The product of an unusual collaboration between developers from Finland and Taiwan, Bionic Bay is an indie, side-scrolling platformer with a superbly realised aesthetic. At times, though, the game’s beauty comes at the expense of its clarity, making these tough challenges more frustrating than they ought to be.
Narrative is slight in Bionic Bay. The player takes on the role of a nameless scientist, who undertakes an experiment that transports him into a superbly realised alien environment. At times recalling the artwork of H. R. Giger, this world is a seemingly endless biomechanical landscape packed with strange and frequently deadly machines. Any number of purposes could be guessed at – weapons factory, waste disposal station, scientific facility, or some twisted combination of all of these and more.
It is hard to overstate how well developers Psychoflow Studio and Maureen Oy have delivered on their unique vision for this world. Bionic Bay uses an extremely dense, precise pixel art style. The player character is tiny relative to the sprawling environments, reinforcing the powerful sense of isolation. The deployment of light and dark is particularly careful and effective, especially in the context of a two-dimensional game. Very often, objects and scenery are visible only in silhouette, which lends a particular starkness to many scenes. Detailed backgrounds lend the levels a sense of immense space.
In gameplay terms, Bionic Bay is a precision platformer which has been developed with speedrunning very much in mind – indeed, its online mode turns the game into a competition both with other players and the clock. Especially in later levels, highly intricate jumps, rolls, and more complex movements are needed to progress. This never feels as surgical or ruthless as something like N or Super Meat Boy, but some of the same DNA is present here.
The player’s goal is always simply to progress from one end of the level to the other. Only very occasionally do snatches of on-screen text appear, exploring some shred of a very vague and mysterious narrative. This alien environment is a hostile one, and progression is not only about traversal, but about survival. The scientist is frequently threatened by the hectic, malfunctioning machines of this odd world, which are poised to crush, incinerate, vaporise, electrocute, or otherwise terminate him.
Each level introduces at least one new hazard, and these become increasingly complex to manage. Examples include automated turrets, batteries that spew electrical arcs, wayward lasers, explosive mines, and more. Often, these threats can be turned against each other in clever ways and happily, due to the ragdoll physics, the frequent deaths are usually more comical than they are frustrating. Early on, the player gains the ability to mark certain objects with a handheld device, and then switch places with them on demand. This feat, plus platforming dexterity and sometimes deep reserves of patience, are the main means to succeed.
Bionic Bay does have its frustrations, however. At times, the beautiful visuals obscure things that the player needs to see. It can be difficult, for example, to identify which objects are likely to explode when touched, and to make out switches. This is due both to the sheer complexity of the scenes, and the frequent use of the silhouette effect. This visual confusion can result in needless deaths – thankfully, checkpoints are placed very liberally (albeit invisibly) throughout each level.
Perhaps more seriously, some of the challenges seem excessively harsh or opaque. Sometimes, tricky new concepts are introduced immediately before tough tests which lean heavily on them. Some later levels introduce gravitational anomalies, which complicate the control scheme and greatly increase the difficulty in understanding a given situation. When this is combined with a need for speed, certain tasks can become a slog of many repeat attempts.
Bionic Bay is a superb-looking platformer which offers a formidable challenge – a particularly engaging one for genre veterans and speedrunners. For more casual players, though, the lack of any narrative drive and some overly opaque challenges may place a limit on their enjoyment.
