Recently, a few games have played with removing one of the five senses from players. Players controlled a blind protagonist in “Perception” and a deaf protagonist in “The Quiet Man”. Now, what if instead of removing a single sense, actually removes four of the five? That’s exactly what the new game from NEXT Studios “Unheard” does.
“Unheard” tasks the players with solving mysteries with just sound and limited visuals. The game presents the areas in which the mysteries take place in a blueprint like area where the player can move about and listen to different conversations. The player has complete control of the playback. It acts almost exactly like a YouTube video. Players can scrub through the video to find particular moments, fast-forward, and control the volume, all the usual stuff from a typical video player. The game gets progressively more complex every case. More characters to keep track of and misdirects for example. Every case needs players to answer a series of questions about the case along with naming every character in the case correctly. For instance, one case tasks players with finding a missing painting. The rub is that the painting was stolen more than once, so the player not only needs to find who has the painting in the end but who stole it first. There is a great deal of complexity in “Unheard”, so much so that the game provides a note function. This allows the player to make notes that will appear at certain times on the playback, but a physical notebook for the player to take notes in their personal style works just as well if not better. There is a story to “Unheard”, but it is paper thin and at the end is a little on the confusing side. It acts as a way to link the player from case to case. Multiple outlets have noted that the performances in the game, especially the cases, are overacted to say the least. They also bring up the fact that in a game where sound is the only way to distinguish characters from one another that the overacting is a way to assist the player. It is never egregious, but at times the performances are a bit over the top. “Unheard” is a game that proves that you don’t need all the bells and whistles for a game to be good. For such a small game, there is a ton of polish here. It is a simple game with a simple concept, but is delivered with such finesse that the only thing lacking here is more game. Score: 9/10 This might be one of the best games I have played this year. It’s super simple, but with such brilliant execution that I only wish there were more cases to experience.
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AuthorI am A.J. Goelz. I'm a gamer first and a writer second. I hope you enjoy the content on this page and check out the rest of my content on YouTube. Archives
April 2019
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