Binaries, as the name suggests, is a game about two things. You control two balls, of two colours, in two sections, with two goals. The balls will move simultaneously, while not always sharing the same path, making you constantly split your focus between two sides to make it through the level.
The first thing you will notice when playing this game is… what the hell is this level select screen? Saying it’s a total mess is an understatement. At the core, levels are arranged in a grid and are unlocked by beating an adjacent circle. Seems simple enough until you realise — there’s no level 1×01.
Levels are arranged in a grid of 10×19, however Binaries doesn’t feature 190 levels, only 100, so 90 tiles are blank and nonexistent. This means 2×01 is followed by 1×02, then 1×03 and so forth. This not only is aesthetically unpleasing, but also rather confusing to the flow of difficulty. For example, level 5×09 taught me about arrows — which is great! — had I not already completed about 4 or 5 levels with arrows already implemented. Then you have level’s like 8×08 being way easier than something like 7×07. I never knew what level to complete next, and sometimes would just hit a difficulty wall, only to dip back into more comfortable territory the level after.
This game is difficult, don’t get me wrong, but I question how much of the this is artificial due to the controls than actual hard level design. The biggest issue to this is the incredibly floaty jump. It takes way too long to drop back to the ground, making some obstacles appear from under you due to the air time. You also seem to roll off edges while standing still; it makes sense with the character being a ball and whatnot, but just further adds to the frustration. With precise platforming needed not only with one character, but two, I found myself fighting with the the controls more than the level design.
Levels are designed around one screen, so you can always fully see what your objective is at any given time. This makes me confused as to why it’s marketed as a Puzzle game. There’s never any puzzle to solve, you can view the entire landscape at once, making it a trial of execution rather than sit down and linger over how to tackle it.
It’s not all doom and gloom however, there’s some interesting mechanics that are at play here. While some levels are completely separate from each character, there’s also ones that tie in with each other. This adds extra depth where the Blue ball isn’t affected by Orange obstacles or hazards, making you think more about the exact movement that’s required. While it’s usually simpler to split up and focus on one ball at a time, you’ll be missing the mark on the time trial ranks.
While not having a time limit per se on each level, there are objective times for S/A/B ranks. These are mainly for gloating purposes, and to hit S rank in every level you must be rather skilled. These ranks, so long as you’re interested, will extend the playtime out; Binaries can be beaten in a few hours, so long as you can keep up, as the later levels can get rather challenging and skyrocket your overall death counter.
In every level, the game will give you snippets of text that appears as you progress. Sometimes this acts a tutorial, or hint of how to progress, and others, entirely pointless. Binaries tries really hard to be funny or amusing, but really never hits the mark. One level went on about how they like monkeys, while another had an email address where you can send punchlines to. While they don’t detract from the game, it’s just confusing why it’s included, since it largely adds nothing to the experience other than expressing the developers’ fondness of monkeys.
Binaries tries to be two things, and misses the mark on both. As a puzzle game, it lacks any actual puzzle solving. As a platformer, it fails in its horribly floaty and imprecise controls, while asking for pixel perfect precision in two vastly different scenarios. In a binary world of 0’s and 1’s, good or bad, Binaries breaks its own boundaries by being incredibly middle of the road.
Rating: 2/5
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