Bionic Bay, from Psychoflow Studio and Mureena Oy, resembles something of a cross between Limbo and Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee. Let me explain. You must traverse huge levels, using acrobatic skills to overcome spinning blades, deadly drops, and weighty obstacles. At least, you’ll try to. You’ll die a lot playing Bionic Bay, it’s a game that is very happy to let you die, die, and die again. Thankfully, you aren’t entirely reliant on your character’s impressive acrobatics, instead, you have access to a swap mechanic. You can tag a large range of objects and then hit the left bumper to swap with it.
Bionic Bay
Developer: Mureena Oy & Psychoflow Studio
Price: $19.99
Platform: PC (reviewed), PlayStation 5
MonsterVine was supplied with a Steam code for review
The Swap Mechanic That Sets Bionic Bay Apart
This mechanic has a multitude of uses. These range from the mundane, like swapping your position with an immovable rock to get around it, to the spectacular, like jumping into a deadly laser beam, swapping at the last minute to block its path with a nearby 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 like a trampoline. You’ll use this mechanic to solve the game’s other big mechanic: puzzles. You see, this is an old-school puzzle platformer, hence the Oddworld comparison. The puzzles are all rooted in the game’s mechanics; there are no logic puzzles or the like, but figuring out how to get past seemingly impassable obstacles is equal parts frustrating and satisfying.
In motion, it all looks absolutely spectacular. The Limbo comparison isn’t solely down to the game’s side scrolling perspective and silhouetted art style – it’s also because the game’s deaths are absolutely brutal. You will fall from great heights onto your head with a sickening smack, be dismembered by explosives, and just evaporated by lasers. None of this matters too much, either, since the game has a very good checkpointing system, and you’ll seldom be put too far back.
The animation does a great deal of work to make the game look brilliantly alive. Movement, both yours and that of the environment, is incredibly fluid, and it makes the platforming wonderfully satisfying. Doing a running leap, scraping by a trap to land with your hands on a lever is just superb. I actually found myself putting down other platformers to play Bionic Bay, as the other games’ movement just felt sluggish by comparison.
You may be wondering why I haven’t named the protagonist nor outlined the game’s story. That’s because I haven’t the foggiest idea about either. I’m not even sure if the protagonist has a name. There’s not a lot of story, either – the game relays the story to you through small recordings from scientists, who appear to be trapped in the same anomaly as you, unsure of where they are. It’s one of the few criticisms of the game that I have – the story is both easily missed and, even if you don’t miss it, difficult to follow.
It doesn’t matter too much, though – this isn’t a game where the story is vital. You just need to focus on timing your jumps and solving the puzzles without getting too annoyed.
The game is, generally, very good. The flaws that there are aren’t too serious – the story could definitely be a stronger element, and some of the puzzle solutions could do with being a little easier to figure out. Frustration reared its ugly head a good number of times over the course of the game’s 10-12 hour length. These fickle little frustrations cannot detract from what is a strong puzzle platformer and a wonderful debut from Psychoflow Studios.
The Final Word
A puzzle platformer that takes clear inspiration from the classics and mixes that with crisp, modern animation, Bionic Bay is a brilliant platformer and well worth your time. Small issues like a poor story and sometimes obtuse puzzles cannot detract from the game’s fun.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
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