specialty weapon, which is the only weapon that they can have constantly upgraded.
Dealing w/ NPC's and Party Members -- Voice Recognition Support vs. Just Selecting A Dialogue OptionThere's two ways you can deal w/ talking NPC's and party members - you can talk directly into a mic to say a phrase the game recognizes; or select a few dialogue options from KB/mouse or gamepad. Your party members will react to whatever you say - so you can gain Influence on them or Lose Influence. Lose enough influence, they won't do a damn thing you say. The more influence you have w/ them, the more likely that they'll follow your orders.
The game has Voice Recognition support, for those who have microphones or headsets with mics. For me, this has been on and off like a light switch. When you want to give orders to people in your party or interact w/ NPC's in the game-world, as long as you have your mic on, you just say into the mic one of the numerous phrases the game actually can recognize. Who knows if it'll even recognize the right phrase or not - if it doesn't work right, it might think you said another phrase or not even pick-up anything you said at all. It's pretty much hit and miss, most of the time. When it works, it's awesome! When it doesn't work as you intended it to, it just flat-out sucks - especially since everything you say and what the game actually recognizes (correctly or incorrectly) does matter, since it's tied to your Influence on your party members. The list of Command phrases that you can speak into the mic are in the game menu. It's a cool & an awesome way to immerse yourself into the game to have the mic on, as you can just give orders or talk to NPC's at anytime and watch them react to it right then and there. Problem is - if your mic isn't the best quality; if your mic has any sort of issues w/ keeping background noise out; or the game itself just doesn't actually just doesn't do the voice-recognition well - you're probably best off turning this feature off.
Also, when playing, you can hit the Command button on your KB/mouse or gamepad, when it prompts on-screen, to see the list of Command options the game is giving you for dialogue options that for you to say to a NPC or party member in this given situation If your mic's on, you can use more than those dialogue options shown on-screen - you can use any of the extensive list of phrases the game has to offer to Mic users. If your mic's on, you can't just say select one of the dialogue on your controller or KB/mouse, unfortunately - that's disabled, if your mic's on. If your mic is off, you hit the Command button and it's pretty much your decision-tree - you just pick one of those few dialogue options. The drawback w/ the mic off is you won't be able to say anything you want from the extensive list of Phrases. But, if your having issues w/ voice-recognition working correctly, your best bet is to turn the mic off - as this control-pad method works fine, as is.
Story & Art DesignThe story, premise, and plot is good -- with robots that look and act human are trying to blend into the world (which is illegal, in this cyberpunk world) and that you're to get to the bottom of who's putting these robots (called Hollow Children) into the world. That's not the whole story, of course - but that's enough to get the idea of what's going on. Trying to stay away from spoilers here. Though, the dialogue's writing itself and voice-acting ranges is all over the place. Sometimes, it's hammy. Sometimes, it's hilarious. Sometimes, it's good. Sometimes, it's just flat-out mediocre. Futuristic Tokyo setting here in this Cyberpunk setting looks great and is loaded w/ details, on the artistic-side of things. This isn't the best-looking game on the technical side, but it still looks pretty good. The art design of the robots and especially watching debris constantly fly when you attack them looks fantastic!
OutroSo far, the game has been really good. So far, so good. I'm going to keep plugging away at this game...oh, and keep plugging away at robots and obliterating them to pieces! If the rest of the SP campaign is as damn good as the first 5 hours, then Sega's really got something here w/ Binary Domain.
