Recently we had a true honor here at the San Francisco SEGA office – we had Toshihiro Nagoshi arrive to personally guide a demo for our upcoming game, Binary Domain! Nagoshi-san is the creator of many SEGA franchises, from Monkey Ball to Yakuza and so many games in between. His newest title, Binary Domain, focuses on the 3rd person shooter genre, bringing excellent squad play, top notch voice controls and an engaging story.
Nagoshi-san’s trip featured a chance to meet with local press outlets, conduct interviews, and show people what Binary Domain is all about. After a brief intro featuring notes about the gameplay, in particular the voice controlled commands, everyone was given a chance to dive in and experience Binary Domain. We’ve compiled a batch of links from folks that played the game and their impressions of what they experienced and some of the stuff that took them by surprise, enjoy:
- Gamesradar:
We were pleasantly surprised by how seriously the story and world is being taken in Binary Domain, especially given that it’s a genre where those sorts of details often fall by the wayside, for better or for worse. And from what we’ve seen so far, the attention to the story hasn’t come at the expense of the other gameplay elements either – cutting through waves of robots with a badass minigun was still one of the highlights of the demo. We can’t wait to see everything that Binary Domain has in store, so look for more details as we approach its Valentine’s Day release date.
- 1UP.com:
I’m not ready to call it the next Gears of War or anything, but it sure is refreshing to play a distinct third-person shooter that follows in the grand tradition of Japanese science fiction. Moreso than playing another zombie shooter, anyway. Here’s hoping that Binary Domain is able to make good on its promise. I, for one, am ready for the robot revolution to get started in earnest.
- Destructoid.com:
With only a few short months away it’s hard not to get a little bit excited for this intriguing third-person shooter. Its gripping story of robots versus humans, good versus evil, and the lower-class versus the elite of humanity has made Binary Domain on my most anticipated titles for next year. The game just exudes human emotion — fitting considering Binary Domain releases on Valentine’s Day.
- GameRevolution.com:
Let’s face it: Japanese-made games that attempt to emulate “Western style” action games don’t have a very good track record. Titles like Dark Void, Quantum Theory, and Lost Planet have tried to do the Third-Person Shooter with results ranging from decent to… abysmal. But here comes Toshihiro Nagoshi, who took his Yakuza team (the game, not the scary-ass gangsters) off of their usual projects to say, “[Forget] those other guys, we can do a Japanese Third-Person Shooter right.” And from the 2+ hours of gameplay we’ve seen of Binary Domain from E3 up through the recent showing in downtown San Francisco, he just might be telling the truth.
- GotGame.com:
Binary Domain has a few strings to its bow: engaging fiction, voice commands, light RPG elements, and robots that snap, crackle, and pop. Hopefully – by release day on Valentine’s Day, 2012 – SEGA will have applied that extra layer of varnish to make its new IP something special, and a good start to the young year.
- TotalPlayStation.com
Even without the multiplayer component, though, Binary Domain definitely looks like it’ll bring the Yakuza series’ storytelling style to bear here in impressive ways. If nothing else, having something that feels innately like a cyberpunk storyline with echoes of Philip K. Dick is more than enough to get us excited, and we eagerly look forward to checking out more of Binary Domain before it hits on February 14th.
Posted by Clumsyorchid in
Binary Domain,
SEGA on 4:17:43PM Dec 15, 2011
Comment # 1
nagoshi-san is a sega god! Anything with his name on it is just… TAKE MY MONEY SEGA !!! XD
Posted by scud racer on December 15th, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Comment # 2
While I think the game has potential, I share 1Up’s concern about the “action hero dialogue” dragging the game down. From what I’ve seen and heard from the game, the characters and dialogue are nowhere near the level of, for example, Mass Effect 2. Games like Bayonetta can get away with that but this game is actually trying to tell a serious storyline. What’s frustrating is that they actually seem to think that this is what the Western market wants. This is certainly one aspect of Gears of War they really shouldn’t have tried to copy….
Posted by Draikin on December 16th, 2011 at 11:20 am
Comment # 3
@Drankin if you looked at Nagoshi-san’s previous games I think you will find that he is more what you would call an..’originator’ not an ‘imitator’. I really doubt he is looking to ‘copy’ anyone’s ideas especially the likes of mass effect an EA title is it? Third person action titles were made before gears and mass effect you know.. I think you are selling Nagoshi’s instincts short too soon. The Yakuza series for example are critically well received for demonstrating great narrative direction and and engaging character roles. Give it time to find out more and play it yourself before you start labeling and generalizing with assertions of ‘copying’ and ‘appeals to west’. With Nagoshi-san after making games at SEGA for over 20 years. I think he knows what he is doing expect many suprises…
Posted by scud racer on December 17th, 2011 at 4:05 am
Comment # 4
@ Scud racer
The game is being compared to Gears of War for a reason, the gameplay is very similar even though they did try to add some new elements to it. Nagoshi also stated that the game is specifically meant to sell in the Western market, an area where Sega (and other Japanese developers) have lost a lot of ground in the past decade.
Some other quotes from Nagoshi:
“In fact, all of the acting — and all of the motion capture, as well — is being done by American actors and directors.”
“In that way, the characterization will be a bit different from the Yakuza series. I think the characterization in Yakuza was built to emphasize the drama, but in Binary Domain, it’s there to rev up the game.”.
So I do have some concern about how all this is going to work out, and if they’re really going to manage working with the people overseas. Just look at the boxart for example… I think Nagoshi has the right idea, but there’s little room for error here when the game’s release date is less than a month away from Mass Effect 3.
Posted by Draikin on December 18th, 2011 at 5:33 am
Comment # 5
I can concede that there may be mis-communications during development between the east and west teams but this is only likely to hinder, if at all small aesthetic choices like what you mentioned cover art and marketing. We can only hope SEGA can make sure to fulfill Nagoshi’s full vision for the game.
However what I don’t think you can take away is the heritage of where this game’s creator is coming from. All of Nagoshi’s games have been innovative robust and fundamentally fun! A legacy I can see continuing with binary domain.
Comparisons made to gears and mass effect really just aren’t valid . They may be easy to make but thats because action shooting titles are the most pprominent genres in the industry right now. Games like gears and mass effect are very much in the mind of gamers right now, so the comparisons made with binary domain are thickle and based superficially on the pretenses that gears and mass effect were the ‘first third person shooters’. Can we really blame SEGA for making a third person shooter? Its the biggest money maker in the industry right now of course sega is going to go there and take a shot at it.
If you’re going to make comparisons you should be comparing the development teams. We should be judging games on merit and not their country of origin. The development team for binary domain and those for the games that you mentioned are complete polar opposites in terms of development approach. This alone should reassure anyone thinking that binary domain has just been created to copy whats already been done before with gears and mass effect. The high quality pedigree and innovation of Nagoshi-san games and his devlopment team at SEGA make me confident to say binary domain will be unique and an original third person shooter. Simply because that’s what Nagoshi’s games are.
Posted by scud racer on December 18th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Comment # 6
@ Draikin (reply is at the above post)
Posted by scud racer on December 18th, 2011 at 1:16 pm