Unsighted

Unsighted still lives in the back of my mind. A top-down Metroidvania that leans more stylistically towards The Legend of Zelda, it is an exhilarating, sometimes cruel, but always novel take on the post-apocalypse in games. The twist of the game is that in its post-apocalypse, your cast of supporting characters are living on borrowed time, which is always counting down. If you’re not brutally efficient about where your time and effort are going, characters start dropping like flies, impacting the narrative and the ending that you’ll receive.

At the time of its release, I found the system wildly oppressive. On one hand, I really enjoyed the game’s movement and stylish combat, with my robotic hero hack-and-slashing their way through the apocalypse like a stylized anime protagonist. On the other hand, I felt like every time I struggled with a puzzle or encounter or went on an exploratory detour, the game penalized me. I eventually turned the system off, thanks to Unsighted’s exceptionally handy accessibility options, but I do feel like I missed something by removing it from the equation. The despair and urgency is most definitely the point, and I often think about going back and experiencing the game as it was meant to be played. You can experience love and trauma, as well as countless robot deaths, at the end of the world by snagging Unsighted on sale for $8.