Double Jump Gaming News

Paperbound

Do you ever wish you had more games to play with your friends when they come over? Well look no further! Grab a friend, grab a PS4 or PC, and get ready to play Paperbound!

Paper bound is for 1-4 players, and is all about gravity and destroying your friends in an intense, arena style game. The developer, Dissident Logic, has seen some projects before, one of which being Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, so you know that this indie title has love and care poured into it.

That love was evident the entire time I have played this game. From start to finish, there are so many different reason to love this game. The first of which is the awesome design. Once you really take the time to look at them, the visuals in this game are so complex, but come off in such a simple way that it feels perfect for the game itself.

Paperbound has a lot to offer, but let’s start with the objective. The point of the game is to complete whatever objective has been set (ex: kill each other or capture the flag), all the while learning the mechanics of the game. The mechanics are what really set this game apart from other multiplayer indie titles. It is a 2D arena style game, and on top of moving around and trying to kill each other, you can also manipulate your character’s gravity, making the character float to the top of the screen (sometimes even off the screen!) or fall back down to the bottom. Each stagnant object in the arena apparently has its own gravitational pull because as long as you are touching it, you can be in any orientation to the screen, including upside down! This gravity mechanic makes for some really cool fights. Speaking of fighting, that is the next mechanic. Each character has an attack, and it usually comes in the form of some weapon being swung in front of the character. On top of this, each paper character has a small arsenal to throw at the enemies. Scissors and bombs are the projectiles, and each character has a melee to use. These weapons, as well as the gravity, make for a really intense, crazy experience every time.

The game modes of the game are fun but simple. There are four game modes; classic, survival, Long Live the King, and Capture the Quill. Classic is your basic deathmatch: score the highest. Survival is like deathmatch, except the point is to stay alive, or, as some might say, survive. Long Live the King is like king of the hill, except the hill is one of the players. The final mode, called Capture the Quill, is Paperbound’s take on Capture the Flag. Each game type ends with the player or team exiting through a tear in the paper. This tear opens up once the score has been reached (meaning that it doesn’t happen in survival). On top of these game modes, you can also modify a lot of different aspects within the game such as how many lives, or how many throwables the player can use. If there aren’t enough players to use these throwables, no need to worry! Ai, as always, has your back. Well, they are watching your back. To hopefully hit it. Ai are pretty good in this game. Watch out.

Sadly, the downsides to this game can be seen pretty quickly. For $10, the game honestly doesn’t offer a plethora of content. There are only four game modes, and although the extra options do allow for variety, that variety doesn’t go as far as one would hope. The game doesn’t change after a certain amount of time, and from my time playing it, I don’t remember having anything to look forward to, such as unlockables or extra things to do. When it comes to replayability for the game, it can be replayed, but I would suggest only as a party game. This is by no means a game that you would play regularly or often. All of these seem like definitive downsides, but there is a reason this game is in this column; I recommend it.

The reason I am recommending this game is because of how different it is, yet how similar it is. Normally the games that I choose are pretty different from other things that people have played, but this game can be that exception. The gravity is what separates this game from other fighting style games in the local-arena genre. Other than that, it is a regular fighting game; 2D, arena based fighting that has two throwables. The idea behind the game is really simple, but that is why it works so well. It is relatively easy for anyone to pick up and understand the controls, but once they realize the gravity can change, it becomes a completely different game, with sweet air battles and intense long shots from off the screen. The game has variety for the player to mix and match a few different ways to play, and that is what makes it fun to play over and over. The price can seem kind of high for a game that doesn’t offer a multitude of different things to do, but it is a lot of fun and I would easily buy this game again. If you have an extra $10 USD lying around, I highly recommend getting this game.