Unbroken: The Awakening

Discovered this in the recent fanatical bundle. The gameplay is similar to Neckbreak except less punishing which is a good thing, although the difficulty does ramp up quickly. You’ll need to git gud almost immediately and there isn’t much hand holding. It feels more “fair” compared to Neckbreak which had a lot of cheap sections where you get jumped and die instantly. I really liked the game world aesthetic and the gameplay overall, once you figure it out and get into a rhythm it can feel like you’re unstoppable. It runs out of the box on steam deck with full controller support but you’re not going to get over 30 fps even with the dev recommended settings. Instead I streamed from my PC at full graphic settings and 60 fps and it was a great experience. If you liked Neckbreak give this one a play, it’s a lot of fun and well put together

[b]Unbroken: The Awakening[/b] is a solid Early Access release with some very rough edges, but it already captures a lot of what fans of Neckbreak are looking for. [b]However, players should know that the demo gives you upgrades far earlier than the full game does. The demo feels better paced and more rewarding, and if I’m being honest, the full game doesn’t match that early momentum. It’s noticeably more mediocre than Neckbreak overall.[/b] The biggest issue right now is the balance. The game throws waves of enemies at you while giving you just barely enough supplies to scrape by. Exploration becomes stressful because you’re constantly running dry, and the game offers almost no guidance on where to go or what anything means. Objectives feel vague or outright confusing, so a huge part of the difficulty comes from trying to figure out what the game actually wants from you. In Achthoven, I slid, jumped, got hit, fell off the bridge into the water, and ended up seeing the unfinished map from below. Hitboxes are genuinely some of the worst I’ve ever seen. I’ve had bullets meant for enemies collide with invisible geometry instead. There are serious bugs across the board. But like Neck…

Unbroken: The Awakening begins with an immediate sense of unrest and danger, placing you in the heart of Crest’s Edge—a frontier settlement on the verge of collapse. Developed and published by MGP Studios, the game presents a grim world shaped by political turmoil, betrayal, and escalating violence. You step into the role of a lone operative tasked with hunting down a traitor named Nielsen, whose actions have sparked a catastrophic event called the Feast of the 3rd Moon. Instead of guiding you through a tightly scripted path, the game throws you into a semi-open environment where choices matter, routes diverge, and the consequences of your decisions ripple throughout the story. Even in its Early Access form, the world feels dense with conflict, atmosphere, and lore, hinting at a larger narrative that continues to unfold as you press deeper into Crest’s Edge. The core of Unbroken’s identity lies in the way it blends first-person action with RPG-style progression. Combat is deliberately physical and weighty, encouraging players to juggle between melee strikes, firearm use, defensive maneuvers, environmental interaction, and special abilities fueled by “resin.” Resin is one of the ga…

A very cool dark Victorian age setting, brutal combat, weapon durability, dodge/parry etc. A very blurry experience though... You're a foreigner sent to find Nielsen. So that's what I'm trying to do. If you die 5 times you get reset back to one of your "bonfires"(?) The game is very vague, but it has a lot of charm imo, and 22 steam reviews just isn't enough. Game runs fine, no stuttering or lag. 1 downside would be this game gets *very* dark at times, wish there was a slider or maybe like a lantern your character could attach to his belt or something to make these pitch black spots a bit more bearable.

I highly recommend this game because of its rewarding experience. The story and gameplay are simple but strong and encouraging. The visual style is fresh and retro at the same time. Some aspects can be adapted to personal choices. Its difficulty is well modulated: When you fail, you do not feel you hit a wall. You get pushed to come back and improve, so that you can overpass every obstacle. The limited retries add stress and fear to confront every situation, so you have to think twice to enter new zones and make sure you are prepared for it.

This is probably one of the best hidden gems I've seen in a long time. It feels like its taken Hotline miamis style of fast paced die and retry combat and mixed it with the exploration and mystery of a souls game. It is very hard to start off with combat wise but It won't take long to adjust to how it works and ultimately becomes very satisfying when clearing whole rooms with ease. Now it does have some downsides the movement can be a bit janky in some areas, I've gotten stuck on rocks without being able to get off them and had to restart a few times but with it being early access I assume these will be fixed over time. Also one other complaint some areas seem a bit too dark its fine when you have a torch but being shot from something you can't see in the darks never fun. Overall though I'm really enjoying the game so far and will update the review when I've finished it, I just wanted to get something out there since the game has a criminally low amount of reviews and deserves more attention!