Of Bird and Cage

It's a metal musical PC game! What more could a metal-head gamer ask for? :) The play time is between 2 and 2.5 hours for the first run, and looks like it doesn't depend a lot on the player's choices. Most of the gameplay is timed and it's almost impossible to complete all tasks in the given time, but, luckily, it's not needed. Although some outcomes depend on the player's actions, the game will reach an ending regardless. It's worth replaying several times to see the different endings, complete quests and collect story items. The style reminds me a bit of Life is Strange, if it was a lot darker, with a heavier soundtrack. There are a few fist fights and shootouts too. I like the way the characters start singing along to the background song. It's as if I was watching a musical. It's a unique game. Heavily recommended!

Das Beste am Spiel selbst, ist die Musik. Diese ist sehr atmosphärisch und geht teilweise unter die Haut. Sie hinterlegt die Szenen sehr gut und auch die Texte bleiben im Gedächtnis. Hier kann ich euch den Soundtrack nur ans Herz legen <3 Das Spiel schneidet bei mir allerdings nicht gut ab: Die Story ist zu kurz und man fühlt sich durchgehend gehetzt und gedrängt. Und hier ist dann auch schon das große Problem: Man kann Entscheidungen treffen. Diese sind allerdings zeitbasiert. Das wäre mitunter kein Problem, aber auch Aktionen, die man machen möchte, gelingen hier oft gar nicht. Diese wiederum beeinflussen die verschiedenen Enden. Man ist also in einer Zwickmühle. Auch erkunden, geht hier nur semi gut. Auch hierfür reicht die Zeit ganz und gar nicht aus. Geschweige denn, man möchte Visionen freischalten oder Errungenschaften machen. Collectibles sammeln, ist hier somit auch nicht drin. Das empfinde ich allerdings sehr schade. So etwas macht für mich das Spielerlebnis sehr kaputt. Gerade bei doch so schwierigen Themen, die übrigens nur für älteres Publikum gemacht sind. Natürlich könnte man das Spiel mehrmals spielen. Aber für mich ist das nicht unbedingt Sinn eines Spiels. Zumal ich es ganz und gar nicht mag, manche doch überlegenswerte Entscheidungen auf so kurze Zeit zu treffen. Und mit kurz, meine ich kurz. Sehr kurz. (Und ja, eigentlich liebe ich diese Art von Games, mit Entscheidungen, Quicktime Events etc). Aktionen sind somit auch für mich oftmals nicht machbar gewesen... Grafik und Bild gefällt mir sehr gut. Hier wurde ein guter Stil benutzt, um die Story dem Spieler näher zu bringen. Im Großen und Ganzen kann ich es somit nicht komplett empfehlen. Grandiose Musik, guter Grafik-Stil, interessante Story, Charaktere leider nicht wirklich beleuchtet und das ganze Zeitbasierte für so ein Game mit diesem Hintergrund, wirklich viel zu kurz. Das überschattete leider mein Spielerlebnis enorm. Vor allem bei den Aktionen, die mir fast nie gelungen sind... Neutral kann ich leider nicht vergeben =D (In diesem Fall wäre es aber angebracht)

I had high hopes for this one because the marriage of progressive metal and interactive story-telling would be right up my ally, but [i]Of Bird and Cage[/i] completely underwhelmed me. The music is good, that's all I can say on a positive note. Other than that: the graphics are bad, the story is uninteresting, whatever voice acting is present is mediocre, and the controls and gameplay are just terrible. In less than three hours of playing, the game crashed once, while it froze every time I made the bold move to click on "Back to main menu". Really, this game is just a mess. The bad controls make all the action sequences look boring while the poor graphics make all the dramatic scenes look unintentionally funny, like a low-budget Saturday morning cartoon. Meanwhile the gameplay consists of some of the worst fighting and racing levels you've seen in decades, or just boring "find the hidden object" segments which are all on a tight time constraint because the gameplay needs to synch with the musical score.

I was excited to try this game based on the "Very Positive" reviews and the different concept, but my experience was completely different. The game was choppy even just walking forward or turning. The character animations are laughable at best. The voice acting, when there is any, is terrible. And the music, the "feature" of this game, is not good at all. I didn't know what I was expecting going into this game, but it certainly wasn't this. Stay away from this game until they redo it from scratch. I bought it on sale and asked for a refund.

I was interested in this game based on the music alone as a fan of the music genre the artists for the soundtrack do, but that being said, it seems that the music is literally all this has going for it. The graphics are meh at best, the MC's voice acting sounds so flat as if she's uninterested in what she is doing, some of the side actors outshine her in their performance. The timed events are some of the worst I have ever experienced in a timed event game. You barely get enough time to do your "quest", half of the time the quests don't even show up until well into the timer so you're just wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do. When you finally get told what you need to do for the quest, you barely have enough time to even get it done. I have never had this problem before in any choices matter game where I am failing nearly every time event because we're not being told what to do right away. It's like they want us to explore but we're also timed and can't explore everything and just fail. What's the point of there being items we can inspect and an area in a scene we can explore if we're being timed in everything we do? The game also feels a bit lifeless. I'd recommend to get this on sale if you want to experience it yourself, or avoid it entirely because honestly you're not missing out on anything that has already not been touched on in video games. The idea itself behind the game is the only thing it has going for it honestly. Symphonic metal music to a dark choices matter story, how could you not be interested in that alone? Too bad the game is meh.

REALLY GREAT GAME!!! But be warned. You will most likely need to do 2 playtroughs to fully understand this game. but thats not much a problem, as it got multiple endings and such, and lots of tings to do. youre mostly playing the game in real time with the music, so your choises and what you do is really important. Pretty realistic game, about tings that can happen in life. Higly recomend this game, For anyone that likes: + Higly immersive games. + Choices and what you do ACTUALLY play a BIG difference. + Likes Music.

Of bird and cage is a strange game with a decision driven storyline that allows the player do decide the fate of many of the character that are encounter by our main character; of which is a trope of a "recovering" addict. I feel that the games main character playcates to the "batter woman" who's life is a constant fight against abusive men that are doing unspeakable horrors (including rap), but the way in which they portrayed the protagonist made me feel as though she almost deserved it. I found her to be an annoyance for the duration of my time playing this game. The character model was uninspired and drab, not to mention COMPLETELY unattractive imo. Im not saying the game should have cast her as a big breasted pawg, but at least make her tolerable enough so the sheer sight of her doesnt cause the player to wish her demise upon immediately seeing her. Overall the gameplay reminds me of some random ♥♥♥♥ from the playstation game "Dreams" and if youve never played Dreams let me tell you that the games mechanics are far from polished and more of an experimental type nature. Of Bird and Cage also features similar gameplay in terms of function, in that it has the feeling of a raw Unity asset being placed in an enviroment of sterile, meaningless objects. I understand that this was started as an art project of sorts, but the emalgamation presented was one that portrayed an under tone of disfunction that was unignorable. To add to this critsism for the creators that i hold, 3/4 of the way through the game these pricks have the audacity to play their ♥♥♥♥♥♥ little credits for the player so we can know who to thank for this pathetic pile of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that is Of Bird and Cage. In essence the only thing that motivated me to write this review was to call out the hubris that the creators of this game. They are poor at making a game, and their music sucks ass.

[i]Ok, I know I am very late to the review party for this game. However, I cannot let the negative reviews be the first thing people see when making their decision. So, here comes the controversial part of my review:[/i] [b]Of Bird And Cage really is a great game![/b] Welcome to my Ted Talk: OBAC is a "Life is Strange" -esque deep dive into the life of one young woman with a ton of real life problems. She grew up in an abusive home, still lives with an abusive parent, and has fallen into a life of drug abuse and so much more. She is so sad and compelling leading us to empathize with her and hopefully guide her to a better outcome through it all. Honesty up front: I have played only the first act (songs 1-5) of the game, but I have played them numerous times over about 6 hours. Is it a perfect game? Absolutely not, but let's cover the important stuff. [h3]PLOT[/h3] The story of the game is as immersive as it is heart wrenching. It makes us want to succeed, and the more I learn about Gitta and her past, the more I want to help her through this turmoil. [h3]GAMEPLAY[/h3] The key division among reviewers... this game has many coding flaws and glitches, but that's part of the charm. It is blatantly obvious where the developers wanted to focus their coding. For example, as the music plays, some things in the environment illuminate or pulse in time with the music. This is very enjoyable. Gitta's thoughts randomly appear as words you walk in/through/around, and that feels true to how thoughts enter and exit our minds as things happen around us. And the singing scenes are beautifully created while some of the lesser non-plot based conversations are not as thoroughly polished. Every act is one song in length, each with their own missions and "story changing actions". You have the length of one song to find the correct things to interact with and/or people to talk to. IMHO, this increases my desire to replay the game (and why I have 6 hours in only 5 songs). Either I enjoy the song itself, I enjoy trying to figure out what to accomplish during the song, or many times BOTH. It is absolutely possible to accomplish every listed mission within each song. Some songs give plenty of time to do this, while others do not. In the end, whatever missions you accomplish or story changing actions you end with is up to you, and you can replay each song to get the results you desire, ultimately developing Gitta exactly the way you want her to be by the time she reaches the end of her journey. Interactions happen in the form of mini-games where you have to click or hold buttons to accomplish a task. Some reviewers say these QTEs are needlessly complex, but I say that adds to the tension of the moment. For example, a drinking mini-game requires you to hold one button while clicking another repeatedly, simple enough. But a couple of songs later, you have to hold a button and click another repeatedly in a frantically shorter amount of time to escape a pursuing kidnapper. My only negative comment about the gameplay is in the form of the combat system, but this game isn't a fighting game! It's a song-based story. Not only that, our character is a drug-using 25 year old waitress. She shouldn't be good at combat anyway, making the fight scenes quite realistic. [h3]MUSIC[/h3] Let's get this out of the way: as much as the game says it is "metal", it is not. This is symphonic rock. Some of the songs are purely instrumental while others are fully vocalized with in-game characters singing. The music sounds like Evanescence and Within Temptation because that's what the developers wanted it to sound like. It is obvious that the music is where they spent the majority of their budget (as you can tell by some of the game's coded scenes). [h3]VOICES[/h3] Ok, so the voice acting isn't all that great, but again, that's NOT the point! The conversations that do occur verbally are merely filler to get to the music. It's the plot that matters, and many of the best interactions in the game are not voiced at all. Instead, they are Gitta's thoughts written around the person talking explaining what they are saying in fewer words "I'm late for work" or "He wants privacy", etc. Another example of just how smart the developers were is how realistic Gitta's thoughts actually are. As a 5-year-old Gitta plays with her mommy, she is an innocent little child. This makes the abuse her father causes to her mother all that much more heartbreaking when observant little Gitta thinks "Mommy and Daddy are dancing" before he hits her and "Is it because of me" after the fight ends. There are many other thoughts Gitta has that clearly outline how her mind is working as the events unfold around her, showing the developers had a strong understanding of how her mind would work in reality. And if I'm being honest, I like Gitta's voice. [h3]LENGTH[/h3] Play it from start to finish in one go, and take what you get in regards to what happens to Gitta in each song, and yeah, the game is only 2 hours long. It's the replayability where this game makes its mark. As I said above, you WANT to play again because you WANT to do better. I find myself replaying songs wondering what happens if Gitta doesn't make it to the elevator, or what if Gitta doesn't take any drugs? (BTW, the game actually doesn't let you enter certain areas if she is halucinating! That changes the story!) [h3]ENDINGS[/h3] There are 4 endings. I have seen none of them, but I can't wait to see them all! [hr][/hr] tl;dr: Do I recommend this game? [b]YES![/b] Do I recommend this game to gamers? [i][b]NO![/b][/i] This game is for people who love music (symphonic rock fans), story (Life is Strange and Detroit: Become Human fans), casual games (5-15 minute game fans), and walking simulator games (Gris, Journey, and Dear Esther fans). Thanks for reading!

Really liked the music in this game and kudos for daring to try something different - using a series of songs to tell the story is a very cool premise. However, like many players have pointed out, the game seems to want you to do too many things within a fairly short time limit. That's not including the fact that many of the stuff that needs doing can only be uncovered if you explore the place and that there are plenty of collectibles to find and collect, and yet the time limit doesn't allow any of this. Wasn't able to really complete all the objectives in any one scene either, and probably have had the game force the story to go the way I would have preferred it NOT to go. I'm guessing the devs designed the game this way in order to fit the game to the length of the song and to get the player to replay levels just to get everything perfectly. Of course, there's also the fact that there are multiple endings to uncover. Still, every scene felt rushed to me and I wasn't able to take my time to really explore and figure out what needs doing and how to do it. Many of the Quick-Time Events also caught me by surprise and there were plenty of times when I wasn't able to respond quickly enough (probably no thanks to feeling nauseous; reason at the end of this review), which skewed certain events towards outcomes that I would love to avoid. Personally, the story is alright - a tale of vengeance or forgiveness, depending on your decisions; and it's a very tragic tale at that. In this game, you play as a 25-y/o drug addict with some major childhood trauma to unpack, who has her dealer as her BF; works at a diner as a waitress for meager pay and have a total creep for a boss; lives in a crappy RV; and has an alcoholic, abusive father whom she suspect killed her mum back when she's just a kid. That's not including the other main character, Bres Lupus, and his own story which was intertwined with yours, no thanks to a tragic event. There are some parts that I think don't really make any logical sense, like [spoiler]the part where they could have just leave the warehouse[/spoiler], or that I agreed with, but it is what it is I guess. The controls here aren't the best, but I'd say they are serviceable. The only major qualm I have is the way you have to drag objects and open drawers or doors. It's a bit frustrating especially with the time limit hanging over your head, despite being more realistic. In addition to driving, I'm not a huge fan of the many brawls Gitta managed to get herself into either. It took me awhile to figure out how to really land a hit - aim for the head - and that you can't just constantly block attacks. There's also the little drug addiction thing that you'll have to contend with. Drug withdrawals are typically tough to deal with. In this game, it will cause Gitta to hallucinate, but it doesn't really affect the gameplay too much. For instance, ven with blurry vision, I was still able to headshot "enemies", who were just doing their jobs and were coming after Bres and Gitta, because... well, they did assault and kill someone [spoiler]who's on a call with 911 #facepalm[/spoiler]. Last but most importantly, despite the indicator at the middle of the screen, the game still gave me some pretty severe motion sickness which forced me to take lengthy breaks in between Acts - sometimes even in between scenes. Not sure if there's something more in the settings that could have alleviated this, but I'm glad to say I made it to the end of the game. For me, I'd give a hesitant recommendation. The game has some good and unique ideas, which IMHO warrants at least a playthrough if you love a solid tragic story and excellent metal music, but it fails at properly executing these ideas, at least in a way that allows the player to comfortably do all the things the developers want and expect the player to do. Personally, I think it would have been better if time limits are removed entirely, but considering how the "levels" are designed, this might not be possible. It could use a lot more polish as well, namely the controls.

O jogo segue a fórmula de jogos comos Heavy Rain ou Life is Strange mas a semelhança é só na ideia A ideia de ser uma jornada musical, só seria boa mesmo se as músicas fossem boas, elas são ruins em grande maioria e algumas são OK, é um texto cringe que parece ter sido escrito por um adolescente que quer ter uma banda de metal mas foi proibido pela mãe Protagonista tem problemas com drogas, isso é abordado de uma forma estupida durante o jogo inteiro, fazendo que as vezes vc veja tudo em preto e branco e tomando um jump scare de um boneco com textura torta na cara O que vc precisa fazer normalmente é mal explicado é o tipo de jogo que ele acha que vc vai jogar múltiplas vezes o que não vai ocorrer pq a primeira experiência é horrível Mais hilário é ele pedir pra vc não mostrar o final em live no twitch de um jogo interativo, não pq vai arruinar a experiência mas pq o final é tosco sem sentido e mesmo mostrando vários anos no futuro mostra os personagens exatamente iguais ao começo Prós: - O jogo é curto e acredite isso é um ponto bom, assim o sofrimento acaba mais rápido Contras: - Gráfico é ruim - Um dos piores controles que já experimentei - Combate de luta é 2 lango lango se batendo - Controle do carro é o pior já feito - Parte de tiroteio é uma das piores já feitas - Partes de QTE as vezes funciona as vezes não - O jogo quer que vc seja rápido nas decisões mas os controles horríveis fazem disso uma tortura Nem em promo eu recomendo vale pra dar de presente pro amigo e ver ele te xingar NOTA 3/10