Years ago, I was privy to an early copy of Limbo. It was a silent and mysterious game that based its entire gameplay concept off of not seeing the main character’s features and developing a creepy-ass story for their controllable silhouette. The game featured some unsettling moments, including a large spider-like creature trying to stab the main character along their journey, and also some melancholy feelings where you couldn’t help but wonder how this main character got into this mess. Ultimately, the game allowed the player to create a narrative on their own with the small breadcrumbs extended to them. Very Hitchcockian.
Today, Psychoflow Studio released Bionic Bay, a phenomenal game that has a similar concept as Limbo but with a little more visual details to keep you locked in and engaged. The gameplay is more puzzle solving for the player that is driven by innovative and creative design, as well as solid execution. There’s not much to complain about in this game. It’s quite good.
So, sit back, watch out for that gravity shift, and let’s get going on this review of Bionic Bay.
Story
The story of Bionic Bay is simple. You are a scientist trying to escape a biomechanical world that is broken and busted. The main character has to deal with gravity shifts, explosions, constant landscape degradation, and machines actively trying to murder them.
As stories go, this one isn’t bad. It not only gives me those Limbo vibes with a ‘what happens next’ sort of deal, but it also gives me Another World vibe because the scientist has to find their way out of a dangerous world. Both vibes equal a hefty amount of intrigue that creates a motivating factor to keep playing the game.
Anytime you can hook your player and drag them along because they want to know the reasons for the story and how it’s going to end, then that is a good time. That’s how the previously mentioned games worked and kept players engaged, and this is how Bionic Bay works. I want to know what is going on and how the scientist is going to conclude their treacherous adventure.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Bionic Bay is a combination of simplicity and complication. Yes, those are competing terms, but stay with me. The simplicity of the game comes in the form of needing to keep pushing forward to escape (and to reveal how the story is going to end). To push forward, the scientist just needs to jump, grab, and once in a while teleport. There is nothing at all complicated about the mechanics of this game, as they are brought down to the simplest of constructs for a ‘pick up and play’ experience. You will barely need a tutorial before you understand how to navigate the biomechanical world.
Keeping things simple is a great way to get every type of gamer involved with your game, and it works here. Just knowing that you have to jump, grab, and sometimes teleport to traverse a dangerous landscape in Bionic Bay needs no explanation. Every level of gamer can get right into this gameplay. I love games with this type of structure.
The complication of the game is how you can understand, estimate, and produce a strategy against constantly changing obstacles. For example, you will run into a gun that allows you to teleport from one place to the next with an object. You point at an object, you fire said gun, and bloop, you switch places with the object. That is a cool and simple mechanic that is used on complicated puzzles Bionic Bay throws at you. Let me give you a scenario when this item is relevant. There is a level halfway through the game that has stomping pieces of metal that you can’t get under, or you will die. You have to tag a large object, run under the stomping piece of metal, and then quickly teleport, thus sending the large object underneath the stomping piece of metal to prevent it from smashing into the ground. That is the first step to the solution of this puzzle because now you have to think about how you’re going to swap places with that object and get beyond that stomping piece of metal, which is complicated if you don’t think about it. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and it takes precise timing, patience, and speed. That is only one example, as the puzzles get more complicated as you continue.
The game just doesn’t ask you to run and jump everywhere. It throws in puzzles in the form of dangerous objects or mechanical traps to keep you in line. Figuring out how to use the environment, mixed with the mechanics, and once in a while a device, to get through a complicated, strategy-driven puzzle is what makes this game deeper than it should be. It is also the reason why you can quickly become attached to the game.
When I first started playing Bionic Bay, I was unsure how I would truly enjoy it. Then about 3-4 hours straight of playing it, I quickly understood that the puzzles and complications thrown at my scientist character were a cognitively challenging gameplay that kept me so intrigued that I had to keep coming back. If I died, the game would throw me back into the mix for another try, and I would be more than happy to sit and stare at a puzzle to figure out the best method to pass it. I would probe obstacles for solutions and found myself just so locked in with figuring out the crazy asks the game wanted from me when trying to get from point A to point B. It was mesmerizing how easily obsessed the gameplay could make me and poke/prod at my need to complete a level.
Related to the puzzles, I have to give a huge shoutout to the level design team of this game. They managed to make the designs interesting, relevant, and naturally flowing with the gameplay. In addition, the environments were huge in Bionic Bay. They gave a good feeling of raw edginess to the gameplay and a somewhat sad vibe to what the world had become. The further you get into the game, the more complicated the designs become, and the more heartbreaking the reality of the scientist’s situation starts to appear. All the levels fit into that dystopian view of a biomechanical nightmare that our scientist can’t seem to escape fast enough from. Yet, all the levels seem meticulously crafted to make the gameplay more challenging and, more importantly, interesting. The levels are simply outstanding in their design.
Overall, the gameplay is driven by simplicity that runs head-on into complicated puzzles. Together, the gameplay is addictive as it is cognitively engaging, with the hoops it forces the player to jump through. I could play this game for days, and I would probably come back for more after it is finished.
Presentation side of things
Gorgeous. It’s animated beautifully, and the lighting, shadows, and the mysterious nature of the visuals are hauntingly stunning. This was the first aspect of the game that immediately caught my attention in the gameplay. I wanted to know more about this world because of the visuals, and I wanted to know how it got the way it did. The visuals make Bionic Bay seem huge. Lots of good layers to this onion.
In addition to the visuals, the audio is outstanding. The soundtrack fits perfectly with the visuals. And huge props for the sound effects. Again, they remind me a lot of Another World and Limbo.
Very top-notch.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Bionic Bay from developer Psychoflow Studio is an outstanding atmospheric platformer that will keep players locked-in with its simplistic mechanics and complicated gameplay mixed within an intriguing story.
