Puzzle games are enjoying quite the renaissance as of late. A genre born from arcade hits like Lemmings, Lode Runner, and, of course, Tetris, puzzle games have always been a diverse bunch. But the genre has seen an explosion of creativity over the past 20 years, with titles like Portal, The Witness, and even this year’s Blue Prince serving as critical luminaries.
Bionic Bay aims to carve out its own slice of the pie. A puzzle-platformer developed jointly by two teams (Taiwan-based Psychoflow Studio and Finnish developer Mureena), the game takes inspiration from many greats in the space. From object-swapping and low-gravity platforming to eerily familiar teleportion mechanics, Bionic Bay bites off quite a lot in seven to eight hours.
I’d love to say it all works seamlessly. Yet, while Bionic Bay offers some worthy thrills—and an absolutely stunning visual style—it suffers from a severe identity crisis. Its twitch-heavy platforming outshines the actual puzzles, whose mechanics rotate too frequently to develop any depth. Add in a trial-and-error design philosophy that leads to frequent death and frustration, and Bionic Bay is an admirable, yet ultimately flawed, take on the genre.
Escape, Mysterious Man!
Bionic Bay tells the story of a nameless scientist seeking escape from, to quote the Steam page, an “ancient biomechanical world filled with imaginative technology, deadly traps, and hidden secrets.”
That’s about as much flavor as we get into the game’s universe. Across a series of levels, you’ll run, jump, roll, dive, and perform various permutations (roll-jump, roll-jump-dive, etc.) to navigate the dangers of this world to which you are seemingly a prisoner. Despite the dark premise, Bionic Bay keeps the story light, placing the emphasis firmly on gameplay.
On the surface, that’s not a bad thing. Playdead (Limbo, Inside) found great success with its “silent” puzzle-platformers, so it feels natural that Bionic Bay would follow suit. However, even in silence, Playdead managed to communicate a story with clever environment storytelling; Bionic Bay, by contrast, has the world, the gameplay, and nothing to tie the two together.
Every once in a while, you’ll stumble across a hologram of a deceased scientist, giving the faintest clue into what this world once was—but it never amounts to much. I don’t necessarily expect a gripping story with my puzzle games, but Bionic Bay invests so much into the aesthetic of its world (more on that later) that I can’t help but feel disappointed by the lack of context.
Let’s Get Innovative… Or Not?
Bionic Bay wears many of its inspirations on its sleeve. I’ve already mentioned Playdead as a narrative forebear, but the game also pays clear homage to Valve with a few vector-based puzzles involving orange and blue portals. Curiously, however, the developers mistakenly claim that the game’s biggest inspiration is an innovation.
Dubbed the “swap” mechanic, this ability allows the scientist to tag an object with one button, then swap places with it using another button. As you might imagine, this opens the door to some inventive challenges: Need to create a foothold where there isn’t one? Tag an item, jump, then swap to avoid imminent death. You can also swap to dodge missiles, manipulate batteries used to power objects, and more.
It’s a cool mechanic, but one that falls flat for two reasons. First, most of the time you’ll simply be swapping for speedrunning purposes; the actual puzzles that leverage this mechanic are few and far between. Second, and arguably more important: This mechanic has existed as far back as 2012, as evidenced by the excellent (and aptly named) The Swapper. In that game, you had to clone your body and swap consciousnesses to navigate a gauntlet of increasingly difficult puzzles. It was tough as nails (I never beat it), but thoroughly entertaining.
Even if the Bionic Bay developers didn’t play The Swapper—totally plausible!—the reality is that the swap mechanic has been done before, and better too. Swapping isn’t the only puzzle mechanic in Bionic Bay, but it is the most prevalent one—a shame, as the game’s final few levels introduce a truly novel concept that easily could have supported a full game on its own.
Pixel-Perfect Hardships
Bionic Bay’s puzzles may underwhelm, but its platforming has surprising depth. As mentioned before, you can string together various moves to gain an edge over the environment. A roll-jump will extend your horizontal distance when leaping between footholds, while a jump-dive gives you extra mobility when weaving between obstacles.
And you’ll need every maneuver in your arsenal, as Bionic Bay’s dangers are no joke. Misjudge a jump, and you’ll fall to your death. Touch a foreign-looking object, and you’ll likely get either vaporized, frozen, or blown to bits. Nearly everything can be climbed, but nearly everything can kill you in the same breath. “Watch where you step” has never rung truer.
Approached as an action-platformer, Bionic Bay is thrilling. The controls are tight, the jumps are challenging but fair, and there’s a pervasive element of speed. (Each level also has a time trial mode with global leaderboards, encouraging players to speedrun to their heart’s content.)
But Bionic Bay isn’t billed as an action-platformer; it’s billed as a puzzler-platformer. And that dissonance is what ultimately makes it such a mixed bag. If Psychoflow and Mureena partner on another game, I’d love to see it double down on what Bionic Bay does well—the action—and either retool the slower, more cerebral puzzles or strip them out entirely.
Picture-Perfect Triumphs
If there’s one area where Bionic Bay unquestionably excels, it’s in the visuals department. This is a gorgeous game, one captured elegantly with never-ending shades of color. In one level, you’ll gaze at a sunny copper; in another, a mad scientist green or a frosty blue. Particle effects and striking shadows flesh out the presentation, making for picturesque moments at every turn. (I played on Steam Deck and hit the screenshot shortcut more times than I could care to count.)
The sound design, meanwhile, is effective if underused. Hitting a mine or getting frozen to death never got old—gameplay frustrations aside—thanks to impressive sound effects. The game also sports a memorable soundtrack; sadly, the game opts for silence for the vast majority of the campaign, making these musical interludes especially fleeting.
If you simply want the “vibes” of a Playdead game, Bionic Bay certainly scratches that itch. Just know that the comparisons stop once you dig beneath that (beautiful) surface.
Final Thoughts
Bionic Bay is an often impressive, often frustrating experience. It nails the look and feel of grade-A games like Limbo and Inside, but fails to hold up once you start to scrutinize its puzzle-platformer label.
There’s a worthwhile game to enjoy here—one with responsive controls, satisfying action, and a visual polish that puts other games to shame. Unfortunately, the puzzles are lackluster, with too many ideas that come and go with little development or follow-through.
If you come into Bionic Bay expecting the next Portal, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Come in expecting a solid platformer with occasional frustrations, however, and you’ll fare far better.
Score: 7.0/10
Bionic Bay, developed by Psychoflow Studio and Mureena and published by Kepler Interactive, is available now on PC (Steam) and PlayStation 5. MSRP: $19.99. Version reviewed: PC (via Steam Deck).
David is the founder of The Punished Backlog. He has a problem finishing games he starts. Just beat: Nine Sols, UFO 50. Working on: Metaphor: ReFantazio. Can't wait for: Hollow Knight: Silksong. Follow David on Twitter at @David_Silbert to keep up to date with all things The Punished Backlog.
