Unsighted

Unsighted (also stylized as UNSIGHTED) is a 2021 indie video game developed by Studio Pixel Punk and published by Humble Games for the Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PS4. The game is a Metroidvania adventure game in which the player and all non-player characters exist within a time limit, with the player required to find and allocate 'meteor dust' to characters to maintain their survival. The game was designed by Brazilian developers Fernanda Dias and Tiani Pixel, who cited the Metroid and Legend of Zelda series as influential to the design of the game. Upon release, Unsighted received generally favorable reviews, with critics praising the innovation of the game's use of time as a narrative and gameplay mechanic, its visual presentation, and combat.

Gameplay


Unsighted is a Metroidvania in which the player character and all non-player characters have a time-limited counter and become 'unsighted' on expiry, making them permanently disappear from the game. The player can expand their and other character's time by using Meteor Dust, an item discovered throughout the game that extends the time by 24 hours. Allocation of meteor dust is limited, requiring players to become selective about which characters survive. The player can disable this feature in the game's settings by activating 'Explorer Mode', which removes all time limits. The primary objective of the player is to explore the city of Arcadia to find five meteor shards each within a separate dungeon. Navigation involves platforming, including jumping across gaps and platforms, and using tools collected throughout the game, including a hookshot to pull the player to objects or enemies and vice-versa. The player can interact with merchants, who can exchange bolts collected throughout the game for components to craft weapons, upgrades and other items. Combat is engaged one weapon in each hand, including melee and range weapons, and can dodge or parry enemy attacks, with all actions using stamina that slowly replenishes. Player health is regenerated using a set of syringes that restores upon the execution of successful attacks and parries. Players can also use blueprints with collected or bought components to acquire potions that provide temporary buffs, or craft chips that enhance the player's attributes or provide various effects, such as increasing damage or decreasing damage taken, or providing greater health points.

Plot
The player is Alma, an experimental combat automaton that awakens with amnesia in the laboratory of her designer, Dr. Zeferina. The laboratory is situated in Arcadia, the site of a crash-landed meteor. Following the arrival of the meteor, the automatons gained sentience with access to the resource anima, and the humans fled, with the exception of Dr. Zeferina. The Doctor helped the automatons, and took five shards from the meteor to study them, each protected by a powerful automaton.

Upon the return of the humans, conflict broke out, leading them to seal off the meteor beneath the Crater Tower to prevent the automatons from accessing anima. Without anima, the automatons quickly deteriorate and become 'unsighted', losing their self-control and becoming aggressive. Access to anima is running out, with Alma and every automaton in Arcadia has a matter of hours to survive. Faced with amnesia, Alma is tasked to retrieve shards of the meteor to build a weapon that can defeat the powerful unsighted that protect the source of the anima, whilst uncovering memories of her past, including of her missing predecessor and lover Raquel.

Development and release
Unsighted was developed by Studio Pixel Punk, a Brazilian independent games studio founded in 2017 by designer, programmer, writer and composer Fernanda Dias and programmer, level designer and artist Tiani Pixel. The game was inspired by the dungeons and linear progression of the Legend of Zelda series and the open-ended gameplay of the Metroid series, with the game intended to evoke the familiarity of those titles whilst introducing a level of choice and freedom not normally seen in the Metroidvania genre. The game's use of a time limit in its narrative and gameplay was conceived to provide weight to the consequences behind gameplay decisions, build the player's connection to non-player characters, and encourage repeated playthroughs of the game. Dias and Pixel, both transgender women, also designed Unsighted with the intent of presenting a game that partly reflected their experiences but subverted the expected conventions of a "wholesome" game with LGBT themes. The developers sought to pursue these themes in a subtle and naturalistic way by designing diverse characters "for people who don't always feel connected to games on a personal level". The game was developed in the Unity engine, with Ableton Live and FMOD used for audio and effects.

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the developers reassessed the design of the game, prompting a move to a more open-ended, accessible design. The developers cited their desire to reduce the stress of the pandemic, and included features including an option to remove the game's time limits and more "relaxing side activities" to "let the player play the way they want to". The game was showcased at several independent games festivals including the 2018 Brazil's Independent Games (BIG) Festival, where it was nominated for the Best Game and Best Brazilian Game of the year. Unsighted was announced with a trailer released at E3 in June 2021, and released on 30 September 2021 simultaneously for the Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PS4.

Reception
Unsighted  received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. Several reviewers cited the game as one of the best of 2021, with Kotaku describing the game as the best Metroidvania of the year.

Many reviewers praised the game's innovative use of time limits in its story and gameplay. Writing for Esquire, Dom Nero highlighted the "disarming" and "devastating" emotional impact of the mechanic and its ability to prompt empathy for non-player characters. Several critics commented upon how the mechanic created difficult and emotionally impactful moral decisions about the survival of characters, with Edge describing the mechanic as adding a "thrilling sense of urgency" to the game. In contrast, Moises Taveras of Vice expressed a preference to play the game without the system, citing the "continuous notifications" of dying characters as "unusually cruel" and a distraction to the enjoyment of the game.

Critics were generally positive about the game's combat mechanics. Edge highlighted the depth of the game's hack and slash combat mechanics as a fusion of combat and platforming, citing the combo system, timed attacks and reloads, and upgrades. GameSpot praised the game's "sharp combat" due to its balance of requiring quick reflexes and managing stamina, highlighting the parry system as an effective "high-risk, high-reward" mechanic. Kotaku wrote "the hits are clunky, the parry timings are appropriately demanding, and the boss patterns are rewarding", whilst finding the game's weapon upgrade system to be insubstantial. Some critics faulted the distraction of minor control issues and the inconvenience of using menus to swap weapons and tools.

Reviewers highlighted the visual presentation and environmental design of the game's world. Game Informer commended the game's "beautiful" pixel art and areas, writing that the dungeons "boast exceptional design and plenty of variety, each with a distinct theme". Polygon described the game's environments as "gorgeous" and "meticulously interconnected", and highlighted its "tightly designed" dungeons that provided multiple ways to solve their puzzles. Nintendo World Report described the game's visuals as "colourful and gorgeous", noting the levels feature "plenty to explore and find".

Critics were mixed on the game's platforming sections. Game Informer described the platforming controls as "great and more fluid than expected", but found some sections to be irritating when attempting to judge distances and angles. GameSpot found the game's art style and perspective to create difficulties with "judging both distance and height, making some areas a little trickier to traverse than they should be". Nintendo Life similarly noted that "walls and platforms don't read well in some areas".