Before Binary Domain graced Giantbomb with it's presence I download the demo. While playing through it with my girlfriend sitting next to me, I got to the part where Faye accompanies you on your first mission with her and Big Bo takes time to appreciate her assets. It left a really sour taste in my mouth because I could tell it made my girlfriend at the time feel uncomfortable. I turned off the demo and never looked back. That was until @patrickklepek spoiled the game on the bombcast Game of the Year deliberations, something that I read multiple users complaining about how he "said more than he should have" and "should have stopped with 1 or 2 spoilers". During the Game of the Year deliberations Binary Domain went on sale for 12.49$ on Steam for the winter sale, and after hearing what this game was all about I was on board fully, bought it immediately and just finished it last night all in one session.

The game begins really slow, & the characters are all one dimensional, which in the beginning felt like a poor decision (ie Boateng's insatiable appetite to get it on) but towards the end of the game you find it was deliberate as a story telling device. The game's basically a big budget retelling of Journey to the West with the singularity as it's plot device. @patrickklepek was correct in saying that it's story does what Mass Effect tried to do better than Bioware, which for the hammy mess it is in sequences is a grand fucking achievement by all accounts. It's a game that reminds me why I used to love console gaming, for the days when Japan ruled the video game space. Sure it's broken in spots (the voice recognition stuff is bad) and approaches Nicholas Cage levels of hammy but the game also has a heart.

This is the part where I would like to publicly voice my disgust for the people complaining about too many spoilers on the podcast. I would have never played this game without knowing what this game was actually all about, and in no way did what @patrickklepek say diminish from my experience. This is why the crew needs the ability to talk about games while they're current. Binary Domain by all accounts was a sales failure. When you look at how much Sega spent making this game, selling a little under a third of a million on consoles is not good enough. These sorts of games need a platform for when the quicklook isn't enough, because that opening section is not indicative of what makes that game special. Binary Domain is the epitome of a B-movie in video game form. No other game in recent history succeeds in that regard, both in it's production to the reception from critics and the audience. It is endearing and should be played.

These sorts of games need a soap box, so many big budget games lack any sort of heart, and this game has it in spades. I wish I had known what this game was about sooner, I would have bought it full price. Instead I find myself buying multiple to distribute to friends. Sega deserves it.