Bionic Bay Review
Precision puzzle platformer Bionic Bay from Psychoflow Studio, Mureena, and Kepler Interactive is a triumph.
Bionic Bay. Psychoflow Studio / Mureena / Kepler Interactive
Psychoflow Studio and Mureena’s Bionic Bay, published by Kepler Interactive, is an incredible 2D platformer and one of the most atmospheric, beautiful games released so far this year. Though it owes some debt to games like Playdead’s Limbo, Bionic Bay carves its own path, building on its influences to craft its own identity with its haunting visuals and inventive gameplay. Bionic Bay is a nearly perfect game.
In Bionic Bay, you are a scientist trapped in an ancient biomechanical world who must use the tools at your disposal to escape. The world you’re exploring, an abandoned, eerie place, dwarfs you with its staggering scale. It’s dangerous, and you are fragile. Storytelling is minimal and mysterious.
Bionic Bay. Psychoflow Studio / Mureena / Kepler Interactive
Running and leaping through Bionic Bay feels great. You can roll to get through tight spaces and gain speed, which you can use to transition into a long jump that you can make even longer by then diving forward. The intuitive and responsive controls work in conjunction with the game’s weighty, predictable physics to create incredibly fluid movement through these traversal mechanics. Mastering the combinations of jumps, dives, and rolls, and using them with precision, is your primary means of survival; it’s thrilling to nail risky jumps that leave your character grasping a ledge at the other end.
The platforming is fantastic, but what moves Bionic Bay to the next level are the tools it puts at your disposal to solve puzzles and open paths forward. The earliest and most crucial gadget you find is the teleporter, which allows you to slap a beacon on objects large and small and then instantly swap your location with it, as long as it remains visible on-screen. The levels are cleverly designed to provide opportunities to use this ability creatively, and solving puzzles is rewarding, especially when that solution leads to huge explosions.
Later tools allow you to flip gravity in four directions and to slow down time. One of my favorites, the ability to punch massive objects and make them fly across the screen, is only available in a couple of levels. For me, the only real fault in the game is that it doesn’t give you as long to enjoy these other abilities as it does for the teleporter.
The game’s levels are gigantic and full of all kinds of surprises that will instantly kill you. Bionic Bay introduces new mechanics at a steady clip, quickly exposing you to trampoline beams, lava, freeze rays, microgravity, and more. The puzzles and platforming challenges are inventive and highly satisfying to solve. I was always able to figure out my way through with some thought and a few extra attempts; any time you die, you’ll usually respawn nearby, thanks to the game’s generously distributed waypoints.
Bionic Bay. Psychoflow Studio / Mureena / Kepler Interactive
Bionic Bay is a visual feast, featuring sharp, highly detailed, handcrafted art that gains depth through layering, atmospheric perspective, and subtle blur. Each environment is typically saturated in a single color, making the different areas of the world distinct. The visual design is remarkable, with the richly detailed environments full of seemingly dead plants and colossal machines of uncertain function. The expert use of dynamic light and shadow gives these things an air of mystery; this lighting is what elevates the game’s beautiful art above and beyond. I often found myself just gawking as I explored.
The game has no music. Instead, the world is brought to life through a rich atmospheric soundscape punctuated by the sounds of your actions. The echoes, clanging metal, flowing liquid, and all the other crunchy sound effects are best enjoyed with headphones, though some things can be unexpectedly loud.
Bionic Bay. Psychoflow Studio / Mureena / Kepler Interactive
I loved Bionic Bay. In a month full of fantastic new releases, the game still stands out and is truly excellent. It’s a masterclass in level design and game feel that never wears out its welcome; I firmly believe this is one of the best 2D platformers ever made.
Bionic Bay is available now on Steam and PlayStation 5. Don’t miss this one.
Overall Score: 10/10
Played on: PS5
