A SPACE FOR THE UNBOUND

I played A Space for the Unbound without realising that it was a demo (it’s just an opening chapter, about 20 minutes long), but I’m hooked. When I was a kid, my mum used to hide new toys in the hall cupboard, then she would magically produce them when I was bored, or stuck inside. This is a ‘rainy day’ game, for sure. In fact, the action opens with two friends creating a sad story together, in the boy’s trailer, while sheltering from a steady drizzle. It has the kind of relaxed, wordy presentation I enjoy most when there’s not much else to do.

In their story, the space princess is dying and wants to give her last miracle to her dearest friend, a cat. Too soon, it’s over and our writers wonder what might come next. The girl is stuck for ideas but has a magic book that allows the boy to dive into her mind. Inside, he learns why she is creatively blocked and finds a new idea. The boy is then sent on a small quest to retrieve an item, through beautiful cityscapes. You’re following the girl’s cat and you can also pat every friendly feline you encounter. The art and animations are truly delightful.

The puzzles, to this point, are only of a ‘Mixed-Up Mother Goose level’ of difficulty, so you’re finding objects and then bringing them to the correct location, but they are logical and enjoyable. I laughed when the boy found a key and said, “I wonder what this is for,” and the locked door was literally right next to him. The demo ends on a cliffhanger about which I have a very bad feeling. If the outcome was foreshadowed by the opening story of the space princess, this could be a darker game than it initially appears. Either way, I’m in for the full experience.