Unmechanical: Extended Edition
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Unmechanical: Extended Edition Media
Critic Reviews for Unmechanical: Extended Edition
Unmechanical Extended meets its ambition: the designers fully explore the potential of the template and do so with elegance. But perhaps, in the new context of the newer consoles, that ambition wasn't quite enough. This is a slight, simple, often delightful game that displays moment-to-moment ingenuity but which now obviously lacks a broader conceit to bring its ideas together.
Overall, Unmechanical: Extended is a cute little experience. The stories are told in a way that takes at least a little bit of effort on the player's part. For those willing to put that effort in, and the effort to get through the puzzle rooms, escaping from the tiny robot gulag is a worthy way to spend a day.
Unmechanical: Extended is a puzzling game, in every sense of the word. In that manner there are puzzles, each of which must be surmounted before you can progress, but equally its lack of any true storytelling, beyond that which you create yourself, or indeed any hand-holding to point you in the right direction almost cause too much confusion. However, there is a wonderful spirit to the game, created by the beautiful aesthetic and meaningful sound design, both of which really warrant experiencing.
Unmechanical: Extended's presentation will please, and its puzzles will challenge you for a few hours, but don't expect it to do much more.
An enjoyable and attractive, if overly-familiar physics based puzzler, Unmechanical Extended could be just the ticket for puzzler aficionados looking for a game to burn the hours away.
Unmechanical: Extended's hands-off approach works wonders in the gameplay department, and the well designed puzzles – which are testing without being frustrating – make this something of a surprise treat. It would have been nice if the experience was a little longer, and we're a bit agitated that it doesn't come to a decent conclusion, but the personality throughout every aspect of its artistic design helps to overcome these modest shortcomings. As a result, if you're up for a puzzle game – but are normally turned off by more complex entries in the genre – then this is well worth beaming into your collection.
Unmechanical Extending offers gamers a puzzle game with a story told though its setting, more thought provoking than games with hours of pre-recorded dialogue. Come for the puzzles; stay for the hours and hours of time you'll spend writing Unmechanical fan fiction.
I fear that a smaller, simpler game such as this might get overlooked in the blockbuster-world of console gaming. Being priced very reasonably for what you get, Unmechanical: Extended is definitely worth the investment. I had fun playing it, and hope for more to come. My only request for any future instalments that may be planned would be for somebody to please turn on the frickin' lights…
