This Week In Retro: Binary Domain (Patreon)

February 16, 2012: Do Hollow Children dream of electric sheep?

by Diamond Feit

It is the 21st century and I share my home with robots. When I was a child, the notion that I might someday cohabitate with a robot was purely science fiction (or cribbed from Rocky IV). The reality is much more down to earth than I ever could have imagined, as none of our high-tech appliances resemble a human being or demonstrate any self-awareness. Instead, I can press a few buttons and program a robot to cook rice, curry, stew, or hundreds of other dishes.

For something a little closer to the future I pictured, there's a Google Home speaker sitting in my dining room. It is always plugged in. It is always listening to us, idly waiting for the magic activation phrase "OK, Google." When prompted, it can access the internet, answer a number of basic questions, and even operate a few connected devices around our house. I know it doesn't actually think or have feelings, but I always say "thank you" after each of our interactions. The voice responds in turn, choosing from a few different phrases like "Happy to help!" or "I really love helping you!" It's a little strange to hear an artificial voice express an emotion, and I could easily avoid that awkwardness by not thanking it for doing its job, but that would be rude.

I am pondering my relationship with my domestic electronics because ten years ago, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku studio (the team best known for the Yakuza series), brought the world Binary Domain, a science-fiction shooter about artificial intelligence and the coexistence of humans and robots. While the robots in Binary Domain are more ambulatory than the ones I own, capable of performing manual labor or wielding heavy weaponry, the game asks players to consider the meaning of "life" as attributed to manufactured machines.

Set in the not-that-distant year of 2180, the world Binary Domain depicts is a troubled one. Climate change has ravaged the planet, with global flooding forcing urban areas to expand upwards. The harsh conditions and urgent need for labor have boosted the growth of mass-produced mechanical beings, workers who do not require rest and are able to survive in hazardous environments. While this enables society to survive, it also creates a larger gap between the wealthy and the poor, as the former live in comfort while the rest of us struggle for scraps as the sea level rises.

Players control Dan Marshall, cocksure American man, as he invades the sovereign nation of Japan in order to arrest a rogue Japanese scientist. Initially intended as a stealth mission, things heat up in a hurry when seemingly every battle-capable bot in Japan shows up to prevent Marshall from finding his target. Marshall's objective, Dr. Yoji Amada, is suspected of creating "Hollow Children," a term used to describe robots camouflaged in realistic skin who can pass for human. Developing such bio-mechanical organisms is expressly forbidden by global authorities, as laid out in an international treaty signed by all the world powers. Complicating matters, these newfound Hollow Children actually believe themselves to be human, and when they learn the truth they tend to react violently.

Our hero is no lone wolf, however, as he arrives with a partner in tow and soon meets up with an entire squad of trained cybernetic-capping professionals, who then join forces with the local underground resistance to battle their way through Tokyo. The city doesn't look much like it does today, save for a few recognizable brands seen on billboards around town, as every location Marshall and company traverse is positively littered with, well, litter. There are also waist-high obstacles strategically placed throughout every road, building, and even sewer along the way, ideal for taking cover from fire but illogical from a city-planning standpoint.

Binary Domain is thus a cover-based squad-driven third-person shooter, one that gives players a choice of allies with different loadouts and personalities. There are scattered guns and such to pick up on the battlefield, but these are temporary; only through finding or purchasing upgrades can players permanently improve Marshall or his partners. This puts Binary Domain squarely in the wake of major Western hits like Gears of War or Mass Effect, successful series that convinced certain folks around this era that Japanese games were behind the times or just plain "finished."

Let's cut to the chase: Much of Binary Domain has been done before, and I don't just mean all the scrambling through an urban wasteland under heavy fire. Science-fiction has grappled with the intricacies of biological versus synthetic "life" for decades, and countless stories have toyed with the idea of fleshy androids unaware of their true upbringing. Off the top of my head, I can think of Blade Runner, Screamers, multiple Star Trek episodes and one of the lesser Terminator sequels that deal with this trope.

Where Binary Domain innovates is how players must interact with their new NPC comrades. Instead of a conversation wheel or mapping commands to the D-pad, the game invites players to literally talk to their fellow operatives. In the heat of battle, saying "Charge" or "Wait" out loud will instruct a partner to advance or retreat. Outside of combat, characters will ask Marshall his opinion and wait for players to answer. On top of this mechanic is the "Consequence System" which monitors the relationship between the player and all their team members. Positive actions like agreeing with a suggestion or offering aid during combat improves a partner's view of Marshall, making them more willing to assist him. The opposite is also true, as too much friendly fire or not-so-friendly conversations will sour a squadmate from helping Marshall or listening to his commands.

There's just one downside to this groundbreaking concept: It sucks. The voice recognition software is nowhere near as good as it needs to be to pull off this task, with the AI only able to understand an extremely limited set of vocabulary. Worse, unless you play your video games in complete and utter silence, the always-listening system will react to anything it thinks you might have said. I talk to myself a lot, especially when I'm frustrated, and having a computer respond to my grumblings with "What was that?" only makes me angrier.

Sega could not possibly assume that every PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 owner has a microphone on hand, so Binary Domain does allow players to opt out of using the voice command function. However, the game is still built around these player/NPC interactions, which means they cannot be skipped. The solution? Binary Domain requires players to press and hold a dedicated button to open a menu of "voice commands," then press a second button to pick from a list of canned responses. Trying to communicate with this method during combat is distractingly clumsy, but at least it cuts down on false positives.

True to its title, Binary Domain was received quite differently on each side of the Pacific. Japanese magazines awarded the game high scores and it debuted as the second best-selling game in the country at launch. Western press outlets were far less positive, pointing out its similarities to other, better games already on the market. Binary Domain would only move 20,000 units in its first month on US store shelves, a disappointing result that likely killed any chance of a sequel.

Yet just like a human being ripping off their skin to reveal a metal endoskeleton underneath, Binary Domain managed to surprise me. For all its imperfections, the game is by no means "bad," as the Ryu Ga Gotoku team knows how to pair action and cinematic storytelling. Blasting away at the robots is fun; I had a laugh watching their armor crack and limbs pop off. Destroying their heads doesn't knock them down but it does leave them blind, unable to determine friend from foe and rendering them as unwilling allies.

In the ten years since its original launch, Binary Domain has picked up a cult following thanks to a Steam port that regularly goes on sale for less than five bucks. A decade's worth of highly-polished combat games doesn't do this one any favors (with hundreds of hours of Fortnite under my belt, I struggled to adjust to the controls) but when viewed as a budget title, Binary Domain delivers enough amusement to deserve a second chance.

I even have to admire the Consequence System, warts and all, for its ambitious nature and astonishing amount of foresight. Could anyone have guessed even ten years ago how much time we'd spend talking to software in our day-to-day lives? The characters in Binary Domain are no more human than my Google Home living room speaker but I immediately worried about how they would view me if I failed to show them enough respect. I suppose if the robot apocalypse does arrive in my lifetime, I won't have the courage to join the resistance. I couldn't dare treat an AI any worse than I'd want it to treat me.