Bionic Bay Review – Acrobatic Platforming Meets Deadly Environments – MonsterVine

Bionic Bay, from Psychoflow Studio and Mureena Oy, resembles one thing of a cross between Limbo and Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee. Let me clarify. You could traverse large ranges, utilizing acrobatic expertise to beat spinning blades, lethal drops, and weighty obstacles. At the least, you’ll attempt to. You’ll die loads enjoying Bionic Bay, it’s a sport that may be very joyful to allow you to die, die, and die once more. Fortunately, you aren’t totally reliant in your character’s spectacular acrobatics, as an alternative, you will have entry to a swap mechanic. You’ll be able to tag a wide range of objects after which hit the left bumper to swap with it.

Bionic Bay
Developer: Mureena Oy & Psychoflow Studio
Worth: $19.99
Platform: PC (reviewed), PlayStation 5
MonsterVine was equipped with a Steam code for assessment

The Swap Mechanic That Units Bionic Bay Aside

This mechanic has a mess of makes use of. These vary from the mundane, like swapping your place with an immovable rock to get round it, to the spectacular, like leaping right into a lethal laser beam, swapping on the final minute to dam its path with a close-by crate. Oh boy, the lasers in Bionic Bay are out to get you. There are lasers that fry you, lasers that freeze you, lasers that bounce you want a trampoline. You’ll use this mechanic to resolve the sport’s different massive mechanic: puzzles. You see, that is an previous-faculty puzzle platformer, therefore the Oddworld comparability. The puzzles are all rooted within the sport’s mechanics; there aren’t any logic puzzles or the like, however determining methods to get previous seemingly impassable obstacles is equal components irritating and satisfying.

In movement, all of it seems completely spectacular. The Limbo comparability isn’t solely right down to the sport’s aspect scrolling perspective and silhouetted artwork model – it’s additionally as a result of the sport’s deaths are completely brutal. You’ll fall from nice heights onto your head with a sickening smack, be dismembered by explosives, and simply evaporated by lasers. None of this issues an excessive amount of, both, because the sport has an excellent checkpointing system, and also you’ll seldom be put too far again.

The animation does quite a lot of work to make the sport look brilliantly alive. Motion, each yours and that of the surroundings, is extremely fluid, and it makes the platforming splendidly satisfying. Doing a working leap, scraping by a lure to land together with your palms on a lever is simply very good. I truly discovered myself placing down different platformers to play Bionic Bay, as the opposite video games’ motion simply felt sluggish by comparability.

Chances are you’ll be questioning why I haven’t named the protagonist nor outlined the sport’s story. That’s as a result of I haven’t the foggiest thought about both. I’m not even positive if the protagonist has a reputation. There’s not numerous story, both – the sport relays the story to you thru small recordings from scientists, who seem like trapped in the identical anomaly as you, uncertain of the place they’re. It’s one of many few criticisms of the sport that I’ve – the story is each simply missed and, even should you don’t miss it, tough to comply with.

It doesn’t matter an excessive amount of, although – this isn’t a sport the place the story is significant. You simply have to give attention to timing your jumps and fixing the puzzles with out getting too irritated.

The sport is, usually, excellent. The issues that there are aren’t too critical – the story might undoubtedly be a stronger aspect, and among the puzzle options might do with being a little simpler to determine. Frustration reared its ugly head variety of occasions over the course of the sport’s 10-12 hour size. These fickle little frustrations can not detract from what’s a powerful puzzle platformer and an exquisite debut from Psychoflow Studios.

The Last Phrase
A puzzle platformer that takes clear inspiration from the classics and mixes that with crisp, trendy animation, Bionic Bay is an excellent platformer and nicely value your time. Small points like a poor story and generally obtuse puzzles can not detract from the sport’s enjoyable.

– MonsterVine Score: 4 out of 5 – Good