Wandering by way of Bionic Bay’s darkish alien world is unsettling and awe-inspiring. There are huge constructions with no clear goal and autonomous factories stuffed with whirring noticed blades and devastating lasers. It’s grim and unforgiving, with little mild and harsh shadows that give every thing a sinister tone. However then you definately step on a bomb and your character bounces off of partitions like a pinball, and also you understand it’s a sport of contrasts.
Bionic Bay is a curious mix of two very totally different genres. On the one hand, it’s an atmospheric side-scrolling journey within the mould of Inside and Limbo, stuffed with disturbingly gorgeous environments to discover. On the similar time, it’s a hard-as-nails platformer like Tremendous Meat Boy, with elaborate physics that can have you ever dying repeatedly whereas looking for the very best route by way of lethal obstacles. One way or the other, the disparate vibes come collectively surprisingly properly.
What first drew me to Bionic Bay was that darkish world. It’s mysterious to the purpose that I nonetheless don’t truly know what it’s you’re doing or why. However that thriller is a big a part of the attraction. As you make your method by way of its ranges, you’re topic to some unimaginable and intimidating environments, and it’s largely as much as you to determine what story the world is making an attempt to inform. There are fiery factories, inexperienced areas the place natural life merges with expertise and structure in disturbing methods, and dank sewers lit up by dripping bioluminescent goo. All of those areas make you are feeling minuscule as compared. It’s the form of sport the place virtually each second makes for an incredible screenshot.
With a purpose to see all of it, although, it’s important to cope with a really robust sport. Whereas there’s some comparatively easy platforming at first, you’re quickly offered with seemingly insurmountable duties, like a sequence of spinning noticed blades that require exacting jumps to get by way of. Nevertheless it’s not as exact as it might appear. One of many extra distinctive parts of Bionic Bay is its physics; the little man you management may be very sturdy and may survive being bounced round, so you possibly can generally flop your method by way of trickier areas.
Bionic Bay can also be one thing of a puzzle sport. You may have entry to a number of powers, like the flexibility to swap locations with an inanimate object or decelerate time (although you possibly can solely actively be utilizing one). Mix these instruments with the floppy physics and there are quite a lot of inventive methods to get by way of the sport.
Key to that is that Bionic Bay encourages experimentation. You’ll die rather a lot, however as a result of the sport has such a forgiving checkpoint system, there’s not often a lot punishment for failure. Having the ability to rapidly retry a soar retains the sport from being too irritating whereas additionally making it simpler to discover a route that really works. And if in case you have a wild concept about, say, using on the again of a rocket to keep away from killer laser beams, there’s no hurt in making an attempt.
The sport isn’t simple. I’ve discovered myself caught on just a few events. And whereas I want the sport targeted just a little extra on exploration, the bizarre and unforgiving world can also be what helped me persevere by way of the trickier challenges. I simply needed to see what was subsequent.
Should you’re a fan of sci-fi works like Blame! or Dune, with their spectacular sense of scale, Bionic Bay affords one thing very comparable. You simply should work laborious to see all of it.
Bionic Bay is out now on the PS5 and PC.