Unmechanical: Extended Edition (Xbox ONE)

The joys of the Xbox ONE is that there are a lot of new indie games that are being developed and made easily available on the marketplace. Even better is that there is now a requirement for all these games to carry 1,000 points worth of achievements. In a way this is a pain in the ass for me as it means that I have to review everything I play (I’ve sidestepped a lot of Arcade titles although to date I’ve only completed 11 games in the Arcade...).

Anyway, Unmechanical follows the story of a little helicopter robot thing that falls down a hole and has to escape from some kind of weird underground place with other strange robots and stuff. It’s a puzzle game where you have to solve kinetic problems to navigate through various rooms to get to the exit.

The puzzles themselves are clever but not unsolvable to my simple brain. This meant that I actually got a sense of achievement from completing it without having to look up anything on the internet – a rare occurrence.

The environments are intricately designed but it is still clear which items you can use and which items are just background. The music is equally fitting in its eeriness but doesn’t become depressing as the game itself is very short.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 17 Achievements

As far as the achievements go, the majority require you to do something extra in addition to just playing through the storyline and this is another great advantage of the game being so short. If you miss one, it’s not a massive headache to go back and get them.

One such achievement requires you to throw a piece of coal into the air so that it gets some airtime before landing in its target. These are exactly the kind of achievements that add to the gaming experience. You should play through it once to complete it and then play through it again to do all the weird stuff to get the achievements.

There are also alternate endings for the extended episode, and an achievement for each, but again because of the short length of the game, this doesn’t provide any irritation whatsoever.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Despite all the good things I’ve said, it unfortunately has little replay value as with all puzzle games. Once you’ve solved them, they’re solved and you can’t really forget how they work to make the game a new experience.

I found the game to be some light enjoyment in the wake of many very serious games with no personality. The Xbox ONE marketplace is littered with such gems and I will be looking out for them going forward.