This is a Metroidvania so it’s even more important to use this mechanic creatively. You won’t be able to solve most of the many puzzles without flipping back and forth so it really is a core mechanic that is used to its fullest. This definitely isn’t something that we see lots of use of at the beginning of the game to pull players in and suddenly get forgotten later.

The world-switching mechanic is the backbone of Unbound: Worlds Apart and it’s used to great effect. Just don’t switch back while you’re standing on one. Shift world and these big stabby, one-eyed freaks turn into totally harmless rocks that you can push about the place.

Vice-versa there are some rather ugly looking demons wandering around your world that you absolutely don’t want to be meeting up-close-and-personal. Switch worlds and they turn into hell on wings that you’ll really want to avoid. To use an example here, there are cute, very unassuming little bugs darting about the place that are totally harmless. Just don’t stand close if you’re planning on shifting back into this world here. Things that might be completely benign in the real world definitely aren’t when you switch. So what makes this game so dangerous if your world-shifting ability literally makes you impervious to traps? Did I mention that the other world was also crawling with demons and other nasty things that would have no concern with eating you on sight? Oh, I didn’t? Well, there’s an invading force trying to conquer your peaceful home and you need to jump in and out of their world if you are to succeed. Giant pit of lethal spikes before you? Not a problem when you can invert gravity and just run about on the ceiling. That reality shift might also alter the laws of physics. An example of this might be that in the real world we’re standing in front of a cliff that’s way too high for us to scale, when we shift worlds we can see an array of platforms that make this ascent easy. The portals in Unbound shift us momentarily into a different world and alter the physics or look of the space that we’re standing in. I’m going to note straight away that we aren’t talking portals like in Portal, these aren’t doorways that we’re creating to jump between points on a map. In this particular case, we’re looking at a very clever little portal mechanic.

The things that make us want to spend our time in this world over the many others out there. I can’t stress how much the look of Unbound helps the overall feel of this title and this is absolutely something that has to be applauded.Īs this is a platformer we’re going to be looking for the mechanics that are going to be setting this title apart from the pack. Right from the very first moments of this title, you’re pulled in, ready, and really looking forward to the ride. The graphics are colorful and the cut scenes are so beautifully animated that you couldn’t be blamed for forgetting you were playing a game at all. We’ll be going into the why’s and wherefore’s but this is definitely an experience that I’m thoroughly enjoying not being very good at. In the case of today’s platformer, I’ve been experiencing what Unbound: Worlds Apart has to offer. This, of course, would have gotten very old very quickly if it wasn’t for the smarts of all the massively brilliant souls out there.

You have to take character A and get them to point B while darting about on stationary or moving platforms. We have to remember that when brought back to basics every platformer has a pretty core set of mechanics.

One thing that never fails to amaze me though, and the reason I keep coming back and sucking at new titles time and again, is the level of creative genius that goes into these games. I don’t dislike the games that fall into this particular category, I’m just really bad at them.

Space opera unbound worlds