TGS: Could Binary Domain be a Gears of War Killer?
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Sega's futuristic shooter is taking Epic's cover-based blueprint and adding its own new twists.
Gears of War 3 is done, and it's the end of the saga set on Sera. That's not to say that there won't be another Gears game – it's a huge money-maker so it's certainly a series that's here to stay – but it's pretty unlikely that we'll see another Gears game this side of the next console generation.
Which leaves the door wide open for another cover-based shooter series to step into the spotlight. Enter Binary Domain, the squad-based shooter that mimics all you love about the core Gears gameplay and adds a few unique twists to freshen things up. It comes from the mind of Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi, the legendary Japanese developer with one of the most diverse track records in the business, having played considerable roles in the development of Virtua Racing, Super Monkey Ball, Yakuza and numerous other classic franchises spanning a career of almost 20 years at Sega.
I asked Nagoshi-san if his decision to create a Gears of War-esque shooter was a calculated plan for success in Western markets. "Yes and no," he told me. "In some ways we're clearly looking at the Western market because of the choice of genre, but at the same time the plot is set in a futuristic Tokyo in order to appeal to local Japanese audiences. So really we're looking at the global market, and also with Binary Domain we wanted to prove to the world that Japanese developers can still produce really big titles that can compete with the likes of a high quality game such as Gears of War."
Check out Binary Domain's TGS Trailer
Knowing that Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinksi has quite openly confessed to being a student of Japanese game design, it's quite interesting to note that the student has now become the master and a major influence on what's shaping up to be a pillar title for Sega in 2012. So has Binary Domain got what it takes to topple Epic's killer cover-based shooter series?
I went hands-on with the game at TGS, and my first impressions are good – with a few caveats that I'll get to later. First up, this is Gears-style gameplay through and through. You can roadie-run, switch from cover to cover, blindfire – you know the drill, except rather than take on hordes of Locusts on a distant planet you're up against a robot army in the streets of 2080 Tokyo.
Blasting these mechanical menaces is consistently enjoyable due to the way their metallic bodies rip apart, with shrapnel spraying every which way each time you unload a clip into them. As detailed in earlier impressions on the site, if you don't take down a robot with a killshot they might still pursue you – even if you smash their legs off with a couple of shotgun blasts they'll still relentlessly drag their torsos towards you like Skynet's finest, so it's always worth popping a few extra shots into a downed enemy for good measure.
My short demo took place in an alleyway littered with cover, up against a variety of bipedal cyborgs toting machine guns and sniper rifles. There were also airborne sentry bots, and I particularly enjoyed the knock-on effect of shooting one of the sentries and having it spin out of control to collide and explode with other enemies nearby.
The demo culminated with a fight against a two-story high mech, and while my two squadmates drew its attention, I took out its external armour with a couple of RPG rounds before legging it up a couple of flights of stairs to a rooftop, leaping down onto the mech's back and using the thumbstick to maintain balance while I unloaded round after round of machine gun fire into the exposed panel on the back of its metal skull. Exhilarating stuff.
Binary Domain at a glance.
Of course, what I couldn't get an appreciation of is one of the game's biggest features that sets it apart from the Gears of War series, aside from its setting and enemy types. That is, it's voice recognition system for squad commands. According to Nagoshi-san, the voice command system contains an extensive list of commands and "you don't really have to think about what to say, it all flows really naturally." Unfortunately I had to take his word for it because the voice command function was only being demonstrated for Japanese-speakers at the show - it supposedly hasn't yet been translated into English. Damn my lack of linguistics.
The other mystery is the game's multiplayer modes. Gears of War has established itself as a force to be reckoned with online, and Japanese game developers certainly haven't excelled at producing robust online experiences in the past.
Still, there's a lot of promise here, and a sizzle reel that preceded my hands-on showed off a variety of flashy action moments including high speed highway chase sequences and epic boss fights at a level of immensity that Japanese-developed games have long been renowned for. Add to that the potential of the voice command system, and the RPG-inspired relationship elements amongst your squad that can affect how they respond to you and even see them die as a result of your actions a la Mass Effect, and you've got a game that could well be a surprise hit when it arrives in February 2012.
Gears of War 3 is done, and it's the end of the saga set on Sera. That's not to say that there won't be another Gears game – it's a huge money-maker so it's certainly a series that's here to stay – but it's pretty unlikely that we'll see another Gears game this side of the next console generation.
Which leaves the door wide open for another cover-based shooter series to step into the spotlight. Enter Binary Domain, the squad-based shooter that mimics all you love about the core Gears gameplay and adds a few unique twists to freshen things up. It comes from the mind of Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi, the legendary Japanese developer with one of the most diverse track records in the business, having played considerable roles in the development of Virtua Racing, Super Monkey Ball, Yakuza and numerous other classic franchises spanning a career of almost 20 years at Sega.
I asked Nagoshi-san if his decision to create a Gears of War-esque shooter was a calculated plan for success in Western markets. "Yes and no," he told me. "In some ways we're clearly looking at the Western market because of the choice of genre, but at the same time the plot is set in a futuristic Tokyo in order to appeal to local Japanese audiences. So really we're looking at the global market, and also with Binary Domain we wanted to prove to the world that Japanese developers can still produce really big titles that can compete with the likes of a high quality game such as Gears of War."
Check out Binary Domain's TGS Trailer
Knowing that Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinksi has quite openly confessed to being a student of Japanese game design, it's quite interesting to note that the student has now become the master and a major influence on what's shaping up to be a pillar title for Sega in 2012. So has Binary Domain got what it takes to topple Epic's killer cover-based shooter series?
I went hands-on with the game at TGS, and my first impressions are good – with a few caveats that I'll get to later. First up, this is Gears-style gameplay through and through. You can roadie-run, switch from cover to cover, blindfire – you know the drill, except rather than take on hordes of Locusts on a distant planet you're up against a robot army in the streets of 2080 Tokyo.
Blasting these mechanical menaces is consistently enjoyable due to the way their metallic bodies rip apart, with shrapnel spraying every which way each time you unload a clip into them. As detailed in earlier impressions on the site, if you don't take down a robot with a killshot they might still pursue you – even if you smash their legs off with a couple of shotgun blasts they'll still relentlessly drag their torsos towards you like Skynet's finest, so it's always worth popping a few extra shots into a downed enemy for good measure.
My short demo took place in an alleyway littered with cover, up against a variety of bipedal cyborgs toting machine guns and sniper rifles. There were also airborne sentry bots, and I particularly enjoyed the knock-on effect of shooting one of the sentries and having it spin out of control to collide and explode with other enemies nearby.
The demo culminated with a fight against a two-story high mech, and while my two squadmates drew its attention, I took out its external armour with a couple of RPG rounds before legging it up a couple of flights of stairs to a rooftop, leaping down onto the mech's back and using the thumbstick to maintain balance while I unloaded round after round of machine gun fire into the exposed panel on the back of its metal skull. Exhilarating stuff.
Binary Domain at a glance.
Of course, what I couldn't get an appreciation of is one of the game's biggest features that sets it apart from the Gears of War series, aside from its setting and enemy types. That is, it's voice recognition system for squad commands. According to Nagoshi-san, the voice command system contains an extensive list of commands and "you don't really have to think about what to say, it all flows really naturally." Unfortunately I had to take his word for it because the voice command function was only being demonstrated for Japanese-speakers at the show - it supposedly hasn't yet been translated into English. Damn my lack of linguistics.
The other mystery is the game's multiplayer modes. Gears of War has established itself as a force to be reckoned with online, and Japanese game developers certainly haven't excelled at producing robust online experiences in the past.
Still, there's a lot of promise here, and a sizzle reel that preceded my hands-on showed off a variety of flashy action moments including high speed highway chase sequences and epic boss fights at a level of immensity that Japanese-developed games have long been renowned for. Add to that the potential of the voice command system, and the RPG-inspired relationship elements amongst your squad that can affect how they respond to you and even see them die as a result of your actions a la Mass Effect, and you've got a game that could well be a surprise hit when it arrives in February 2012.