BOUND- PSVR Version, PS4.
BOUND- PSVR Version, PS4.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Santa Monica Studio, Plastic Studios.
Released August 2016
Let me start this review by telling you, the reader, a bit about my own experience with video games. I am, at the time of this writing, 49 years old with my 50th birthday only weeks away. I have been playing since the 1980s, in real, stocked arcades as well as cutting my teeth on the Atari 2600. Currently I am a collector with a massive gaming console, handheld, and game collection (that, admittedly, I am trying to scale back). I have played every genre, every kind of game from most if not every brand. The Steam service subscribes to ME. To be truthfully blunt, I have experienced it all.
Or so I thought. I have NEVER seen or played a game like this. EVER.
I have had trouble finding things that really move me on the PSVR platform; Battlezone has been great and Driveclub. But I have been disappointed by games like Farpoint, Robinson’s Journey, and RIGS, to name a few. I find them too ambitious. In my opinion these games bite off more than they can chew. Farpoint offers a far too linear experience for something that is supposed to be VR (try turning around and running away from something). Robinson is glitchy, and RIGS is just way too complicated, and I spent the first half hour or more doing tutorials to play a game that I cannot look and see a physical controller while I learn. The simpler games, like Battlezone and Driveclub nail it. VR, at this time where it is yet a toddler, needs to keep it simple, but find ways to make the visual interesting. Realistic graphics aren’t necessary- but attractive, eye-catching visual is critical.
Then I come across Bound in the Playstation Store as I was searching for something good to download for the PSVR. At the time I bought it it was on sale for a little more than two bucks. Figuring that if it sucks, I am only out two bucks, I took a chance. I have to say I am far more impressed with this game than other games on the PSVR platform for which I have paid ten times that amount, or even more. It is a platforming and art game, and it is truly a work of art.
Now, the game also is playable on a flat screen- it has 2 modes. But to really get the full effect, do yourself a huge favor and play in VR mode. Your character is a pregnant woman, who gets dropped off by a house on the beach. You have with you a notebook, that the character opens and studies from time-to-time. Then you are whisked away to an imaginary world of memories, that are metaphorically amplified and distorted. A sea of churning white cubes beneath you on all sides and your character, a skinny, blue-skinned woman (apparently) wearing some strange, tribal or alien mask, dances across moving and shifting polygon and cube-like platforms.
Old-school platform jumping skills are needed here, as well as a strong stomach. Perspective shifts as you move through this world. Dizzying heights and direction of gravity shifts. There are other beings here. There is a Savior, and a Monster, and both are very large. There is also your mother. All are alien looking, similar to your character.
Aside from that, describing the game using words is difficult. You must dance to escape the grip of polygon-strung tentacles, as well as red triangular streams I believe represent flames. Polygon chunks floating along your path are the “coins” or “collectibles” you grab along the way. Long streams are there to grab and climb, as well as “ladders” that assemble as you move up or down.
I have had trouble finding things that really move me on the PSVR platform; Battlezone has been great and Driveclub. But I have been disappointed by games like Farpoint, Robinson’s Journey, and RIGS, to name a few. I find them too ambitious. In my opinion these games bite off more than they can chew. Farpoint offers a far too linear experience for something that is supposed to be VR (try turning around and running away from something). Robinson is glitchy, and RIGS is just way too complicated, and I spent the first half hour or more doing tutorials to play a game that I cannot look and see a physical controller while I learn. The simpler games, like Battlezone and Driveclub nail it. VR, at this time where it is yet a toddler, needs to keep it simple, but find ways to make the visual interesting. Realistic graphics aren’t necessary- but attractive, eye-catching visual is critical.
Then I come across Bound in the Playstation Store as I was searching for something good to download for the PSVR. At the time I bought it it was on sale for a little more than two bucks. Figuring that if it sucks, I am only out two bucks, I took a chance. I have to say I am far more impressed with this game than other games on the PSVR platform for which I have paid ten times that amount, or even more. It is a platforming and art game, and it is truly a work of art.
Now, the game also is playable on a flat screen- it has 2 modes. But to really get the full effect, do yourself a huge favor and play in VR mode. Your character is a pregnant woman, who gets dropped off by a house on the beach. You have with you a notebook, that the character opens and studies from time-to-time. Then you are whisked away to an imaginary world of memories, that are metaphorically amplified and distorted. A sea of churning white cubes beneath you on all sides and your character, a skinny, blue-skinned woman (apparently) wearing some strange, tribal or alien mask, dances across moving and shifting polygon and cube-like platforms.
Old-school platform jumping skills are needed here, as well as a strong stomach. Perspective shifts as you move through this world. Dizzying heights and direction of gravity shifts. There are other beings here. There is a Savior, and a Monster, and both are very large. There is also your mother. All are alien looking, similar to your character.
Aside from that, describing the game using words is difficult. You must dance to escape the grip of polygon-strung tentacles, as well as red triangular streams I believe represent flames. Polygon chunks floating along your path are the “coins” or “collectibles” you grab along the way. Long streams are there to grab and climb, as well as “ladders” that assemble as you move up or down.
Upon completion of a level, a memory begins to "piece-together", and as you move through the memory it becomes more visible until a door opens and you may leave.
The music is remarkable, and haunting. All communication between you and your mother is done in creepy, echo-laden whispers that are unintelligible as they are not words from any known human language. Subtitles provide the needed dialogue.
The feeling in the game is that of tragedy. Early on you feel there is some event that hurt someone and that is driving this thing. You also get the feeling of hope. Enough said about that. I will not spoil the story, for the game, sadly, is short. It can be finished in probably less than a couple hours. As well, the challenge is very light. You can’t really “die” in the game, and if you fall, you simply start where you left off.
The shortness of the game and the light challenge doesn’t bother me, however. If this were only a flat-screen game, then yes, I could see someone feeling as though they were shorted. But in VR mode the game is a brilliant, genius experience. I wish there were more games that were “outside the box” like this one. The beautiful, freakish visuals and impossible physics more than make up for the short play time and light challenge. As well, this one has replay value.
If the game were only a flat-screen game, I would probably score it a 6/10, despite it’s originality, simply because of the length and ease. But because I got to go to this “acid-trip” world and be immersed in it, I have to hand this one an 8. If you have the PSVR and you haven’t done this one yet, get to it. It’s cheap, and you have no excuse.
The music is remarkable, and haunting. All communication between you and your mother is done in creepy, echo-laden whispers that are unintelligible as they are not words from any known human language. Subtitles provide the needed dialogue.
The feeling in the game is that of tragedy. Early on you feel there is some event that hurt someone and that is driving this thing. You also get the feeling of hope. Enough said about that. I will not spoil the story, for the game, sadly, is short. It can be finished in probably less than a couple hours. As well, the challenge is very light. You can’t really “die” in the game, and if you fall, you simply start where you left off.
The shortness of the game and the light challenge doesn’t bother me, however. If this were only a flat-screen game, then yes, I could see someone feeling as though they were shorted. But in VR mode the game is a brilliant, genius experience. I wish there were more games that were “outside the box” like this one. The beautiful, freakish visuals and impossible physics more than make up for the short play time and light challenge. As well, this one has replay value.
If the game were only a flat-screen game, I would probably score it a 6/10, despite it’s originality, simply because of the length and ease. But because I got to go to this “acid-trip” world and be immersed in it, I have to hand this one an 8. If you have the PSVR and you haven’t done this one yet, get to it. It’s cheap, and you have no excuse.
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