The pitch for Unbeatable is an attractive one: a visually placing rhythm-journey hybrid a couple of punk rock riot in a dystopian metropolis the place music is illegitimate – kinda like Jet Set Radio meets a extra story-targeted Taiko no Tatsujin, which is nice in idea. However the promise of that idea doesn’t at all times line up with the disjointed but heartfelt mess we truly obtained. Unbeatable positions itself as a mixture of each story-pushed exploration and pulse-pounding musical battles, however what which means in apply is a dialog-heavy strolling simulator with occasional rhythm segments and some genuinely good moments awkwardly wedged in… plus an countless arcade mode that has some actual promise. That’s the place the rhythm sport “meat” is hidden away, and it’s decently enjoyable for just a few hours with an incredible choice of tracks and loads of challenges to unlock, although it’s a disgrace a part of its choice is locked behind day-one DLC.
Welcome to a world the place music is illegitimate, no person remembers what it’s, and, miraculously, you’re the one one who can convey it again! The story mode follows the vocalist Beat and her bandmates as they battle in opposition to HARM – a police drive defending the music ban with deadly imprecision. The musical names and quirky characters can be charming if the writing supported them with constant cleverness or emotional weight. As a substitute, what you get is a script that occasionally touches on what it actually feels prefer to try to change into a musician in a world that hardly has area for you. The remainder of it reads like an extended again-and-forth Discord dialog between youngsters who assume random equals humorous. It really works nicely in brief bursts, however will get tiresome throughout the roughly eight-hour marketing campaign.
It’s a disgrace that there’s this a lot filler between the components which can be genuinely transferring, particularly in direction of the tip. However even throughout these latter components, Unbeatable lurches from location to location with minimal clear connective tissue. One second you’re speaking to a guard in jail, the following you’re abruptly within the jail cafeteria with no transition or rationalization. Then the digital camera cuts once more and also you’re asleep. You then’re within the manufacturing unit doing work element. Now you’re skateboarding on a pair of headphones via a complete platoon of guards. There may be some logic behind these transitions, however more often than not, Unbeatable’s zones are disorganized – its story seems like a cassette tape of vignettes that simply teleport you between scenes, doing the naked minimal to point out you ways you bought there, and that occurs continually all through. It is disorienting within the worst approach – not as an inventive alternative, however as a failure of fundamental storytelling. There are even just a few drawn-out dialogue sequences that repeat themselves a number of occasions – you’ll actually see the very same cutscene or dialog recycled for no clear purpose.
However what’s most surprising about Unbeatable is how little rhythm gameplay truly exists within the story mode earlier than the ultimate chapter. You will spend the overwhelming majority of your time working via empty environments, speaking to poorly-written NPCs, and collaborating in necessary minigames that don’t have anything to do with the core rhythm gameplay discovered within the arcade mode. For example, there is a bartending minigame with obnoxiously loud jazz offering sound cues. There is a batting cage that seems out of nowhere. You will shut sluices in a sewer in a “puzzle” that has you working forwards and backwards whereas your incompetent bandmates preserve turning valves again on as a “joke.” Even when rhythm sections do seem, they’re generally fully disconnected from what’s taking place within the story – you is likely to be mid-dialog, and abruptly you are in a yard preventing somebody with no setup or context. Thirty seconds later, it’s over and also you’re again in your bunk speaking about one thing else.
The story itself facilities on bringing music again to town by being punk rock rebels, which is a superbly serviceable idea. However the execution is commonly so shallow and heavy-handed that it hardly seems like something actual is at stake till the emotional payoff on the very finish, after the credit are already rolling. The villains are additionally written like annoying youngsters moderately than any form of credible risk. It is attempting desperately to be edgy and rebellious, however by no means truly permits you to in on what you are rebelling in opposition to or what riot actually prices on this world.
Because of this, that world feels much less like a plausible dystopia and extra like a caricature designed solely for sport mechanics to occur in. Every part is music-themed to an absurd diploma – you tie headphones to your toes to flee jail, Beat stops each couple of minutes to argue with one other character concerning the specifics of being in a band, and each named NPC you meet is vaguely named after musical phrases. It is aesthetic-pushed to the purpose of parody, however the message it’s attempting to speak nonetheless someway takes itself too critically to lean into that absurdity successfully.
The silver lining is that in the event you’re huge into music, you’ll recognize a whole lot of these references, however Unbeatable tragically struggles to resolve on a tone. It is concurrently attempting to be an irreverent web-humor comedy and a heartfelt story about discovered household and inventive expression. These two approaches may theoretically coexist, however Unbeatable hardly ever demonstrates the writing chops to drag it off. The result’s a sport that hamfists its themes into every interplay with breathless exposition and compelled drama, with cutesy characters who desperately need you to assume they’re intelligent.
When Unbeatable truly permits you to play its rhythm sport, you may get via it by urgent precisely two buttons. You are both hitting floor opponents or leaping to hit aerial enemies, all synced to the beat. It is functionally much like Theatrhythm Last Bar Line. To its credit score, the rhythm synchronization at the least works nicely – this evaluation was performed on PC at 1440p with a 180Hz G-Sync monitor, and the beats lined up completely with the refresh price.
The issue is that, with solely two actual inputs, Unbeatable has nowhere to go for added issue besides “extra notes, quicker.” On Regular issue, songs are nearly laughably simple. Crank it as much as Arduous or Professional, and abruptly the display screen is crammed with so many simultaneous inputs whereas the digital camera shakes, zooms, and bounces round that it turns into overwhelming with out essentially being rewarding. You are simply attempting to parse visible chaos. That stated, there’s at the least a welcome choice to show off the VHS filter enabled by default, which simply makes every little thing look unnecessarily glitchy, in addition to a lowered digital camera movement choice, which is an efficient accessibility characteristic given how a lot it might bounce round throughout rhythm sections.
The music choice itself is at the least first rate general. The story mode is a little more middling; other than the primary themes and songs performed by the digital band, the marketing campaign’s filler tracks really feel like what individuals think about Portland’s indie music scene seems like after they’re making enjoyable of it. However the saving grace is that Beat’s band places out just a few bangers earlier than the tip of the story. The arcade mode additionally has good music from prime to backside, which matches a great distance towards making it much more enjoyable to play than the story itself. There are tracks from artists like Alex Moukala and Peak Divide which can be genuinely nice. It’s a little bit questionable that a few of them are locked behind day-one DLC, however you don’t must pay further for loads of wonderful beat maps that come alongside at no cost.
The arcade mode is structured like a correct rhythm sport with unlockable songs, an expansive and enjoyable-to-full problem board, leaderboards, and a wide variety of issue tiers starting from Newbie up previous Professional and past. It has the replayability and polish that the primary story mode fully lacks. Drop the “journey” and that is the place the precise, full sport lives.
One factor Unbeatable does nail is its appears to be like, with a robust punk rock aesthetic and standout anime fusion artwork route. The 2D character cutouts layered into cartoonish 3D environments look nice, particularly in areas just like the city and seashore, the place the late afternoon gentle dances off the ocean. The pause menu additionally has this cool scratchy vinyl aesthetic that actually sells the punk vibe. Once you pause a session, there is a neat document-scratch impact. These are the moments the place you possibly can see the imaginative and prescient beneath Unbeatable’s jank.
However robust artwork route cannot save poor sport design. For example, the digital camera is continuously positioned in ways in which make navigating every degree complicated. You will typically must run towards areas of the display screen which can be partially obstructed by partitions to set off the digital camera to pan to the following room, resulting in fixed moments the place you are simply wandering round attempting to determine the place you are speculated to go. And these environments really feel empty and lifeless, extra like stage units than precise locations.
The UX is equally messy. At first, it appears to be like fairly clear resulting from an easy menu system and sharp dialogue bins which have a cool, comedian-ebook-impressed vibe to them. The rhythm gameplay cues are stable in the primary rhythm sport (the one you play throughout key story moments and within the arcade mode), however are completely incoherent in a number of the minigames, like the sport the place you must do high quality management for bombs within the jail or combine drinks to screechy jazz music. And greater than as soon as, dialogue bins will pile on prime of each other or slide to the underside nook of the display screen as NPCs run straight into the digital camera or off-digital camera solely.
Maybe probably the most irritating factor about Unbeatable is that there are moments that actually do present promise. There’s a prepare sequence the place your band is enjoying music whereas preventing enemies that’s genuinely cool, but it surely doesn’t arrive till a number of hours in. These highlights come approach too late, and are instantly adopted by extra filler. It is nearly like the complete sport was constructed round probably the most promising sections of Unbeatable’s spectacular demo from again in 2021, padding them out with fetch quests, repeated cutscenes, and pointless minigames moderately than making extra of what truly labored. That demo framed these moments as consultant of the complete expertise after they’re truly the exceptions amidst hours of aimless wandering.