There’s been a considerable push in the indie game space as of late to tell stories that are more meaningful and relatable. Mental health conditions previously considered a taboo topic of discussion is now more prominently featured in these sorts of titles. Unwording, the third release from the one-person development studio Frostwood Interactive, utilizes word puzzles in an otherwise quiet world to drill home to players the effects of negative thinking and overcoming those self antagonizing thoughts with the help of new perspectives.

The game begins on Day 1 with the player waking the character by clicking on the words “wake up”. However, it quickly becomes apparent that negative thoughts are clouding the character as the player is tasked with rearranging the phrase “wake up” into something more akin to the character’s mood. This is done by rearranging and flipping the letters to force them to fit into a puzzle box and spell out the more daunting phrase “give up”. This behavior continues on throughout the day as the player guides the character through life, from interacting with coworkers to finishing tasks and walking home to order dinner.

Unwording takes place over the course of 3 days, and it’s an interaction with a small bird on Day 2 that brings some humor and a change in perspective to the narrative. Puzzles shift here from being one dimensional self-deprecating anagrams to a more three dimensional challenge where players must view the blocks of letters from various perspectives in order to complete new words. Circles dictate how many new words can be spelled out, and each circle contains a number to let players know how many letters should be in each word. Once the words are viewed at the correct angle players can shift them around to form a new thought for the character. The puzzle landscape changes yet again on the third day, and players are then given the option to simply type in commands similar to old school word games. Looking at a cup of tea prompts a dialogue box where the player can type in something as simple as “make” to trigger the action.

The Good

There is an inherent value to having relatable, meaningful stories about mental health and wellness being told in the narrative game space. Games are an incredible vessel for helping people process and understand their own mental health obstacles, and an accurate depiction of the toll of negative thoughts overshadowing every aspect of your day is a point in Unwording’s story that many people can relate to on a personal level.

The Bad

There’s an obvious concern, however, with touching on sensitive topics like intrusive thoughts and mental illness when that’s not an area that you’re well versed in. When large game studios like Ninja Theory create a game like Hellblade—where the main character struggles with schizophrenia—they first tank a ton of their resources into researching these mental illnesses by contacting medical professionals and afflicted persons alike to provide an accurate portrayal of the condition and the means for overcoming it.

Small studios like Frostwood Interactive may not have the resources for that kind of outreach, and so some of the means for the character overcoming their ‘negative thoughts’ can feel trivial and out of touch. Nobody procrastinates at work by sitting at their computer and thinking “I will procrastinate today.” and overcoming the inability to focus and procrastinate may not be as simple as just going “nah, I’m going to work now.” and getting it done.

Obviously, Unwording is a small indie game and I don’t believe the goal here is to trivialize or demoralize anybody who struggles with negative thoughts by telling them “Just think better!” but that is a risky take. Perspective can be important to overcoming negativity, but I would hate to think that somebody might perceive the take of trying a different perspective as a call to just be better without actually addressing any potential mental health concerns.

What Surprised Me

Unwording is a short but sweet experience that doesn’t overstay its welcome. However, I was surprised by the progression of the puzzles over the course of the game’s three day narrative. Puzzles on Day 1 and Day 2 were much more complex and required creatively rotating blocks and rearranging letters to produce a thought while Day 3 found players simply typing in basic commands to get their character through the day, almost completely eliminating the puzzle aspect of the narrative.

What Was Predictable

Unfortunately, the concern that a game touching on a topic relating to mental wellbeing can veer into “just take a bath and think positive” territory is realized with Unwording. The game is exceptionally short, and there’s not really anything in the way of time allotted for the character to overcome their negative thinking with much more than sheer willpower. It's implied that a small  side character has an effect on forcing the main character to overcome his initial negative perception and a semi-climactic event changes how others behave toward the character outwardly, but nothing overtly changes in any way except for just how the character thinks about their situation.

Bottom Line

Unwording only has an approximate run time of about 2 hours, and while the game does offer both an easy and normal difficulty there’s really very little difference with the exception of the availability of hints. The solutions to the puzzles are often pretty transparent and straightforward. It’s easily a one and done type of experience, unless you unintentionally miss a few of the interactions and want to see them on a subsequent playthrough or are trying to mop up missed achievement.

Visuals: 9

The visual aesthetic of Unwording is undoubtedly one of its strong points. The story begins on Day 1 with the character feeling disconnected and disinterested, so the world around him is aptly devoid of detail. Pencil strokes and a desaturated color palette define the world of the character’s apartment and workplace.  As new perspective is attained over the course of the three days in the story, the world becomes more three dimensional  with additional details and colors becoming more prominent. It's a very appealing means to telling a story that is otherwise devoid of language and dialogue.

Sound: 5

The audio design for Unwording is very simplified. There’s a missable soundtrack that doesn’t really stand out and you’d be forgiven for just turning the volume down and forgetting it is there at all.  There is some audio support for ambience but there’s no dialogue and therefore no voice acting or anything special going on in this department. It works for what it is, however.

Playability: 7

For the most part, Unwording works as intending. The puzzle solving mechanics are well explained and easy to understand. Character movement is effective and its easy enough to explore and interact with items in the character’s world. However, during my playtime I did run into a few errors where things would not interact even though there was an option to do so. At one point, I was forced to restart an entire day over because the game glitched and my character disappeared. The camera could still be controlled and there was a sense of ‘movement’ along the street, but I wasn’t able to see the character nor could I interact with anything. There’s certainly a need for some post-launch patching and bug squashing here.

Story: 7

As previously described, there’s certainly a need for games like Unwording to touch on topics like mental health and wellbeing. The only way to destigmatize mental illness is to openly discuss it and remove it from the list of ‘taboo topics’. There is also a risk of doing so in a way, however, that trivializes the mental health aspect and can make it seem as if genuine illnesses like depression can simply be solved by thinking positively or looking at a situation from a new perspective when that may not always be the case.  Without any dialogue or context for a lot of the game’s events, there’s no real way to determine the intent without just taking it at face value for what it is.

Replay Value: 2

There’s not much reason to go back to Unwording once you’ve played through the story once. There are no alternative endings, and little changes with the increase in difficulty. It’s perfectly fine to play through once, but unless you specifically miss an interaction that you want to to see there’s no real reason to traverse back through the game again.

Overall Grade: 5