Review | Unbound: Worlds Apart

LifeisXbox’s Unbound: Worlds Apart Review | When I saw the art style of Unbound: Worlds Apart, together with the little platformer tag on steam, I was instantly sold. And I am very happy I got to play it and do my last review for LiX on this game. Unbound: Worlds Apart is published and developed by Alien Pixel Studios and is as said a 2D adventure platformer. You are a cute little red-cloaked mage called Soli and of course, you need to save the world, because what else. But you do so by making special portals, dodging terrifying and deadly beasts, and of course, platforming your way to victory. And while you are jumping around or running for your life, you will still see the beautiful hand-drawn scenery around you. Will you be able to save everyone? Or will you throw your keyboard/controller through the room?

ℹ️ | Mikachu played Unbound: Worlds Apart for 5 hours on PC. This game is also available on the Nintendo Switch.

What we liked!

• Atmosphere | The music and beautiful hand-drawn world are just amazing. I used to listen to really calming piano music, and Unbound: Worlds Apart has that as well. However, there is different music for every part of the map. All equally beautiful. Some happy, some a little sad. But it all fits so well with the scenery you have around you, or the story you just listened to. I absolutely adored this.
• Boss fights | Yes, there are boss fights in Unbound: worlds Apart as well! And they are amazing! I hope you like a challenge though, because these icky beasts don’t die quickly. They are also killed differently than in most other platformers I’ve played, where you need to shoot them, or jump on them. Here every boss has a different style, and it is up to you to figure out how you need to kill it. Sometimes it’s obvious what you need to do, but actually doing that… oh gosh, that’s a whole other story. And after most fights, you get a new skill!
• Skills | The skills in Unbound: Worlds Apart aren’t the offensive ones but the platformy ones, like double jump, or a dash. And as said above, you earn one after each boss, making the platforming harder and harder after each one you kill. You might think the game is easy at the start, but I think the skills you earn add a lot of difficulty towards the end of the game. This can be frustrating at times, after dying 10 or more times to the same jump, but actually making it feels so good after that.
• Controller support | You can play Unbound: Worlds Apart with a keyboard or a controller. I tried both so I could compare, and I really prefer the controller. For some reason, when I was playing with my keyboard, my character wouldn’t always respond in the way I would want him to. For example I usually just press spacebar to jump, but sometimes the jump was tiny, even though I did nothing different. Or with double jumping, I held the button too long, I think, and would instantly double jump, using all my mobility without wanting to, and die. With the controller, I didn’t have this problem at all, and it felt way more natural, even though I barely play on a controller. And you can change all the key settings in the menu. Very well done.
• Portals | Soli has the magical ability to make portals, helping with the dangers ahead. Or helping you change the map so you can platform further. There are ten unique portals you can obtain in Unbound and it gives a really unique experience.

Somewhere between

• Story | This time, the story didn’t really get me sucked in. I found myself just skipping it later in the game because it just didn’t interest me a lot anymore and I wanted to go platforming. Of course, this is an opinion that is diffrent for everyone, this is why it is in somewhere inbetween. While kept in the dark at first, the story slowly unfolds through dialogue with various characters found in the world. A corrupting and mysterious power is spreading across the Sea Of Reality, which connects all of the worlds in the universe, and leaves nothing but demons and despair. It has just come to visit Soli’s reality, and if anyone wants to survive, this evil must be taken out at the source, the Demon King. This is not all there is to know however, and, Unbound encourages players to find this out by having lost villagers, who Soli has to rescue, each give a little piece of the story.
• Quests | At the start I spend an aweful lot of time being lost. And I know that I am very good at getting lost in games.. But I still wanted to mention that in Unbound you need to press a certain button to know what your next quest is. It states the key at the bottom of the screen when you open the map, and I did not see that for a long time. It is mostly my fault, but wanted to share it anyway so you guys wont have this problem.

What we disliked

• Nothing | I loved this game ~

How long to beat the story | 5 hours
How long to achieve 1000G | About 8 hours
Similar with | The Ori games

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