Unbound: Worlds Apart

Release Date: July 28, 2021

Arcade, fantasy, platformers, puzzle elements, 2D, metroidvania, indie games, side-scroll, singleplayer

7.0

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Metroidvania type game, made in the convention of a platform game. In Unbound: Worlds Apart, we play the hooded Sol; he is able to open portals that create "bubbles" of alternative reality around him, thus dealing with various problems.

Plot
Mechanics
Technical aspects

Unbound: Worlds Apart is a metroidvania, made in the convention of a platform game. The game was developed by the independent Romanian team Alien Pixel Studios.

Plot

Unbound: Worlds Apart takes us on a journey to the fantastic world of Vaiya, where magical portals allow you to travel between distant lands. The fate of the world hangs by a thread when it was invaded by evil forces and the old mages turned out to be too weak to face them. During the game, we play in the hooded Soli, burning with a desire for revenge after losing his brother. The hero must do everything to find a way to repel the invasion and restore order in Vaiya.

Mechanics

In Unbound: Worlds Apart the action was shown from the side. As we move through the successive stages, we come across various riddles, field obstacles and enemies. As Soli is not a skilled fighter, he can cope with the adversities of fate by opening portals to other lands. In this way, it creates a kind of 'bubbles' of alternative reality around itself, in which the laws of physics change, as does the levels design. Most often, this makes one obstacle appear in place of another when the portal is recalled; for example, instead of a terrifying monster, we will see a stone pillar that Soli has to jump over, or a chasm that requires it to pass through the ceiling.

As we make progress, we are getting access to new types of portals, making it worthwhile to return to already visited sites from time to time to discover secrets that have been missed. In addition, the growing range of our capabilities is reflected in more and more challenging tasks - from complex puzzles to obstacles that are more difficult to overcome, to clashes with bosses.

Technical aspects

The colourful, hand-drawn Unbound: Worlds Apart graphics look very nice.

Review

August 4, 2021

Unbound Worlds Apart Review: Platforming Not For the Impatient

Unbound has familiar touchstones of other modern side-scrolling platformers: Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Limbo, Inside, Cuphead, take your pick. It’s almost a formula by now. Throw a nice color pallet, a mystical world, and boom you’ve got a game.