Unbound: Worlds Apart
Unbound: Worlds Apart
Unbound: Worlds Apart est un jeu de plateforme-puzzle en 2D développé et édité par Alien Pixel Studios, sorti le 28 juillet 2021 sur PC, PlayStation 4, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S et Linux. Utilisant le moteur Unreal Engine 4, il propose une aventure atmosphérique où le jeune héros Soli est capable d’invoquer des portails magiques pour voyager entre différentes réalités. Selon le récit officiel, un univers de magie et de mystère où les mages traversaient autrefois les mondes grâce à ces portails est menacé par un mal ancien ; Soli doit alors embrasser son don unique pour ramener la paix.
Le joueur contrôle donc Soli dans un style crayonné et cartoon, mêlant une atmosphère de conte de fées sombre à une jouabilité exigeante. Chaque portail modifie les propriétés physiques du personnage ou de l’environnement, permettant des mécaniques variées comme l’inversion de la gravité, la manipulation du temps ou l’acquisition d’une force colossale. Le jeu mise sur l’exploration, la résolution d’énigmes, des talents à débloquer, ainsi que des boss et des monstres à affronter. Les critiques ont souligné des inspirations assumées, Screen Rant évoquant « From Ori and the Blind Forest’s difficulty to Limbo’s puzzles and aesthetic », tandis que CD-Action juge l’histoire « clichéd and predictable » mais salue le level design et les mécaniques. Certains joueurs regrettent un scénario médiocre ou une jouabilité qui devient répétitive, tandis que d’autres louent la direction artistique, la bande-son et la difficulté, comparant le titre à des références comme Hollow Knight ou Celeste. Avec un score Metacritic de 78 et un OpenCritic de 77, Unbound: Worlds Apart a globalement convaincu par son concept original et son esthétique soignée, malgré quelques faiblesses narratives.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« From Ori and the Blind Forest’s difficulty to Limbo’s puzzles and aesthetic, Unbound displays its inspirations with aplomb. On top of the innovative gameplay mechanics, the game’s art style, monster designs, and narrative are all fantastic. For fans of puzzle-platforming or gorgeous narrative aesthetic, Unbound: Worlds Apart shouldn't be missed. »
« Clichéd and predictable story might not be Unbound’s strong point, but the level design and mechanics definitely are. Behind the game’s fairy-tale charm, fantastic visuals and great music you’ll find masterfully crafted and challenging gameplay. This Romanian indie gem is not only highly polished, but also wonderfully varied and exciting from start to finish. [10/2021, p.76] »
« While its story never really soars, Unbound: Worlds Apart presents a brilliant and elegant Metroidvania type of gameplay that challenges both the mind and the reflexes. It’s perhaps a bit too twitchy for your diehard adventure gamer, but anyone who can handle a little action with their puzzles will fall in love with the beautiful art style and fun, finely tuned gameplay here. »
« Unbound's graphics are undeniably one of its strengths, but that's not all the title has to offer. It's a classic and effective platformer and puzzle game that also brings a constantly renewing gameplay based on an effective concept relying on portals allowing to exploit unique and interesting physical properties. With many good ideas to support it, Unbound knows how to be exciting and addictive. »
« I wish that the game could have created a better shell for the entire experience. I like the look of the characters and the world, but it does need a little more variety. And the fantasy-driven story feels a little undercooked. The gameplay in Unbound: Worlds Apart is good enough to keep fans of the genre entertained, especially if they love the occasional challenge. But future titles from Alien Pixel Studios need a little more when it comes to narrative to deliver a truly great gaming experience. »
« Fairly cliché and quite short, Unbound: Worlds Apart is still well worth playing due to its excellent gameplay, controls, level design, and constant variety. »
« Unbound: Worlds Apart is a refreshingly original platformer, as its portal mechanic makes for some genuinely creative and challenging puzzles. The platforming is also bolstered by this same portal mechanic. The game is also quite gorgeous, thanks to its hand drawn art style. The way that the portals reveal another side of the world worked to make exploring that much more exciting. Alien Pixel Studios’ Unbound: Worlds Apart is an impressive outing from the indie developer and one of my favorites of the year so far. »
« Unbound does not try to dazzle you with its visuals or gameplay ideas, but it doesn’t really need to. It’s more than enough that it provides familiar abilities albeit executed cleverly and platforming with high levels of challenge, but being fair at the same time. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« Its a pretty decent game i would say. The story is pretty mediocre, I mean its pretty simplistic but also too much and I dont like that type of story. There s a lot of backstory but with no goal or purpose. Lets get to the decent part and that is the gameplay, at many times it felt a bit repetitive, you just use the same ability again and again. The boss fights are pretty fun, but some are bit frustrating instead of hard they re just really slow. The music is pretty good the tone, the design, the map even tho I think it clearly got some insipiration from ori its a pretty good indie game 6/10 »
« The game has a promising start turns out to be quite a boring game overall. While the gameplay is unique, it gets stale within the first few hours. The bosses are not fun to fight against and the story is lacklustre. »
« Very nice puzzles and some challenging platforming, it's that game that has the "show don't tell" to it. Clever mechanics, beautiful art, solid story once you understand what characters are saying. Sadly the characters are static and with some of them, you only meet once. A bit frustrating here and there on the platforming part but nothing seriously complicated. Also played it on Switch which for me was a little harder there. »
« The begining of this game is such amazing, we expect a lot of things during the story and didn't happens.... the game is a massive sequence of similiar puzzles and it become boring easily »
« The game starts incredibly well and there are many modern games that could learn a thing or two from Unbound, about keeping the attention of gamers from the first minute ****. Unfortunately, after a few hours, the initially excellent pacing is lost. Unlike the first few hours of the game, afterwards you'll be asked to do the same puzzles repeatedly and sit through dialogue that is trite and only worth sitting through because it might move the game forward. It's also unfortunate that whilst the powers in the game are split between permanent and area specific, the promise of the character arc, which is vital for a metroidvania title, is never realised in a 'fully powered up' final act. Try Ori, Hollow Knight or Monster Boy, for a more complete metroidvania experience and perhaps try Unbound, if it's on sale. »
« Unbound is a beautiful, hand drawn, side scrolling platformer with Metroidvania elements. The game has a new an unique portal mechanic that allows you to reverse gravity, see into other dimensioons, gain super strength amongst other powers. The platforming is tight and precise, the controls are great, and it is hard! Not at the beginning, but as you progress through the game and acquire new portals and new abilities the platforming can become v challenging. There are a lot of checkpoints, which somewhat mitigates the difficulty. The music is beautiful and creates a very nice dark atmosphere from the start. Would reccomend to fans of Ori, Celest and Hollow Knight, but ultimately Unbound is cool on its own. 10/10 for an Indie Dev team. »
« It is an amazing game and the atmosphere they managed to create is truly beautiful. It feels like like a polished game with stunning graphics, befitting soundtrack and uncommon game mechanics. The abilities are quite interesting and they allowed the developers to create unique puzzles. The puzzles do start simple and linear but, as you progress through the story they become complex and quite hard (to be honest). I did enjoy the game very much and I hope you will too. Have fun! »
