UNBEATABLE Review

Music means a lot to me. It manages to carry feelings in a way that words can’t really convey; it always has, and likely always will. UNBEATABLE carries these same themes: it’s a rhythm game, so it was bound to, at least to some extent. The difference here, though, is that it isn’t really just a rhythm game. It’s a thematically heavy narrative that utilises that medium as a vehicle for such a story (while also being a damn good rhythm game).

I’ll cover the core gameplay here first: the arcade mode and its general mechanics, because there’s a lot I want to say about the story mode. UNBEATABLE takes the form of a two-button rhythm game, one which I would most closely compare to Muse Dash. You have a button for lower notes and a button for higher notes. It’s unbelievably simple, but there’s still a really high skill ceiling. It’s pretty easy to read the charts, and the songs I’ve played are all charted pretty damn well; as a rhythm game, it’s good, really good, even. The music itself is also really damn solid, including a lot of the original tracks; it’s fantastic, and pretty varied too, which can be the downfall of a lot of rhythm games.

Arcade mode is likely going to be where people spend the most time, and it’s probably where the appeal stands the most for UNBEATABLE as a rhythm game. There are leaderboards, a wide range of difficulties, and modifiers, which help it remain really well fleshed out, despite being only part of the experience. There are also Challenge Boards, collections of challenges for the player to complete to unlock new songs and profile customisation. For those after more intentional goals, this is where it’ll lie. I don’t really love this system, though, as all the challenges are presented as riddles that can be a tad annoying. I just want to break into some new content, rather than ponder the meaning of life and try and figure out how to unlock a blue colour palette. It’s not a huge deal, but it was slightly more tedious than I’d hoped.

The story mode is arguably a more integral part of the experience, and it’s what I have the most thoughts about. I want to quickly cover some issues I had before I take a deeper dive into things. I experienced a couple of minor softlocks, where dialogue just stopped progressing, along with a single hard crash. Alongside that, I noticed a lot of weird jank with certain sections.

There were a lot of moments that would cut between gameplay and cutscenes that weren’t particularly seamless, which sometimes did impact the gameplay, causing me to miss notes, as I didn’t have the time to react. None of these issues really ruined the experience for me, but it was jarring, and something I do hope gets sorted. I have been informed that a lot of these issues should be ironed out, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

See, UNBEATABLE’s story mode is more of a rhythm-based narrative experience that uses both unique quick-time events, the core gameplay as seen in the arcade mode, and a few other interesting rhythm-focused mini-games for the core of its interactivity. Beyond that, though, you take control of Beat, a musician in a world where music has been outlawed. You’re dragged into a relatively innocent scheme by a kid called Quaver, who wants to take some photos at a once very popular venue, which is now abandoned. Things take a turn for the worse, though, and you end up running into some trouble with the cops, evading capture, and accidentally committing just a little terrorism…

It’s a solid opening act which shows a lot of the strengths of the title in full force. The characters are really enjoyable and well-written, the music is really damn good, and the cinematic set-pieces are an absolute blast to play through. It’s a fantastic tone-setting, and also makes one other thing incredibly apparent: UNBEATABLE is oozing with style. It’s visually gorgeous, with a super unique style, combining 2D and 3D in really appealing ways, alongside great use of post-processing and visual elements to give everything a really striking look. It also highlights the anti-authority / anti-police sentiment that the game doesn’t shy away from, and in the current political climate, it’s really refreshing to have something so outwardly blunt, without feeling obnoxious or unfitting.

As far as the story itself, I don’t want to give too many details. It’s a pretty slow-burning story up until its final act, and that pacing is something I didn’t love. It can be really slow at times, but it almost feels intentional. There are a lot of interesting themes covered here, and a lot of those feel integral to these design choices, which — as a videogame — aren’t the most fun to play through, but as a medium to project these ideas, it works really well.

Tedium is a risky tool to play with, risking driving the player away if it gets too much, but in UNBEATABLE’s case, it walks that line carefully during the second act and never pushes it too far. I can’t say whether or not it’s intentional, but it feels like it, and I think it helps to reinforce the themes of being stuck that really take shape in this section.

UNBEATABLE really shines with its core cast of characters: Beat, Quaver, Treble, and Clef. There’s a very human dynamic between the four of them, with a lot of ups and downs, all of which makes sense in the context of the game and the characters themselves. I do wish some of the characters were a little more present in the latter half, but it’s more a personal gripe than an inherent failure on the storytelling part (I just really liked these characters…).

Between the core progression points in the story, you’ll have semi-free access to explore a set few areas, which open up sidequests and additional mini-games. It’s nice, but I do have one major gripe. You’ll be locked out of completing some sidequests after certain points in the story, and you’re never really given clear indication when this is. There’s no way to actively jump to any point in the story, either, even after completion, which locks you out of these unless you go through another playthrough of the game. It’s annoying, and missing out on what felt like a very important quest early on because I was a little too eager and unaware didn’t feel great.

It’s hard to break down why I liked this so much. It’s messy, a little hard to follow sometimes, and the pacing isn’t great. But a lot of its themes tie into this, and while I doubt it’s all intentional and it doesn’t always work, there’s a lot of thematic crossover between the game itself and the process of creation that makes UNBEATABLE so interesting. There are a lot of explorations of the strength of music and art as an expression of the soul, along with the idea of creative fulfilment being so difficult to come by. The story and characters are all pretty deeply relatable, and so much of its narrative feels like an extremely dramatised recreation of issues that a lot of people, myself included, have experienced.

As I came to the end, though, everything really came to a fantastic conclusion. All of the themes managed to tie themselves together really well, and it left me with something of a weight in my chest. It’s one of those games that really makes you think, and it’s left me with a lot to think about. It’s the kind of game that makes me want to say “fuck it” and throw away any sense of realism and chase a dream for the sake of it, and I find that one of the most meaningful emotions a piece of media can bestow. Bravo UNBEATABLE… Bravo.