Nathan Brown 

Binary Domain – review

Binary Domain is a squad-based shooter with more than a hint of Blade Runner, writes Nathan Brown
  
  

binary domain sega
Binary Domain: 'good preparation for next month’s Mass Effect 3'. Photograph: PR

Set in a futuristic Tokyo, where robots walk among us and have no idea they're not human, ostensibly Binary Domain is so far, so Blade Runner, but what follows is a third-person, squad-based shooter, more immediately reminiscent of Gears of War or Mass Effect. The ability to bark headset commands at your team-mates serves as good preparation for next month's Mass Effect 3, which will offer the same feature to owners of Xbox 360's Kinect.

Heading up a multinational undercover squad sent in to Tokyo to find and stop the creator of these humanised robots, players control Dan Marshall, a stereotypically gung-ho US agent. Any suspicion that you're playing a western-developed game is dispelled as soon as you enter the menu screens, finding an RPG-like structure of upgrades and stat-boosting skills for you and your team that betray the game's Japanese origin, but it makes for a solid shooter with an intriguing story, despite featuring some cringeworthy national stereotypes that the industry should long since have evolved away from.

 

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