Unavowed: A Shockingly Dark Urban Fantasy Adventure
The Unavowed demo was the only demo that made me gasp out loud at PAX west.
But I’ll get to that in a minute.
Unavowed is the latest adventure game From Dave Gilbert, Founder and CCO of Wadget Eye Games. It is a dark urban fantasy set in modern New York, and the locale seeps into the atmosphere of the game.
The demo opened with a very clever gender select screen. With the city skyline in the background, three characters are presented on the rooftop. One is a well dressed man holding a rod pointed at the other two, which are vague outlines because of energy cascading out of the rod.
“Get out of that human body, demon!”, he cries, then addressing the player almost directly adds, “Do you even remember if you are a man or a woman?” Based on your choice, the silhouettes resolve into your chosen gender being held steady for the rod’s exorcism by a NPC of the opposite gender.
This rooftop scene introduces the player to the fact that they have been possessed by a demon for the last six months, causing horrible destruction, and chased by the police. Fortunately for the player-character, a secret organization called the Unavowed catches up with you first, and performs that impromptu exorcism.
The demo shifts to the past, asking you what profession you remember being, and then you are back in the past with that job, just before the demonic possession happens.
The moment I became possessed is when I literally gasped out loud. The character I had been controlling for several minutes was no longer under my control, and did shocking, terrible, violent things. I don’t want to ruin the moment for future players, but I looked at the player next to me and said, “Did you see what just happened?!?”
It has been a long time since a game drew me in this fast and caused such a strong reaction for me, and for that reason I’m looking forward to the release of Unavowed on Steam.
