Unholy Critic Reviews

The poor puzzles don't detract from the core stealth action, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for the unfathomably idiotic enemy AI.

Like The Medium, Unholy experiments with a two dimensions gameplay. The story lacks of depth and stealth looks like a forced feature for a psychological horror that relies on exploration and puzzle solving.

Unholy is a mish-mash of interesting but underdeveloped ideas, with an intriguing aesthetic style. There are scares to be had but they’re often undermined by clunky design and a somewhat goofy dramatic delivery. Unholy is one of those games that I’m painfully ambivalent about; I love and hate parts of it. I can see the promise of a brilliant horror game here, but like the Prophet’s false promise of an eternal paradise, it’s one that goes unfulfilled.

Unholy is very much a mix of good and bad. The graphics are absolutely fantastic and so is the overall world of the Unholy. It’s too bad that the gameplay and story don’t hold up to the world it’s in. The gameplay is mediocre overall. It has some good ideas with its emotion-based attacks, but the stealth areas get so tedious that it ruins these ideas. I ran into a few times where attacks simply would not hit or take effect (such as enemies not being lured). If you can deal with the stress of this game’s stealth, you might find an alright game in it, but the game is overall more about style than substance. I would like to see these developers do more of a traditional type of survival horror – they definitely know how to do atmosphere well!

Unfortunately, Unholy is a video game that just doesn't work. The plot is short and underdeveloped, focused on an uninteresting protagonist and told in poor quality footage. The gameplay is dated and repetitive, a simple alternation of bland exploration, very simple puzzles and stealth where hiding is useless, because the pursuers never represent a danger. At least on the artistic front, the title is more inspired and technically it is quite stable, but it is not enough. Perhaps out of inexperience, Duality Games debuts with insipid horror action, difficult to recommend even to the most indulgent fans of the genre since it's not even scary.

Unholy’s puzzles are trivial, combat is very basic, and stealth elements are simply annoying. There’s also a seemingly tangled story which I stopped caring about after the first hour. Unholy had potential, but I feel like the developers weren’t entirely sure what kind of game they want to make and went overboard with excess ideas.

Unholy has a good foundation for a horror game, but little is followed through to a successful conclusion to rate the game as fun. Stealth doesn't work, the story doesn't draw you in, the atmosphere doesn't capture you, the main character doesn't interest you at all and it seems unnatural.

With the exception of the rich environmental detail to be found in its sinister underworld setting, Unholy otherwise offers precious little to praise. It’s not scary enough to succeed as a horror story, its controls are too clumsy to provide a satisfying stealth experience, and its enemy and puzzle variety are too limited to make any part of the journey feel truly distinct. What begins as an intriguing incursion into a cult-ruled realm soon unravels into a repetitive slog stuck in the shoes of an unlikeable lead character. Unholy is never quite unplayable, but it’s certainly uninspired, unwieldy, and unlikely to hold your interest all the way to its completion.