UNSIGHTED from Studio Pixel Punk is the latest in a series of excellent games from publisher Humble Games who have been kicking a particular amount of indie-gamer butt lately with quality releases like Flynn Son of Crimson and Dodgeball Academia.
Unsighted is best described as something like a topdown Zelda game with a particularly fulfilling combat system with its parries and dodges. Good thing blocking and dodging hits is so very fun and rewarding because most of the enemies here will hit real dang hard.
There are multiple ways to adapt combat styles in Unsighted, from getting new weapons to modifying Alma’s chipboard. New chips are easy enough to find or buy if one has the credit, but the problem is space for more chips. To buy more chip-space, we need the currency of Unsighted – which is where the game turns into Dark Souls in some ways. It follows the typical formula of “kill badguys to get dosh! If ya die, gotta pickup dosh before ya die again!”
Unsighted offers a large futuristic city to explore, interwoven with a variety of ways to explore. The game promises that the way we choose to traverse this world is up to the player. This is delivered rather well, as the hugely interwoven clockwork of a city is a thrill to explore.
The clock that Unsighted’s city of Arcadia runs on is slowly ticking down with every minute of exploration, every moment spent crafting, and every death. As time progresses, every character in the city will eventually run out of Anima – the energy keeping them from turning into kill-crazy robots. This pressure made it hard for me to enjoy exploring the game once I realized it was there – but there is an Easy mode, as well as an Exploration option for the game.
The developers did a good job putting a variety of options for different playstyles in the game, while maintaining their vision. In addition to the story mode of the game, there are two additional ways to play: Dungeon Raid, and Boss Rush. I was able to get somewhat far into the first Dungeon Raid I attempted, but it was pretty difficult – my abilities at these sorts of sword-fighting games are certainly lacking. Dungeon Raid was a neat remix of assets from the main story with a sort of rogue-like element where in between each level the player picks upgrades to their character.
I’ll go ahead and say: Unsighted is objectively a good game, with its quality art, clever level design, and satisfying combat. I think a lot of people will really enjoy what Studio Pixel Punk and Humble Games have brought us, especially those people that enjoy games where the exploration is sneaky and cunning with its path and reward placement. I’m really looking forward to returning to Unsighted on Easy or the exploration mode to get a fuller look at what Arcadia has to offer – apparently there’s even fishing!
I totally recommend UNSIGHTED, especially for those who consider themselves skilled in games with this sort of combat.
Be sure to let me know what you think of Unsighted, or your other favorite indie games on Twitter! And be sure to follow my Steam Curator page for all the cool game recommendations – more coming soon!
Reviewed using a pre-release review code sent by the developer.
IndieSamAdonis 