Bionic Bay review: mixing floppy physics with hard sci-fi

Wandering through Bionic Bay’s dark alien world is unsettling and awe-inspiring. There are massive structures with no clear purpose and autonomous factories filled with whirring saw blades and devastating lasers. It’s grim and unforgiving, with little light and harsh shadows that give everything a sinister tone. But then you step on a bomb and your character bounces off of walls like a pinball, and you realize it’s a game of contrasts.

Bionic Bay is a curious blend of two very different genres. On the one hand, it’s an atmospheric side-scrolling adventure in the mold of Inside and Limbo, filled with disturbingly stunning environments to explore. At the same time, it’s a hard-as-nails platformer like Super Meat Boy, with elaborate physics that will have you dying repeatedly while trying to find the best route through deadly obstacles. Somehow, the disparate vibes come together surprisingly well.

What first drew me to Bionic Bay was that dark world. It’s mysterious to the point that I still don’t actually know what it is you’re doing or why. But that mystery is a large part of the appeal. As you make your way through its levels, you’re subject to some incredible and intimidating environments, and it’s largely up to you to figure out what story the world is trying to tell. There are fiery factories, green areas where organic life merges with technology and architecture in disturbing ways, and dank sewers lit up by dripping bioluminescent goo. All of these spaces make you feel minuscule in comparison. It’s the kind of game where almost every moment makes for a great screenshot.

In order to see it all, though, you have to deal with a very tough game. While there is some relatively simple platforming at first, you’re soon presented with seemingly insurmountable tasks, like a series of spinning saw blades that require exacting jumps to get through. But it’s not as precise as it may seem. One of the more unique elements of Bionic Bay is its physics; the little guy you control is very sturdy and can survive being bounced around, so you can sometimes flop your way through trickier areas.

Bionic Bay is also something of a puzzle game. You have access to multiple powers, like the ability to swap places with an inanimate object or slow down time (though you can only actively be using one). Combine these tools with the floppy physics and there are a lot of creative ways to get through the game.

Key to this is that Bionic Bay encourages experimentation. You will die a lot, but because the game has such a forgiving checkpoint system, there’s rarely much punishment for failure. Being able to quickly retry a jump keeps the game from being too frustrating while also making it easier to find a route that actually works. And if you have a wild idea about, say, riding on the back of a rocket to avoid killer laser beams, there’s no harm in trying.

The game isn’t easy. I’ve found myself stuck on a few occasions. And while I wish the game focused a little more on exploration, the weird and unforgiving world is also what helped me persevere through the trickier challenges. I just had to see what was next.

If you’re a fan of sci-fi works like Blame! or Dune, with their impressive sense of scale, Bionic Bay offers something very similar. You just have to work hard to see it all.

_{Bionic Bay is out now on the PS5 and PC.}