I like to think that if we were inundated with Journey-clones, the gaming industry might be even more of a richer and enticing medium. Bound makes me rethink that idea. It isn’t a terrible game. It’s just kind of boring and for a game that only clocks in at two hours, it begs the question, whats the point?
You start Bound as a pregnant mother as she walks along a beach, scoping out a good place to sit. When she does, her dreams take precedents and serve as the primary playable segments of the game. The beach portions also act as a level select screen as the woman flips through a book reliving her childhood memories.
You’re tasked with vanquishing a monster from these trippy, dream worlds and at the end of each level you’ll need to reconstruct a scene from her past that usually has her parents arguing, painting a vivid picture of a rough childhood.
Bound looks beautiful. Each level is as bizarre as the next as swirling geometric shapes fill the screen and paths and doors open up as you approach them. In fact the whole world moves with you, presenting a platforming experience that is definitely new and unique. It is bolstered by some fantastic lighting and shadow work that never falters in spite of a constantly shifting its environment.
Our heroine gets around using interpretive dance in what is undoubtedly another fresh take on the genre. It’s very on the nose however. One sequence literally tells you to “dance to break free” and the movement is actually sacrificed due to things like jumping being impractical. It’s a wonderful sentiment and one that certainly isn’t contrived – it compliments the plot perfectly – but it’s a lot less subtle than I would have liked it to be. Dancing isn’t my bag so perhaps it’s all lost on me but from a gaming perspective, it didn’t do anything positive.
The worst thing about Bound though is that it isn’t very fun. Journey did what is on display here years earlier and knocked it out of the park. But Journey kept delivering gorgeous vistas where as Bound recycles its look over and over again. Journey made traversing its world fun and had a semblance of control while introducing new elements of gameplay. Bound may throw the odd skating section in or force you to walk vertically but nothing groundbreaking happens.
The dream sequences act as a big metaphor but accompanied by those scene reconstructions and the beach portions, it all comes together in a neat little package. It has an emotional payoff but there are a few unanswered questions. It could have come from a personal place and there is subject matter that some of us unfortunately have had to deal with but Bound is just to ‘arty’ for it’s own good. It seems unfocused, trying to put its fingers into too many pies, pies that have had prior success: Scene reconstructions from The Vanishing of Ethan Carter; An unfolding mystery like Gone Home; Reliving memories like Unravel and a very Journey like look and feel. Now all of those games get a 9 or 10 for me (two of them have on this very site) so an amalgam of what made them work should have been a home run but Bound repeatedly just comes off as a cheap imitation.
Maybe I’m giving Bound way more flack than it deserves. It’s a stunning looking game with an inventive approach to platforming but it comes off like a kid trying to make his favourite meal by turfing everything he loves into a pot. And in the end, for all of its abstract concepts, it isn’t very thought provoking or entertaining. Add to this that you’re not really doing anything but dancing out of danger, Bound really just feels like a lovely looking tech demo.
Review Score: 5.0 out of 10
Highlights: Stunning, abstract visuals; Nice spin on platforming
Lowlights: Not a lot to really do; Tries too hard to replicate other titles and fails; Dancing as movement isn’t great; Story is underwheling
Developer: Plastic
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Released: August 16, 2016
Platform: PS4
Reviewed on PlayStation 4
———-
