There’s a lot to see at a gaming convention, but when you catch a glimpse of a demon ripping someone’s face off, you stop and take notice. That’s how I came across Unavowed, a point-and-click urban fantasy adventure with RPG elements from Wadjet Eye Games.
As the story opens, you find yourself on a rain-spattered New York rooftop with a gun pointed at your head, unsure how you got there. Turns out you’ve been possessed by a demon, and said demon’s a real a-hole, having led you on a bloody rampage throughout the city for the last six months.
As it happens, those people holding you at gunpoint hope to rescue you by exorcising the baddie. They’re members of the Unavowed, and you’re about to become the latest addition to the team. But who are the Unavowed? "They don't belong to any particular group or creed, they're here to fight supernatural evil wherever it comes, in no matter what form. They are there for that and nothing else," explained Dave Gilbert, the game’s creator.
I took a demo of Unavowed for a spin at Play NYC this past weekend, and came away excited to see more. Longtime fans of the genre will enjoy the game’s easy-on-the-eyes pixel art, which merges retro aesthetics with modern polish. Moody, memorable sound design -- the rain on the rooftops and ominous noir music -- drew me right into the game’s startling first moments. Controls are straightforward and intuitive, with no cumbersome menus to navigate. The on-screen cursor automatically functions as a “look” button -- a small tweak, but a welcome modernization of an often cumbersome mechanic that I appreciated, even in a short demo.
Your relationships with other members of the Unavowed are a key gameplay component. You can choose two characters (from a total of five) to accompany you at any one time, changing the dialogue and how you approach puzzles and other obstacles in your path. "There's a lot of different paths through the game, depending on who you take with you, because they each have a different ability, and they all have a different knowledge base that can help you," said Gilbert. For example, one of your companions is agile, making scaling heights a breeze. Another can talk with ghosts to obtain information others cannot.
Your protagonist’s origin, selected from one of four options at the beginning of the game, also subtly tweaks the ways the story unfolds. "You have different dialogue options that come up if you are a bartender, meaning you're very good at getting people to open up and talk about themselves. They'll trust you and give you a little extra information. If you're an actor, you're able to lie convincingly. If you're a police officer, you carry yourself with more authority. If you ask someone to do something, they'll most likely do it," Gilbert explained.
Gilbert says the project was inspired by LucasArts and older BioWare titles, like Knights of the Old Republic and the first Mass Effect. He was particularly inspired by the (widely misinterpreted) words of former BioWare writer Jennifer Hepler, who argued a solid story was essential to enjoying a game. “She said she wanted to skip the combat to get to the narrative stuff. She got a lot of flack for that, which I thought was really unwarranted. I thought, 'well, that sounds like a great point-and-click adventure game. I want to make that game,’” Gilbert told Player.One.
In keeping with these sentiments, puzzles are a feature of the game, but not a primary focus. Gilbert wanted the story and character development of Unavowed to take center stage and flow smoothly. "I'm not making games for an audience in the 90s, and anyone who does that is making a mistake. The internet exists now, and you're only stuck on puzzles if you want to be. My philosophy is, if you need to leave my game and go onto Google to enjoy it, then I've failed." said Gilbert.
Unavowed is slated to come to Steam sometime early in 2018. We’ll be keeping an eye on this upcoming release from Wadjet Eye Games -- will you? Let us know in the comments!
