Drawing on among the greatest traditions of precision platformers and physics-based puzzle video games, Bionic Bay is a shocking and novel launch managing the uncommon feat of constant and rewarding gameplay from starting to finish. Stack in a speedrunner’s dream of a web based mode, and there’s lots packed in. Whereas the purposefully enigmatic world-building and overpowering industrial theming didn’t land for me, the slick traversal and intelligent puzzle design make the sport a simple suggestion, as long as you don’t thoughts a problem.
Bionic Bay opens with a fateful lab accident, after which a hapless workplace employee finds himself in a catastrophically harmful world of spinning blades, crushing bins, freezing rays, and sudden shifts in gravity. Regardless of occasional diary-like textual content entries you uncover alongside the way in which, the story is sort of non-existent. A broader thriller is alluded to, however I used to be upset within the absence of a significant follow-through. It’s not that I want all of the solutions, however the whole abandonment of any try and illuminate what and why issues had been occurring let me down.
Fortunately, the core expertise of 2D platforming is remarkably enjoyable. Whereas shifting throughout fallen beams, unusual natural growths, and the remnants of half-built tech, the operating and leaping is quick and normally exact, even when I used to be annoyed by particular one-off motion sequences like one via water.
Gamers steadily achieve a set of otherworldly powers that manipulate the bodily surroundings, like teleporting and buying and selling locations with an object, slowing time, and even tweaking the course of gravity. Alongside these powers, quite a few unusual (and normally lethal) results litter the surroundings, like bounce pads and cryo-rays that freeze something midair when touched. With these instruments, the participant should puzzle their well beyond seemingly unattainable gaps and drops; options typically require each imaginative considering and intensely tight platforming timing.
Loss of life is frequent and infrequently irritating since there are ceaselessly sufficient physics variables on display screen, comparable to a pile of wildly spinning crates, that it may be arduous to progress previous a puzzle you may have already solved. Fortunately, within the early a part of the sport, new respawn checkpoints are set at just about each main hurdle. It was solely within the later ranges that I generally grew bored with repeat leaping sequences set round extra prolonged checkpoint cycles.
The puzzle designs revolve round physics ideas like magnetism, momentum, and the move of time. I used to be impressed by what number of intelligent twists had been explored throughout the restricted constraints of a given energy. Many ranges exhibit brilliance that remembers classics like Portal or Inside, with that very same excessive satisfaction while you lastly nail the completion.
The visible course performs closely with the distinction between darkish shadows within the foreground and sensible colours within the backdrops and results. It’s a extremely detailed use of pixel artwork that’s typically breathtaking. Nevertheless, the fixed industrial noise of slamming steel plates and crackling electrical energy, alongside your protagonist’s fixed, repeated grisly deaths, mix to make the sci-fi manufacturing unit vibe really feel oppressive over time.
Upon finishing the single-player marketing campaign, devoted gamers ought to be delighted by the net sport mode, which presents remixed ranges which can be more difficult and an opportunity to race via at excessive pace for a shot on the world leaderboard. I like these challenges’ dynamic nature, which deserves a particular call-out for the speedrunning neighborhood. Bionic Bay’s excessive problem and top-tier method to 2D traversal are a super match for anybody who likes to problem themselves to enhance a degree’s run time. I hope that nook of the gaming neighborhood finds this sport and embraces its potential.
Whereas the extreme surroundings and sound design didn’t at all times work for me, and among the puzzle options had been stymied by wildly unpredictable onscreen variables, I used to be completely impressed with Bionic Bay’s excessive problem and ingenious twists on real-world physics. It’s a good, fast-moving, and no-nonsense journey that calls for cautious statement and robust thumbstick management in equal measures. You already know if that’s the vibe that lands for you; whether it is, this mysterious journey ought to be in your checklist.
