Unreal Life Review: Melancholy Moonlit Mystery

Please don't skip Unreal Life.

At the time of my writing my review, Unreal Life has been on Steam since late November 2022. It has 98 user reviews, with a 97% positive rating; you can practise the math on that. Adult by just i person, this is the kind of supremely niche indie game that is destined to fly under the radar. It even flew under my radar until swain DualShockers writer Iyane brought it to my attention to be reviewed.

I'm glad I ended upwards doing so, because this was a actually lovely feel. The Japanese indie scene appreciated information technology plenty to get it localized to English, so now I feel like I should exercise my due diligence to run into it appreciated here also. Once once again, I implore you: please don't skip Unreal Life if it at all sounds similar your kind of thing.

"The Japanese indie scene appreciated it enough to get it localized to English, and so now I feel similar I should do my due diligence to see information technology appreciated hither too."

And so what really is this game? Unreal Life is a bespeak-and-click adventure game where you navigate the world, solve puzzles, and progress through the increasingly intriguing story. You play equally Hal, a daughter who has awoken in a strange world without her memories. She is quickly roused by the sentient AI of the nearby traffic light named 195, who charges himself with Hal'due south care. Using Hal'southward unusual ability to view the memories of inanimate objects she can bear upon, the pair seek to find the but person that Hal can recollect: her teacher Miss Sakura. If that's not enough to fix the curious tone of the game, I'm non sure what is.

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Y'all'll follow Miss Sakura'southward trail across a perpetually moonlit night, coming together increasingly surreal characters and locales. Each new expanse and task will require some puzzle solving, though none of information technology is as challenging or esoteric as many classic adventure games. In addition to getting hints from Hal's power to view memories, some puzzles include using shrimp to lead penguins and turtles to right places, or rearranging books in a library to open up up passages. These puzzle types cease upwards intersecting in creative ways towards the end of the game, and then information technology rarely feels like it's grown dried.

"The presentation all ends upwards meshing together in a way that strengthens the entire feel."

It's the characters and narrative that bind the whole experience together, though. Hal and 195 develop a sweet rapport, and many other characters end up being memorable even if they're not on screen too long. The search for Miss Sakura — as well as Hal'southward gradually returning memories — gets increasingly intricate, but so besides are the hints that something darker is at play. Unreal Life never descends into outright horror, but it does accept moments of unease or darker tones. Those familiar with another Japanese indie cult classic Yume Nikki may discover a lot of similarities, but Unreal Life is much lighter in tone.

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What really helps sell the game is its atmosphere. I've deliberately used the discussion moonlit not just considering it's all taking identify at night; the color palette of the game is largely in shades of blue with the occasional ruby-red highlight. The exceptions to that end upwards being striking either both for the presentation and the narrative tied in to those moments. The pixel art is well washed and adds to the surreal nature of the game, with the occasional notwithstanding paradigm and cutscene still maintaining that pixelated style.

In that location's no voice acting, but characters take distinct audio blips when they speak à la Banjo-Kazooie. Music is ordinarily elementary piano pieces, though it does build up in some areas and commonly fits the scene well. The presentation all ends up meshing together in a way that strengthens the entire experience.

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Truthfully, this is a difficult game to properly convey in review form. It's a short game, and there's not much more than I can say nigh it without digging into spoilers. I guess what really stood out to me most was how much this felt like a passion project that developer hako life truly cared most. Unreal Life feels sincere, similar a labour of dearest that they really wanted to make happen. At that place's a sense of everything being in its proper place, and all the parts unified to make a stronger experience.

"Unreal Life feels sincere, like a labour of dearest that the developer really wanted to make happen."

I was fatigued in past Unreal Life's atmosphere very quickly, intrigued by its premise, and kept at attention by interesting puzzles and an engaging narrative. It was well-paced, and simply occasionally did some puzzles outstay their welcome or crave a bit also much slow walking betwixt points. However, I was never bored, and always very curious to see where the story was going. There are enough hints and details to clue you in, but how it all ties together isn't immediately apparent until much later. In one case everything came together for the very satisfying (and tear-jerking) truthful ending, I left with a smile on my face from the whole feel.

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Overall, the whole thing took me about six and a half hours. There are achievements and things I could seek out, but I completed the vast majority of what was to offering. Peradventure that'due south too short for you, or the asking price is a bit much, and that'south fine. Fifty-fifty and so, Unreal Life just ended up being a delightful experience that I really enjoyed exploring. That sense of the developer'south passion for their creation was articulate throughout the whole thing, and the game felt so much better for it.

That'due south why I'd rather non let this game languish in obscurity. If I can capture even one person's interest in Unreal Life who wouldn't take played it otherwise, that'south my mission achieved. If this sounds at all interesting to you, I thoroughly recommend checking information technology out. It's certainly going to encourage me to go on an middle out on the indie scene more ever in 2022, considering you never know what hidden gems might be there.

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