UNBEATABLE Is The Kind Of Sad Beauty Only Produced By Former Scene Kids

Every now and gain, you get a triumph of human creation. Given this year has already had so many bangers from Awards magnet Expedition 33 to any of the other games it inevitably beats out, I didn't expect we'd get another in UNBEATABLE. 

It's very rare you get a game come out of virtually nowhere and show up literally just to take your breath away, yet there it is. 

Title: UNBEATABLE

Developer: D-Cell Games

Publisher: Playstack

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5

Starting On The Right Foot, Which Is On A Pedal, Which Says GAS

I don't think words can describe how strong a first impression UNBEATABLE makes. From it's conversational settings page to its direly somber prologue., the game just sucks you in with all that it is. You don't know what's going on as you play a blue-haired band girl, yet you're immediately permeated with sadness. You're all here for one final gig, allegedly, and it's just this tinge of something great you never got to know coming to an end. 

Despite the trailers telling you its a rhythm-action game you actually do none of that for the first hour. Once you take control of the real protagonist, Beat, the game asks of you to just sit down and take it all in. The world of UNBEATABLE is intense and bizarre and melancholic- music is outlawed because it summons demons, and somehow in the middle of this you've gotten mixed up in the whims and fancies of a young girl named Quaver as she goes on a quest to recreate her mom's photos. 

I almost don't really care for the plot because it's the world itself that's so charming. Beat herself is a blank slate of a character, almost literally- she doesn't know what this world is, and her main role is just getting the invested characters what they want. 

She's the game's spirit personified- just listlessly floating through the world, as her bonds with the cast help her decide her place in it. Every element of her monologue is drenched in melancholy and frustration, but all in an endearing way that doesn't make her seem overly mopey. If anything, she's the one getting things done- she just happens to also be the only one wearing her heart on her nonexistant sleeve. 

Strike Up The Band

And yet, once the action does kick in, the game finds even more cylinders to fire on. UNBEATABLE's soundtrack is frenetic and intense, invoking all the images of shoddy bars and rocking gigs. I can almost smell the cigarette smoke every time the guitar strikes up and the game tells me it's time to put my sense of rhythm to the test. It's impressive how far they push a single mechanic- hit buttons on time. This comes into play multiple times in the games chapter, from dodging bullets to hitting baseballs to the rhythm-action, which plays like Muse Dash injected with even more adrenaline. 

The game flows into these sections so well, mixing HD-2D sprites with hand drawn animation and then roaring into its gameplay.  It can be simple, yes, but every moment has its place. In the story mode, these sections are always marquee events. What is usually about an hour of just minigames and dialogue is suddenly instantly validated as things start to happen in the loudest, most energetic way possible. 

Admittedly sometimes its easy to get carried away in the energy of these scenes. The baseball minigame, for example, is actually less about rhythm and more about visual cues- a mistake I learned the hard way. Similarly, the "Punch a cop" sections were so high energy that I ended up accidentally skipping over the tutorial- something that snowballs dramatically as you get into more sections. The game is almost unaware of how frenetic it actually is- any paused-screen popups are immediately skipped because you don't want to lose your beat and rhythm. 

UNBEATABLE Verdict

From head to toe, UNBEATABLE really feels like a game that's just dripping in style and intent. It's indulgent like how the best games are- being comfortable with not giving you "core gameplay" for long stretches of time simply because it wants you to savor more than just hitting buttons. 

Admittedly, if you're of the more shallow player types, you might find that exact point frustrating. The second chapter doesn't have you doing any of the Muse Dash-style gameplay for most of it- you're just meant to sit there and take in what the world dishes out to you. The moment you are given rhythm gameplay is one of the best pop-offs I've ever seen- but I could totally understand if you hate the nearly hour's worth of monotony preceding it. That's not to say there isn't an arcade mode for if you just want to enjoy that gameplay- but I definitely recommend soaking in the immaculate vibes of its story mode. 

UNBEATABLE to me feels like the idea of a 7-minute song. Is it pointlessly indulgent? Yeah. Can it feel daunting knowing how much downtime there is? Probably. Will you get absolutely lost and mesmerized when you hit the bridge? Oh, yes. 

Game reviewed on PC. Review code provided by Playstack