|| REVIEW || Unheard (PC)
Developed By : NEXT Studios Published By : NEXT Studios
Category : Puzzle, Narrative, Indie Release Date : March 29, 2019
As much as I love puzzle games and always have, the one place I try to find that satisfaction is in detective and crime related games. I've always been fascinated by true crime, even studied Criminal Justice in school for a time, so anything that parallels those interests always strikes out at me. On top of that, it's always fun to find games that do things a little differently. Unheard is definitely a game that does things a bit differently.
The game takes place with you sitting down for an interview and test to become one of the newest Acoustic Detectives. This police force has a new device that allows you to return to crime scenes and listen to the aural-prints that have been left behind by the people there. You'll be able to wander the entire area freely, following any and every suspect until you figure out just who the victims are along with any other important information you may need to find.
Over the course of the game, you'll be put in the middle of five different cases. Each one takes place at it's own set location with a varying number of rooms and identities. You are represented on the map of rooms as a black figure, and you can travel where you want by right clicking around. Any room you stand in will be considered active, and as the audio of the scene plays out you'll here any conversations that take place in the room you stand in.
Each person involved in the scene begins as an empty circle, and they will move around quite a bit. Your first task at each scene will be to identify each and every voice. The names of those involved will be listed on the right side, and you can mark them by clicking on a circle and then clicking a name to pair the two together.
After you identify all the voices, each scene will have a couple of questions that need to be answered in order to solve the crime. This includes things like discovering who truly stole an art masterpiece at a gala, or who is responsible for a bomb detonation at a police station. There are wrong answers to these questions, so you'll have to keep sleuthing until you get the right identities and answers before wrapping up one crime and moving on to the next.
While Unheard is a lot of fun, it's a game that can be quite tedious while you're playing, and it takes a lot of attention to detail. However, at no point does this detail work feel tedious at all. For the most part, as you explore the scenes you'll be doing so in one of two ways : by following specific people around to hear all the conversations, or sticking to one room at a time. Either way you can make use of the games fast-forward feature on the audio for the case, skipping things you've either already encountered or rooms that have nothing.
One thing that may turn a few people off is the lack of subtitles during these cases. I think this was a great decision though, and that not including subtitles and forcing you to listen to everyone and everything really helps with the immersion of the game. As for the narrative, it takes a lot of fun twists and turns along the way that culminate in a real mind-blowing climax in the game's final case. This game is a really great play and shouldn't be passed up for the sleuthing and puzzle enthusiast!
The game takes place with you sitting down for an interview and test to become one of the newest Acoustic Detectives. This police force has a new device that allows you to return to crime scenes and listen to the aural-prints that have been left behind by the people there. You'll be able to wander the entire area freely, following any and every suspect until you figure out just who the victims are along with any other important information you may need to find.
Over the course of the game, you'll be put in the middle of five different cases. Each one takes place at it's own set location with a varying number of rooms and identities. You are represented on the map of rooms as a black figure, and you can travel where you want by right clicking around. Any room you stand in will be considered active, and as the audio of the scene plays out you'll here any conversations that take place in the room you stand in.
Each person involved in the scene begins as an empty circle, and they will move around quite a bit. Your first task at each scene will be to identify each and every voice. The names of those involved will be listed on the right side, and you can mark them by clicking on a circle and then clicking a name to pair the two together.
After you identify all the voices, each scene will have a couple of questions that need to be answered in order to solve the crime. This includes things like discovering who truly stole an art masterpiece at a gala, or who is responsible for a bomb detonation at a police station. There are wrong answers to these questions, so you'll have to keep sleuthing until you get the right identities and answers before wrapping up one crime and moving on to the next.
While Unheard is a lot of fun, it's a game that can be quite tedious while you're playing, and it takes a lot of attention to detail. However, at no point does this detail work feel tedious at all. For the most part, as you explore the scenes you'll be doing so in one of two ways : by following specific people around to hear all the conversations, or sticking to one room at a time. Either way you can make use of the games fast-forward feature on the audio for the case, skipping things you've either already encountered or rooms that have nothing.
One thing that may turn a few people off is the lack of subtitles during these cases. I think this was a great decision though, and that not including subtitles and forcing you to listen to everyone and everything really helps with the immersion of the game. As for the narrative, it takes a lot of fun twists and turns along the way that culminate in a real mind-blowing climax in the game's final case. This game is a really great play and shouldn't be passed up for the sleuthing and puzzle enthusiast!
Game Rating : 9/10
Pick up the game HERE on Steam
Game was played on PC (Steam)
