Unrest

This nothing more than a isometric CYOA. Towards the end I was rushing to just beat it and get it behind me. It got boring after 1 hour. Graphics: Amateur digital art at best. I will say that the style is consistent and not hugely offending. It's just not a great looking game. Adequate is what I'd call it. Gameplay: My entire experience was basically going through a confusing and unreactive CYOA. Confusing as in I never knew what the hell any of the choices did and why some attributes changed the way they did. It's not even accurate to call it a CYOA. More like CaA. Chose an Adventure. Cuz it definitely isn't one you'll be steering. UI: Everything is mostly mouse driven. The walking animation is low budget as hell, but that's basically the only animation in the game. The game mini map is ridiculously inadequate and not specific at all. Just a grey box with a vague, often times incorrect, idea of where you are in the level. Overall: I really don't see the point of this game. The whole thing is a fake choice as Unrest IS going to happen regardless of what you choose. It's not a fake choice just on the macro level, however. The game is packed with fake choices, that lead to the same conclusion no matter what your dialogue options are. Again, I don't see the point of this game. It's basically a walking/talking simulator in isometric viewpoint. I suppose the isometric part is the only positive thing I can say about this game, since i love that viewpoint so much. The rest is forgettable.

Pros - Great OST - Decent art - Easy to play - Cool, Indian inspired setting Cons - Too short - Choices don't feel like they mattered too much - Fear, Friendliness, and Respect mechanic didn't flow well into the game - AWFUL epilogue sequence - Traits don't feel like they matter I really wanted to like this game, and I did because I bought it on a discount. That being said for a game that is about choices the way they were implemented feel unrewarding. I hated the epilogue sequence and really didn't tell me much or was clear about how my choices and traits of every player character affected the short and long-run. I love the presentation, but that's about all I can say is nice about this game.

Ignore the simplistic artstyle, turn off the generic music, and enjoy a rather complex multi-character story of social upheaval in the mythological\historical Myanmar. You will play as an ambassador, an officer, a priest, a poor girl and a princess put into different challenging situations. Essentially, [i]Unrest[/i] is an RPG title, but: 1. All the boring and repetitive parts such as combat are stripped away. 2. The dialogue system is actually - for the first time in gaming - dependant on your interlocutor's attitude toward you. It's probably the most innovative dialogue system I've seen in a game. Cannot say that it always works, but it surely makesyou think more carefully about dialogue. Many bigger titles could learn from this one - definitely worth a try.

Unrest is a very thought provoking "game". It's been mis-characterized as a RPG. It's more of a point n click visual novel with choices. The story is very engrossing and touches on a lot of socio-economic and political issues with modern day parallels. It's game that goes out of the way to de-glamorize various roles you end up playing during the game, be it a ruler, mercenary, priest or bride-to-be. It throws a range of gloomy choices at you and there's little escapism in sight. It's a low budget title and that hampers it from achieving true greatness. While some choices do have irreversible consequences, it could have been done a bit better. The art style is folksy in a way that fits the story, as is the music which does get a little repetitive. However, the graphics, path finding, character models and animations are merely okay. Overall, this is a neat little game with a big heart which tackles serious issues. Sometime, I debate whether I should read a book or play a game. When I succumb to my laziness and end up playing a game, I invariably regret the decision. This game was so worth the 5 short hours I put into it. If you like games which deal with social issues and are short (think the Hate series or Papers, Please), then this is a must-play.

Truth be told, Unrest is not an RPG. Better still, it is not an RPG in the general meaning of the word: there are no character levels, the inventory is just for show and there is one (optional) battle in the entire game. However, what Unrest does is pushing our understading of Role Play to a whole new level. As part of a single, epic narrative, we take control of several diferent characters throughout the game and play their role in the fate of a city on the verge of colapse. We decide the way in which to solve problems, what kind of responses to give to NPCs (harsh, polite, etc.), who to help or not... Simply building a personality for each different character and playing according to that can be a lot of fun. Graphically, Unrest boasts simple but beautifull hand-drawn environments that evoke an Indian setting. Combined with an eastern inspired (although sometimes repeitive) soundtrack, Unrest really sucks you into its surprisingly deep universe full of luxury, famine and complex moral choices. You will have plenty of time to enjoy these aspects, as the slow walking pace of the characters can make traversing the sometimes expansive maps a chore. One last note: the game is heavily text-oriented, although it is surprisingly well written and interesting. So get into the world of Unrest expecting more of a dignified visual novel, and less of a traditional point-and-click RPG.

A fascinating relic of the mid-2010s narrative indie games. Very ambitious in its structure: you play through a series of vignettes, sometimes as a recurring character, sometimes as a one-time observer. If you care enough to get invested in their stories, you can choose to read the game's journal, which summarizes the lore and NPC, from various perspectives, and you can see the small hints of worldbuilding or character backgrounds stored in the pointless item descriptions they carry in various chapters. It's interesting, for example, how each character has its unique supply of coins, even though you almost never actually use money for anything. But production-wise the game is a failure, standing out even in 2014 Kickstater era. The visuals are underwhelming, the music is unbearable (as if: I turned it off and played other tracks in the background), UI lacks functionality, typos and grammar issues are numerous. You walk around very slowly, surrounded by dozens of identically looking NPCs. The content also struggles. Some systems, like the NPC reactions measured in colorful bars, are more of a noise than anything of noticeable impact. The achievement-tied icons you collect seem to be used for display only, never put to use as a mechanic. The most dramatic chapters can be indeed concluded in a variety of ways and even end up with the death of a specific character... but that's because the same characters are strategically cut away from the following content, only every now and then mentioned in the background. It just feels like Unrest was a bit ahead of the times, trying to invent text-heavy adventure/RPG "pacifist" tools of expression before it was cool, and having little to no games it could use as a reference, it struggled. Justifiably so. It's still worth playing if you're interested in this type of games - it hides some strong bits of writing, and maybe you'll be able to connect it with.

The tumultuous city of Bhimra comes to life through the eyes of five of its citizens, all of whom fight amidst collective madness to make sense of the role they've been cast. They are avatars providing framework for the politics of Bhimra, which is the central subject of the game. The game functions like a tabletop RPG where a writer prepares a scenario in which the player acts out a character. Circulating the paradox of Bhimra, the player views it from different vantage points. The dialogue lacks a true unique voice, but with a terse diction the game delves into a full palette of social complexities: class, racism, famine and so on. The developers show us, to an extent, how to have your cake and eat it too. Achieving the thematic goal has come with a cost of elegance in art and audio; tailored animations and looping music would have elevated the game. Nonetheless, I laud the developers for realizing their vision in a package that delivers just what it needs to, and nothing more.

The game ends right when it feels like it should be beginning in earnest. Like thw whole game is a prologue that ends when it gets interesting

This is one of my favorite types of games. Decisions that actually matter, and a very well written story.

I really appreciate the classic RPG-style gameplay and South Asia is generally speaking not a common setting in games.