Unrest (2014)

A fascinating relic of the mid-2010s narrative indie games. Very ambitious in its structure: you play through a series of vignettes, sometimes as a recurring character, sometimes as a one-time observer. If you care enough to get invested in their stories, you can choose to read the game's journal, which summarizes the lore and NPC, from various perspectives, and you can see the small hints of worldbuilding or character backgrounds stored in the pointless item descriptions they carry in various chapters. It's interesting, for example, how each character has its unique supply of coins, even though you almost never actually use money for anything. But production-wise the game is a failure, standing out even in 2014 Kickstater era. The visuals are underwhelming, the music is unbearable (as if: I turned it off and played other tracks in the background), UI lacks functionality, typos and grammar issues are numerous. You walk around very slowly, surrounded by dozens of identically looking NPCs. The content also struggles. Some systems, like the NPC reactions measured in colorful bars, are more of a noise than anything of noticeable impact. The achievement-tied icons you collect seem to …

i like narrative-driven RPGs, and this one is full of morally ambigious choices. i liked the fantastical india setting and i liked the characters, i felt like everyone you meet has their own life and lore. the ending falls a little flat and there's no closure, but isn't that just like life, really?

The writing was better than expected, and that's pretty much all that matters

Unrest is an ambitious and unconventional role-playing game developed and published by Pyrodactyl Games that stands out for its focus on social storytelling rather than combat or traditional RPG mechanics. Set in the fictional ancient city-state of Bhimra, inspired by classical India, the game unfolds during a period of drought, famine, and growing political turmoil. Instead of casting the player as a hero destined to save the world, Unrest asks them to embody a range of ordinary people whose lives intersect amid social upheaval. The game’s premise is simple yet powerful: explore the dynamics of power, survival, and morality in a society on the brink of collapse, not through grand battles, but through dialogue, empathy, and choice. The most striking element of Unrest is its narrative structure. The story is told from multiple perspectives across different social classes and walks of life. In one chapter, you might play as a young princess facing an arranged marriage that could shape the future of Bhimra’s fragile political alliances; in another, you’re a peasant girl struggling to survive in the slums, or a naga—an intelligent serpent-like creature—trying to negotiate peace betwee…

Fun little Game of Thrones-esque story with decision making, except in Ancient India, an appreciated change of setting from the usual.

Short but a good narrative experience. I enjoyed it a lot.