

So how does that hold up when the rubber hits the road? While the look of the game certainly caught my eye in trailers, what really sold me on it was the portal mechanic, in combination with the metroidvania platforming gameplay. This isn’t a huge issue, but it did lead to each world feeling a little homogeneous.īut enough about aesthetics. The music also adjusts to fit each area, but it all ends up feeling like variations on one theme rather than separate tracks. The color palette does indeed change slightly, but not enough to give any subarea its own character. In something like Super Metroid, each subarea is entirely different, with a different music track, color palette, and enemies to differentiate them. Each world is separated into various subareas that contain your objectives. There’s no mistaking any of these worlds for one another.Ī quick caveat regarding the visuals: though each larger world is unique, the areas within each of those worlds do start to blend together after a while. You’ll start out in a verdant forest, then travel to a bleak desert, and finally traverse to the source of the corruption, which is dark, twisted, and grotesque. You’ll explore a total of three worlds in your playthrough, and each one stands apart from the others.

There was clear care put into each screen of this game. The colors for each environment complement each other well, and that visual quality stays consistent throughout the entire game. The game is rendered in a style reminiscent of oil paintings, and it really does look gorgeous. Upon first glance, Unbound: Worlds Apart looks like a fairly standard metroidvania, with some pretty clear inspiration from Hollow Knight. They go from a passive observer of the corruption to directly fighting against it. Positive Elements: Throughout the adventure, Soli, your character, marches directly into dangerous situations in order to rescue those close to them.

Some bosses have designs that might be distressing to some younger players. Other Negative Elements: The later stages in the game really lean into the grotesque nature of the corruption. The main villain is referred to as the Demon King, and the final boss battle takes place in an arena clearly based on the classic Christian interpretation of Hell. In doing so, they release a corruption that slowly infects all worlds. Spiritual Content: The story centers around mages who seek to explore the universe and other worlds. Some of the enemies, however, have rather gruesome deaths, with blood spattering and body parts falling off. Violent Content: Every time Soli dies, they simply disappear with a spark. After playing through the entire 10+ hour story mode, it managed to live up to all those promises, but you might want to do a little more digging to decide if this particular adventure is up to your tastes. Thus, when I saw the trailer for Unbound, I was intrigued by its unique portal mechanic and how that might affect its open, Metroid-esque world. I’ve recently discovered the joy of a good puzzle platformer, sparked by my purchase of Wario Land 3 on the 3DS eShop. If that sounded like a lot of genres crammed into one sentence, then you’re catching onto why it caught my attention. Unbound: Worlds Apart is a metroidvania puzzle platformer from Alien Pixel Studios.
