Unsighted

Platform	OVERALL
PC	7.80

Overall

7.80

This top down pixel art action adventure game borrows elements from Zelda and adds a twist with a countdown mechanic to keep pressure on the player resulting in a fun, well paced game. Unsighted takes place in a world where humans have started a war on androids who have outgrown their original purpose to start living in their own society and build families. The last of the humans use some ancient artifact to destroy the source of the androids power, anima, now all androids are slowly dying.

You play a powerful warrior android, Alma, who’s goal is to recover 5 gems to access the weapon and shut it down but the catch is you and every single NPC in the game is on a death timer. Every person has a different time some will last many hours, others have two or three to live. As you explore the world there are treasures called Meteor dust that give 24 hours more to live to anyone you give it to. Don’t forget to save some for yourself if you need it, or your personal robot fairy companion (this games Navi, or you can just let her die you horrible person!) If an NPC dies their store or whatever service they provided is closed off.

If that sounds extremely stressful well it can be if you let it. The truth is the time mechanic isn’t all that interesting and it’s really a clever way to simply have shops you can upgrade. Every NPC has a heart meter, 4 hearts in total, each time you give dust to one the heart goes up by one as well as their time. Each time a bonus happens like a store discount. If you max it out most everyone has a unique item they give you. Some give you a portable version of their store like a portable crafting table or portable blacksmith meaning once you max them out you don’t need them alive anymore. Everyone has so much time and there is so much dust to find that in reality all you are really doing is deciding which bonus items you want. If characters die nothing that serious happens, the story doesn’t change much. A few NPCs might say a different line or two. In the ending you just don’t see them living happy. So in reality that unique mechanic is mostly for show.

What really stands out is the level design which is Zelda like in its execution. Each of the five gems are housed in a certain dungeon like location where you will solve puzzles, find a new unique item that is used to advance through the dungeon and fight a boss. I found these dungeons to be varied enough with decent enough puzzles to really keep me entertained throughout. Some items you earn are familiar like a hookshot, a boomerang, and even a spinning top that you use to grind rails like in Twilight Princess. Clearly the creators of this game borrowed heavily from Zelda and while it never reaches the highs of Zelda dungeons they are a good enough approximation to make for some high quality level design.

Where it does shy from Zelda is in the combat as this game has more in common with other pixel art top down games like hyperlight in that it’s fast paced and deals a lot more with counters and timing. I found the heavy emphasis on countering to be a detriment, in some battles there is just too much happening on screen to notice the red flash of an enemy attack and having to time the party at the right moment just to get a massive counter in (which is by far the best way to do damage). Even dealing with multiple enemies it becomes frustrating especially if two different attacks come in consecutively which doesn’t allow the small parry cooldown to reset in time. While there are customizable “chips” that can adjust cooldowns, stat bonuses and so on I didn’t ever really feel it changed the fundamental way you do battle which is mostly timing parties and going in for attacks between enemy attacks. Of note this game has melee and ranged weapons so you can be slashing and shooting at the same time but the reloads happen so frequently and you must manually hit the button that I found myself just focusing on parrying.

The combat isn’t bad, some of the enemies are well throughout and the boss battles are generally very fun to fight. There is the dark souls penalty for death where you need to run back to your spot of death to retrieve money, also dying means more time off the clock so there is tension and the difficulty is at a good balance of being just hard enough. I just never found the combat compelling enough to feel like I wanted to master it. Though I bet for some it’s a game completionists and speed runners dream of, it offers all the tools for a great game to master, I bet there are some incredible no hit speed runs online, but for me this games combat doesn’t entice me to play more than once.

To round out the package there is a rogue like mode where you are sent to one of the games dungeons but randomized with a random starting item and you can buy new ones as you go. There is also the classic boss rush mode as well. There are two neat bonus modes that make the game have more replay value but again I was satisfied with one play.

Unsighted is well worth your time if you are a Zelda fan like me or are just interested in unique action adventure indie games. It moves at a great pace with constant new items and locations. I personally didn’t find the countdown mechanic to be over bearing, it felt more like a unique way to make NPCs and the world matter more. The ending seems to hint at more to come, I think this is a very good first effort that with some polish can be a really special franchise.

Posted by Dvader Sun, 05 Dec 2021 02:43:16

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