Unsightedwas a stealth drop of a game in September 2021, releasing alongside other indie action gamessuch asInto the Pit. And,Unsightedtook a lot of people by surprise with its all-inclusive cast, creative concept, and stellar gameplay. The game was also on Xbox Game Pass day one (though some Game Pass games are leaving soon), making it even more accessible to as many people as humanly possible.
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And, after beating it and getting the True Ending, here are all of the things that are awesome about the game (and a few things that weren’t as amazing).
10Loved: The Timer Mechanic
Let’s talk aboutUnsighted’sTimer Mechanics. In this game, players are constantly meant to keep track of how much time Alma, Iris, and all the rest of the NPCs have left before they run out of “Anima” and become mindless killing machines known as “Unsighted”. And, quite a few of these NPCs start out with a shockingly low amount of time left.
Now, for some players,thisDead Rising-esque ever-present sense of dreadthat pressures them to scrounge for Meteor Dust can take away from their enjoyment ofUnsighted. But, for others, this unique mechanic will add a lot to the overall game experience.
9Didn’t Love: The Timer Mechanic…Again
It might seem odd to both praise and criticize the Timer Mechanic inUnsighted,but everything in life has pros and cons. The countdowns for every NPC until they become “Unsighted” is something that adds a lot to the narrative, atmosphere, and gameplay of the game, but it does feel a bit “incomplete”.
Yes, it both adds and subtracts value from all the NPCs in the game, as it makes them feel more “alive” as characters, but it also unintentionally boils them down to glorified gift boxes without a purpose once their Bond Level is maxed.
8Loved: The Combat
The combat ofUnsightedis just so good. It has a real steep initial learning curve, but once players figure out that it’s all about parrying/countering, it all clicks in. Enemy attacks never feel unfair, the enemy types are diverse, and there is a large variety in the ways people can build their version of Alma.
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Sure, there are some rooms where there are way too many enemies as if it’s trying to overwhelm the player, but even then, all they need to do is focus and take the opponents out one at a time.It’s a combat system that isn’t “the best of the best” by any means, but it absolutely does the job and even exceeds expectations in some areas.
7Didn’t Love: How Long It Takes To Acclimate To The Combat
The first big hump for players trying outUnsightedis getting used to its relatively unique combat. There’s a lot of stuff that people have to sort of figure out as they go along, such as:
Now, all of these are also aspects that make the game unique, enjoyable, and memorable. But, they also take a lot of getting used to before it really “clicks” in, and it’s enough time that people can bounce off the game entirely before they figure it out.
6Loved: All The Choices Players Have For Making Progress
Unsightedis not a roguelike/rogue-lite game, though players would be understandably justified thinking it was. Rather, this is a Metroidvania title with progression similar to the handheldLegend of Zeldagames. In fact,Unsighted’smain quest to gather five Meteor Shards actually has a lot more in common with the recent handheldLoZgame,A Link Between Worlds, in that players can complete the “dungeons” in any order that they want, even skipping some sections entirely if they so choose.
Additionally, there are multiple ways for Alma to solve puzzle/platforming barriers in this game, such as the Spinner breaking those stone barricades but also having the explosive guns break them as well. It’s not often that games give the player so many avenues to get past barriers, and for the most part,Unsightednails it.
5Didn’t Love: All The Exploits & Bugs
Just about anyone who has playedUnsightedwill most likely agree that this game, both in general and for an indie release, is innovative in a lot of ways or at the very least attempts to be. But, a byproduct of being that ambitious is that there are more chances of bugs, glitches, or exploits to pop up, andUnsightedhas quite a few.
As far as bugs go, it’s nothing horrendous, usually just some odd fps or controller issues. However, there are many ways to exploit the game that allow players to become overpowered or explore areas much earlier than intended, and not in a way that feels natural or designed. And, when that happens enough times, the player loses a bit of the internal consistency the game had built up to this point, which is never good.
4Loved: The Accessibility Options
Accessibility options should never be undervalued in anything, especially video games. Regardless of the whole “game difficulty” discussion that always seems to come up, there will always be situations or restrictions people have that stop them from enjoying a game to its fullest without certain accessibility options.
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Luckily,Unsightedis very considerate of this,having multiple options that allow players to experience the game in any way they choose. The most prominent option, of course, is the one that gets rid of any of the time-based mechanics of the game, AKA the Explorer Mode. This allows players to exploreUnsighted’sbeautiful setting without any fear of their favorite character suddenly losing their sentience.
3Didn’t Love: The Lack Of A Quick-Switch Ranged Weapon Option
This is such a minuscule gripe, but one that becomes more and more annoying the further someone playsUnsighted. In this game, a lot of the methods Alma uses to solve puzzles, such as freezing water to create platforms, grappling herself across chasms, or hitting switches from afar, require her to switch between her Ranged Weapons.
This would be fine if, for example, the Hookshot, Shuriken, and Cryogun were on their own input or there was a fast way of rotating between all available Ranged Weapons. But, there isn’t, so players who want to use the guns in combat will constantly need to pause, switch Ranged Weapons, unpause, finish their fight, and then switch back whenever the next platforming puzzle comes up. It’s just a ton of unnecessary menu navigation.
2Loved: The Sheer Amount Of Content
This is not a “short” game by any stretch of the imagination. A veteranUnsightedplayer could likely start a new game and get all the way through the main story in 7+ hours if they were attempting to speedrun it, especially if they did NG+ with all their items.
However, most casual playthroughs take anywhere from 10-20 hours depending on how much side content the player wants to experience. And, that’s not even counting subsequent NG+ playthroughs, collecting all 141 Chests, finding all of Tobais’ dogs, and so on.
1Didn’t Love: How Hard It Could Be To Gauge Distance/Height Sometimes
And the last little complaint aboutUnsightedmight just be based on the individual but is something that we had a lot of trouble with. For some reason, something aboutUnsighted’senvironmental sprite-work is a bit visually unclear, especially in regards to height. There are a lot of areas in this game where it’s hard to tell if a platform is on the same plane as Alma or above her, and sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s even a platform at all.
Some areas of the game are worse about this than others (AKA the Downtown area), but for the most part, it’s a very small yet ever-present issue.
Unsightedis currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
