Unwording, from developer Frostwood Interactive, is a narrative puzzle game about undoing negative thought patterns. You play as Tom, a man living in a muted sketched world.
The world that Tom inhabits is a hand-drawn, 2D world. The colors are a variety of white, muted greys, and purples. It’s pleasant, and the art style is cute.
To change the phrases, you manipulate letter blocks and place them in the empty squares below the original phrase. Each block has a letter on each side and must be turned on the vertical and horizontal axis to create the correct word.
UNWORDING IS ALL ABOUT THE LIFE OF TOM
You play over three days in Tom’s life. He moves from his apartment to work and back again, never interacting with anyone and believing he has no worth. At the end of the first day, a small yellow bird appears and has made its nest on his windowsill.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the first games that gave players the opportunity to play as an animal. The game was initially created to compete with Nintendo’s Mario Game and became the flagship title for the Sega Genesis system.
I understand the heavy-handed symbolism here. It isn’t particularly subtle. Over the three days, as Tom turns his negative thoughts into more positive ones, color seeps into the world, and he does more things.
Once Tom starts turning things around inwardly, the third day consists of a new mechanic, which I have dubbed “Which random word will make the thing I know needs to happen actually happen?”
WHERE IT ALL FALLS APART
When the style switches from 2D to 3D, it also becomes challenging to navigate. It’s not like Tom goes to many different places, but the places he does go to all have obstacles and depth perception issues that make it wonky to walk around in.