Bionic Bay was supplied by Kepler Interactive for evaluation. Thanks!
Platformers are among the finest video games on the Steam Deck, because of their ease of operating and compatibility with a controller. There are a couple of platformers that stand out, although. Celeste, Antonblast, and INSIDE are all a pleasure to play, however Bionic Bay could also be becoming a member of the checklist. Not solely is it very competent in its gameplay, however it additionally feels revolutionary and thrilling, difficult the participant to seek out distinctive methods to resolve its puzzles. After my playthrough, I can confidently say this was certainly one of my favourite platformers I’ve ever performed.
If I needed to clarify Bionic Bay, I’d say it has an analogous aesthetic to LIMBO, with a lot of the recreation exhibiting black outlines of areas and your participant character, and fast-paced platforming like if Celeste and Sonic the Hedgehog had a child and added in physics-based objects and puzzles. It is chaotic in all the precise methods, discovering a pleasant steadiness between being too tough and distracting and too straightforward and simple, more often than not.
Like most 2D platformers, you’ll go from one finish of the extent to the opposite, and whereas this often means horizontal or vertical motion, Bionic Bay makes use of each route. You’ll bounce sideways to dodge lasers, climb chains to flee balls of fireside, and extra. It is fairly clear the place to go subsequent and is extra on the linear facet of development, however it feels so thrilling because of the powers you get to control the physics-based world and its puzzles.
As you proceed, you’ll unlock completely different loopy powers that can assist you manipulate the world. These embrace skills like swapping locations with objects you tag or pushing objects round with monumental drive. The powers are all fairly intriguing and assist serve an precise objective, which can be utilized to control the world. To get by means of lasers, chances are you’ll want to leap over the laser and swap locations with a sheet of steel, or to destroy a bomb in entrance of you, you could have to push a crate into it. These turn out to be important to fixing puzzles, and there will likely be some fast considering concerned, equivalent to the place it’s essential to determine on the fly whether or not it’s essential to swap and when.
I beloved these moments. It felt partaking and filled with motion, because of how fast-paced the sport is. The builders, Psychoflow Studio and Mureena Oy, wished to maintain speedrunning a transparent focus, they usually did a fantastic job. The chaos by no means sacrifices precision platforming both, and with the dodging, rolling, and grabbing for platforms whereas within the air, it invokes Tremendous Mario Odyssey with the pace and precision concerned.
I additionally discovered myself obsessing over Bionic Bay’s on-line mode. There are new day by day ranges to problem others to get the quickest rating, and each single one felt distinctive. That they had completely different visuals, mechanics, and powers, and it feels nicely crafted. The final degree I could not cease taking part in was Fling Half, a green-hued degree the place I needed to exactly let myself drop in between bombs and grasp on to the facet to not die from fall harm, then exactly and rapidly swap with sure objects to maneuver previous them earlier than I die from different hazards. I performed this one about 40 instances, and I’m so glad “Replay” is sure to the Y button on my gamepad. It was addicting, and I discovered the character customizer to be a pleasant contact.
The sci-fi setting lends itself properly to the sport, and filled with simplistic visuals and beautiful results, it turned the most effective video games to take a look at. Every degree feels wholly completely different, from pipes that bend as you stroll on them to leaping off of lasers and falling onto brain-like buildings. A variety of the world turns into caked on this silhouette gentle sometimes, making your mannequin and the buildings seem black as if solely seeing a shadow, however the colourful lighting from behind and results simply make it so surreal to take a look at.
The story is fascinating, too. A horrible office accident happens and appears to land us in some rotting, deserted industrial complicated. After one way or the other turning your physique elastic, you need to get again house. It is a easy idea, however because of it, we now have among the most inventive ranges I can consider, and it is only a blast to undergo all of them.
I additionally wish to take a second to reward the physics in-game. I am keen on physics-based objects in video video games, and Bionic Bay is stuffed with them. Whether or not it’s the way in which your elastic physique ragdolls as you fall into pipe after pipe, or how a crate causes a tower of containers to fall down and set off explosives, it simply all matches so nicely and feels so nice to look at and expertise.
Bionic Bay – Steam Deck Efficiency
Bionic Bay is a pleasure to play on the Steam Deck for a mess of causes, and there is little purpose to not adore it. It might probably run exceptionally nicely with low battery drain, look attractive (particularly on the OLED display screen), and really feel nice with a controller. Despite the fact that it runs completely high quality, I did wish to make one change for a greater total expertise.
There are a few scenes that drop the framerate from 90 FPS to round 67-70 FPS, so with that in thoughts, I like to recommend setting the framerate to 60 FPS. It will solely have an effect on these taking part in on a Steam Deck OLED, however it’s nonetheless value mentioning. This brings down battery drain a bit as nicely, sticking across the 9W space, and provides over 5 hours of battery life.
There have been a few spots the place I discovered decrease drops, however these had been far and few. I’d additionally hold the TDP restrict unlocked to account for them, however you’ll not often ever see the drain go above 11W:
Accessibility
There aren’t a ton of choices to vary right here. We will change language, vibration, audio sliders, and alter management bindings.
The sport helps 16:10 resolutions, in addition to cloud saves and controllers. There are not any HDR settings.
Conclusion
Bionic Bay is without doubt one of the finest platformers I’ve performed in a very long time, and fairly presumably the most effective I’ve ever performed. The mix of precision and chaos, blended with a beautiful sci-fi aesthetic and vibrant ambiance, makes this the most effective experiences. The powers you should use to control the physics-based world to resolve puzzles are thrilling, whereas the speedrunning focus and on-line mode give extra of a purpose to come back again and attempt to get by means of the degrees as quick as potential and discover shortcuts. It is an addictive, satisfying time during, with no complaints I may consider.
It additionally runs brilliantly on the Steam Deck, and whereas there are some minor drops right here and there, that does not change simply how excellent it matches for moveable play. That is an important so as to add to your Steam Deck library.
Our evaluation is predicated on the PC model of this recreation.
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