Unsighted came out of nowhere for me but when I first saw it, I almost immediately knew it was a game I would enjoy.
The game takes a lot of ideas from the Metroidvania genre and throws it into a top-down action game similar to Hyper Light Drifter or Crosscode and it's the best part of the game for me. Like every Metroidvania, you collect power-ups throughout the game that let you explore areas that were of limits to you before. But those power-ups don't limit themselves to exploration but can even be useful during combat. The interconnected world slowly unfolds itself with each power you get and my god does it feel good. At the end of the game, you almost fly through the game and it's amazing. Everything in Unsighted also looks so beautiful because of the pixel-art, which is always a plus.
Besides exploration, there is of course the combat. During most encounters, the combat feels tight and responsive, especially later on when you're a bit stronger and got some of the more interesting weapons and tools. There is however one thing that annoyed me, the parry system. When you perfectly parry or, twice for bigger enemies/bosses, an enemy's attack you can kill them in one hit or do a huge amount of damage. This works for most of the time and often feels very satisfying to pull off. But sometimes it feels like the combat is relying too much on that system and it makes that you almost don't do any damage without the parry. It gets annoying the more enemies you have to defeat at the same time. There is one (optional boss) where you can only damage that boss after a few successful parries. At the same time, they keep throwing minions at you, that you also have to parry. It gets overwhelming and made the fight almost impossible to the point where I had to lower the difficulty to beat it (the only boss where I had to do that). I would've given Unsighted 4 stars if the parry system wasn't such a huge part of the game.
The story follows Alma in the city of Arcadia. When you first start the game she wakes up in some lab and she remembers nothing. When you finally arrive above the ground you only see the ruins of war. That war happened between humans and automaton's, androids that gained consciousness through anima. At the end of the war, the humans sealed away that anima which led to the automatons that ran out of it to become Unsighted (He said it! He said the thing!). So every character you meet in the game, including yourself, has some sort of timer that stands for the amount of anima they have. When that time runs out, they become unsighted and that again includes you. Luckily you can find piles of anima throughout that world that give you an extra 24 hours, which you can either choose for yourself or extend the time of the other characters. I however decided to turn off that timer for my character because it gave me anxiety. I did end up enjoying the story and caring for quite a few characters and especially Alma.
TL:DR
Exploring in Unsighted is the best part and it creates some of the best moments in the game with all the power-ups you get. The combat is tight and responsive but gets held back by the parry. Following Alma while she's trying to figure out what happened to her friends, herself, and the city of Arcadia was a story that kept me engaged throughout the game.
Unsighted was unfortunately overshadowed by some bigger releases and went under the radar for a lot of people. So hopefully my review gets some people interested enough to at least try this game because the team behind it deserves it!
It also has a demo if you want to try it before making the purchase!!
The game takes a lot of ideas from the Metroidvania genre and throws it into a top-down action game similar to Hyper Light Drifter or Crosscode and it's the best part of the game for me. Like every Metroidvania, you collect power-ups throughout the game that let you explore areas that were of limits to you before. But those power-ups don't limit themselves to exploration but can even be useful during combat. The interconnected world slowly unfolds itself with each power you get and my god does it feel good. At the end of the game, you almost fly through the game and it's amazing. Everything in Unsighted also looks so beautiful because of the pixel-art, which is always a plus.
Besides exploration, there is of course the combat. During most encounters, the combat feels tight and responsive, especially later on when you're a bit stronger and got some of the more interesting weapons and tools. There is however one thing that annoyed me, the parry system. When you perfectly parry or, twice for bigger enemies/bosses, an enemy's attack you can kill them in one hit or do a huge amount of damage. This works for most of the time and often feels very satisfying to pull off. But sometimes it feels like the combat is relying too much on that system and it makes that you almost don't do any damage without the parry. It gets annoying the more enemies you have to defeat at the same time. There is one (optional boss) where you can only damage that boss after a few successful parries. At the same time, they keep throwing minions at you, that you also have to parry. It gets overwhelming and made the fight almost impossible to the point where I had to lower the difficulty to beat it (the only boss where I had to do that). I would've given Unsighted 4 stars if the parry system wasn't such a huge part of the game.
The story follows Alma in the city of Arcadia. When you first start the game she wakes up in some lab and she remembers nothing. When you finally arrive above the ground you only see the ruins of war. That war happened between humans and automaton's, androids that gained consciousness through anima. At the end of the war, the humans sealed away that anima which led to the automatons that ran out of it to become Unsighted (He said it! He said the thing!). So every character you meet in the game, including yourself, has some sort of timer that stands for the amount of anima they have. When that time runs out, they become unsighted and that again includes you. Luckily you can find piles of anima throughout that world that give you an extra 24 hours, which you can either choose for yourself or extend the time of the other characters. I however decided to turn off that timer for my character because it gave me anxiety. I did end up enjoying the story and caring for quite a few characters and especially Alma.
TL:DR
Exploring in Unsighted is the best part and it creates some of the best moments in the game with all the power-ups you get. The combat is tight and responsive but gets held back by the parry. Following Alma while she's trying to figure out what happened to her friends, herself, and the city of Arcadia was a story that kept me engaged throughout the game.
Unsighted was unfortunately overshadowed by some bigger releases and went under the radar for a lot of people. So hopefully my review gets some people interested enough to at least try this game because the team behind it deserves it!
It also has a demo if you want to try it before making the purchase!!