UNBEATABLE

Unpeakable

UNBEATABLE is a game I can easily recommend to just about anyone, regardless of their skill level or what they look for in games. It has a wide selection of difficulty options ranging from “newborn baby” to “I eat rhythm games for breakfast,” in both the story and arcade modes. The story mode is the main highlight I would immediately direct most players to. It has a good balance of humor, introspection, and moments that will tug at your heart strings. By the end, it shapes up to be one of the most emotional and meaningful stories I’ve ever seen told in a game. And it’s a story that feels much more impactful because of the fact this is a video game. Even though the main character, Beat, is a very well developed character on her own, she’s also a character that many people will find relatable. You may or may not always feel like you yourself are the one who is present in the game’s world, but you will feel personally impacted by key moments of the game. That is to say, make sure you’re well prepared emotionally before diving deep into it. Especially towards the end. Read the trigger warnings on the game’s website and set aside a good couple of hours for each of the game’s six episodes. It’s about 10 hours long on average, not counting side quests. I would recommend dividing that up over 3 or 4 total play sessions on your first run through. Now personally, when I’m playing a game for the story, I don’t pay much attention to how it’s paced or how it balances with gameplay. For example, I was never bothered by Pokemon Sun taking long stretches of time for dialogue and cutscenes instead of gameplay, because I was enjoying the story. But I know other people might be bothered when gameplay moments are spaced too far apart like this. It is unfortunately something UNBEATABLE is frequently guilty of, especially in the first half of the game. It makes sense given the context of the story. After all, it’s a rhythm game where music is illegal. But you can fill some of the gaps by playing optional side missions. Some of these are very clever ways to naturally integrate rhythm into the gameplay, some require no rhythm at all, and others are literally here as jokes. So if you’re unsatisfied with the pacing of the gameplay, my advice is to spend some time in the arcade mode. The soundtrack features a wide variety of music across both story and arcade modes. The primary focus is of course on Indie Rock. But there’s plenty of traditional and experimental electronic music, some rap, lo-fi, and sample-heavy Big Beat spread throughout the game. There’s a little bit of something here for everyone, but no one is getting fed better than people who want emotional rock anthems. On the other hand, I went into the game expecting more rebellious anti-establishment songs. And there’s certainly a few of those that hit just right (even if some are DLC). The game sticks to those principles well throughout the story. They just don’t often get reflected lyrically. I did my first playthrough of the game with a controller, and I do recommend this because it’s nice to have analog movement in some sections. But I was left with weird cramps in one of my hands in the days after I beat the game. The layout I was using had the bumpers as attacking up, and the face buttons / D-pad attacking down. I probably could’ve avoided the cramps by using up and X instead of down and A, or just resting from that position more often. For the rhythm game fans putting lots of time into the arcade mode, you’ll probably prefer using a keyboard. If you want to work your way up to the highest difficulty songs in arcade mode, my recommended control layout is having D and F as down, then J and K as up, or the inverse of that. It’s worth noting that in the official beatmap editor, left is up and right is down. But if you’re used to playing an instrument like the piano, right being up will likely make more sense in gameplay. Essentially, this layout feels more like a real arcade cabinet with 2 down buttons for your left hand, and 2 up buttons for your right hand. And part of the challenge is figuring out which one to use as notes (sometimes) approach from both sides of the screen. If you had any doubt about what system you should buy this game on, know it is made for PC first and foremost. The console ports typically receive updates (and DLC, thanks Sony!) later than PC and are less stable. Plus, PC has the huge advantage of being the only version where you can play custom user-made levels. Unfortunately, most of those custom levels are built to be on the more difficult side. And the selection of music available is limited to artists that have given explicit written permission for their music to be used in UNBEATABLE. So assuming that eventually the console ports become more stable, casual players will miss out on very little by losing the ability to play custom charts. However, this does bring me to how poor the game’s timing calibration is. There’s only one form of offset calibration in the settings, even though there are two types of offsets that can be manually adjusted. Timing offset is typically useless, and chart offset is more likely to help you. The offset calibration wizard asks you to hit notes based on what you see. But you can also choose to ignore it and hit based on the metronome you hear, which will likely yield a different result. If you’re trying to play the game like a musical instrument, perfectly in time with the beats, you will want to turn hit sounds off and calibrate by tapping in sync to the metronome sound. When doing this, I typically end up with an offset of -100 or lower. But if you prefer playing with sound effects on, calibrate to what you see. It will likely land somewhere closer to an offset of 0. I highly recommend the former for high levels of play. If neither of these feel right, there are custom charts (on PC) that can help you get more precise calibration. The good news to top this all off is that the game is still receiving regular content and QoL updates nearly 9 months after the game’s launch, as of writing this, with no signs of stopping soon. D-CELL has been somewhat responsive to fan feedback by fixing many bugs, correcting offset errors, and adding the ability to replay specific story set pieces, which are some of the biggest highlights of the game btw. The game is still full of imperfections, but none of them are severe enough to ruin the game. Bugs and technical aspects can and will be improved with time. But the charm and heart this game has is undeniable and shines through on every single playthrough. If you’re just here for the story, you’re getting a potentially life changing 10 hour ride that does an amazing job demonstrating what video games are capable of as an art form and medium for story telling. But if you, like many other players, fall in love with the arcade gameplay, you can easily put hundreds of hours into this game (even if many of those are spent on certain tedious achievements). I do recommend playing UNBEATABLE [white label] first, which is free. But it’s not required. It just serves as a good introduction to the game’s main cast, their music, and how the game plays. But remember it is a prototype that came out years before the final game, so some things might be different. And if you choose to skip playing white label, at least play Proper Rhythm in the arcade while you’re still early in the story. And no matter what, go into the story as blind as possible so you don’t get spoiled. The game has lots of great surprises and jaw dropping moments to throw at you.