Unsighted combines fun and thoughtful combat and addicting exploration with a diabolical premise. As Alma, you are a human-like automaton awakened to amnesia and faced with two problems. First, your partner Raquel is missing. Second, the world has lost its anima, the source of energy that gives automatons emotion and free will. When anima runs out of a machine, it turns into an unsighted, a mindless monster. Alma’s action-adventure frenzy turns into a real race against the clock to save as many friends as possible from this fate.
I love that Unsighted’s unique premise is not a bluff. You and everyone you meet have a timer, visible in conversations and measured by hours of play, that shows how long they have to turn into monsters. Friends, shopkeepers, quest givers, your fairy buddy. Nobody is exempt – including yourself. If someone goes unseen, you’ll have to take them off, which means you’ll miss out on side quests or, if it’s a seller, the chance to purchase certain goods. A animal shelter-Style “Where are you now?” The ending shows what happens to the people you save and offers plenty of good reasons to repeat the adventure.
These real-life stakes kept me busy throughout the trip as I tried to save everyone I could and made me question my actions in ways I normally wouldn’t. Do I spend precious minutes solving an optional puzzle to win its prize, or do I hunt for tight, time-consuming Meteor Dust to keep anyone from turning around? This system can be stressful, but time doesn’t pass that quickly and there is room for easy exploration. Unsighted takes the pressure off further in other creative ways. For example, if you lose a merchant, you can create goods instead and maybe save meteor dust for someone else. There is even a character who can kill an NPC of your choice and add their remaining time to yours. This option presents an interesting moral dilemma, but I have used their services twice and always felt dirty but relieved.
Unsighted does an excellent job of covering its bases in case all of them get wiped out, and while selfish gamers can manage to make everyone suffer, I’ve found compelling reasons to keep characters around. Meteor Dust also increases the affection of NPCs, which rewards discounts on valuable equipment or opens side missions that you discover by talking to people about their backstories. I fought as hard as I could to keep Iris, Alma’s fairy companion, with me long enough to learn the fate of her missing sister. I felt really bad when someone turned around, either because I lost easily accessible items or because I learned to appreciate their colorful personality.
To save the world, you’ll need to collect five meteorite shards scattered across interconnected, multi-level biomes, each guarded by a big boss. Unsighted’s nifty combat allows players to combine combinations of melee and firearms. The action feels great and requires a thoughtful approach thanks to a stamina knife and a satisfying parry that stuns enemies for devastating counterattacks. I loved fending off multiple incoming attacks and then fending off stunned attackers with one shot. Pistols, shotguns, and even flamethrowers have active reloads for extra tension, but timing is a little tricky. The wide variety of enemies and creative bosses is tough, but hits the sweet spot between challenge and fun.
I enjoyed tinkering with Alma’s skills using skill-imparting chips that allow you to create specific builds and negate more restrictive elements. For example, I found a chip that removed the endurance cost of running. Gears complement chips with temporary effects like instant resuscitation or limited invulnerability. Platforming feels great and is more fluid than I expected in a top-down game, but judging distances and angles on certain jumps is difficult given the perspective. Falling won’t harm Alma, but it’s still irritating. Overall, Unsighted is playing like a dream.
I had a great time exploring the beautiful pixel art world and uncovering hidden upgrades and shortcuts. Dungeons offer an extraordinary design and a lot of variety, each with its own theme, which revolves around fun items like a grappling hook or an ice grenade. Marching through a lava-filled factory in a mech suit is just as entertaining as surfing rail networks on a giant, Beyblade-esque spinning top. The puzzles are well designed overall, although the walking back and forth that it takes to solve some of them is tedious and clearly designed to burn time. Like the best Metroid-style games, progression-based skills serve more purposes than opening paths. I loved using the grappling hook to pull enemies towards me as well as pulling over gaps.
Unsighted captivated me thanks to its fascinating world, great struggle and doomsday clock that enriches the adventure. It’s one of my favorite surprises of the year because my actions made a real impact in the world and didn’t always turn out the way I’d hoped. Although I lost friends along the way, my desire to see this extraordinary adventure come to an end grew with every hour that passed.
