PC Gamer - UK (2022-06)

and Police Academy 3 had sex and
made a setpiece. There’s far more
variety here than I’d ever trust my
brain to accurately remember. I
would never have believed, for
example, there was a bit where my
team trundled around a car factory in
little pods, like armed revellers in an
unfurnished ghost train, but there it
is. The problem is that most of these
diversions are less fun than charging
forward into cover and shredding

metal enemies with a machine gun,

but on occasion it bangs. The section

on an elevated monorail, for example,

is exhilarating, even if it is just a fast

corridor with windows.

I also have a special place in my

heart for the cast of Binary Domain.

Protagonist Dan Marshall is one of

gaming’s great dickheads.

Controlling him is like playing as a

Kevlar fistbump – a no-hands

wheelie of a man whose favourite

phrase is ‘holler if you’re dead’. You

get to carve out some of his

personality via custom responses to

your team’s questions, but answering

with anything even vaguely polite

seems like a betrayal. But Dan seems

positively nuanced compared to the

rest of the team. We have Cain, a

French robot who sounds like Poirot

trapped in next door’s dustbin; and

Commander Charles Gregory, a

character who’s 70 % posh British

first names and 3 0% romantic lead

from a Netflix Christmas film.

Elsewhere there’s a short-haired

demolitions expert Rachel, whose

character type is ‘the one you’re not

supposed to fancy’, except I do; and

Big Bo, a crayon drawing of an

African American who’s like

someone gave an ice-cream truck

guns and taught it how to party.

FAYEACCOMPLI

Any attempt to add depth to the

characters in Binary Domain is

slightly undermined by the limited

trust system. You build rapport with

teammates by killing enemies with

them and saving them when they’re

downed, but there’s a conversational

element, too. It’s fun, even if your

options are mostly limited to ‘yes’,

‘no’, and ‘dammit’, and you mostly

ROBOTIC-TIC BOOM

Aim here for maximum enjoyment

1

HEAD

Shatter a robot’s face,

exposing the Terminator-like

visage beneath.

2

ARM

Blast his arms off and he’s

not going to be shooting you

back anytime soon.

3

BODY

It ain’t elegant, but

enough shots tocentremass

will blast him into scrap.

4

LEGS

There’s something so

satisfying about sniping out a

limb so they have to crawl.

3

1

4

2

126

OLD GAMES, NEW PERSPECTIVES

REINSTALL