Unsighted is an exquisite fight for survival

For a Metroidvania, a time limit is an incredibly bold choice. It’s something I thought I would hate in a game, especially as a player who gets lost easily. However, time is what makes the game fun. UnsightedMaking material scarcity a primary concern is the goal. It motivated me to keep slashing and parrying through the world’s many layered maps, fighting for the survival of my people and laying the stage for exquisite exploration and discovery throughout Unsighted’s evocative and deadly world.

UnsightedAutomatons have run out of Anima, a rare gem substance that provides their vitality. When it runs out, automatons face a fate worse than death: they turn into a mindless enemy called the “unsighted,” attacking the friends and family they once lived with. In the wake of a war between humans and automatons, you play as Alma, a combat automaton hell bent on solving the crisis and rescuing her fallen friends — members of her battle team, who had been defending the automatons in war.

Alma talks with a variety of characters, including shopkeepers at Gear Village and NPCs throughout the game. Each character has an hour remaining to live. As their counters approach zero, automatons start to deteriorate — looking unwell when you interact with them and eventually turning unsighted. Alma, however, is always on the clock. Every time Alma dies, the pause screen shows her remaining hours of life. This indicates how long a player still has to beat the game. Meteor Dust is a one-use item that extends an automaton’s life. It does this by preventing them from becoming blind. It also can be used to extend Alma’s life.

At the core of it all is the difficult decision of who to save, and who to let go. Unsighted, and it’s a core feature of the world’s responsiveness. It’s tempting to try to save everyone, but you simply can’t. Initially, I gave Meteor Dust to an older cog farmer named Teresa, who had just a few hours left, but it extended her time in the game only marginally — I wasn’t able to find enough additional Meteor Dust to save her. Her storefront was gone. I found her suit in pieces on the screen. She had failed me, but I also had less to do for her and the Anima crisis.

Image: Studio Pixel Punk/Humble Games, Humble Bundle

I was forced to take a mercenary approach, awarding Meteor Dust to Samuel who makes chips for the game’s Nier: Automata–I like the idea of an upgrade system. To survive, I had to have his help. I was in a moral quandary at this point. If Alma’s counter dips below 100 hours, an NPC will offer to murder other characters for you, giving you their Anima. These tradeoffs — what you do for Anima, and who you give Meteor Dust to — are a startling reminder of how scarcity can force us to view others through the lens of utility. These heartbreaking decisions were avoided and became an incentive to improve faster, learn more, upgrade more skillfully, and search the map for more Meteor Dust.

In a world where every second counts, there’s a harsh incentive to try new ideas, and less time to throw yourself at a path that isn’t working. Unsighted’s world has three meticulously interconnected layers full of little treasures: There are lush forests, icy aquariums, and complex skyways with tangles of railing. The aim is to collect five Meteor Shards in order to build a powerful weapon, but the game doesn’t require you to get them in any particular order. The universal keys are used to unlock new regions and to explore new territories. Overpowered enemies wanted to get me killed so I began mapping out elevators. Once I was able to defend my self, I began to torment all those barriers trying to stop me.

The game’s brilliant, Zelda-like dungeons are tightly designed around themes, and my growing toolkit gave me multiple ways of solving puzzles. I was able to use my ice gun, ice shuriken and toggled switches using either a grapple hook (or the slashing of a knife). These dungeons were filled with enemy classes that were clearly previously friendly automatons who had gone unsighted — many of them were the same types of automatons that lived in Gear Village. I tackled platforming challenges and referred to the map to find shortcuts to reach the Meteor Shard bosses — and I used these new skills to fight unsighted automatons, many of whom were fallen members of my team.

If the pressure of countdowns sounds like too much, the game can also be played in exploration mode, which pauses all characters’ timers, including Alma’s. (It’s available any time in the option menu, along with a suite of difficulty modifiers.) This is especially useful if you’ve gotten lost, or if you find the game’s isometric combat difficult, like I did at the start. Combat can be challenging if you aren’t used to parry-based mechanics. Alma can only get a few swings in before her stamina bar is depleted, but a “perfect” parry rewards players with a critical hit, which makes combat feel like a satisfying rhythm game.

Image: Studio Pixel Punk/Humble Games, Humble Bundle

You will encounter flashbacks and logs that tell the backstories of characters as you travel. You will learn more about them. Unsighted’s lore, like the backstory to the Anima crisis. But these flashbacks are most affecting when they reveal Alma’s own origin story and the stories of her teammates, or the tension between her hotheaded desire to save everyone and the awkward battle training with her team. What emerges is a love story between queer, humanoid robots, as Alma tracks down the battle axe-wielding automaton Raquel — desperate to save her life, even at the expense of her own.

UnsightedThis game is incredible for many reasons. It’s stunning landscapes and clever puzzle design are just two of the highlights. But it’s the sense of urgency — with the game’s countdown pushing me to get back up when the going got rough — and how it fed back into the game’s interconnected map that makes Unsighted a must-play. Whether it’s for pure survival or love, there are always reasons to forge a new path.