Immortal Unchained is an exercise in frustration, with seemingly every single gameplay mechanic specifically designed to annoy the hell out of me. What’s even more upsetting is that the exploration and overall level design are actually not bad, but the atrocious gameplay overshadows just about everything good the game has to offer.
I came into Immortal Unchained with relatively high hopes. The Remnant series have proved twice now that it’s possible to make a soulslike with guns, and I really enjoyed both of them. They work because they are designed as third-person shooters first and foremost, with some soulslike elements tacked on. Locking-on to an enemy is simple, the aim assist is just enough to help you pull off some of those tricky headshots, and the entire thing is fast and snappy.
Immortal Unchained made the terrible choice of doing the complete opposite; i.e take the lock-on and targeting mechanics from Dark Souls and attempt to adapt them to ranged combat. And it doesn’t work at all. Let me explain. Basically, you have two ways you can shoot at enemies, either by free aiming, or by locking on with the right stick.
Now, all the enemies have weak spots you want to try and target, generally their heads or glowing spots on their backs. This becomes more and more important as the game goes on, as you have an incredibly limited supply of ammo and not aiming for these weak spots means you’ll be wasting four sniper rounds instead of one. Unfortunately, when you lock on, your reticule becomes suddenly glued to the enemy’s torso, making targeting the weak spots nigh on impossible.
So, it’s probably better to use the free aiming system, right? Well, that’s another exercise in frustration. Even after spending a good few minutes messing with the settings it still felt slow and clunky. Then, sometimes you can line up the perfect headshot only for your reticule to remain white, informing you you’re going to miss, even if the target is placed in the very very centre of the guy’s head.
Oh, and enemy awareness is dialled up to eleven, so don’ t expect much time to take that shot. These robots must have built in binoculars as they can spot you coming a mile away, and there were several times I attempted to hit them with a sniper round from three hundred meters only for them to move aside or throw up a shield at the last moment.
The terrible aiming systems would be tolerable if enemy placement was fair, and for the first half of the game it is. Enemies spawn in far enough away for you to see them coming and plan you attack route, which is something I really enjoy doing in a soulslike, switching up my weapons between a close-range shotgun or grenade launcher for my melee opponents and reverting to longer ranged sniper rifles to take out enemy sharpshooters.
Then, suddenly, about halfway through the game, something changes, and they begin to teleport. A robot will spawn in out of nowhere, fire at you before you can react and remove half of your health bar, before teleporting away again. If you manage to somehow survive this incredibly frustrating section of the game, you’ll soon meet even more annoying enemies who will spawn in behind your back and slap a grenade on your rump before disappearing, or, my particular favourite, a shotgun wielding sadist who’ll appear out of nowhere, and unload a shotgun blast to your face. This will that knock you over and stun you for a brief moment, which usually leaves him with a long enough opening to finish you off with a second shot.
In the last area, these enemies appear two or three at a time, meaning even if you’re lucky enough to take one out, his buddy will get you. As far as I can tell, there’s only one real way to counter these guys and that’s to run through an area to see where they spawn, die, then use that knowledge to go through the area again with your gun raised to blow them to smithereens as soon as they appear.
Soulslike fans like myself enjoy challenging games, but they don’t enjoy frustrating ones, and this unfathomable design choice turns Immortal Unchained from a middling game to a mediocre one.
As I said, there are some things to like. Biomes are well-designed; multi-levelled, sprawling areas full of criss-crossing paths and secrets to discover. They reminded me of Bleak Faith in a way by instilling that same sense of getting lost and not really knowing what would be hiding behind the next corner.
This is especially true in the second part of the game where you unlock a fast travel system of sorts, and start finding keys, or protocols, that open up chests and doors in previously explored locations, almost like a metroidvania. You’ll also find new portals linking the game’s three different planets, allowing for even more exploration. It’s such a pity my desire to backtrack was tempered by the fact that I knew I’d have to slog through some more finicky combat.
As for progression, there are a ton of stats to upgrade, but you’ll want to spread your points fairly evenly as each weapon type has different stat requirements, and if you go all in on say, strength, you’ll be in a pickle when you need to equip a sniper rifle. Character customization more or less stops there. No armour or trinkets, only a handful of consumables and three “cipher” slots that allow you to configure passive buffs. Most of these are kind of useless, such as a 5% increase in damage, although one exception is the incredibly powerful Predator cipher that gifts you ammo on every kill and once you find it you’ll never want to take it off.
You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned the story and that’s because it’s thinner than a piece of paper. You’re tasked with finding three cores … then with finding three hearts, then after an insanely obvious plot twist you’ll have two more areas, two more bosses, and another plot twist that presumably sets up the next game or the DLC that I will definitely not be trying.
Immortal Unchained is a game that’s impossible for me to recommend. Even if you loved the Remnant series, you’re better off playing through that again than suffering through clunky controls and egregious enemy gank. The exploration and interesting level design just about save it from being the worst soulslike I’ve played, but it’s still at the bottom of the barrel.
