The Fall Part 2: Unbound Xbox One Review

Having not known much about the game until I randomly played it during one of those many times when I’m not sure what to play, The Fall was a very pleasant surprise to me upon discovering it. It may have suffered from being too short, although the mixture of high concept science fiction, dark humour, puzzle solving and action were all masterfully paced over its two to three hour run time. Planned as a trilogy, this second part is all this and more.

If you want a reminder about the events of the original game, then The Fall Part 2: Unbound features a rather helpful recap. The clever twist at the end of The Fall of course revealed that the injured man in the suit wasn’t in the suit at all, and the on-board AI (ARID) that had been seeking medical attention for him is deemed faulty, leading to the suit being dismantled. This is where Part 2 begins, with ARID now without a body and projected on to a vast global network, and she requires the bodies of others to complete her task. The sharp writing is once again superb, and each of the characters that you meet is distinct from one another in what is once again a very tight and intriguing plot.

Part 2 has more variation than the original game in the way that, as mentioned above, you take control of different robotic characters. There’s a loyal butler whom is trapped in his daily cycle even though his master and mistress have been dead for some time, The One is a robot that meanwhile can’t accept that he is one of many, and finally The Companion is a pleasure robot. There’s lots of interesting conflict between ARID and these characters, and it really does give the game more variation, which is all well and good given that this second part is around three times the length of the original game.

Like the original, Part 2 is a mixture of adventure, action and puzzle solving, and it is once again paced beautifully. What I will say is that the game does have a little more action, although the difficulty level you choose at the beginning does determine how much action you will actually be faced with in ARID’s second adventure, which is an appreciated little touch.

The action is smoother than it was in the original game and is also serviceable enough, although it does still feel a little awkward from time to time and even a little uninteresting, particularly when controlling ARID. The One’s combat sections are more interesting, and have you fighting against a barrage of clones using a simple melee combat system, although The Fall’s real strengths remain rooted in its story as well as in its adventuring and puzzle solving aspects.

The puzzles in Part 2 are once again largely of the logical type, although some of them do require extra brainpower, and some can even come across as rather vague, particularly in the later stages of the game. For reasons I won’t go into here, some of these later puzzles are difficult to reach the conclusion of, and I’m sure that many will be seeking help from elsewhere in order to solve them.

The Fall Part 2: Unbound still feels a little clunky at times, but the longer length is appreciated as is expanding the plot and universe with another intriguing story. There’s a lot to like in this second part, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the developer goes next with the third and final game in this imaginative trilogy.