Unmechanical: Extended

Decent puzzle game with one of the cutest robot protagonist.

The first thing I noticed about this game was the lack of customizable controls. I hate that. I figured out how to customize them though by editing a config file. I posted the guide in the forum for this game. The next thing I noticed was that it would have been REALLY nice if the developer had had the foresight to include a toggle for the tractor beam (I guess that's what you'd call it.) It got very tiring holding the button down constantly. You drag stuff all over the place and having to hold buttons down constantly gets tiring. I can't play this game for very long or my hand cramps up. This feels less like a game and more like a combination of simple puzzles, experimentation exercises, and confusion. There was one puzzle that made no sense. You have four lights to illuminate. You need to change colors on what looks like a target. However, it's not about the location of the colors, the order, the pattern, or the number of each color. It made no sense. You basically have to randomly flip switches and go through a process of elimination for ten minutes until all the lights turn on and the door opens. I got this on sale for 50% off. It's not a great game and can be annoying at times. There are no enemies, no weapons, and no action. However, it's a decent way to unwind if you're a little stressed out. So, for that I think it was worth what I paid.

The idea of the game is simple: you are a little robot and you have to solve puzzles. But there is more. Game is beautiful. Level design is great. Graphics are awesome. Why four stars then? Well, firstly, this game is way too short. It took only a couple of hours to complete. Secondly, the puzzles were way too easy. There weren't any place where you really have to use your brain in order to solve a puzzle. On the other hand, if there were more puzzles, the game could quite easily turn to boring. I was still very disappointed in the number of puzzles.

Unmechanical is a nice looking but very short puzzle game. While it's more polished than your avarage indie game, it has no replay value and it's lacking the content to be worth its $10 in my opinion. If you can get it on discount or as part of a bundle as I did, it's a nice pasttime for a rainy afternoon, though.

While the game was, in effect, rather short, the puzzles and atmosphere are what made this game shine. It's a little hard to really pinpoint the feel that the developers were going for in terms of style, but all that passes fairly quickly once you get sucked into the calm yet satisfying gameplay.