Unwording

[h3]Rushed[/h3] Would have been a clever game, if not spoiled by many UI bugs. Basic ones, that are not game killers but make the game just annoying. [h3]Clever[/h3] As the game progresses you move from a flat line-drawn to a 2d space with colours, and finally to a fully 3d viewpoint. So the game kinda hides it's cards, and that builds the atmosphere in a way that is unexpected, everything becomes more interactive. However the mouse controls in 3D are terrible and you end up doing 360's or spinning about wildly. [h3]Simple, Intuitive[/h3] There are not a load of things you have to interact with, but some elements are non obvious and hard to even find, so when you walk around in 3D you can find yourself struggling to get out of corners. The game puzzles are easy enough and some of them are rather smart as well as intuitive. I mostly liked the 3D word sphere puzzle. If this game review helped you decid if this game is for you or not, do check out my list of similar but better ones https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41773079-EmpathyGames/list/91358/

Unwording is a short exploration game revolving around negative thoughts and perceptions. The idea is that we accompany our main character along three days, and see as his thoughs and ideas change towards a more positive life. While this core idea could be a worthy one, it's quite poorly developed, pretty explicitly telling the player that "things will turn better just by looking at them from a different perspective". I mean, if this is the best advice you can give, then just don't give any. This "story" is told via "puzzles" which tell the very few and rather stereotypical thoughts of our main character. Sadly they don't make use of much mental effort, instead rely on rotating wooden blocks and typing in various words by brute force, until you find the correct combination. A nice touch is that the story spans across three days, and the puzzles are of different style for each day, but there are just too few of them, and they seem quite unconnected. The main issue however, is that Unwording simply fails as a computer game. The first day in the story is presented in a 2D side view, where controls work as expected. But for the 2nd and 3rd days, we emerge into 2.5D and then 3D, where…

I liked the premise of the game, and what it was trying to do. But the puzzles just weren't that engaging and too cumbersome to enjoy.

live

Unwording is a very cute puzzle game with a strong underlying theme about cognitive dissonance and negative thought and I think it sends that message really well. The idea is very simple solving some puzzle by scrambling words and move on with the daily life of your character, the game start with a very washed out and minimaistic artstyle in a very flat world, represting of your character mental state that will slowly fill with more depth and color the more your character gets out of his negative rut. I really like how it shows how very simple messages can be distorted by depression how the self loathing makes you spin in an infinite loop of negativity where you don't feel energized to do anything outside of barely existing. At the end of the game is by trying to break that negativity cycle and try to look at things more positively, finding the courage of taking action and risks to better yourself and break that monotony that you can move on and see the world brighter again. The game also comes with very helpful resources to spread awareness about the issue. It's a simple and short game at very cheap that does what it sets out do to incredibly well!

Short, cute, and meaningful, with a good story and interesting puzzles. I only wish it were longer. I would love to see more of the puzzles, especially.