There are graphic adventures and then there are WadJet Eye Games’ graphic adventures. Wadjet Eye Games is known for pushing the boundaries of the genre. They’ve been around for a while and their previous point-and-click releases such as Gemini Rue have caught some attention. One of their most recent games is Unavowed, released for the PC in 2018 and now making its long overdue way to the Switch.
Unavowed is an unabashedly dark and adult point-and-click game. And by dark, we’re talking a legitimate M for Mature here. You start out as your choice of three character options and are given an intro to show you how you got cornered on a rainy rooftop. Let’s just not ruin the surprise and simply say that the choices are all singularly chilling experiences. That’s a bit of a theme with Unavowed. The game is unashamedly violent, explicit, and casual about it. For a game focused entirely on narrative, it feels like Stephen King wrote it back in the 80s. The entire script is simply fantastic and it flows naturally from scene to scene, slowly building the depth and characters. There’s no question that the emphasis is on the story here, not just randomly solving a problem by combining two or more items to progress. This is a living, breathing story that sucks you in and you want to know what happens next!
As this is a point-and-click adventure game, there’s no question that you’ll be combining items, navigating click points and so on. Wadjet has done a fantastic job porting Unavowed to the Switch however. The game is entirely touch contextual enabled, allowing you to comfortably play with just the Switch screen in handheld mode if you really want to. But in addition to the great functionality there, the menu system allows you to adjust the screen cursor speed, a function that once you use it, you’ll be forever angry at any developer who doesn’t include it from then on. Kicking up the cursor speed to roughly match the feel of a mouse is an absolute joy on a game like Unavowed, and instead of hunting aimlessly for click points to progress, you can simply hit a face button on the controller and highlight them all, with labels and everything. This streamlining of the genre for controller-based and TV based play is no less than absolute interface mastery and it’s seamless to transition from docked play on a big screen to handheld play and back at any time.
Visually, Unavowed resembles a variety of classic 80s point-and-click games such as the Quest for Glory and King’s Quest games but with larger sprites and more detailed backgrounds. This pixel art style has become quite common in the last few years and Unavowed uses some nifty tricks that make things look a bit fancier than they did back on those dusty old 386s. There are plenty of visual tricks and nuances that modernize the feel of the game without diluting the vintage aspects whatsoever. It’s an excellent blend of old and new that works well and pulls you easily into the story.
On top of the great visuals, Unavowed is entirely dubbed as well, and the voice acting is simply solid work for everyone. It was unexpected to hear the entire game acted out so well, but definitely welcome, especially for a narrative-intensive title like this one. It would be amazing if we had this happen more often in visual novels too, but most of those are only dubbed in Japanese. Unfortunately, sound is also Unavowed’s biggest weakness. While the entire game is dubbed and the sound effects are excellent, the post processing on the Switch is poorly done. During the dialogue, if you’re paying close attention, there’s background static and distortion in every single audio clip, likely due to some sort of processing issue. Since this is a game from 2018, everything would have already been digital and there would be no conversion from analog source, so there’s no reason to have this hissing static hiding subtly in the background. Sadly, since the game is absolutely loaded with spoken dialogue, you hear it almost constantly and once your ear starts to detect it, it’s hard to ignore. It’s the little things that pull you out of that full immersion in a story and this definitely should be fixed if possible. It’s particularly noticeable at headquarters for the Unavowed when you’re talking to Kalash, but it’s present throughout the game.
As you play through the game, you’ll be given a variety of choices that let you direct the main character’s personality. Some are understanding of situations, others border on evil, and a few are character specific to your initial occupational choice. These paths lead to still more endings depending on what kind of selections you make. Additionally, as you gain members in the Unavowed, you have to choose who comes with you on missions, which means that in different playthroughs, you might have entirely different solutions to puzzles depending on who’s with you. All told, this adds up to a fairly high degree of replayability for a point-and-click, certainly far more than the average title in the genre. Considering how well the game is written, it’s probably worthwhile to go back through at least a couple more times too. The game runs fairly short at around 10 or so hours of play to the first ending and you’ll likely skim the parts you’ve seen on a playthrough, so even to blow most of the endings, you’re probably looking at another 5-7 hours tops. At $15, even with the relatively short length, you’re still getting a lot of game for your money and you certainly can’t beat the convenience and portability of playing Unavowed on the Switch. Chances are you’ll get more out of 15 hours of Unavowed than you might get out of 50 with a game with less complex characters and plot, so definitely keep that in mind!
If you’re at all into point-and-click games and you don’t mind some severely adult content, then Unavowed is an absolute knock out choice to pick up on the Switch. The sheer care that was put into making this a unique and compelling story is rare in the game industry, especially for low-cost games, and it legitimately has one of the best interface designs ever for a Switch game of this type. Unless you’re an action-oriented gamer who doesn’t want to play through what is essentially an interactive pixellated supernatural thriller, Unavowed should be a game to pick up. This is an absolutely excellent game to bring to the Switch and a masterful conversion. Now port Gemini Rue and the Blackwell games to Switch!
This review was based on a digital copy of Unavowed provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and was excellent in both. Unavowed is also available for PC on Steam. All screenshots are from actual gameplay.
