Edit (July 30, 2018):
The developer has been very active in improving the game and I will continue to update my review as the game progresses. Unborn is a very simplistic evolution/survival type game in which the player starts out avoiding viruses, while collecting nutrient cells to grow big enough to then consume the viruses. It’s themed around sex cells to give it a shock value, but unfortunately lacks any real substance. There is only a single evolutionary path where the player grows one size and is then able to finish the level. The controls are cumbersome – where the “spermatozoon“ follows the mouse, but the cursor is hidden on the screen.
There are only 3 actual levels: survive and then consume the viruses, a simple boss fight with single fire pattern, and a timed consuming challenge. Each level is roughly 3 minutes long, which is around 10 minutes of gameplay. These 3 levels are then duplicated along 7 virus themed worlds, each consisting of 6 survive/consume levels, a boss fight, and 3 timed challenges. This makes the game very slow and repetitive as each level is the same thing over again, but with different enemy sprites and background image. There is no change in mechanics to keep it interesting or challenging. I don’t know why someone would think making a 10 minute game last over 3 hours would be fun. It does have some simplistic story cut scenes (like the original Pac-Man), but it just isn’t rewarding enough to make up for the hours of repetitive gameplay.
Original review:
Unborn is a very simplistic evolution/survival type game in which the player starts out avoiding viruses, while collecting nutrient cells to grow big enough to then consume the viruses. It’s themed around sex cells to give it a shock value, but unfortunately lacks any real substance. There is only a single evolutionary path where the player grows one size and is then able to finish the level. The controls are cumbersome and not customizable – where the “spermatozoon“ follows the mouse, but the cursor is hidden on the screen and the “C” key is used to shoot (requiring two hands than just playing entirely with the mouse.)
There are only 3 actual levels: survive and then consume the viruses, a simple boss fight with single fire pattern, and a timed consuming challenge. Each level is roughly 3 minutes long, which is around 10 minutes of gameplay. These 3 levels are then duplicated along 7 virus themed worlds, each consisting of 6 survive/consume levels, a boss fight, and 3 timed challenges. This makes the game very slow and repetitive as each level is the same thing over again, but with different enemy sprites and background image. There is no change in mechanics to keep it interesting or challenging. I don’t know why someone would think making a 10 minute game last over 3 hours would be fun. It does have some simplistic story cut scenes (like the original Pac-Man), but it just isn’t rewarding enough to make up for the hours of repetitive gameplay.
