I truly love when promising horror hits my radar. It brightens up the dark crevices of my blackened soul. I also love when a demo is vague enough to hook you but not spoil the entire game. And thankfully, Unholy fits into all of these categories. Without further ado, let’s get right into this one! I am VERY excited!
What is Unholy?
Unholy follows the disappearance of a young child from a run down, unwelcoming post-soviet town. You play a mother, Dorothea, desperate to find her son, Gabriel. While the town seems to believe the child dead, Dorothea is convinced her son is still out there somewhere. And so, the doors are opened to other worlds.
The demo covers small sections of 3 different chapters, the first being the real world. In this section, we learn some context towards Gabriel’s disappearance. We then move into the in-between, a section where we can learn some new gameplay dynamics. After this, we enter the Unholy world. A grotesque world, filled with danger. It is in this world that Dorothea must fight to survive and find Gabriel.
Unholy also features an innovative combat experience, using emotions as weapons: anger, fear, sadness and desire. Each emotion will have a different impact on the environment around you, something we only get a taste of in the demo.
An Unholy Experience?
By now, everyone knows how hard I scrutinise both horror, and demos. Too often, I’ve played demos that weren’t enough to even form a single thought on, or ones so long they spoil the whole game. Admittedly, reading the brief for the demo, I was worried. Playing three chapters of Unholy in the demo alone?! I thought it was doomed. However, developers Duality Games managed to hit that perfect balance of building interest without revealing too much.
So little of this world and story has been revealed, but I’m already hooked. I only ran into one issue while playing, but it wasn’t through any fault of the game. I had a bug-free experience, however I have learned that my PC may not be able to run the full game. Thankfully, Unholy will also be releasing on Xbox Series X/S and Playstation 5. Friends, I am currently very grateful for my Series X.
Unholy has so much promise. The feel of the story is great, and is genuinely shaping up to be something special. My only actual complaint is that we don’t have a confirmed release date just yet. It’s set for a 2023 release, hopefully sooner rather than later. I am seriously looking forward to this one.
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