The Fall Part 2: Unbound Review: Falling Over and Bumping the Feels

<p>Sci-Fi is a genre often filled with cautionary tales that predict doom and gloom on a regular basis&comma; sucking all the fun from anything to do with Robots and cool laser guns&period; To be honest&comma; it seems like the future can be a bleak place and it’s largely up to the human race advancing to a selfish degree&period; <em>The Fall<&sol;em> was an insightful game that dove right into complex issues regarding morality and the impact of AI&period; Arid’s tale was a sad one&comma; showing the AI programmed suit being dismantled once she realized the pilot she thought was under her protection&comma; was not really there&period; Now after a long wait we finally have the sequel and hopefully a series of answers to some unnerving questions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;135064" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-135064" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-135064 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;14172308&sol;TheFallUNboundimage2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-135064" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Fall &&num;8211&semi; Part 2&colon; Unbound&comma; Over the Moon<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>The Fall&colon; Unbound<&sol;em> starts directly after the original game&&num;8217&semi;s climactic ending&comma; where Arid is being dismantled and examined in order to re-program her&period; Arid doesn&&num;8217&semi;t take kindly to the invasion of her personal space and thus decides to leave her body behind and dive into the mainframe as means of escape&period; However&comma; her problems have only just begun as it&&num;8217&semi;s up to Arid to use her skills in problem solving and persuasion to befriend a few fellow AI counterparts and use them in order to further her own agenda&period; The whole idea behind The <em>Fall&colon; Unbound<&sol;em> is that players enter the bodies of three distinct AI counterparts in order to gain a better understanding of what&&num;8217&semi;s actually happening and resolve the issue at hand&period; Aside from a captivating story&comma; <em>The Fall&colon; Unbound<&sol;em> serves up some excellent voice acting&comma; playing on a B-Movie charm that is quirky and cheesy&comma; yet effective in tone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Arid is trapped within the mainframe&comma; where you&&num;8217&semi;ll explore and fight the ever growing corruption that is trapped inside with her&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll use the mainframe to traverse from each of the three AI counterparts and enter their bodies in order to complete various objectives&comma; that will ultimately lead you to your original pilot&period; You’ll explore&comma; combat segments of the corruption that float within the mainframe&comma; and gain new information by hacking terminals&period; There’s plenty to do in this central hub and it links up to the most interesting parts of the story and the game&semi; the AI counterparts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;135065" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-135065" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-135065 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;14172430&sol;TheFallUNboundimage6&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-135065" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Fall &&num;8211&semi; Part 2&colon; Unbound&comma; Over the Moon<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>The Fall<&sol;em> was a slow&comma; unnerving tale of self-awareness and discovery&comma; where the gameplay often reflected these themes with lateral elements taking players forward rather than action and stress&period; But there is a tonal shift now&comma; lending more towards action and engaging players with a narrative centered on strong world building&period; This shift in tone works surprisingly well as the game feels much grander and complex&comma; but doesn’t linger or become stilted as the original game did&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re offered more of a living&comma; breathing world that harbors compelling characters and interesting situations to overcome&period; There is a wider range of game-play elements now where different segments of the game incorporate mechanics that introduce new fighting or lateral elements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You&&num;8217&semi;ll rely more on platforming and combat in between the segments where you control one of the three counterparts&period; These robots have distinct behaviors ranging from a loyal yet dim-witted waiter who&&num;8217&semi;s suffering from PTSD&comma; a combat-ready Mech that believes he is unique due to his love of art and music and an escort android that sees everything with rose tinted glasses on&period; The aim of each encounter is to outwit them and use them to discover more intel on your pilot&comma; even if it means you break them in the process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;135066" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-135066" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-135066 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;14172503&sol;TheFallUNboundimage5&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-135066" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Fall &&num;8211&semi; Part 2&colon; Unbound&comma; Over the Moon<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Arid&&num;8217&semi;s latest adventure is surely much darker in tone than before and often explores some unsettling themes on morality and choice&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll often be prompted to choose whether to perform certain actions with warmth and consideration or use full force&period; It usually pushes you to use force and Arid&&num;8217&semi;s state of mind will deteriorate further&period; There’s a captivating sense of accomplishment within <em>The Fall&colon; Unbound<&sol;em>&comma; one that rewards for hard work and intuition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Fall&colon; Unbound<&sol;em> is extremely confident in its execution and as a sequel&comma; it stands high on the shoulders of the original&period; The framework remains largely the same with lots of tweaks to improve the flow and feel of the game&comma; for the most part&period; What does hold <em>The<&sol;em> <em>Fall&colon; Unbound<&sol;em> back in some degree is the clumsy controls along with the tedious nature of certain puzzles&period; Controls feel restrictive as you’ll have to hold down the left trigger and aim to interact with the environment&comma; which is annoying when collision detection plays up or the range on an interactive object is extremely minimal&period; Combat fares better due to the little shortcuts offered when targeting&comma; but Arid’s movement overall is way too floaty and I experienced my fair share of moments when she just floated across the room&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;135067" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-135067" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-135067 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;14172541&sol;TheFallUNboundimage3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-135067" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Fall &&num;8211&semi; Part 2&colon; Unbound&comma; Over the Moon<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The big problem in the original game was that the lateral aspects were repetitive and a downright grind of testing various objects with various other environments until something clicked&period;  That was not the case all the time&comma; but the game’s logic or presentation made it difficult to put two and two together&comma; meaning a lot of frustration happened due to poor oversight from the developer&period; There is much of an improvement here and the logic is strengthened to ensure players can deduct and breakdown lateral problems with ease or general understanding&period; There were only a few times when the game decided to withhold information or not make clear enough on what should be done&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It’s easy to get lost and listening to every single word characters speak to one another can be very useful for a smooth progression&period; The lateral elements are broken up more often with action&comma; narrative-driven encounters&comma; and exploration&period; What does separate <em>Unbound<&sol;em> from the original game are the more elaborate setups for your encounters&period; Using the waiter robot as a host means you have to complete or break his daily cycle&comma; serving tea&comma; and attending to the mistress of the house&period; However&comma; the master and mistress are dead and he&&num;8217&semi;s stuck in a loop&period; Meaning you have to overcome his stubborn routine which is highly inventive and breaks away from the original game&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;bypass the killer fish&&num;8221&semi; segment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Fall&colon; Unbound<&sol;em> is a great sequel&comma; one that builds extremely well on the foundations of the original and makes a more confident and attentive game&period; This is a great continuation and cements <em>The Fall<&sol;em> as one of gaming’s smartest and brightest narrative-driven titles on the market&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PS4 copy of <em>The Fall&colon; Unbound<&sol;em> was provided by Over The Moon for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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