Preview – Unmasked: An Inner Journey [Demo] PC

The first thing you’ll notice about this cutesy 2D platformer is the scenery. With more layers of parallax backgrounds than you’ve ever seen and a vivid digitally-painted style, there’s a real pop to the art direction; notably through the lack of a gimmick. So many games try to stand out with strange details, colour palette restrictions, pixel art, grayscale, or heavy reliance on the chiaroscuro effect these days. There’s much less games just being pretty but Unmasked pulls it off really pleasantly. Developed in Ukraine by a two-person team, the meditative simplicity and dialogue-less narrative is said to be their way of sharing some of their thoughts and feelings living through the ongoing war ravaging their country. A way of processing and sharing it.

The demo is but a short 15-minute introduction stage to get the idea across but it still includes everything you’d expect – combat, platforming challenges, chase sequences, and even a boss fight. With a distinct lack of many expected mechanics from games these days, the whole experience is boiled down to an almost reflective state. There’s not much to the combat besides a dash and a simple three-hit combo, and the platforming is just hitting the odd timed jump with a dash to boot. Instead of coming at you hard with a challenge, Unmasked is presented as a title from an older generation. It’s more about spending a bit of time in the space than it is about being pushed very far. In fact it reminds me a lot of another game I once reviewed: Flat Kingdom. The floaty movement and straightforward design bear a striking resemblance as they both hit a nostalgic spot for older Flash games.

Projects like this, that aim to convey complex states of ambivalence, are more than just games for entertainment. They are a peek behind the curtain at the artists that pour themselves into their creations even in the face of dread. It’s something to think about when we play – some games are built to feel incredible to control; to give the player the power to push boundaries, whilst others are meant to be mental challenges that teach thinking around problems. Some, however, like Unmasked, are more like shouts into the void. They are the artists building something for themselves, to somehow make a little sense of what they feel – to simply express. If the poetry of creation is something you like to experience, especially through the lens of a darling indie platformer, then for sure give this abstract addition a wishlist.