Unbroken: The Awakening

While I gave it a thumbs up, it's actually a bit of a mixed bag. Pros: - Stellar art direction. Much like Neckbreak, the visuals and levels are very striking. And you get a lot of options to customize it to your preference. - Intense and sick combat. Sliding, shooting, kicking, and more, with the added slow-mo mechanic is really a treat. - Ambitious game design. This rogue-lite shooter, where even after you reset, your actions can affect the story, is really ambitious and interesting. Cons: - VERY confusing. The game throws a lot at you in the tutorial. So much so, that the main hub is flooded with a dozen notes to remind you what it told you before. It's also not very clear where you're meant to go and what your available options are. It's also unclear who you are, and what's going on in this world. At least so far. I feel like I've loaded up someone else's save who's a quarter into the game. - Very challenging. This game spikes up its difficulty pretty quickly. First half of the tutorial, you're mowing down melee guys who don't stand a chance. Second half of the tutorial, it throws 20 shooters all at once at you (though, you might be able to avoid them, I'm not sure yet). But the rest of this game asks for serious precision and good reaction to enemy attacks and what their attacks are (including projectile type). - Ugly use of AI art. This game sadly uses AI art/animation in a lot of things. You'll especially notice it in the loading screens and level transitions. Not only does it look really off, but it's an immoral practice. And while voices can be improved, I don't see the developer switching to real art and animation.

Damn, I love everything about this except the actual game. Huge sucker for that Gothic/Victorian aesthetic. Loved Hotline Miami, loved every From Soft game and most copycat Soulslikes too, but this ♥♥♥♥ is just too damn hard, and its confusing af. I can't even figure out what to do after I leave the first starting cabin, except get my ass handed to me by literally everything. Had to refund this one, guess it's just not for me, or maybe I'm just getting too old for games like this. Maybe it would help if the basic movement speed were faster than a crawl, and the stamina from running didn't run out so quickly, it might be more bearable. Also being penalized for dying, by having the clock move up is so cruel. How is anyone ever supposed to make any progress in this if the whole thing resets after so many moon phases? I'm just going to go play some more Trepang2, to clear my palette.

I am going to say this upfront: me reviewing this game, while I truly am being honest with everything I say, needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, the reason is because as of the next few weeks or so I'm possibly going to be in it as a voice actor for some of the enemies; I did this voluntarily for reasons that'll become obvious as the review goes on and currently am not paid or compensated for anything on this game nor is there any deal or expectation set in place that I ever will be, I liked the game and I wanted to help the developer. As such I am making it a point to review this now while I am not in it in any capacity. However if you feel my association with this game is in any way disqualifying to talk about it then I fully understand. Okay so with that out the way, Unbroken is cruel, often confusing, sometimes frustrating, and at times unrelentingly brutal... It is also one of the most satisfying games I've ever played, every step forward is fought for, everywhere has this bizarre dream-like air of mystery to it, and with a single move sometimes the most desperate situations can turn into moments of absurdly cool spectacle. The basic idea is that you're a guy on a revenge quest in a strange and foreign land; everyone hates you, monsters and madness are rampant, and you just happen to be the kind of maniac who can deflect bullets with an axe, kill the person who shot at you with their own bullet, run up to their still warm body as it's falling down from said bullet wound and snatch the gun that just shot you out of midair, shoot it at another guy, throw that gun at the guy behind him to stun him, and then kick him in the nuts so hard he dies; all in glorious slow motion in one smooth dance of carnage! And the reason that feels so good is that, in terms of controls all of that is actually pretty simple, but in terms of timing, planning, stamina management and tactical considerations; any mistake will be punished hard! Death comes often, quickly, and brutally, and those moments where you find yourself on low health will last uncomfortably long because health pickups are few and far between. This game has a tendency to demand some extended sessions of perfection from you and while the average death will just drop you off at the last level checkpoint which is rarely far away, losing too many lives will reset you to the last inn you rested at which, while often only a few minutes or so behind you, can still feel pretty devastating when it happens. Now structurally the game is interesting, in essence you're making your way forward from level to level to progress but levels sometimes have multiple exits or conditions to them that change what the next level is, so you're always heading forwards for the most part but you're also going to feel very lost while that happens; different directions can sometimes offer radically different challenges and experiences and sometimes there won't be an easy path backwards at all so you're going to need to get comfortable with the idea of not seeing everything in a single playthrough while also not really knowing quite where you're going 90% of the time; that can be frustrating but with that also comes levels that are varied in style and challenge, with some enemy placements and ideas that are pretty devilish and always interesting to fight through. Be it stumbling through a dark forest against quiet melee enemies determined to flank you or desperately sprinting across a bridge as riflemen shoot at you from the the other side, even at it's most confusing and bizarre there's still always feeling of intended design, it never feels haphazard or random, that said a good tip to know is that sometimes level exits don't open until you kill all enemies so, if you don't see an exit just keep running around and fighting, you'll hear a very obvious horn sound to tell you when an exit has opened up :) Now through all of that you're going to be fighting for a lot of it and the way I'd describe it is simple ideas that flow together to become something more complicated and elegant even if the tutorial for everything is, as of right now a bit clunky. Now in an age where the current trend is an "Ultrakill" style movement shooter, even for its occasional rushes of speed Unbroken is actually a far more considered game taking clear inspiration from the "souls-like" genre; combat is precise and punishing and managing your stamina is key as you use that stamina to dodge bullets and kick enemies which usually guarantees a stun and, under certain conditions can be a 1 hit killing monster that allows you to hit enemies and objects into other enemies. Add to that the ability for well timed attacks with most melee weapons to parry melee attacks and bullets while stealing the enemy's weapons as you go, your resources are scarce and limited and, while all bought items from vendors will always be available from your inn spawn point to help you out at the beginning of a new life after a game over and that the stat boost items you get are also permanent making buying equipment always worth it, you're still never going to feel fully armed and ready for anything, you'll always need to think on your feet and it's in those moments that this goes from feeling great to feeling outstanding because you're always overcoming the odds and it always feels good to do so. Now I really like this game on a visual and sound level, it's all dreamlike and weird, the music is very good and I've never seen a game look like this before, the weird "3D sprites" of the enemies look incredible in motion and it is a wholly unique style that I cannot praise enough... But AI was used here! We are dealing with a solo dev and, while I understand why it's happened because being a solo dev on a game like this is absurdly difficult, I'm not going to pretend I'm happy about that. Now I'm not quite sure to what extent the visuals in-game are AI, it never feels like "AI trash" and the style does feel consistent so, wherever it is used within the game it doesn't feel obvious or distracting, it's still bad that it's there at all but if we ignore morality for one second here and talk about the experience it doesn't affect it for me... but on a moral level I still find it disappointing. However the distracting one for me is AI voices being used on enemies; While there is a tonne of effects and modulation to give it this odd style it is still for some lines very obvious and, while I also morally disagree with their use, unlike with the visuals I actually do think it at times affects the quality of the game. Now full disclosure: As a fan who loved the game but dislikes AI I volunteered to replace some enemy voices to help reduce the AI usage in-game, this means that depending on circumstances I may be the voice of some of the enemy's soon; this currently doesn't mean that all AI voices are going to be gone any time soon if in their entirety ever; and while there's currently discussions about potential options surrounding this stuff, it still needs to be said that that is the current situation. I won't comment on the quality of the voice acting on the enemy's I voice compared to the AI ones, that's gonna be for you to decided on your own but please do note that I became part of this game out of a passion for the game and a deep dislike for AI, but that also means I have paid for and contributed to a project that does have generative AI usage in it so I will fully admit to the hypocrisy on my part here. That's what makes this so tricky, I have my qualms about certain things but also the game is so good that I really wanted to contribute to helping reduce the things I had problems with; I became a hypocrite for it out of passion because I truly believe this game is outstanding, even if rough around the edges. My love for this game comes with an asterisk and my future involvement with it makes that asterisk even larger. But that's the thing, at the end of the day: I love it.

Лучший. Чел в соло годноту пилит.

I played this game for under an hour.. And I have no idea what I have experienced. I think you need to be in certain state of mind to play this, it's absolutely confusing and weird, and I wouldn't call it an FPS or RPG. The music is great, and seems to react to the gameplay. The visuals are.. Psychedelic? And you have "resin" or some vials you can stock up (But not all same looking crates seem to work after the tutorial?) and superkick enemies like projectiles? And you have lore, but I can't make any sense of it. You are in war, then you are at mountains, looking for your wife, and after you sleep you are looking for someone you need to kill to revenge her/it? And off top of that, you have a combo meter of all things. And slide, that doesn't really seem to do much in terms of speed or anything really. I mean, it's not a bad game at all gameplay wise, and if games are art (and not entertainment) I would rate this a mix between SCORN and Pathologic, but I didn't really play enough to rate this. So I would recommend people to try it out for themselves. I'm willing to give it another try before refund, after I've had some sleep, but before that I'm going to recommend it just for the "WTF is this thing?!" feeling I got after under an hour. It's a..thing..that you need to experience. If it's a good or bad thing, that's for you personally to decide, that's my opinion and review.

Very good game! I absolutely adore the art style of the game. If you are looking for a game that feels a bit like hotline miami in first person in a unique setting. this is for you !

I actually really really wanted to like this game. The gameplay itself is so damn good, the shooting and combat feels amazing. And the whole gothic/Bloodborne vibe is sick. But instead of just giving the game a standard save system they had to go with this, which I initially thought was like a dark souls style save at bonfire type thing, until I realized after you die a few times you just restart and lose your progress anyway. Needs a roguelike tag because that's essentially what it is. After playing for an hour and restarting the game I'm just gonna refund it

great fast paced retro style fps if you are familiar with "neckbreak" game from the same dev basically is the same gameplay with more parry mechanics and soulike mechanics great soundtrack great art

What a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game. Amazing so far. Feels like I didn't do anything yet but the whole concept is so interesting. An open world game which does not tell you where to go, a relentless fast combat system all paired with a crazy artstyle This ♥♥♥♥ slaps! Just a little dark in parts but that might be me..

Discovered this in the recent fanatical bundle. The gameplay is similar to Neckbreak except less punishing which is a good thing, although the difficulty does ramp up quickly. You’ll need to git gud almost immediately and there isn’t much hand holding. It feels more “fair” compared to Neckbreak which had a lot of cheap sections where you get jumped and die instantly. I really liked the game world aesthetic and the gameplay overall, once you figure it out and get into a rhythm it can feel like you’re unstoppable. It runs out of the box on steam deck with full controller support but you’re not going to get over 30 fps even with the dev recommended settings. Instead I streamed from my PC at full graphic settings and 60 fps and it was a great experience. If you liked Neckbreak give this one a play, it’s a lot of fun and well put together