One of the things that can be liberating when making indie games is the ability to take risks, and combine concepts and styles that normally wouldn’t go together. We’ve seen some great successes with this sort of genre alchemy multiple times, but there absolutely have been missteps that haven’t turned out as hoped as well. Unwording, a title that mixes together word puzzles and a perspective on mental health and depression, certainly brings one such unusual combination to the table. Unfortunately, while I applaud where it ends up in many ways, I do wonder whether the people that could benefit from what’s ultimately its more positive perspective will be lost on the way, due to the road to get there.

The concept throughout is pretty consistent, though there’s a visual and tonal shift towards the middle of the game’s relatively short runtime. Your character will encounter some sort of object or situation that will prompt a thought, composed of a few words. Your goal will then be to manipulate and transform those words into a different message, typically one contrary to the original thought. You’re able to rotate the blocks the letters are on, sometimes made of only one, and sometimes more, as well as twist to be sure they’re facing the right way. The spaces where you’re supposed to place your reconfigured letters are shaped in different ways, some wider, and some shorter, to help give you clues on what blocks may go where, and then when the right letter is in the proper spot it will typically change in color.

For the most part conceptually this works, but in execution I have two very different concerns. The first is simply that the controls are often quite clumsy, with it sometimes being a struggle to grab, release, or manipulate letters as you’d like. Considering this is the entire focus of the gameplay, it being implemented sloppily is disappointing. The second issue, and one that may be worse, is that while I appreciate its approach for the character’s change in perspective, moving him from his tendency to only imagine negative thoughts in a flat world, to beginning to see the world more positively and in three dimensions, I find it problematic. For one, I think it presents an overly simplistic view for how someone with crippling depression could simply turn things around with a simple realization. In addition, even if there could be a positive and hopeful message here for people with depression, I’m not sure that initially forcing people to reinforce their negative thoughts before getting to the character’s breakthrough makes it worthwhile. 

The shame here, as someone with multiple family members who struggle with depression, is that I get the idea, and I appreciate the sentiment behind it. Perhaps for people with more mild depression, or who could use a little perspective it could, indeed, have some positive effect with its ultimate message. That said, I also find it all pretty problematic and it left me shaking my head a bit, coming away feeling it’s all a bit naive. If the controls weren’t quite such a mess, perhaps there could have been more room for that being a redeeming factor, but unfortunately it feels like on all fronts there are some flaws here, making them hard to brush aside.