The limb-based damage makes combat satisfying and surprising, but isn't the only element that helps Binary Domain stand out. Players must also build and maintain the trust of their squad mates. They do this by backing their squad up, by coordinating with them, and by playing well. If you put your squad in a situation they're unlikely to survive, then guess what – they're not going to be your biggest fan. Unhappy squad members will be less likely to heal you when you go down, won't take directions from you, and will even hang at the back of a firefight. Why should they risk their lives for you?
It's an interesting idea, but a little early to judge just how intuitive it will be. Playing well - and bolstering trust that way - is one thing, after all, but it sounds like the system will be more complicated than that, taking into account how squad members want you to interact with them and want you to play.
We asked the game's director, Daisuke Sato, how many squad members there'll be and how they will differ. "The game has – in total – seven characters that you can choose from to take on your missions," he told us. "They all have different specialties and combat tendencies, so one is a sniper, another a light machine gun support role with a high firing rate that will give you covering fire. There's also a close quarters combat specialist and a tactician who likes to flank the enemy while you approach from the front. All of those differ as I've described, but we hope that people don't only choose characters that suit their play style, but may also [make a choice because they] like the character as a person, and want to raise his or her trust level. And if they have a similar play style to you, maybe you might want to change your play style a bit."
Giving your squad commands and responding to their dialogue can be done through the four directions on the D-pad, but perhaps the most intriguing aspect of squad interaction in the game is the voice command system. At a basic level it works in much the same way, allowing you to direct, praise or chastise squad members. There'll also be some scope to experiment, however, with a wide variety of additional commands recognised. Want to tell Faye – the sniper specialist – that you love her? You can, but she'll tell you to shut up and fight.
That was the example given in the demo, but why were non-combat commands included? "We imagined what gamers would say when they get angry at the game," Sato told us. "When people are playing video games and they get frustrated at an AI that's not doing what it's supposed to do, they might shout at the TV 'what are you doing?' or 'bullshit' or something like that, and we decided to support some of those words. After preparing that, we thought, well, if people find out they can say stuff like that and the NPCs react to it, then how about we add some more; add something totally random that people might just blurt out, especially with a female character. So people can explore and discover words that aren't combat related, and we feel that's going to be part of the fun."
Aside from the end of the very first reveal trailer, Binary Domain has very much been presented as a story of action heroes blasting apart robots, but there's definitely the potential for the setting to have some subtlety. Your squad is invading Japan's oil illegally, and trying to destroy machines that – while in contravention of international laws – are indistinguishable from humans. Could the game have a Blade Runner-esque edge to it? Could it look at the morality of destroying machines this advanced?
"Why destroy these things when they're so close to human beings?" Sato mused when we asked. "The rule [prohibiting the creation of humanlike robots] has been set up because no one really knows what's going to happen if the boundaries between machine and man become too blurred, and what they don't know is a threat. In terms of the moral question, I can't really say. I hope that when it comes out you'll play it all the way to the end and see what kind of ending you're met with, and have the moral question answered there. Your question ties too deeply into the story to answer without giving it away."
So there you go. Not only is Binary Domain looking like a whole lot of fun, with an interesting angle for its squad-based gameplay, but we could well be in for a gratifyingly layered story to boot.
