Unbound: Worlds Apart Review (PC)

A spider with too many eyes blocks my path forward, so I move forward, enveloping him in another world, force him to feel the effects of flipped gravity, and then drop him into some spikes. Problem solved. A little while later I float, aided by the same other world portal, between lines of poisonous plants, finally settling on some cleared ground. It only took around 5 tries before I mastered how and when to flip gravity to power this graceful flight. And this is just a small sample of how portals to different worlds will allow the player to move through the fantasy universe of Unbound: Worlds Apart.

The platformer is both developed and published by Alien Pixel Studios. I played it on the PC using Steam, but a player can also pick it up on the Nintendo Switch, as well the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.

The main character is Soli, a young mage who is quickly thrown into a quest to try and save his world from demons that can move between realities using crystal-powered portals. Along the way, he interacts with older but not necessarily wiser characters and creates a bond with the cat-like Leyrah, the only survivor of another world who wants to make sure that Soli succeeds. The writing does its job, but I never felt immersed in the world and, apart from the protagonist and his companion, I never really cared whether anyone survived or not.

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The main attraction of Unbound: Worlds Apart is the gameplay, especially the way it uses portals to add complexity to classic platforming challenges. Very quickly Soli becomes able to open up a bubble around him using the touch of a button. Inside this bubble, the rules of another world apply and that will allow players to reach new areas and to deal with enemies.

Soli quickly gets used to flipping gravity to move on ceilings and to navigate underwater. He can also shift to bring in platforms where there were previously non (enemies also appear this way). The other world can come with a quick that stops time, creating new possibilities based on what happens outside the bubble. As the game progresses there are 10 alternate worlds with their own mechanical changes to use. The game does not feature direct combat, but the portal powers can be used to destroy evil creatures that block paths.

The actual platforming in Unbound: Worlds Apart is good and precise most of the time. It might take a try or five to move through some of the areas, but the game clearly wants players to react quickly and then enjoy the feeling of solving a challenge in a single try. There are fast-travel options to move quickly between areas, which cuts down on the backtracking. But there are also sections where the difficulty shot up a little too fast. And I sometimes felt cheated by the controls, with Soli diving headfirst into an obstacle that kills him while I was simply trying to position him right on the edge of some safe area.

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The developers clearly understand that the bane of any platforming-focused title is player frustration. There are tough to think through and then to execute sections in the game. But the auto-save function is very well implemented, and the amount of progress lost on death is minimal. That means it’s easy to try a few times more rather than quitting to try a more forgiving title.

Unbound: Worlds Apart has a good if somewhat traditional presentation, with a focus on making the main character as cute as possible. Despite being dressed as a fantasy world version of a stalker Soli is very cute, mainly because of that magical light at the end of his hat. The universe he is exploring is also well-designed and beautiful to look at, and that includes the creatures that are trying to kill you. The soundtrack, which is just a little understated, underlines the magical nature of the world portals and the threat that’s constantly stalking the cast of characters.

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