A space for the unbound is a game I had been anticipating for some time. I played the demo a year and a half ago or so and really enjoyed it, so I was pretty happy when I saw it had finally been released.
Its an adventure game set in Indonesia in the 90s. The gameplay does the pychonauts (and persona and like a million other things) thing of going into people's minds to help them and progress through the overarching story of the protagonist. The gameplay is generally fine, puzzles and quicktime events mainly, which I dont mind here cause they are core gameplay rather than an after thought.
I mused during a stream of the game that whilst perhaps overused, the trope of going into people's minds in videogames make perfect sense. Much like Books and Movies have the perennial "show, dont tell" (which isnt always universal I know, please stop yelling) Games have perhaps a similar "let [the player] do, not watch". Which is probably why the psychonauts thing is so useful, it lets the player learn about a character by doing rather than passively being told or shown a character's action in cutscene. It can lend itself to also telling us a character's personality somewhat unsubtly, but the framework gives it a sense of being organic : this character isnt telling us they feel sad, we're seeing their thoughts and they feeling sad in them. To that end I would say ASFTU does it pretty effectively, we learn about the key characters and their struggles with abuse, bullying etc in ways that humanize them whilst also not coming off as people uncharacteristically just telling us their wildest insecurities and traumas unprompted.
The pixel art and animations are gorgeous and the music is very good. Story wise, its mostly pretty good, the messaging at times is perhaps not as strong as it needs to be in terms of the character stories and I whilst I did feel something, I didnt feel as much as the game presumably wanted me to, if that makes sense? Its hard to get into it without spoilers and in all honesty Id rather not cause I think its very much worth experiencing.
It is slightly longer than it needs to be. Some bits feel pretty padded, especially with the different levels of reality you work with it ends up being a russian doll esque odyssey of going inside a rift inside a dream inside someones subonscious to do it all again so you can hand a pastry chef their dad's will.
Overall Im happy with a Space for The Unbound, perhaps it was the expectations set by anticipating its release that knocks it down a half star (and not making me cry) but I feel like for most playing it with fresh eyes will find a great experience here.
Its an adventure game set in Indonesia in the 90s. The gameplay does the pychonauts (and persona and like a million other things) thing of going into people's minds to help them and progress through the overarching story of the protagonist. The gameplay is generally fine, puzzles and quicktime events mainly, which I dont mind here cause they are core gameplay rather than an after thought.
I mused during a stream of the game that whilst perhaps overused, the trope of going into people's minds in videogames make perfect sense. Much like Books and Movies have the perennial "show, dont tell" (which isnt always universal I know, please stop yelling) Games have perhaps a similar "let [the player] do, not watch". Which is probably why the psychonauts thing is so useful, it lets the player learn about a character by doing rather than passively being told or shown a character's action in cutscene. It can lend itself to also telling us a character's personality somewhat unsubtly, but the framework gives it a sense of being organic : this character isnt telling us they feel sad, we're seeing their thoughts and they feeling sad in them. To that end I would say ASFTU does it pretty effectively, we learn about the key characters and their struggles with abuse, bullying etc in ways that humanize them whilst also not coming off as people uncharacteristically just telling us their wildest insecurities and traumas unprompted.
The pixel art and animations are gorgeous and the music is very good. Story wise, its mostly pretty good, the messaging at times is perhaps not as strong as it needs to be in terms of the character stories and I whilst I did feel something, I didnt feel as much as the game presumably wanted me to, if that makes sense? Its hard to get into it without spoilers and in all honesty Id rather not cause I think its very much worth experiencing.
It is slightly longer than it needs to be. Some bits feel pretty padded, especially with the different levels of reality you work with it ends up being a russian doll esque odyssey of going inside a rift inside a dream inside someones subonscious to do it all again so you can hand a pastry chef their dad's will.
Overall Im happy with a Space for The Unbound, perhaps it was the expectations set by anticipating its release that knocks it down a half star (and not making me cry) but I feel like for most playing it with fresh eyes will find a great experience here.
2 Comments
I'm glad you got a lot out of it
HenryyL
1 year ago