Unrest

5/10 Unrest is an interesting game but I’m torn on whether or not to recommend it and I don’t think I’m alone in thinking this way. I don’t want to damn this game with faint praise so I’m going to be rather blunt while reviewing it.

Unrest is an isometric role playing game set in a fantasy interpretation of ancient India. You play through multiple, interlinking stories that allow you to see the greater scope of the overarching narrative, each presenting you with a series of morally ambiguous dilemmas.

Characters can acquire traits that reflect your actions but they don’t do anything and have no effect on the story later on. I think they may just be ingame achievements.

It’s writing is it’s strongest element and the story is good but for a game allegedly about choices you have very little impact on the overarching narrative and the ending isn’t very conclusive. The character’s fates are left to the imagination and overall this game feels like a small part of something bigger. Fragments leading up to a story you’ll never get to see.

Elaborating on the above; there are occasions where the story will take control away from you. You can decide not to do something because you rightfully think it’s dangerous but you have too and as a result not everyone can be saved. This only bothers me because you’re given the illusion of choice during these scenes and while I understand it’s important to overarching narrative I think there could have been other ways to maintain the tension between factions.

My playtime isn’t reflective of the game’s length as I played it multiple times. If one were to play it just once I think it would take about two hours total, it’s quite a short game and while there technically are multiple outcomes I think the endings are very sudden and not always satisfying which can kill a game’s replayability. I know I personally won’t be playing it again to see all it has to offer as I simply don’t think it’s worth the time I’d have to invest into it.

The pacing overall is quite slow and so is your movement. At times while playing I couldn’t help but think that this game might have been improved if it had been a Choose Your Own Adventure Visual Novel but then we’d lose out on the backgrounds and environments the characters traverse through so I think it balances out in the end, it just requires some patience on the player’s part.

That said it does deliver on everything it promises too and it’s not a bad game by any means. I recommend that you buy it on sale but before you do so, you may want to try out the demo first.

I feel like this game would be better as a VN since the character's movement is so slow, I think that’s the reason why I didn’t finish it years ago. And just get back to it to get some achievements. The art and music are good. The story is actually interesting and with different characters telling the story with their own perspective and what role they had in it. Some of the characters didn't have any closure whatsoever and I'm really curious of what would happen to them during the epilogue. It is a good concept but I think rather poorly executed or they simply pick the wrong type of game, at least for me

I'm really enjoying it so far! If you're a fan of Planescape: Torment, Torment: Tides of Numenera and/or Disco Elysium and are able to put the admittedly low-budget production values aside, this is definitely a worthy addition to your library.

A 5 hour romp into the wonderful world of India. The walls of the different neighbourhoods as as much allegories of the caste system, as artefacts contributing to this feeling of determinism: you cannot escape your fate, you have to move forward. I did not enjoy the switcheroo between all the characters that you play, as I would have liked to spend more time with them. Character depth is quite good. The ending is ...abrupt.

Pros
- Great OST
- Decent art
- Easy to play
- Cool, Indian inspired setting

Cons
- Too short
- Choices don't feel like they mattered too much
- Fear, Friendliness, and Respect mechanic didn't flow well into the game
- AWFUL epilogue sequence
- Traits don't feel like they matter

I really wanted to like this game, and I did because I bought it on a discount. That being said for a game that is about choices the way they were implemented feel unrewarding. I hated the epilogue sequence and really didn't tell me much or was clear about how my choices and traits of every player character affected the short and long-run. I love the presentation, but that's about all I can say is nice about this game.

According to game guides, I should have completed around 90% of the game. In the end, I tried to power through, but it just feels like a slog. I think the problem is that I found it hard to empathize with any of the characters, the ones you play as well as the NPC's. Dozens of characters are introduced, you play half a dozen characters yourself (Only one character multiple times), then they are discarded quickly, with all of their stories. I tried this game because the curator "Choice and Consequence" recommended it, but while you make a lot of choices, I couldn't make out any consequences of those choices. The only difference your dialogue choices made were bars for friendliness, respect, and fear of NPC's towards your character slightly going up or down. Also, repeatedly acting in a certain way gave your character a trait icon (For example, "diplomatic"). Both of these things had no apparent effect on any stories, neither the overarching "Unrest" story, not the stories of individual characters.

Some people wrote that the statement of the game is that normal people only have a neglicent power to change difficult circumstances. If this was really the intention, it would be a truism, and I'm pretty sure it could have been told in a more interesting way.

Wonderful experience of a culture that is both fantastical and very human in its depiction.

The story does an excellent job of demonstrating the complexity of morality and choice. The story veers from some of the 'standard' point and click genre, where the outcomes and options are not ever fully perfect. There is no 'make all the right choices', it's 'make the best choices you can under the circumstances'. Some may find that a bit too lifelike, and they might prefer something that is a bit more happy-go-lucky. It can get a discouraging, as some characters are a bit limited with having any positives for 'how' you play them. However, I enjoyed the realness of it. Also, I loved how heavily choices impacted outcomes. You can get a completely different story depending on the choices you make, and it's not just 'you died' or 'you survived'. The choices matter for *how* you *and* others survive. And I felt that sort of story did a great job of showing how the circumstances of others impacted their situations. Overall, the game did a great job of making a chaotic, discouraging situation into a worthwhile, challenging, and engaging story.

Pros:
-Choices *really* matter
-Many options/high replay value
-Good depiction of dilemmas of morality
-Fun puzzles with varied solutions
-Definitely a unique game

Cons:
-Some of the outcomes can be really discouraging (some character lines do a good job of balancing reality with reward, some are less so)
-While I enjoyed the demonstration of the power of circumstance, it can also take away from the role of 'player making the choices', and I sort of felt trapped/along for the ride at times

Other reviewers are too diplomatic; Unrest is a CYOA. It could be fun as such, if you could simply choose who to talk to instead of sloooooowwwwwly wandering over to them on the iso map (which serves no other purpose).

The CYOA itself has a fatal flaw. Obviously it's all talk, talk, talk... gathering information, making plans to do something bold, but mostly idle chatter. Then when some authority figure asks if you'll be a good doobie, you don't want to tip your hand, do you? So you say YES, and... that time it wasn't idle chatter, it was a binding commitment WITH NO WARNING. You've just sealed your character's fate as a miserable tool. No, you don't get a do-over. Major WTF.

Honestly, I would have checked "recommended" if you asked me for my opinion whilst playing the game. I did enjoy it. The choices were dynamic and varied, the characters were interesting (albiet a little simplistic), and the story was by all means good. If you like choice games with dialogue, this is great. Literally the only things I disliked was the soundtrack (music looped in a monotonous way) and actual gametime was short, but these are minor issues.

Here's the issue with what I had. I see other people commenting here, "the ending cuts short". When I played, I didn't even know it was an ending.

The story just cuts off out of nowhere and you see the credits rolling and you sit there in confusion like, "... Wait, what? Huh? Is there a second chapter? Did my game glitch?" Because there are so many loose ends and uncompleted story arcs it didn't even feel like a completed game. I actually kind of wonder if they had more planned to be done but simply wasn't. Truth be told, I literally redid the last scene just to see that, yes, that was the ending, and no, my game was not glitching or missing content.

My suggestion? Buy it if it's on sale (like 5 dollars). You'll enjoy it but won't feel like your price tag was too overwhemling when your actual game time is short and cut suddenly. I would say it's not worth 15 dollars.

I started playing this game, and was immediately immersed in the story. It's all dialogue, and not action-based, reminded me a little bit of old-school RPG's, the pen and paper type.

Anyways, you play through several characters and are presented with response choices that really make you think. There are a lot different elements that you're presented with, but I'm not sure if it affects the outcome because...

It has the most abrupt and unexpected ending, that I've ever seen in a modern game. I took my time through each of the character story lines, and during the last part I'm talking to someone and it cuts to the end credits!

I have no idea what ultimately happened to the city, and it was just a really poor experience... after so much potential.

It looks like the creators/developers ran out of money.

But yeah, this is not worth $15.00. In reality it's nothing more than a demo that will entertain you for a few hours. I want a refund, and the devs of this game should be ashamed with charging so much for a product that clearly doesn't deliver enough content.

Grades:

Graphics - 5/10. This game is not about graphics. They're stylistic and simple.
Sound/FX - 7.5/10. Easily the strong point of the game, although the tracks do loop.
Controls - 6/10. They work without any bugs, but this is a simple point and click game only.
Story - 6/10. Early on it's interesting, until the terribly abrupt and unexplained ending.
Replayability - 0/10. There's no reason to play a game again when it only lasts (at most) a little more than 4 hours.

Overall - 3.5/10. Save your money unless wasting $15 for a 4-hour game is your thing.

I recommend this game at its sale price of $5, but not $15. Most of the game is really interesting. It lets you play in the point of view of all the sides, which I really liked. There are also lots of choices that are available. However, it felt like these choices didn't add up to much. There's really no gameplay, however thats not bad. The story keeps you interested. However, the ending is very disappointing. It feels like they wanted to add more to the game but ran out of budget. I would recommend buying the game when it's on sale for $5. I think that $15 is too much. Play the demo and if that interests you, pick it up on sale when it's $5 or less.

Alright, so this is less a 'game' and more of a choose your own adventure type visual novel. The only thing remotely 'game' like I did was in Chapter 4 as the priest character, there's one scene where you can get into the ONE fight programmed into the game that has actual controls.

However, what it lacks in gameplay it more than makes up for in plot. I would not recommend this game to the people who like action RPGs or people who play Halo and Counterstrike, ha ha. This is strictly made for people who like to read an immerse themselves into the plot of a story.

The music is incredible and fits the scenarios very well. My one gripe with this game is your choices affect how the character you happen to be playing at any given time is perceived... but it does not really affect the plot overall. Hell, even if you murder the evil snake hating priest guy, the story ends up exactly the same. There are no different endings, only different ways to complete each chapter. So in the end, while your choices affect the CHAPTER you're in, they do not affect the overall plot of the entire game. That should have been better written. I still enjoyed the story and the entire 7 hours I put into it... but I cannot see myself playing this again.

20 dollars is too much for what is not actually a game. And it only took me 4 playthroughs to get all 52 achievements.
There is much to read and rich characters some with more development than others, but not any gameplay. Wait until it goes on sale or you have a coupon to check it out. I still recommend it, though!

A good little game, Unrest is a point and click adventure sort of game, there's not really any combat to speak of. There's lot of roleplay (multiple characters and viewpoints), lots of dialogue and some fantastic music.

There remains the odd graphical glitches when the main characters are walking, but these are minor.

Unrest is essentially a story, of rebellion, survival and greed. There's no real white and black morality here, even the bad guys have sympathetic reasons or personalities that are completely disarming compared to what the game sneakily builds upon. Choices are impactful, some have consequences that are visable, others do not and are left for the player to think about. There's a wide variety of colourful characters, and the world here is bleak and despondant.

That said, it is a short game (2 hours) and very dialog heavy. Those who hate roleplaying and dialog/story, should probably avoid picking this up at all. For RPG fans, or those interested in a story that refuses to swan-song you to a happy ending, this is well worth picking up on sale (£10 is a bit much).

This game has a charming, story-intensive style, but it's very hard for me to consider it an RPG. Really, it's little more than a choose your own adventure game with an overworld in each of the individual sections. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it is definitely NOT an rpg by most modern standards.

Beyond that personal peeve of mine, the dialogue and the story itself, at least at the start, are fairly interesting and captivating, painting a unique picture about the current state of the world and the troubles it's going through. However, avoiding spoiling anything, the ending feels incredibly lackluster; it doesn't feel like a satisfying conclusion to the interesting story it finishes. The manner in which it happens, too, just seems boring.

Overall, the style and background to this choose-your-own adventure game is praise-worthy, but the gameplay itself is very limited and the actual conclusion to the game leaves me wanting. It's a bit disappointing, as someone who followed the game for a while before it came out.

That said, I think it's worth the current sale price (about 4 bucks), but my lack of recommendation is for the normal price.

This isn't going to be a comprehensive review, others on this page have put it better than me. If you're into dialogue-based games that make you think about the world you are experiencing, this is definitely worth picking up (even though it's short this is a reasonable price and it'll be on sale soon enough again).

I adored the dialogue in this game; it was thought-provoking, it was nuanced, and it was definitely this game's strongest point. With such a low budget, I think the aesthetic was still surprisingly consistent and I think the game looked quite pretty. As a lot of people pointed out the ending was a bummer: the real worth of this game lies in exploring the world and forming opinions and not in following a linear story but even then it was sort of disappointing. If these people had a bigger budget they could make some truly amazing narrative-focused games.

This is definitely something worth checking out if you're like me and play BioWare games solely for the story. Looking forward to their next title!

Set in India in a fictional universe you follow the struggle of a selection of characters all trying to make their way in a world that is crumbling around them.

As soon as the game begins you feel a sense of importance that other games can only dream of recreating. Full of the sensation that every decision, no matter how trivial it may first appear, could bring dire consequences. Whilst playing the game you take control of a diverse cast of characters from the highest of royals down to the lowest of peasants. From the off you have decisions to make, each of which can affect how the person you are speaking to, or even the entire city will view you. You are very conscious of this and it quickly becomes something that weighs down on your mind whilst conversing with the ensemble of NPCs in the universe.

I approached this game with the thought that I wouldn't get sucked in, I would be rational and logical and beat the game easily, uncovering all of the "best" outcomes for my characters. I soon learned how foolish I was. I ended up with quite a few VERY bad outcomes from what appeared to be good decisions at the time due to my lack of consideration of effects it may have even though at the time I had thought I considered all of my options. Just as an example of how these decisions can really affect you, here are some of the things that happened to me from some trivial decisions, don't worry I'll refrain from spoilers. I got mugged, I nearly got killed for going on a walk (I mean come on, it's a walk!), I nearly got murdered by my own family (how lovely of them) and I murdered someone out of the blue! Yeah exactly, crazy right?

When conversing with people, unlike other games you aren't just skipping through text to try and get to the end as quickly as possible so you can continue to run around, you are analysing everything about the situation, is this person a threat to you? Do they have a weapon? Are they as loyal as they say they are? Would it be worth standing up to them now or biding your time? One thing that makes this more difficult is how every person seems to have an individual personality and will react differently to situations, so you can't just walk through the game by being "nice". Some people are political and will walk rings around you unless you choose your words carefully and consider hidden subtext behind what is being said, others are more upfront and prefer you to be honest and direct, a difficult line to walk when you don't know which people fall into which category! As I found out they don't have to be noble to be silver tongued.

Graphically this game has a simple but beautiful art style, it's a very pleasant place to explore with continuity throughout. Generally the game flows nicely and environments represent the areas that they are designed to depict.

The music on this game is actually one of my favourite things, although it follows the same style throughout the game, it never gets tedious and is actually really nice to listen to whilst you are playing. It's light and happy when it needs to be but it is equally tense and suspenseful when required, providing the perfect backdrop for the emotional rollercoaster that you are riding. My only small negative however is there seems to be a large lack of sound effects and I couldn't help but feel that a lot of scenarios and situations would have benefited much more with a little bit more audio work.

In summary Unrest is a truly outstanding game, holding a huge appeal with its depth and emotional attachment it doesn't suck you in with cheap gimmicks it has true substance. You feel as though you are truly part of your characters lives by forcing you to sit back and consider your options at every turn. If you want to run around spraying at 12 year olds online then this game isn't for you, however if you want play a real game that can only be described as an artful then I would download this immediately. You will be amazed at how quickly you will be absorbed into this diverse world, full of substance and insecurities. Just remember this, decide wisely!

The Digital Gamer

As of now, I have yet to decide whether Unrest is overly-ambitious and underfunded or just a poorly executed concept. The game suffers from superficiality in every aspest of not only the story, but also the game mechanics and setting. To better explain this, I will go through the Key Features listed on the store page.

Diverse Characters - Right off the bat, the game begins throwing you from character to character, offering a short few paragraphs to tell the character's backstory up until that point. At your leisure you might also be interested in reading the single sentence traits which the game labels each playable character with. This, however, is where character development grinds to a halt. Traits have no actual impact on how the story progresses, are more descriptors than anything else, and are only given out to remind you what superficial choices you have made in the development of the character (four at most, as far as I have seen). Again, the game does very little to actually flesh out the characters, and it is really up to your imagination to determine who these people are.

Furthermore, the way the game switches the playable character around so flippantly makes me wish for less diverse characters, not more. There is only one character in the game who the player is able to control more than once, and each session with a character is little more than a 15 minute walk around the village, or pretend intrigue session with nobles and merchants. The biggest insult which comes of this is the lack of any actual ending to the plot or any closure as to how any characters end up. It really is a shame to see the ideas these characters represent so quickly squandered by limited screentime and a failure to empathise with the characters and their ideals (or, rather, lack there-of).

Reactive Storyline - If there is one thing I can say to this, it is "You are technically correct. The best kind of correct." While yes, there are some aspects of the story which change due to your actions, they are almost entirely relegated to the superficial story represented in the paragraphs at the beginning of each mission. Even when characters who are supposably the main characters die, they merely get a short dialogue mention and are then never heard about again. The game is really in the dead zone where it is both on rails and doesn't actually develop the plot in any way. I can see that the developers were trying to go for something deep and in-depth, but really a Mass Effect-esque on rails storyline would have been better than this. At least then we would get to see how the developers wanted the characters to be fleshed out.

No Right Answers - This is the most true claim the game makes. There is no good or bad, at least according to the game. There are just dialogue option after dialogue option presenting supposed moral dilemas which don't actually affect anything at all. In reality, there are no answers at all, as the game fails to come together at the end to provide an actual moral or even a theme. The only thing the game has in common throughout is that people will be people, and even then it fails to acknowledge the importance of the people themselves.

Complex Conversations - This claim I believe to be a misnomer. What they are really going for here is "Long Conversations" or "Conversations with many Options". Complex would be in reference to the superficial attitude bars which are included for every character you interact with in the game. While these sometimes change the reactions of characters, they never actually change how the story progresses, and don't really provide character development for the playable character or the non player characters. Again, you can certainly play the character and the conversation however you like, you just have to realize that whatever you say or whatever supposed enlightenment you bring the character to will have no effect on the bland and jagged outcomes to any situation.

Violence is Rarely the Answer - Violence serves about as much a point as any other dialogue options in the game. It only progresses the story line as far as it is meant to, isn't particularly deep or meaningful, and fails to get the player to empathize with the character on a personal level.

Lush art and Music - The art and music are interesting for a short Greenlight video before you realize how repetitive the music is and how roughly the art fits with the controls of the game. Very little of the environment is interactive and the only thing which moves in the game is the player character. NPCs will suddenly disappear during dialogue as you find out they leave a few dialogue options down the tree. While the art is certainly smooth, especially on the character, there are many times where pieces will not blend correctly, or the indoor art will be covered slightly by outdoor art, or the character will move through a wall or doorframe, et cetera, et cetera. If you are looking for a game with beautiful art and more tense, empathetic, and meaningful decision making, look to other games like Gods will be Watching and the like.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience with this game, but it did end up disappointing me by the end. It basically plays as a Bioware game (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc.) without the combat and item management elements. You walk around an enviroment talking to people, picking up quests, and making decisions. You switch to playing various characters thoughout the story, which allows you to see the complicated state of affairs from different sides as the story unfolds.

The story is pretty good, and I liked how it constantly pits you up against morally ambiguous dilemmas. More than once I actually found myself questioning the principles I had chosen to stand by. I was engaged in the dialogue pretty much the whole time, even when speaking to side characters who didn't contribute much to the story.

I think, in the end, I just expected more from the game. There's a lot of build up with not a lot of payoff, and a lot of things that I expected to matter just didn't matter at all in the end. Most of the choices you make don't come back to you, longterm, in any way. I doubt that this would be different with a different playthrough, the game is just too short. Characters will aquire traits based on the decisions you make, but these don't seem to have any effect on subsequent dialogue or decisions. They're badges, basically. The opinion, admiration, and fear you get with characters through dialogue doesn't seem to affect dialogue or decisions either, and it doesn't come back to haunt you or help you later on. Most characters don't get more than one playthough, so you don't get to follow up on their story. As it stands, I can only get but so emotionally invested in them.

For what it is, this game can still be fun for the right kind of person, and I'm happy to support games like this as they have so much potential. I can see myself recommending it to a few people I know, but knowing what I know now, I doubt I would have bought it for myself.

You know...even if I am giving this game a thumbs down it does not mean its a bad game. I like the fact it has no combat and is completely dialog based. The problem is that it has no ending at all and is less than three hours long. Stay away for now, but, when the mod support kicks off and if the developers add more to the story..then go for it. Its a good start..but thats all. The conversations though are very well written and interesting, drawing some alagories to real life even though it uses a fantasy setting. Wait a few months and then buy this game..hopefully it will be more complete then.

I am writing this after my first playthrough and I was quite impressed with the game presented to me. While the story itself is no longer than ~3 hours I have to say it was worth every cent I paid for it. On today's standards the graphics are dated, that goes without a question for an indie game, but they are well presented and give good atmosphere to the game. Honestly thought I do think thanks to how they are presented to a player they are able to stand test of time better than the most of 3D games.

While this game is labeled as an RPG this game is quite different from what people these days associate with the term which is honestly quite refreshing change. This game is not combat centrict and instead relies on dialogue and story to grap the player's interest. This said this game is not for everybody, even among RPG fans, since this game holds very little action within it and is more thought provoking than the most grind-fest action RPGs these days offer. Just as the game's description said; you are not some proficied hero to bring peace over the land. While you take role of different people over course of the game that doesn't change. You are a mortal whom can die and in combat death is very realistic outcome.

Through my playthough I only had one game halting bug occur to me and it was easily fixed by editing the save game file, and the game dev supplied me with necessary information to do the fix. Also this bug should have been fixed with the patch.

Only thing I would have wished from the game was to be a bit longer but if it was longer I wonder if it would have outstayed its welcome. All in all it was good game but not a masterpiece which was more than one could ever expect honestly.