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Bound

Bound

Plastic and Santa Monica Studio's newest game is somewhat lacking in gameplay, but at the same time Bound delivers a beautiful one-of-a-kind experience...

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Santa Monica Studio has helped a lot of developers in creating unique games. Flow, Journey, Datura, The Unfinished Swan and Hohokum, all good examples of games that are out of the ordinary, and Santa Monica were involved in all of them. Thanks to its beautiful visuals, original concept and deep symbolism, Bound is another game to add to the list.

If you've tried any of the aforementioned games you'll know what to expect in Bound. It's another game leaning more on creating an emotional connection than what we typically see. The underlying premise is the journey of a ballet dancing princess, who must defeat a mysterious monster to save the kingdom. The first attempt to do so reveals that she's not strong enough on her own, and thus she must seek out a great saviour so he can aid her in the final battle. Falling short of his name, the saviour, refuses to lend a hand. He disappears out of view and you are left to track him down once more. Perhaps this time you can convince him to help you out before it's too late? As you search for him your kingdom is steadily being torn apart due to the monster's destructive powers.

It might seem like a simple premise, but there's more to this story than what first meets the eye. We're not gonna spoil this for you, and settle for explaining that you'll most likely take a pause to think once the end credits roll down your screen. Bound explores themes that are rarely visited in games, and leaves a generous amount of room for your own interpretation of events. Adding to this, the game's levels can be played in the order of your choosing, leading to each payer to seeing different situations in different contexts. This means different players will have their own unique perspective, and developer Plastic's ambition has been to craft a story that people will have to unravel together. Needless to say, we expect a lot of discussion on various forums once Bound hits the shelves.

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When he unveiled Bound, game director Michal Staniszewski explained that the team wanted to make a "non-game that's still a game". It sounds odd, but you'll quickly understand what he meant by that. In terms of gameplay Bound is very similar to Dature, which is Plastic's previous game. It's not the gameplay that's supposed to make it stand out, and to be fair we're talking about fairly monotonous tasks here. The princess has relatively few moves in her repertoire, which leaves the platforming sections feeling to similar to one another. By all means, the first few times you balance across a narrow path the outstanding graphics makes it impressive, but sooner or later you will catch yourself thinking "is this a screen saver or a game?". Still, you're meant to play through the game several times in order to gain different perspectives on the story. That's a neat idea, but it would have been even better if there'd been more variety to the gameplay at the same time. No one has ever turned down the best of both worlds.

It's not all bleak in the gameplay department though, and in spite of the limited controls Bound manages to offer a surprising amount of secret and alternative routes. A lot of it stems from the environment being built up by abstract elements that shift and change with each step you take. To us the game feels sort of like a hologram. Take a look at the trailer and you'll see what we mean. If you're next to a wall it will normally open itself up to a certain degree, revealing what lies on the other side. Perhaps there's a secret or a different path back there? Exploring is always a good idea, as you collect a special kind of building block throughout the game. Each one of them gives you better insight into the story, making it important to collect as many as you can during each play-through.

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There's more to look forward to after the first run besides more story elements. After completion a speed-run mode opens up, and due to the option of choosing what order to play levels in, the developers claim there are 120 different ways to complete the game. As far as the story goes there are only two endings but there's variation within the levels themselves. The thing is, the path you choose will potentially alter the way the next level looks when it comes to obstacles, time of day and open routes. It's a neat concept, but it could have been explored in more depth. The obstacles themselves are too similar, meaning the order you face them in is the main difference.

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That being said, we're sure a lot of people will have great fun in competing for the best speed-run times. Even though the character controls could be more precise (sometimes she falls even though you aren't moving, and she's unable to take small steps) it's fun to explore new routes to get a better time. After a while you don't get to see anything you've not seen before, but it's still pretty and you're still (hopefully) beating your friends' times. Chances are, however, if you're mostly concerned with gameplay and story, you'll call it quits after two or three run-throughs.

On the visual side Bound is an impressive game. The contrast between the princess and her soft movements and the abstract environment makes the art-style one-of-a-kind. There's no need to enter the photo mode to get impressive snapshots, and in fact nearly all of the images in this review is taken outside of normal gameplay. The camera is sometimes a little hard to control, but this is nonetheless a great visual experience we're eager to try out in virtual reality once Playstation VR has landed.

In contrast to the spectacular visuals we are not all that impressed with the audio. To begin with we got a sense that the music worked well with the experience, in that you hardly noticed it, but after a bit we realised that this wasn't the case. The melodies themselves are simply too boring, and the mixture of piano, electronica and symphonic orchestra does not work as well in practice as it does on paper.

The story and mystique of Bound is definitely something you'll want to experience. Regrettably, though, the lack of variation means the platforming fails to match the visuals and atmosphere. During the first hours you'll make good use of the share button on the controller, and it's fun to choose your own path and find secrets, but after a while the fascination fades. The main downside here is the lack of depth and variation in terms of gameplay, and people who tend to complain about certain games being no more than interactive screen-savers should probably give this one a miss. Note, however, that if you do so, you'll be missing out on a remarkable visual experience.

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07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
Interesting story. Beautiful. Nice speed-run concept.
-
Environments and gameplay lack variety after a while. Boring soundtrack. The controls could have been more precise.
overall score
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Bound

REVIEW. Written by Eirik Hyldbakk Furu

"The lack of variation means the platforming fails to match the visuals and atmosphere."



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