A place for inbound review – creativity meets enthusiasm.
[ad_1]
In a world where AAA developers are churning out titles that are essentially the same but with a fresh splash of paint, it seems like the gaming industry has a drought in the field of passion and creativity. And in these difficult times, some people still work day and night to deliver a product that supports the concept: Yes! Video games can be considered art.
They are not just cash and they don’t have millions of dollars of investment behind them. Instead, they are small passion projects with small budgets. Still, sometimes the achievements of these small teams can outshine the industry’s big juggernauts.
A Space for the Unbound is one of those titles. It is a piece of media that can only be created when creativity meets passion. And even though it released smack in the middle of some highly anticipated AAA titles, it’s an experience you don’t want to miss. why like this? Well, let’s find out the answer to that question in our A Space for the Unbound review.
Story and setting
The game takes us to Southeast Asia in a miniature 2-D version of a backwater town in Indonesia. What could happen to this small peaceful town you may ask? Well, it has something to do with two high school sweethearts whose lives are intertwined with the supernatural world and…
The story follows Atma, a young high school boy and his girlfriend Raya of the same age. The duo is about to graduate from high school and are making a list of plans for their summer vacation, but most of these plans will come to fruition too late as both Atma and Raya realize that They have such supernatural abilities that are shaking this peaceful city. living in
Atma has a red magic book that allows him to enter another person’s mind and solve their mental problems. Whether it is about retrieving the memory of a loved one or helping someone decide between two difficult choices, Atma travels into people’s minds to help them, as well as their Also explores the happy or sometimes painful past of Raya, on the other hand, has more reality-bending powers that can alter space and time itself. However, there is a catch. Whenever Raya uses her powers, many supernatural events begin to happen in this small town. These problems get worse and worse as Atma realizes that he himself is capable of destroying the world.
Thus begins the journey of Atma who wanders around town, helping people here and there, to piece together the mystery that is plaguing this small municipality. Penetrating the mind or shall I say “space diving” is an essential power that helps him figure out whatever is troubling the world. We stop here with the discussion of the story because to add more about it in our A Space for the Unbound review would spoil the experience. This is something that has to be experienced for yourself to appreciate.
The title is quite heavy and although the beginning may seem slow to some, the stakes increase as the story progresses. The dialogue is also well written most of the time, making interactions with NPCs interesting and enjoyable. This is further heightened by the interesting backstories some of them have, which can be experienced firsthand by diving into their minds.
Gameplay
Since the main focus of this game is the narrative and meaningful interactions with other people, the gameplay here is minimal. The majority of it focuses on exploring this beautiful city, solving puzzles, and fighting a bit. The world has more incentives to explore than its beautiful art style. Talking to NPCs can give you hints about various items that can be used to solve puzzles in the game. These puzzles are achieved by space-diving into a person’s mind and finding ways to help that person. The puzzles themselves are varied and a lot of fun. I wish they were more challenging but their easy difficulty doesn’t take away from the fun of the game.
However, a handful of NPCs give you quests that can be cumbersome and boring. These searches also include some backtracking which may make the experience unpleasant for some. One of the major problems with this game is hand holding throughout all the quests. When people ask you to fetch an item, they’re also indirectly telling you where you can find them, which completely removes the depth of some of these quests. Finding items is fun when you have to use your brain and make logical guesses about where they might be, not when the game spells it out for you.
The puzzle solving is broken up by combat sequences. The combat is simple as it just revolves around pressing certain buttons in a certain time window to execute certain combos, but its simplicity doesn’t affect the overall experience as the main focus of this title is the narrative. As previously mentioned in our A Space for Non-binding review. There are also some quick-time events that make the experience more complete. Overall, despite its simplicity, the gameplay manages to make the experience more enjoyable. And for cat lovers: yes, you can pet every cat in the game!
Visuals and performance
The best part of A Space for the Unbound and one that will draw many people to it is the visually appealing art style. It clearly blends the edgy style of the 90s with modern anime visuals and style. Combine that with the uniquely Indonesian setting, and we have a style that’s a joy to behold and one that will definitely keep me coming back for more. The beautiful art style also made backtracking somewhat bearable. Not only in the actual game world, but also the environments in other people’s minds are beautifully designed and tell their own stories.
The characters are also exceptionally well designed, with different facial expressions that clearly convey what they’re thinking or how they feel when you perform a certain task. This helps breathe life into the world and makes the city even more interesting to explore.
The soundtrack also fits well into this beautiful world. There’s something warm about roaming the streets of Indonesia on a sunny day with a slow and cool soundtrack playing in the background. That’s not to say the soundtrack is always like this, in certain sequences it really soars, raising the stakes of those sequences. This game has perhaps the most beautiful art style and the most beautiful soundtrack that any game has ever offered, but words cannot do it justice in our A Space for the Unbound review. You have to experience it to fully appreciate it.
The beauty of this art style is that it’s not even demanding, a tile that can run to its full potential even on low-end PCs. However, I tested it on a GTX 1060 6GB with a Core i7 6700 which is pretty much a mid-range PC but is showing its age, but didn’t run into performance issues. The game is also free of any game-breaking bugs or performance hiccups, or at least I didn’t come across any of them.
Decision
This title has a deep and interesting story that is beautifully presented.. The puzzles are interesting, and the gameplay is simple but adds well to the story, and while some quests may involve backtracking, the overall experience is diminished by the beautiful art style and interesting environments.
The only gripe I have with the game is that it helps players a lot when looking for specific items to solve a puzzle or get them somewhere, by indirectly telling them how to get it and by telling the player how to get it. By removing critical thinking from
A Space for the Unbound is one of the best indie games we’ve had in the past few years, and it’s not something you’ll want to sleep on. It is a labor of love and comes into play when allowing passion and creative ideas to flourish.
This has been our go-to place for inbound reviews. While you’re here, consider checking out some of our other articles.
Was this article helpful?
Thanks! Share your feedback with us. ⚡
How can we improve this post? Help us. ✍
A place for inbound reviews
- Story and setting
- Gameplay
- Visuals and performance
Decision
A Space for the Unbound is one of the best indie games we’ve had in the past few years, and it’s not something you’ll want to sleep on. It is a labor of love and comes into play when allowing passion and creative ideas to flourish.
Occupation
- Beautiful and interesting story
- Beautiful art style
- Melodious soundtrack
- Interesting puzzles
Cons of
- step back
- A lot of hand holding
[ad_2]
