Playing Binary Domain one may ask oneself whether there was or will be a corresponding sci-fi movie given its capturing cinematic action which might remotely recall that of Syndicate or Deus Ex HR (Bionics) or else Yakuza (Tokyo setting).

Developing Binary Domain they did seemingly not consider the question whether having a female (co-)protagonist could be of common gamer interest or not, although the player --Dan Marshall rather than Faye Lee-- cannot actually choose which character to play here. Consequently, one might treat as very "politically correct" the squad one deploys during most part of this 3rd-person shooter: two female soldiers out of five, one Asian (Chinese), one "Caucasian" (in fact she's rather Celtic), a black man, two US, two UK, perhaps even homosexuals (Big Bo, Rachel...?), but in any case better than leaving this delicate question completely out, perhaps out of fear of loosing a bigger public for this game (Gears of War...?).

As by Toshihiro Nagoshi (known from the Yakuza series), Binary Domain too sports a surprising plot and moving love story, but what else makes the game attractive in order to be played twice are the fun fights against a robot army proper to a futuristic Tokyo set in the Machine Age (2080 AD), in spite of the rather "generic" bosses, or the upgrade system allowing to generously provide all the squad members, including Cain, the charming French-accented mech.

So in short, I should have given a 2012 GOTY award to Binary Domain --not as the best shooter, but as the one with the best-balanced squad (excluding, perhaps, Mass Effect), in addition to a great story context which I consider more interesting than that of Deus Ex HR, an example hopefully to be imitated rather than profitably avoided in the nearer gaming future...