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Binary Domain Demo Impressions (JP - Out Now, US/EU - Feb 15 2012)

Yuterald

Member
Played the demo. Perfection. Like I ever had a doubt though. I knew this game was going to be awesome when I first saw it. Nagoshi and Team Yakuza for life. Time to start doing back flips motherfuckers every morning until the day of its release.
 

Tiktaalik

Member
Somehow figured out how to beat the robot boss in the first level.

Gotta say this game is feeling pretty good. When this game was first announced it looked quite bad and so this is a really pleasant surprise how it's turned out. I'll probably pick this up when it comes out now.
 
Well it is very hard to play because of the language barrier. But I was able to find out the game plays pretty well. Nothing here feels sluggish. The character movement feels good. The character feels nimble and its not a fight with the game just to roll around. I feel like they roll exactly where I want to. Aiming feels great. Feels really precise. It also dosent feel slow or like I'm fighting with the crosshair just to get it where I want it.

I can't really tell what the squad stuff does, but overall the gameplay seems good.

The visuals though aren't that great. Maybe it's just me, but they weren't as clear as I wanted. They look a little murky. And the levels up close were somewhat bland looking. I did notice some frame drops when shooting some enemies, but I actually didn't mind this as one of the cool visual things is how the robots explode. So that was cool.

All in all, it seems like a buy from me since TPS are one of my favorite genres.
 

sonicmj1

Member
The demo ended before I could beat the gorilla boss in the second level. Was that just a timer or does it always happen after you destroy two pieces of armor on him?

Everything I wanted to have working well in this game worked well in the demo, so I'm looking forward to the final product.
 

duckroll

Member
The demo ended before I could beat the gorilla boss in the second level. Was that just a timer or does it always happen after you destroy two pieces of armor on him?

Everything I wanted to have working well in this game worked well in the demo, so I'm looking forward to the final product.

I think one explanation is that something is supposed to happen after a certain amount of time in that boss battle, which might lead to another part of the stage. They probably didn't want to show anymore beyond that, so they just ended the demo there.
 
So yeah the demo. Pretty bad. Pretty forgettable third person shooter with fairly bad framerate. The framerate dropped so low during the second demo chapter I just stopped playing (when there was probably about ~8 red robots on screen at the same time and a bigger robot). Any poster who compared this to Vanquish is a complete joker. I may pick it up at the bargain bin if either of the versions atleast has a 30 locked framerate.
 

Tiktaalik

Member
Yeah I noticed the frame rate drop in the 2nd chapter as well. As well those red robots weren't nearly as fun to play against as the others in the first chapter. Hopefully the final product isn't this inconsistent.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Yeah I noticed the frame rate drop in the 2nd chapter as well. As well those red robots weren't nearly as fun to play against as the others in the first chapter. Hopefully the final product isn't this inconsistent.

I hated fighting the red robots until I started shooting at their legs.

Try running from me now, assholes!
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
Please don't tell me there will be a 9 month delay between the Jap release and a local release.
 

deim0s

Member
I'm liking what I'm reading here, looking forward to it.

Damn, lot of games to play - backlog ain't getting shorter. :D
 
Yeah, I double checked to see if it was just my console or something (have not played my PS3 in a while) and it was not just me. This game's framerate is bad to the point of almost unplayable to me - compounding the fact the game isn't too great to say the least.
 
All the interaction with your squad in mid battle is pretty awesome, graphics are ok, they do the job and no complains with the controls, maybe they are too sensible for me, I have to check the option menu for that. Day 1.
 

Bebpo

Banned
This demo is so bad.

As expected, J-devs can't make western shooter unless they are Mikami.

Better effort than Quantum Theory I guess, but it's complete jank with unimpressive visuals, bad framerate, bad animation, awful gunplay, bullet spunge enemies, just boring and not fun. Bleh. Make more gunless Yakuza games instead, team.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
This demo is so bad.

As expected, J-devs can't make western shooter unless they are Mikami.

Better effort than Quantum Theory I guess, but it's complete jank with unimpressive visuals, bad framerate, bad animation, awful gunplay, bullet spunge enemies, just boring and not fun. Bleh. Make more gunless Yakuza games instead, team.

your impressions seem to contradict with the general sentiment in this thread. Can't wait to try this myself.
 

Naite

Member
Tried it with my limited japanese and even more limited knowledge of the game. I set my team to have only females on it. I think one of them called me up on it and I didn't deny it. Had a negative effect on that chick but a positive effect on the other. Then I sorta got lost and missed how to beat the boss during all the action.

Overall I found it decent and a bit better than I thought it would be, but nothing I'd buy til it gets really cheap.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Not sure what everyone else is seeing, the game is a janky C-grade Japanese Gears clone with squad talking and commands. Visually it's a mess with poor framerate and bland visuals.

Note that I agree the squad stuff is very cool and different, but the game at its core is a "sit behind cover and shoot on spunge enemies" game and if the shooting is not satisfying or fun then what's the point?
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
Not sure what everyone else is seeing, the game is a janky C-grade Japanese Gears clone with squad talking and commands. Visually it's a mess with poor framerate and bland visuals.

Note that I agree the squad stuff is very cool and different, but the game at its core is a "sit behind cover and shoot on spunge enemies" game and if the shooting is not satisfying or fun then what's the point?

Same way I felt. I was bored after the first robot.
 
Not sure what everyone else is seeing, the game is a janky C-grade Japanese Gears clone with squad talking and commands. Visually it's a mess with poor framerate and bland visuals.

Yeah, pretty much. The framerate is the real killer though - it would atleast kind of be playable if it was better I guess. As it is right now I could not even imagine playing this for hours with this horrific framerate.

2/5 stars for the demo. I really hope this is an early demo or something ... at the very least.
 

duckroll

Member
Not sure what everyone else is seeing, the game is a janky C-grade Japanese Gears clone with squad talking and commands. Visually it's a mess with poor framerate and bland visuals.

Note that I agree the squad stuff is very cool and different, but the game at its core is a "sit behind cover and shoot on spunge enemies" game and if the shooting is not satisfying or fun then what's the point?

It's satisfying and fun to be able to have visual feedback about how wounded enemies are, and to be able to tactically damage enemies in every part of the body. Being able to disable enemies in the front by taking their legs out, and shooting off the head of an enemy in the back so he turns on all his allies is pretty damn fun.

Sorry you didn't like it!
 

Riposte

Member
I've been holding back on my preorder to see which of the two platforms is best. Seems like PS3 has frame-rate issues, but what about 360? What does the game run at normally?

EDIT: Do english voice commands work in the Japanese demo?
 

Semblance

shhh Graham I'm still compiling this Radiant map
Really enjoyed the gunplay, watching robots deteriorate as you unload on them is great fun. Squad stuff has potential but I can't really understand what's going. Cain just shrugged at me in the second scenario when we stopped to talk. Like, yo, don't stop me from icing dudes next time then.

The framerate is bothersome, though. If it's just an early build thing, all good. If it's a PS3 thing, oh well, I'll pick it up on the 360 instead. If it's how the game will run, period ... man, I hope not. :(
 
I've been holding back on my preorder to see which of the two platforms is best. Seems like PS3 has frame-rate issues, but what about 360? What does the game run at normally?

EDIT: Do english voice commands work in the Japanese demo?

On my PS3 at the very least it generally seems to hover around 30 sometimes but it always, constantly fluctuating. The more enemies the worse it gets. I stopped playing when I estimated it was easily in the low 20's/high 10's or lower (completely unacceptable for a game like this) during the second chapter. When moving the (weirdly huge in this game) reticule becomes inaccurate due to framerate - I stop having any sort of fun.

I was kind of expecting this if this was really the same Yakuza team - the Yakuza games are kind of rough technically. But at least in those games they had the decency to have a solid frame rate during the fights.
 

Suzuki Yu

Member
OK after playing the game fairly enough, the Controls and AI in general are great and that's what i was looking for the most in this demo.
animations, procedural damage and particles effect, modeling for both your squad and robots specially the big ones were all great as expected.

the only disappointed experience with the demo for me (and for the most i guess) was the inconsistent frame rate...but it wasn't that bad, the game was totally playable to me.

also very nice to hear that the voice-recognition system works very well :)

but the game at its core is a "sit behind cover and shoot on spunge enemies" game and if the shooting is not satisfying or fun then what's the point?
i disagree!
shooting enemies never was this satisfying... the gunfire impact is just insane!
 

duckroll

Member
The framerate in the second demo mission does get really bad. The point after the train pulls in and you move to the next platform is a total slideshow. It gets a bit better if you manage to take off a few of the enemies early, but otherwise it's definitely the worst thing I've seen from the game so far. I had to back away and shoot from a far distance because the framerate was so bad I couldn't aim properly at middle range. Lol.
 

Qwomo

Junior Member
not sure who to believe...
DLNPw.png
 
a western demo would be crucial for spreading knowledge about it, not many people even know about the game and i cant even place a pre-order on it here in finland except in one shop!
 
Just a demo. Furthermore, it's probably an old build. Wouldn't freak unless you read about it in a review.

Well, I'm not holding my breath, but I do hope the final version is better. The game always looked like it prioritized a good performance over flashy visuals and therefore went with this deliberately simple and flat sci-fi look. Seeing how people are disappointed by the visuals and the framerate is discouraging. Guess I'll have to try the demo later today. :I
 
Finished the demo. Pretty solid representation of the game. It shows that the voice commands work well, the squad AI is relatively good and much more competent than usual companion "AI" in shooters, combat is fun, animations and models are very detailed, and most importantly the game is actually fun.

Nagoshi vindicated?

i'm very happy by the voice commands..it works even with my clunky japanese skills , even when you hesitate during talking it still understand .. Shooting feel alright and i didn't felt like i had morons with me ... i'm also intrested in the fact that you can talk to your mates to raise their morale..

very cool demo..
 

Anteater

Member
Hey it was actually pretty decent, the only thing I didn't like is the weird angle when the character aims, I keep shooting into walls so I needed to adjust because I was only paying attention to the crosshair and not the character lol, and I can't really swap shoulders like in the uncharted games (unless I missed it).

The UI fades out kind of slow so it was distracting when I switch weapons, and I'm not very used to the cover system, having holding down X to run, X into cover and X to roll weren't very precise, character is kind of slow but at least aiming is really responsive.

The graphics looks surprisingly good and better than I expected, I think it's sub HD but it was kind of sharp, fsaa was great, animations were awesome, the dialogues system where you get to answer your team is nice as well, shooting armors and pieces off enemies is cool and there's a pretty deep weapon upgrade system at the store too. All in all there are a lot of stuff.

The framerate is poo poo.

Edit: oh there's overscan adjustment in the option, fuck yeah.


You can switch shoulders by pushing the left analog stick in the opposite direction.

Guess I missed this!
 

Feindflug

Member
Game sounds very interesting, I guess I'll have to make a JP account...also is there a 360 demo coming today? I'm curious to see how the 360 version turned out.
 

Corto

Member
I had some fun yesterday with the first stage of the demo. The only thing that annoyed me a little bit was the auto aim system that activates from cover. I'll check today in the options if I can find a way to deactivate it. The recoil of the guns felt nice, the voice commands felt a bit "Mass Effectish" but it was a trial and error thing for me a non-japanese speaking, and the hit reactions from the robots when aiming for different parts of the body were a nice cool touch. I never encountered a deal breaking frame dropping scenario but I didn't get to the second stage. It's on my wishlist still.
 

tusken77

Member
Game sounds very interesting, I guess I'll have to make a JP account...also is there a 360 demo coming today? I'm curious to see how the 360 version turned out.

They've been showing the PS3 version. Take from that what you will.

As for the demo performance, I'm fairly sure this is the demo from the Eurogamer Expo back in September, so maybe it's just an old build.
 

Fersis

It is illegal to Tag Fish in Tag Fishing Sanctuaries by law 38.36 of the GAF Wildlife Act
I would say Nagoshi is mostly vindicated because when they announced that the studio was tackling the third person shooting genre seriously, most people did not believe they were capable of it, especially because of Dead Souls. Now they seem to have really done it. The game is tight, it controls well, it feels good, and they've injected a good amount of Japanese game design elements into it which you don't tend to find in most western shooters.
Im kinda surprised of a Japanese Studio focusing on AI.
Also Nagoshi is so boss.
 
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