Modern gaming has been evolving for some time - from classic "pew pew" shooters and "big evil is brewing, be a hero" to stories that hit deeper. In the indie sphere, we increasingly encounter games that deal with psychology and mental torture, and Unwording is among them. Although minimalistic and short, this puzzle point-and-click adventure manages to convey an atmosphere of negative and depressing thinking.
The game starts with a simple but very distinct style
Tom and his inner monologues
Unwording introduces us to Tom's world - Tom is an average person who lives in a two-room apartment and works an average office job nearby. Although his life is normal on paper, Tom sees himself and the world quite negatively, and that's exactly what the whole game revolves around - the way we sometimes talk to ourselves, and how much those words shape us.
Words are a mirror
The game is divided into three days, and the first day pleasantly surprised me. The game is played in a simple 2D style - you walk through Tom's everyday life, and the gameplay is based on the fact that, encountering everyday objects and situations, you assemble an alternative, "inner" text from the given letters of the initial word or sentence that can be moved and rotated like cubes and thus get new meanings. Thus, "Waking up" becomes "Give up", and looking at the mobile phone, "no messages" becomes "no one cares". Press X to hear what Tom really thinks.
Everything is simple, but effective. You can feel how the game is trying to convey a sense of clouded reason, when even positive doesn't look positive anymore, and it's not hard to figure out what message you should convey and what the game wants to tell us.
As you progress through the game, Tom's world changes, and the colors become warmer and more varied
Perspective and camera problem
After the first day, Tom returns home and lies in bed – still depressed and unhappy. But the second day brings a change. A bird flies into his life (and apartment) – symbolically and literally. It symbolizes change, hope, breakthrough. And not only Tom's view changes, but also the visual style: the game goes from 2D to 3D style.
And here we come to the bravest, but also the most problematic part of Unwording. Gameplay changes – instead of putting words together from letters and syllables, we now rotate broken words in 3D space, looking for the angle at which they will make sense again. I liked the idea on paper, but in practice it started to tire me. The controls are slow, the camera is stiff, and the game often won't recognize a word unless you rotate the 3D letter complex exactly the way the developer envisioned it.
This is where the frustration comes in - which is a bit ironic, because the game is trying to talk about internal transformation, and the external elements are starting to annoy me. All the same, it was nice to see Tom start to change his perspective and start to understand that the world is not always the problem, but the window through which he looks at it.
Rotating this 3D mass is quite slow and impractical
Use your words... on the disappearing keyboard
The third day is the hardest to play, especially on Switch. The game now asks you to type the word that best fits the situation. The first two days were well explained, while the third just says, use your words. I understand what the game is asking, however, you don't have a physical keyboard on the Switch, and the game automatically throws you into the default Switch menu, which is a pretty lazy approach, since it's not hard to get a virtual keyboard into the game.
I searched for the first word for a while, I got confused a couple of times, and I couldn't even access the keyboard anymore. Besides, some solutions just don't make sense. For example, Tom has a plant on his desk, the interaction is "plant", and the game asks you to write "praise". That's where I opened the walkthrough without an ounce of guilt. Frustration overcame curiosity.
Quite an immersion breaker when the game throws you into this menu
Visual performance and music
Visually, I personally prefer the first day. The 2D style is simple but warm. The transition to 3D may be symbolically justified, but in execution it seems raw, the polygons catch the eye, and the charm of the first day disappears. I think it would be stronger to "color" the first day and stay in the 2D world.
On the other hand, the soundtrack deserves praise - a chill, unobtrusive ambience that doesn't catch your ear, but guides you through the game nicely. This is not an adventure, but an introspective, quiet experience, and you should be able to appreciate that.
The idea is bigger than the execution
Unwording takes about an hour and a half - and if the third day doesn't frustrate you, you'll finish it in one sitting. I love when games try something new, when they are not afraid to tell a story without big enemies and spectacle. It's great to see mental health entering a medium that is often misunderstood and trivialized.
At first I was pleasantly surprised when I got a review for this game and my first thought was: "This is going to be great". But as much as I love the idea behind it, the execution doesn't keep up with the ambition. Unwording is a game that wants to say something important, but sometimes the words don't fit right.
A copy of the game for review purposes provided by development studio Frostwood Interactive and publisher Dino Digital
