I've been hearing a lot about this game via Giantbomb, and it seems like there were some people out there that really liked this game, even putting it on their GOTY lists. Based on this I though I would give it a shot, but I'm really not enjoying it. I've just started chapter 6, and I'm going to finish it, but unless the end has something absolutely magical up its sleeve I'm at a loss as to understand why people think this game is special.

Some of the bad design I've seen thus far

- Not knowing whether or not your friends can revive you

- Not getting revived by someone right next to you

- Not understanding the meaning of the dialogue choices

- Teammates losing trust when they run into your fire

- Wasting your money buying upgrades for teammates

- Terrible story, obvious twists

- Terrible menus and UI on PC version

- Not knowing where to go

- Not knowing whether or not you are doing damage in boss fights

- Long boss battles

- Repetitive levels, so much padding and redundant gameplay

- Poor graphics

- Waiting for your teammate AI to catch you up when you reach an objective.

- Racism is not endearing.

- Getting revived only to be instantly killed during the slow standing-back-up animation

- Being unable to run during certain story sequences

And this is just off the top of my head.

There are so many offensively bad decisions that for me the game isn't even average, its flat out terrible.

So tell me, what is so awesome about this game? I feel like I'm missing something.

@eskimo: You're not missing anything - you just don't like it. I disagree with most of what you wrote but I won't go through it point by point because it's a matter of opinion and were all entitled to our own. As an example: I don't see how your teammates running into your gunfire and losing trust is a bad game mechanic. I can see how it can be annoying that they sometimes may run in front of you but hey if you shoot your buddies they will like you less - that seems simple enough. The levels actually vary quite a bit in my opinion and I thought the graphics were pretty nice. So yah different strokes for different folks. If you don't like it then you just don't - if it hasn't grabbed you in any way by Chapter 6 then it probably won't. I don't like a lot of games that the GB community considers excellent like Darksiders, Metro 2033, Asuras Wrath etc.. just the way things go.

This was the the perfect moodsetter while waiting for the install! Thanks!

@eskimo said:

- Terrible story, obvious twists

It is obvious it is going to be a twist. But i got surprised by the twist when it was revealed.

calling the game flat out terrible is not right. Play Inversion, that is a terrible game in all parts.

i Liked it because of the story, all other aspects of the game was alright by me. shooting worked and so on. the talk in the mic stuff i just ignored. maybe it was that i only heard that this game was special nothing more. had basically no hopes for it when i played it. the same i do with all games. this games tried something else with the story and that what i liked about it.

Aaargh, just finished the game. Dunno if it worked out differently for others, but man that was unsatisfying. The main characters seem to change their motivation every couple of minutes.

I can see why people liked it, there was some cool stuff in the story, but it ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth. It could've been good, maybe even great, but the bad design got in the way so often. That last boss fight was hell annoying, I spent a large chunk of it using my valuable medkits on the retarded Squad AI.

@Humanity: I wouldnt have minded the loss of trust on friendly fire if the squad AI

A) didnt constantly run in front of me while I was firing

and

b) didn't continuously shoot me in the back. They dont even say sorry, or I love you :(

@TobbRobb: Oh no! Maybe you'll like it more than me. I knew it was potentially bad going in, and it certainly had its good moments, but there were so many frustrating issues that got in the way.

@TobbRobb: Just one guy's opinion. He didn't like it, I loved it. One of my favorite games of the year :D hope you enjoy it.

I guess it just doesn't align with your tastes?

I thought it was merely OK, nothing terrible. I'm glad I only paid like 7 bucks for it on Steam, I know that much.

Man, maybe you're cursed. I am reading your list and I encountered a total of 0 of the issues you're complaining about.

you don't like good games :)

OK, I thought the game looked GORGEOUS maxed out at 1080 on my PC. Not the most technically demanding game out there but really clean looking with great art design and detailed environments. While I can partially agree with some issues (I definitely accidentally responded with the wrong answers at points as the dialogue text is a little vague), I still loved the hell out of that game.

@eskimo: @Shortbreadtom: Haha I wasn't gonna let something like this get me down! My comment was mostly dry.

Oh and as an update I think this game is alright so far "2h in", as long as the story holds up throughout I'd say it's a GotY contender. Mostly nitpicky stuff that is bad, "and the jankiness of everything".

How I feel about people who talk up Binary Domain as a GOTY. :P

I think it's a surprisingly competent game with some charming characters and a somewhat interesting story (there are even some cool bossfights). But I don't think it's nearly as good as some people hype it up to be.

@StarvingGamer said:

Man, maybe you're cursed. I am reading your list and I encountered a total of 0 of the issues you're complaining about.

Naw, OP isn't cursed. I can back up a number of those claims.

Examples:

- Teammates looooved walking in front of me while I was firing (and I wasn't standing in the middle of the passage blocking their path to cover). And IM the bad guy for that? Pfft. Stupid NPCs! Go sit back down behind cover and continue being useless!

- Dialog options ranged from clear and obvious to muddled and the exact opposite of what I wanted to answer. For example, someone would say "Don't you want to do this?" and the choices were "Fuck!", "No", and "Yeah" I'm not even sure why the firs exists, while I'd think saying "yeah" means "yeah, I want to do this" but it turns out it meant "Yeah, I don't want to do this". Very confusing dialog choices at times.

- "Hey are you okay? Want me to help?" *chooses yes, expecting a revive* ... *watches as NPC just keeps firing away and never makes any attempt to come and revive me* Fek it, I'll rez myself. Again.

- Obvious story is obvious. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing though. While I didn't personally care for the story much, I didn't hold it against the game. It never felt super serious. If anything, it felt like a crazy Japanese homage to 80s action movies, trying to cram in as many tropes and cliches from them as it could, especially in the third act.

- Upgrading teammates definitely felt completely worthless. Also I couldn't help but wish I could upgrade more than just my assault riffle :(

- Lots of fun "Yay just revived, oh wait, I'm dead again before I even got to do anything. Great" moments. Reminded me of The Last Story, only at least Binary Domain never had any frame rate issues, so point for Binary Domain!

- Boss fights definitely could be long in the tooth. Like that chase in the van one with the weird motorcycle transformer thing? Went on for like 8 minutes; and the boss never hit me once. Super boring. "Oh look, it's moving to the other side of the van. Again. Wake me up when this is over, guys." On the bright side, I thought the character design for all of the bosses was great. Very Bayonetta-esque in a way, I thought.

- Definitely plenty of redundancy and padding in some of the levels, but I found they broke it up with other things enough to keep my interest throughout the game.

As for the aimlessness, bad graphics, and UI issues. Can't say I had any of those problems. Game looked pretty, was super linear and corridored, and the menus were clean and simple *shrugs*

Fair enough, though I played both Binary Domain and Gears of War 3 this year and I know which I had more fun with. Some of your complaints are fair enough, but I personally loved it. I love when a game randomly takes me by surprise and that's what Binary Domain did.

I liked it.

@GunstarRed said:

I liked it.

Same, but it's not without it's faults. Don't really see it as a GOTY contender, but it's definitely worth a play if you find it at a discount.

You've set your expectations too high. I personally liked Binary Domain but I know coming in that it will not be groundbreaking just fun.

I tried the demo and couldn't for the life of me see where all the fuss was coming from. It seemed middle-of-the-road in every respect. To each their own, I guess.

I finished it a few days ago and I though it was pretty much Gears of War but interesting. It's probably my "4 Star Game of the Year". Everything about it is good (Except for the 3-4 instant death QTEs) but could be improved with a little more time / money or let's say a sequel. I can totally see a Mass Effect 1 to 2 situation where the 1st game is maybe a little more interesting but the sequel is all in all a better game. That is, If it ever gets one.

Overall I liked the game a lot, one of my favourites this year for sure. I was really surprised to realise the ending could play out different ways depending on your trust levels with the team, but glad I didn't know it before I was done or I might have gotten too anal about it.

I'm at chapter 3 and not loving it so far. I wish I could change the game to easy because I don't want to play it anymore. The story has one interesting idea and want to see more of that, no new story devolpments in a while though. I heard praise for the characters but am not seeing anything noteworthy about them yet.

How many chapters are there?

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I'm at chapter 3 and not loving it so far. I wish I could change the game to easy because I don't want to play it anymore. The story has one interesting idea and want to see more of that, no new story devolpments in a while though. I heard praise for the characters but am not seeing anything noteworthy about them yet.

How many chapters are there?

There are six chapters. It's around a ten hour game overall. Depending on if you're terrible at shooters of course.

It looks super generic from what I've seen of it, but I haven't played it so I can't say for sure.

@Oldirtybearon said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I'm at chapter 3 and not loving it so far. I wish I could change the game to easy because I don't want to play it anymore. The story has one interesting idea and want to see more of that, no new story devolpments in a while though. I heard praise for the characters but am not seeing anything noteworthy about them yet.

How many chapters are there?

There are six chapters. It's around a ten hour game overall. Depending on if you're terrible at shooters of course.

How much is left from the point where you are fighting the transformer on the road? This fight is terrible and I want to know if it is even worth the effort of beating it.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I'm at chapter 3 and not loving it so far. I wish I could change the game to easy because I don't want to play it anymore. The story has one interesting idea and want to see more of that, no new story devolpments in a while though. I heard praise for the characters but am not seeing anything noteworthy about them yet.

Yeah, I hate to say but this game seems to suck. I have not been this bored since that Matt Hazard -game. Story and characters are OK, but actual gun play is weirdly uninteresting. This is not helped by the fact that only your main weapon seems to be at all useful and it (even with upgrades) runs out of ammo really fast.

Overall there are 6 chapters, Immortal. Chapter 4 feels like the longest, the story luls and they shift the cast around a bit. Pacing picks back up in five; and chapter six takes the new elements explained in five and twists them.

@eskimo said:

I've just started chapter 6, and I'm going to finish it, but unless the end has something absolutely magical up its sleeve I'm at a loss as to understand why people think this game is special.

It had a really funny quick look therefore Giant Bomb loves it. Big Bo is kind of funny, at least the parts I saw, admittedly only the very first chapter or two. It is just the hype train and how it works, also remember.... a lot of people don't play as many games as maybe they sound like they do. I know dudes who are definitely "gamers" but they only played maybe ... 5-8 games that were actually released in 2012. Some people like to wait a long time for those sales you know. I just started Arkham City myself.

So I literally just finished the game five minutes ago, and I get where you're coming from. I even agree with most of your points. I still thought it was a fantastic game. You're missing the forest for the trees, duder...

@Karkarov said:

@eskimo said:

I've just started chapter 6, and I'm going to finish it, but unless the end has something absolutely magical up its sleeve I'm at a loss as to understand why people think this game is special.

It had a really funny quick look therefore Giant Bomb loves it. Big Bo is kind of funny, at least the parts I saw, admittedly only the very first chapter or two. It is just the hype train and how it works, also remember.... a lot of people don't play as many games as maybe they sound like they do. I know dudes who are definitely "gamers" but they only played maybe ... 5-8 games that were actually released in 2012. Some people like to wait a long time for those sales you know. I just started Arkham City myself.

I haven't played Binary Domain and have no opinion on it. But to completely cast it aside as "just the hype train" after playing one or two chapters is pretty fucking dumb.

@Milkman said:

I haven't played Binary Domain and have no opinion on it. But to completely cast it aside as "just the hype train" after playing one or two chapters is pretty fucking dumb.

I didn't cast it off as "the hype train", I said that's how it works. There is obviously something in there people like or there wouldn't be more than one or two people thinking it is good. It isn't a game of the year contender though and most who did go on to play it and frequent this site did so simply because of a funny quick look. Please don't try to deny that.

@Karkarov said:

@Milkman said:

I haven't played Binary Domain and have no opinion on it. But to completely cast it aside as "just the hype train" after playing one or two chapters is pretty fucking dumb.

I didn't cast it off as "the hype train", I said that's how it works. There is obviously something in there people like or there wouldn't be more than one or two people thinking it is good. It isn't a game of the year contender though and most who did go on to play it and frequent this site did so simply because of a funny quick look. Please don't try to deny that.

I can't say. There are plenty of people who legitimately love Binary Domain and Vinny had it in his top five games of the year so obviously he thinks its a game of the year contender. A funny Quick Look will help but I'm not willing to say that most people who like the game like it for solely that reason. I could dismiss a lot of games, probably one of your favorites, simply because I have no interest but that doesn't make it right.