Review – Bionic Bay – Gamerview

It’s that kind of game that comes slowly, but gradually you can win slowly and when you realize, you have checked you completely and no longer releases. Psychoflow Studio, along with Mureena Oy and Kepler Interactive seal, delivers a game that seems to have come straight from a laboratory where someone mixed limbo, inside and a little of that seasoning meat boy can carry for the dichotomy between hatred and love, all to see what this result would look like. Result? A very interesting and challenging game.

In Bionic Bay, the story is like a whisper, talking low behind everything that is happening. You control a scientist who, after an experiment gives bad, wakes up in a biomechanical world that seems to have been designed by someone who watched Blade Runner and Akira the same night. Do not expect long dialogues or explanatory cutscenes, as the narrative is in the whole environment, full of silences and details hidden in the dark corners of the scenario. It’s the kind of story that makes you think and, if you smell, even philosophize what may have happened to the scenarios you have gone through.

An environmental narrative

Once the proper introduction, let’s get down to business: Bionic Bay’s gameplay. For gameplay, Psychoflow developers don’t just want to challenge players, they want to make you feel part of the puzzle. The big balcony here is swap mechanics, where you can change places with objects and enemies, which opens an absurd range of possibilities to solve puzzles and escape traps. Add it to a physics system that plays with realism and you have a full plate for those who enjoy using their heads and reflexes. Here, it’s no use just jumping from platform to platform as you need to learn how to manipulate gravity to your advantage, how to control time and your strength to throw objects by creating new routes.

Bioc Bay does not take light, but it is not unfair either. Developers have positioned checkpoints to ensure that frustration never becomes negative, but that this whole process of learning through attempt and error disappears to the desire to try once again. And if you are competitive type, Speedrun’s online mode exists for you to prove your ability to internalize all these mechanics proposals brought to the gameplay, displaying your performance before the other players.

As if all this was not enough to show itself as a really interesting game, Bionic Bay is a eye drops for those who like Pixel Art with personality. Visually, the game plays with light and shadow in a way that resembles Roger Deakins’s work in the cinema, responsible for photography and characteristic of films such as Blade Runner.

Show from influences

Following this style, everything is kind of dark, half industrial, but with a strange beauty that makes you want to explore every corner. Walking side by side, the soundtrack alternates between almost oppressive silence and tracks that appear to have been composed inside an abandoned factory. Sound effects are accurate, reinforcing the climate of tension and loneliness. It’s that kind of art direction that doesn’t scream but impregnates your mind to create that doubt about “Is there anything wrong here?”

Just like in all games, not everything is flowers. Bionic Bay shines in the direction of art, trail and mechanics, but sins a little in the narrative, because it does not bring a palpable story and, with the high level of difficulty, cannot be considered a game that thinks to be accessible to those now coming in this genre, which can ward off part of the curious audience. However, it is worth every effort and investment of time, as you are about to face a game that, besides the influences already mentioned, do not worry about opening the strong presence of Mega Man, Another World and Oddworld, in addition to that touch of science fiction that only those who grew up watching the anime from the 90s will withdraw first.

Compared to the other games of the genre and that I mentioned earlier, Bionic Bay can compete in the same level of quality and competence. Learning from their references and evolving what we already know, developers have managed to take the precision of Super Meat Boy, the dense inside and limbo atmosphere, and added their own DNA with the mechanics that brought a unique identity to the game. If you like platform games that don’t play in service or treat you as a child, this will surely be your game of the year.

In the end, Bionic Bay is that indie that may have arrived without much receptivity, but gradually has been gaining notoriety, because it is impossible to play and do not want to indicate to everyone. Challenging, beautiful and innovative just right, extrapolating the formulas of your own genre, is sure to be the best option for those looking for something beyond the obvious in the world of platform titles. Unfortunately it is not for anyone, but those who board this journey will come out grateful and transformed.