In my mind previewing a game demo must be very similar to what it would be like to go on a blind date. In either situation you’ve been privy to some pertinent information to pique your interest enough to agree to give it a go without really knowing what to expect. You will either have a great time and want to do it again or you’ll run away at first sight. Of course, there’s also a possibility you end up somewhere in between those two extremes and you tentatively decide to go on a second date to dig a bit deeper.

The latter situation (somewhere in between) is more or less how my first encounter with Binary Domain panned out. The singleplayer demo isn’t the prettiest third-person shooter to hit the streets recently but it’s got a lot of character and I’d really like to get to know it better before I make up my mind whether or not to go steady.

The basic setting in Binary Domain, from what I could gather in the demo, is a futuristic Earth that relies extensively on robots to make life easier. Over time, these robots have been upgraded and improved and some were secretly given emotions which inspired robotic ambition and anger and all those human qualities that drive humanity’s success (and downfall, as it turns out). The end result is classic sci-fi apocalypse fare - robots rebel against humanity and an all out war for dominance ensues. Think Terminator in the year 2088, only with an ‘I, Robot’ futuristic utopia instead of a nuclear wasteland, and you’ve got a good idea of what the world of Binary Domain looks like.

In the demo players are given the opportunity to try out two levels from the solo campaign. The first level requires you to select two squad members out of a possible four, giving you a sample of the squad management. Each member has a brief bio and offers unique skills which makes the team selection a little more complicated than simply picking the two beefy guys as your entourage. The impact of the trust element of the game becomes more apparent as the various characters interact differently with each other and with you.

In Binary Domain you aren’t tasked simply with blowing up enemy robots - you have to earn fellow squad mates’ trust to ensure they will follow your orders. If you insult them, act generally abrasive, or shoot them, then their trust for you drops and you may eventually find your squad in total disarray with insubordinate troops. The demo didn’t give enough time to sufficiently work on this dynamic but at least in principle it’s a nice idea which brings more human drama to an already edgy war with an uncertain future for humankind.

Shooting enemies earns points which can be spent at upgrade stations in the levels. Upgrades range from weapon improvements to nanotech-styled enhancements which you can buy for any squad member. In terms of action, the game plays out like most third-person shooters with a lot of emphasis on what I like to call the ‘gun-and-cover’ game style. While you run from cars to boulders, always edging closer to the next objective, you can bark orders to your squad mates to cover you, attack, or hold back and depending on their level of trust for you and their personality they will either comply or just flat-out refuse. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem any way to issue individuals orders so it’s a ‘team, attack!’ and ‘team, hold back!’ approach which doesn’t often suit a sniper and heavy weapons combination.

The first level showcases a grand boss battle at the end which requires some impressive action to overcome and certainly adds to the ominous feeling that the odds are on the robots winning this war. Whereas the first level shows off a bit of the squad-mate dynamic and some urban street fighting, the second level brings the battle to a metro station with a different squad.

In this stage one of your allies is another robot which indicates there’s more to this game’s story-line than initially meets the eye, and it’s this aspect of Binary Domain that intrigues me the most. The combat in the metro level is more frantic than the urban level and it showcases much more challenging robots and more deadly open area combat. The level ends rather abruptly when the second ‘boss’ appears meaning our brief encounter with the game gives us a basic understanding of Binary Domain gameplay and what to expect.

… And what is it we should expect? The game shows a lot of potential but given the purported depth of the character interactions, the demo felt more like a speed date than a blind date. The combat is a bit repetitive within each specific level but the levels differ from each other enough to make up for this through different combat styles and opponents. The game itself didn’t awe me but it certainly is entertaining for the short time the demo lasted. It supports multiplayer but this wasn’t available in the demo and as far as I can tell, there’s no co-op option which is a true shame.

If you’re a fan of Gears of War and played it solo then Binary Domain should offer a similar degree of enjoyment, but if you enjoy the likes of Gears of War for the co-op then Binary Domain is going to be a lonely ride. I’m particularly curious about the voice commands system, the human drama and consequences of your decisions, and am eagerly awaiting the chance to discover more of the attractive storyline. If you’re needing a third person shooter fix and have had enough of Gears, then watch out for Binary Domain with its intriguing plot and Terminator-styled, near-indestructible robots that won’t stop until you’ve destroyed every last moving part.

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