Of Bird and Cage
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Of Bird and Cage Trailers
Critic Reviews for Of Bird and Cage
Of Bird and Cage is probably one of the most experimental video games to release in recent memory, but just because a game is unique doesn't necessarily mean that it's worth playing. Heavy metal fans are better off picking up an album from their favorite band, and those who love interactive story games should stick to the best of the Telltale games and their ilk. Of Bird and Cage struggles at nearly everything it sets out to do, and its few interesting songs can't save an ultimately disjointed and unremarkable experience.
Despite its intriguing, creative premise, playing Of Bird and Cage is a depressing experience. Its humorless, bleak story is coupled with subpar gameplay mechanics and low-quality production values. Whatever thematic chances the game wants to take are undercut by its lackluster presentation. The music alone might be a decent album’s worth of tunes, but it can’t save the pretty terrible game it has to support. It would be hard to recommend Of Bird and Cage to anyone, especially fans of music-based games. Just go listen to your favorite metal band, and make up a story in your head.
Of Bird and Cage has a couple concepts to respect in isolation, but that doesn't disregard its head-banging assault on good taste.
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 is a narrative-driven game mixing first-person shooter, environmental puzzle, walking-simulator, driving, platformer, and boxing mechanics - all hammered into the shape of a roughly two-hour-long metal album. A valiant effort by a fledgeling studio with some serious star-power providing tunes to match. But, how does it all fit together?
Bird and Cage appears immediately loose compared to other narrative-driven first-person titles. The story of the game seems to be more suitable for a short music video than a game with a high interactive rate and fun.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Of Bird and Cage is not a good game and I can only think of a small subset of people who might enjoy it: fans of progressive rock with a love of soapy narrative drive titles and an ability to ignore presentation issues. Anyone else should avoid playing the game, even if it is relatively short at around two hours.
Streamlining it to be more of an immersive walking sim with various morality choices would have fit the flow of the game better. I appreciate what they were going for, I really do. I adore this concept. However, sometimes a great idea doesn’t translate well to a video game.
