Sega Announces New Game 'Binary Domain'

[sanman]

Sega has announced a new squad-based shooter called 'Binary Domain' set in a robot-occupied Tokyo in 2080. The game's creator is one of the producers of Sega's other recent 3rd-person shooter, Vanquish. Here's the trailer:

 

 

 

So what do you all think? Animation designs were a little lack-lustre here, so maybe the teaser was put together in a hurry.

 

What do you think that unfinished sentence of the news report was trying to say?

Perhaps that one of their robots reported that the resisters were foreigners, and not merely local resistance?

 

Is this where Tokyo is like Baghdad, the Japanese robotic military are like an occupying US Army, local resistance are like Taliban, and American agents are elite foreign insurgents like AlQaeda?

 

Is this an attempt to create a role-reversal situation?

 

What about that clean-looking city above the ruined city below? I'm reminded of Battle Angel Alita, where the people living in the city above were living in splendour, and the people living down on the ground below were living in squalor. (Alternatively, one could also be reminded of many places in India which provide such contrasts.)

 

I dunno, I'm just musing out loud about my first impressions from what I saw.

 

Anybody else want to contribute their thoughts and observations?

[silentassassin]

already a game thread made...

 

Trailer looks like sh*t

 

 

http://www.indianvideogamer.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21282

 

Merge threads

[Nikushimi]

The last bit was pretty freaky, other than that the trailer was meh.

[Golden Frag]

Terminator salvation with good graphics

[sanman]

It seems to me that these crappy mech/robot designs are meant to allude to US armymen. Those olive-green robots with their helmet-heads seem reminiscent of WW2 American GI's. The really big mech doesn't evoke anything, other than just having a really big gun that can cause lots of collateral damage, and just seems to look crappy.

 

Given that Rainbow Six is supposed to be the textbook squad-based shooter, I don't think that a crudely politically contrived Tokyo-as-Baghdad story premise is going to appeal to the Tom Clancy crowd.

[KnackChap]

Sega has announced a new squad-based shooter called 'Binary Domain' set in a robot-occupied Tokyo in 2080. The game's creator is one of the producers of Sega's other recent 3rd-person shooter, Vanquish. Here's the trailer:

 

 

 

Its by Nagaoshi and his team behind Yakuza series and not Vanquish.

 

and you are over analyzing the plot details, its just another *boom boom, bang bang* shooter with space marines.

[ctrl_alt_del]

But his analysis makes for damn good plot line, if not for this game, maybe for some other.

[MarketTantrik]

The graphics look fantastic (I'm assuming its not CG).

 

How the f**k does a robot miss killing a human, using an assault rifle from a distance of less than 20 feet.

[playstation]

The graphics look fantastic (I'm assuming its not CG).

 

How the f**k does a robot miss killing a human, using an assault rifle from a distance of less than 20 feet.

dont think it is cg...

[sanman]

You can go to their website at http://www.binarydomaingame.jp/us/html/top.html

 

Browsing the screenshots there is pointless, since they're just stills from the trailer. But the artwork is revealing:

 

http://www.binarydomaingame.jp/us/html/gallery_a.html

 

 

The Concept section states the following:

 

“Binary Domain”

 

Usually games have a simple theme, but if we aim to maximize the appeal of a game as interactive entertainment, we need to develop more sophisticated themes that tie into every aspect of the game. I have made many attempts to link a game heavy in drama to a highly enjoyable and immersive gameplay experience and with Binary Domain every setting and mechanic in the game is designed to revolve around “Life”.

 

To further visualize this idea, I started to create “Binary Domain”. The core concept of this game from the beginning is life; the project code name from the start was in fact “Inochi”, which means “life” in Japanese. The most distinctive way of differentiating a creature from a machine is “life”. However, we also know that machines can be given a form of life when created by man. Is it possible that the differentiation is becoming less clear and machines are actually becoming more like humans?

 

One of the key elements of this is the pursuit of strong and differentiated human AND robot AI. Aiming to have the world’s best AI was essential to bring a true realisation of the concept of life to the players, through the story and the action within the gameplay. The inclusion of online modes has allowed us to transform the game from a mere battle field into a field of survival.

 

Additionally, the game is set in Tokyo in the year 2080. This was important to realise the theme of life as it’s where we (the development team) are actually living as we tell the story of this drama. I decided to combine this with a deep human drama with science fiction, despite most science fiction games being cold and clinical.

 

Finally, and best of all, I am working with the Yakuza team who are all excited to take on this new challenge and we are hoping that the technique and pride developed on the Yakuza series will move up to a new level.

 

That’s all I can tell you now, but I’m sure the game will amaze you in the near future more than you could imagine.

 

Don’t miss it!

 

Toshihiro Nagoshi

 

 

 

The trailer hosted on Sega's own website has a description below it:

 

http://www.sega.com/games/binary-domain/?t=EnglishUSA

 

Binary Domain™

 

Who is humanity’s true enemy?

 

Binary Domain is an original squad-based shooter by Toshihiro Nagoshi, the creator behind some of SEGA’s most well-know video game franchises, including the critically acclaimed Yakuza series. Binary Domain puts players in the middle of a fast paced and intense battle for humanity in a robot-invaded 2080 Tokyo. Fighting through the derelict lower levels of the city, players control an international peace-keeping squad that soon starts to question their surroundings and the choices they make. Are the robots becoming more human, or are humans becoming more like machines?

 

Binary Domain’s central theme of life is key to the way the innovative AI system is being developed. The highly advanced AI will make the battlefield a more compelling experience than ever before and players will have to plan their moves strategically and carefully in order to progress through the hostile environments of the game.

[sanman]

So if this is a war between robots and humans, then were those human characters the peacekeeper protagonists? (The descriptions above say that you play as a peacekeeper.) In that case, why are the peacekeepers fighting the robots? Don't peacekeepers usually just keep both sides apart, rather than fighting on behalf of one side? If anything, I would expect expendable robots to be used as peacekeepers, rather than having robots as one of the warring factions.

 

Nagoshi says that one of the themes he's exploring is about both warring sides becoming more like each other (ie. robots becoming more like humans, and vice-versa.) So then does that explain the mama-san at the end having a human-looking upper torso while having a mechanical lower-torso? Which is she - robot becoming more human, or human becoming more robotic? The fact that she's nursing a kid seems to imply the latter, and yet she's watching a TV news report which shows the green military robots fighting on behalf of her side, which implies that she's a robot. Unless of course the human side uses robots to fight for them, in which case the fighting boils down to robots against robots.

 

So if you're a peacekeeper, are you expected to make the voyage of discovery that has you realizing that the robots and the humans are really just different forms of the same thing? (aka. "can't we all get along?") And presumably you get to shoot at both types along the way, while you learn this. And learning this means you get to experience both types of opponents and their distinctive AI behaviour, and perhaps eventually see these evolve towards the common middle blend.

 

I still don't understand why robots ruling the city from above would accept human international peacekeepers. Unless of course the human characters we saw are human resistance fighters, and not the peacekeepers that you're supposed to play as.

[Bulovski]

 

How the f**k does a robot miss killing a human, using an assault rifle from a distance of less than 20 feet.

Enemy AI still sucks in 2080

[playstation]

Enemy AI still sucks in 2080

[sanman]

So let's suppose the trailer doesn't actually show the peacekeepers you get to play as, and that the human characters shown are human resistance fighters. I don't see how you're going to be impartial and objective in your sympathies, when one side is obviously human and thus attractive to your sympathies, while the other side are just walking toasters.

 

Is the trailer trying to fake you out, by initially depicting a standard valiant-humans-vs-mindless-robots scenario, and then hitting you with a twist at the end, when you see the dying/flickering green soldier robot followed by a mama-robot and her robo-baby? Were they Mr Greenie's wife and child? Was Mrs Greenie actually watching a CNN report about a battle down below in which her green husband may have been killed, unbeknownst to her?

 

Oh private Green, we hardly knew ye!

<SOB!>

 

 

Let us all remember what Cyborg Gandhi would do - he would urge the big black guy to marry sepoy Green's widow, and they would raise that little robo-baby together!

And that skinny white guy would be the best man! And that really skinny white chick who's too hot-looking to be a guerrilla would be the bridesmaid! And then she and the best man would fall in love too! And then they'd get married! And little robo-baby would be their godchild! They would be his godparents! And, and --

 

okay, I'm tired, gotta go to bed, time for somebody else to speculate on what this stupid game is about