So Unmechanical is a new puzzle game that puts you in the role of a lost little robot stuck in a cave. That’s as much information you’re going to get on the story because the game starts you out with falling deep into this cave system and then ultimately escaping, but nothing in-between that is explained. I was left wondering what this place was, who the caretaker that I would occasionally spot poking around was and who were all these other robots you’d see.
Unmechanical
Developer: Talawa Games
Price: $9.99
Platform: PC (reviewed)
A copy of Unmechanical was supplied to us by GoG
One thing I particularly liked was the hub world. It was neat getting a slight feeling of exploration and how some of the puzzles required going back to previously completed rooms and using parts from both rooms to open a new door. The main downside to this game though is its length which will take 2 hours at most; I finished the game in around an hour and a half. I felt that maybe if they expanded on the whole hub area to make it a bit bigger and actually make it an explorable area with other upgrades besides the one you get it could have helped the game tremendously. The game does have an alternate ending you can play once you continue your save after finishing it which was neat, but the original ending still left me slightly confused as to why that happened and the alternate one did nothing to answer that.
So since this is a puzzle game you expect some puzzles right? Well the game is full of puzzles with no combat and no way to die as far as I’ve seen. I went through the first few puzzles involving bombs panicking not to get blown up until I realized they don’t harm you. All of the puzzles are pathetically simple with the only one that I had to give some bit of to was a puzzle that required you to arrange colors on a wheel so that each color is touching a different color. Most of them are physics based puzzles that require a rock to fall on a switch or timing based, so you’ll be able to burn through most of them if you’re not a child. You’ll pick objects up with your tractor beam and everything controls well enough. Your robot will freak out if you’re holding something and hit the space bar twice which will send him into a spinning frenzy. It’s a weird thing that happens and I don’t know why. Like I mentioned before there is a single upgrade you get halfway into the game that lets you go underwater a few times. It ultimately felt a little useless since you only really take advantage of it for a single puzzle and I really would have liked to see the game introduce more upgrades for more complex puzzles in a larger game. There is a hint button for anyone who really needs it but I doubt you ever will. The little robot will have a thought bubble slowly pop up with a cute drawing of exactly how you need to solve the room you’re in. The only time I needed to use this was finding one of the hub areas that’s hidden underneath the water of a puzzle you solved early in the game.
The graphics are decent but I really would have liked to see some actual configurations besides low and high. There are some parts of the game that look stellar though. The robot you play as has quite a bit of charm considering it never does anything. I guess it’s just the way it floats around with those uselessly flapping arms and the sounds it makes when it bumps into things. The soundtrack fits the game but it’s nothing to run around praising.
The Final Word
Unmechanical is a decent enough game, but the insultingly simple puzzles and 2 hour playtime stops it from being something more.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
Unmechanical is now available on GoG DRM-free and packed with goodies such as wallpapers over here.
