Of Bird and Cage

Writing a negative review can feel cathartic when it’s in response to lazy, sleazy, or greedy game design, but this isn’t one of those reviews. Of Bird and Cage is very clearly a passion project that aims to do something new and exciting, and, while it does a few things very well, it just doesn’t have a solid enough foundation to make it fun to play. I love the music and I like the story that they were trying to tell, but sloppy game mechanics, poorly developed narrative beats, and disappointing visuals make this a game I can’t recommend for most.

In the end, Of Bird and Cage left me with a terrible taste in my mouth, and I wondered how it managed to get released today. In fact, it’s so bad that I would almost recommend it to connoisseurs of terrible games, but frankly, I’m not sure I could live with my conscience.

Of Bird and Cage is an experimental music album that pairs interactive elements with the songs to create a unique experience. However, the game is plagued by bad mechanics and a story that is uninteresting and devoid of nuance.

The concept of an experimental, interactive music album was great, and the fact that musicians associated with Epica, Within Temptation, Kamelot or Asking Alexandria were involved, was very promising and impressive. Unfortunately, the game turned out to be an amateurish mess. The whole gameplay is very poorly executed, the story is cheap and approaches difficult subjects without a trace of finesse, and the voice acting is simply horrible. The worst part is, the music is okay at best. [08/2021, p.54]

As a game, it is not up to scratch. While the characters and the story might be good enough for a music video, it’s not good enough for a video game. It is clear these are music video characters, sometimes in great emotional scenes, but often feeling two dimensional. The gameplay is sometimes nice, but often lacking in a discernable thread of logic, and is undercut when you see how little influence you have on what is clearly a prescribed set of events.

Of Bird and Cage has only one problem: it is terribly done. Leave the poor Gitta alone with her misery.

Of Bird and Cage is an interesting idea fatally flawed in almost every aspect of its execution. It ultimately fails to reach even “so bad it’s good” status due to poorly thought out and implemented mechanics wrapped in a visual and narrative tedium. Too clunky to appeal to gamers and too incoherent to impress newcomers, it lands nowhere and looks sloppy while doing so. The few moments where everything clicks into place are few and far between.