Not many people can say they’ve DDT’d a bipedal bear wearing an apron and wielding a cleaver; approached and defeated a deer-bear zombie, or even landed a boot to the face of a werewolf. In the last week I’ve accomplished all of those feats as I played through Vogster Entertainment’s Unbound Saga.
The story begins in the city of Toxopolis, the last place on Earth that man hasn’t ruined. You play as a club bouncer named Rick. Rick is cognizant of the fact that he’s a comic book character, and he hates it. He dislikes the plots that he’s been involved in, a lot of the other characters, and most of all, the creator. He’d like nothing more than to meet and pummel him. Shortly after Rick opens the game with a rant about his days as a comic book hero, he’s approached and coerced into leaving the city by a mysterious women named Lori.
The game looks as though you’re playing through a comic book, one frame at a time. You enter one frame, listen to dialogue, and then proceed to destroy everyone and everything in said frame. Once you’ve cleared everything, what looks like a fountain appears. When you run over the fountain you and Lori tear from one frame to the next. It really does feel like you’re progressing through pages of a comic book. There are 10 issues that you play through, each taking about 15 minutes on normal to complete.
Combat is pretty straight forward. The A button throws punches, B is kick, RB picks objects up, X is to pick up enemies, moving the right stick causes you to duck and roll, and pressing Y will throw whatever you’re holding. There are several combos to unlock. My personal favorite is grabbing someone by the ankles and spinning in circles to take out other enemies. When you press the LB button you switch control between Rick and Lori. She has different moves, and in some cases you need to control both characters to solve a puzzle.
The enemies in this game are some of the oddest I’ve seen. I’m certain the developers wrote down their favorite creatures, mythical and not, and then threw darts to decide who would make it in, and which would be mixed together. By far the creepiest was the bipedal deer bear zombie. I think my favorite part of the game is how the enemies appear. A hand moves in from the bottom of the screen and draws them in the frame, as if an illustrator were sitting there creating the comic as you go.
As you defeat enemies, they drop health, stamina, and upgrade medallions. The upgrade medallions allow you to learn new abilities and combos with each character. I like that as you collect medallions, you can enter the upgrade screen mid-frame and learn new moves. These moves can then be used right away, instead of waiting until the level ends. The stamina medallion regenerates, you guessed it, your stamina. Any time you do a combo such as body slam, you lose stamina.
While the combat is nonsensical and fun, it can be frustrating at times. On multiple occasions I found myself lodged between two guys beating me with pipes. I was unable to move or attack until Lori intervened. Some of the characters throw what I assume are knives, and if you are in the way, you’re screwed. Unless you are entirely out of its path, you get stuck in this endless loop of being hit, falling down, being hit while down, and then trying to get back up without being hit again. It isn’t a huge problem, but it did happen more than once. The most annoying part of combat is passing through the enemy. I can be punching someone and then pass right through them, coming out on the other side where my flourishes hit air instead of face. It isn’t perfect by any means.
Taking into account the fun I had, the problems I encountered, and being completely honest, this game is easily in my top 10 for the year. As with any brawler it can be repetitive and frustrating, but considering the writing and the number of “OMG no they didn’t” moments I had, there’s no question it belongs on the list. Would I recommend it to my friends? Yes. It seems crazy, but at times I forgot I was playing a game. It felt more like I was reading a comic book and using my imagination to act out the fights. If you enjoy brawlers and comic books, I’d say this is definitely for you.
