Part silly point’n’click adventure, part retro-inspired dungeon crawler. Go figure. For fans of genre-bending, mixing of styles and wacky humor.
Sir Typhil of Creulor learned that King of Artovya, who has no heirs, is willing to give the kingdom to the courageous knight that will bring him a unicorn (a reasonable guy, clearly), so off Sir Typhil goes, for he has his eye on the prize. Many perilous travels later, our hero stumbles upon the famous beast in a rather random dungeon. The poor unicorn follows around a goblin who gave it a snack. The goblin can’t get rid of the damn thing and is none the wiser of all this “kingdom potential” under his nose. What luck! Sir Typhil will now pull all the stops (braving the treacherous dungeon included) to secure his fortune, while also rescuing the Princess, who might or might not have locked her own self up. What a weirdo. At the same time… he doesn’t have to rescue her or anybody else. Besides the unicorn. He must secure the unicorn. It’s complicated. But hey – you do have choices!
This is a fairly short game (actually, part one in the series), but narration is, perhaps, one of its strongest suits if you’re keen on absurd humor and Monty Python-like jokes. While the set-up is relatively simple, the dialogues and the fact that you’ll almost always get a unique response for combining any items/hotspots makes trying everything on everything an adventure on its own. If/when you get a Princess to join your party, point her at the dungeon and Sir Typhil will proclaim in the knightliest voice ever: “Go in there. And check for monsters.” Later, he might ask the shopkeeper how much will he give him for the Princess…What? It is a SHOP, after all. It’s possible to miss many quips going through tasks in a straightforward manner, so trying few odd things here and there will make it all worth it. I rarely laugh out loud playing games, and Unicorn Dungeon allowed me that pleasure. Then again, I’m a peculiar person and this is an off-kilter humor, so it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, depending on the kind of humor you enjoy – this might be “hell, yes” for you or “God, no”.
As far as puzzles… The basis (and about 60% of this game) is a classic point’n’click with all that entails. This element is actually nicely balanced, has a logic base and is not so easy that a player can plow right through it, considering how small this game is (very few locations, very few NPCs to interact with). It’s a bit of a nice surprise - to be stumped for a second when you thought you were just going to sprint through. Now the other part of this game is honest to goodness rogue-like dungeon crawler. You will be going into this dungeon quite a few times, and you would have to fight some (easy) enemies. This is a turn-based segment, so once you figure out a simple strategy how to traverse it – it won’t be difficult at all, and yet… I can absolutely see how most adventure lovers can find it a daunting affair. I quite enjoyed this part, but I’m always open to creative genre mixes, however strange. If you prefer adventure in a pure form – this won’t be for you, but if you like occasional rule-bending – this very much might tickle your pickle.
Graphics. Well... It’s a mix. I’m getting tired of typing this in every paragraph, but I’m stuck with it, as this game contains two such different elements in it. Point’n’click part is done in what looks like early 2000s version of 3D that someone couldn’t get enough of. Purposefully, of course. With all the recent love for everything “pixel art” and now an obsession with PS1-inspired graphics (I like both, by the way, but trend is a trend), I’m not going to lie – I dig this look. It just adds to the silliness of everything on screen or, rather, reflects it. The dungeon crawler is done in some kind of 8-bit reincarnation which might inject you with a shot of temporary nostalgia or make you do an epic eyeroll if, so far, you preferred to avert your eyes from this game rather than discuss its visual merit based on the game’s screenshots. It’s very indie and, in my opinion, very fitting, then again – I can see someone laughing at “the look” out loud. The question is – which player are you?
Sound element is on par – varied and solid. We’ve got an array of appropriately fantasy-ish, forgettable themes humbly playing in the background and a retro-inspired tune in the dungeon, but what really stands out is a surprisingly good voice-over, Sir Typhil’s in particular. Sure, it still has an indie quality to it, but in general – this was a job well done. All the one-liners were voiced with proper attitudes and tones, which brought a layer of polish and smoothness to this oddity of a game and made enjoying it a lot easier. Honestly, anything with a British accent just makes things sound more pleasant somehow. I don’t know how they do it, the charming bastards.
All the information above is supposed to be followed by a brief re-cap and a recommendation to a potential audience. Here, however, it’s almost impossible to do, because this game is essentially a mix of two in one, and both are equally strong in their presence. Whether or not they will mesh wonderfully or terribly will depend solely on your preferences in games. For a lover of all things experimental and indie (and an absurd humor) this could totally work; for an adventure purist or a person that prefers the classic, standard side of things this might be a turn-off or, at the very least, a total head-scratcher. There’s no way to easily recommend Unicorn Dungeon to anyone who isn’t open to a foray into familiar (and yet so strange) waters that might turn out to be a disappointment - and I’m saying it as someone who enjoyed the game. That’s about as helpful as I can be with this review. Which is way more helpful than goblin that runs the shop. So at least there’s that to make your day significantly better, as you torturously puzzle over buying or not buying this game in yet another bout of sleepless nights.
