Developed by Capricia Productions and published by All in! Games, Of Bird and Cage is a unique dark, and twisted game that is focused around a metal music album. Boasting some of the best bands out there, Of Bird and Cage is described as a metal music album presented as a video game. Just like the music genre, it is based on, the game features dark and depressing themes and requires a strong heart to play through it. This is our review of Of Bird and Cage in which our choices shape the future of our story as we try to cope up with everything happening around us.
Of Bird and Cage follows the story of Gitta who is working as a waitress to meet her ends meet while also working on her music side-by-side. The life of Gitta has been a roller coaster from a very young age as she is traumatized due to her father beating and arguing with her mother. Now Gitta is all grown up however her past still haunts her and because of that, she is also addicted to a drug called GSBV. Unless she takes the drug regularly, she starts to have hallucinations where she sees fire, crows and also gets a shortened field of view. However, getting this particular drug in the game is not really that hard as I was able to find them in key locations that are hard to miss.
The game’s narrative follows her life and shows her strangled while juggling her work, dealing with her father, an abusive boyfriend, and a boss that is equally bad in every way. This is taking a big toll on Gitta’s mental condition and because of this, she is often lost in her nightmares from where you must help her escape. Of Bird and Cage does not feature an open world however each level has plenty of secrets and story items for you to collect for expanding your understanding of the current scenario as well as Gitta’s past. You can move around, interact with multiple objects and collect some as well.
Of Bird and Cage is heavily dependent on your choices. There are four epilogues each with their own unique ending that unlock if you meet certain conditions. These are all based on your choices that you make right from the very first chapter of the game. The story spans over three Acts with various chapters in them. If you insanely rush the game, you can complete the game in around 3 hours however if you play at the game’s intended speed, you will take anything around 4 hours or even more if you keep repeating sections to complete the game’s many QTEs.
The gameplay of Of Bird and Cage features a large number of QTEs and your next move is based on whether you win these QTEs or fail them. Some of the core QTEs must be won in order to progress in the story however some of them will simply not unlock quests in that particular chapter. This encourages replaying of the chapters in order to unlock all of the quests and exploring different choices later. Each of the chapters in the game is comprised of various sections where you will be taken back to Gitta’s past or the current events happening in her life. As you progress through the acts and make choices, you will then get to the epilogue you have unlocked and then proceed to the ending.
The developer basically says that Of Bird and Cage is a music album presented in the form of a video game which is why music plays a vital role in the game. Since Gitta is played by Kobra Paige, you will also hear her songs in the game from Kobra’s band Kobra and the Lotus. Apart from her, there is a hefty list of famous bands and their rock songs in the game. The music accompanies each scenario in the game especially during the much darker sequences in the game where the music really picks up the pace and keeps your blood pumping as well. The soundtrack is one of the best aspects of the game and because of this, I will recommend that you play the game with your headphones on.
Overall, I loved Of Bird and Cage, especially how dark and gritty it is and represents how harmful events hurt a person’s mental condition which ultimately leads to drug addiction. However not every game out there is perfect and sadly there is one mechanic in particular that I did not really like in the game. This particular mechanic is the timer which appears in literally every section of the game and forces you to rush through the levels instead of taking your time and soaking up the atmosphere of the game. The levels are greatly designed and often I wanted to explore each and everything in them however the timer forced me to leave everything and run around frantically trying to solver puzzles quickly or finding items.
The timer makes perfect sense where I have to do something and leave quickly however not giving me enough time to explore the level even when nothing is happening around is just plain weird. It is as though the developers do not want players to check every detail that the levels for some reason. Every time I was given an environment to explore and look around to do something, the timer would pop up and it would ruin my mood as I will then have to rush everything in the level instead of taking my time, checking out the details, and completing the level at my own pace.
Your first playthrough of the game is not as enjoyable because sometimes you spend the entire time understanding what needs to be done and when you figure it out, the timer is almost at its end making you fail that task. There is no option to restart a sequence as well because if you restart, the whole chapter is restarted, and you have to complete everything from scratch again. I will recommend that you just go with the flow for your first playthrough and understand how everything works in each level even if you fail them. The tutorials are minimal, so you have to figure out everything yourself. Your second playthrough and all consequent playthroughs will be much better than your first one.
Technically, Of Bird and Cage seems to be in a pretty stable position. At one time the game crashed on me right at the start of the game when I was speaking with the bartender however other than that, the game ran extremely smooth for me. I played through the game twice during my review, once on a laptop and once on a desktop both featuring decent RTX 30 series GPUs and Ryzen 5000 CPUs. The visual fidelity of the game is nothing too demanding, but the game looks pretty good as it switches between various scenes depending on Gitta’s mental condition. The accompanying soundtrack is really good, and you will find some of the best metal songs in the game from well-reputed bands. The audio design of the game is top-notch and really sets well with the game.
Final Verdict:
Of Bird and Cage is probably one of the best titles when it comes to touching your soul and how it shakes your emotions as you play the game. The only aspect where it loses some points is the somewhat clunky gameplay and the timer system that I found the most annoying in the game. I understand that timers are a good fun mechanic to put some pressure on the player but the timer in Of Bird and Cage felt like the developer just wants to rush through the game instead of soaking up the environment and levels of the game. This forced rushing was one of the major letdowns of the game for me. Other than that, I loved the concept and the soundtrack of the game. The voice acting and dialogue delivery are really good. It is emotional and will certainly hit you in the right spots. If you are looking for something with multiple endings, rushed gameplay, a plethora of QTEs, and an emotional story, Of Bird and Cage hits all the notes for you.
Final Score: 7.5/10
