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UNBINARY Reviews
UNBINARY is a VR puzzle adventure, entirely hand-painted. Meet Webby, a super AI made from human behavior data and candidate to rule planet Earth. Wear three masks that offer varied physical interactions in VR, and change the way the world reacts to you. Is she ready to fulfill her purpose?
| App ID | 1264050 |
| App Type | GAME |
| Developers | Ludact |
| Publishers | Ludact |
| Categories | Single-player, Tracked Controller Support, VR Only |
| Genres | Casual, Adventure |
| Release Date | 17 Feb, 2022 |
| Platforms | Windows |
| Supported Languages | French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, English, Portuguese - Brazil |
9 Total Reviews
6 Positive Reviews
3 Negative Reviews
Mixed Score
UNBINARY has garnered a total of 9 reviews, with 6 positive reviews and 3 negative reviews, resulting in a ‘Mixed’ overall score.
Reviews Chart
Chart above illustrates the trend of feedback for UNBINARY over time, showcasing the dynamic changes in player opinions as new updates and features have been introduced. This visual representation helps to understand the game's reception and how it has evolved.
Recent Steam Reviews
This section displays the 10 most recent Steam reviews for the game, showcasing a mix of player experiences and sentiments. Each review summary includes the total playtime along with the number of thumbs-up and thumbs-down reactions, clearly indicating the community's feedback
Playtime:
37 minutes
Good puzzles with a unique art style that is compelling.
👍 : 0 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
12 minutes
Played the early access version...its ok. The sound design is generally really annoying, the movement and grab mechanics are pretty buggy. The art style is certainly cool, but like, what is the point of the game? The puzzles are pretty straight forward, and then robots get mad for some reason...? Interested to see what, or if, this ever goes to full release.
👍 : 0 |
😃 : 0
Negative
Playtime:
117 minutes
Wonderful environments with very nice model work and style. The voice actors were a little on the overdramatic side, with a bit of the "You... need... to... do... the... thing..." type of speak near the end, but it was more on the cheesy side than the annoying side. Sometimes I encountered puzzle-breaking glitches, such as bots losing track of their current location after moving around, but level restarts are easy enough and levels are short enough that I didn't lose much progress.
[spoiler]I think the game was sort of trying to make a racism/prejudice allegory, which I found interesting in that they actually tied it into the puzzles rather than being only part of the dialogue. The yellow mask causes green bots to loathe you and actually shove you around if you get close (may be disorientating for some) which I found to actually be a little bit threatening as you'd walk near one, swap masks to climb a ladder, and hear the hate sounds start up; I found myself climbing ladders a little faster even though I was far enough that the green bots wouldn't touch me. I think it could have been a [i]little[/i] more subtle at times, but like the voice acting it wasn't disruptive and as previously mentioned it does have an interesting effect on the player's actions. [/spoiler]
👍 : 0 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
17 minutes
Let's start this review of 'Unbinary' by talking about the main selling point of it which is the handpainted environments. While still quite low-poly the game does indeed look great, it as if you are stepping into the pages of a graphical novel. Sadly not as much effort has gone into the gameplay and this is a fairly easy puzzle room style game in which you will be finding keys and switching things on and off. The puzzles do indeed get a little more complex as time goes on, but most escape room fans won't have much trouble here at all.
While I do appreciate how much effort has gone into making this game I would have liked it to be a bit cheaper than it currently is. If you rush through this game you will be done in less than an hour, but most people will take a little while longer first time trying. I do recommend it and I did enjoy it, but there isn't quite enough of it for my liking. But it is one of the best Oculus Rift only games on the Steam store so kudos for that.
👍 : 2 |
😃 : 1
Positive
Playtime:
11 minutes
the game looks super nice and a good story like portal, but i fear that that the full release will but too short and too easy.
👍 : 1 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
5 minutes
This game might be fun, but using the index controllers the fingers are used in reverse which makes no sense.
There doesnt seem to be an option to use free locomotion only teleport which I find immersion breaking.
👍 : 5 |
😃 : 1
Negative
Playtime:
137 minutes
[i][/i]
Unbinary is a puzzle and narrative adventure game for virtual reality that distinguishes itself from the abundance of similar games with a unique art style and a theme that is entirely an allegory. I'll comment on Unibinary at the allegorical level later, but for now let's look at Unbinary as a VR game.
"Autonomous User" is your role as player character, and your job is to solve puzzles to advance through areas and collect the data cube at the end. "Webby" is the artificial intellegence the Autonomous User is operating within, and she is undergoing tests to ensure her perfection. Webby is there every step of the way, with continuous commentary and I enjoyed her companionship. The voice actress was very enthusiastic, and though she got screechy at times, it is clear from the start that the AI Webby is a non-robotic character with strong human-like emotions.
The scenario has an interesting setup, and the puzzle mechanics are introduced immediately. The challenge of the game is figuring out how to navigate areas by Assuming Control (does anyone still remember that meme, a dozen years later?) of two types of robot that have different capabilities. This is a light, casual puzzle game. There are never situations with a lot of possibilities to wreak havoc upon your brain. It's possible to smoothly flow through the game's areas without getting stuck, and I only stumbled a few times.
The smoothness of the puzzle design allowed me to stay focused on the narrative and the art. The visuals in Unbinary are astonishing. It's the "inside" of an AI system, but everything is organic and whimsical. I loved how the levels look "unfinished" up towards where the ceiling would be, as if the creators of this AI environment were being economical and only focusing on what matters (and that may be true for the game's artists!). There are so many widgets and gizmos and machines that are fascinating to look at, and I loved how many elements of the game appeared to animate at low frame rates like traditional cartoons. The hand-drawn visuals of Unbinary are one of my favorite things about it.
The first level had a strange texture glitch in the area above the level, but that was the only visual problem I encountered. The game rules at a billion frames per second because of how the graphics are constructed, so nobody should ever have performance issues with Unbinary.
Gameplay glitches did cause me problems, though. One the level where I first needed to pick up a battery, I found the battery but got stuck because I couldn't pick it up. I got stuck for a while, thinking there was something else I was supposed to do first. Eventually I suspected the game might be bugged, so I opened the menu to restart the game. I couldn't interact with the menu, either, confirming the game's state was broken. I forced the game to close and when I reloaded, I was able to pick up the battery and continue.
The second major glitch was at the end of the game. As I was trying to figure out what to do, I switched myself to the yellow robot identity near the final green robot. It knocked me up waaaaay up into the air and I landed in the final room. This triggered the ending sequence, but I was unable to insert the data cube, so I restarted. After going through it again, I realized I'd broken the sequence of the game, and this time I was able to complete the ending.
A patch was released during my playthrough that added smooth turning. I prefer smooth turn and I appreciated that, but there's no option for the rotation speed. The speed is too slow and made me sick, so I went back to snap rotation.
[b]EDIT: It looks like this was addressed in an April update, but I haven't tested to see if the turn speed is fast enough for my taste.[/b]
I enjoyed Unbinary as a short, casual puzzle game. It's only about two hours long, but that's an excellent length for a game designed with simple puzzle mechanics. Those mechanics are developed and applied in clever ways as any competent puzzle game should, but does not over-extend or get too repetitive. There's a strong narrative sitting above all the gameplay, similar to what you'd find in environmental narrative adventure games (sometimes dismissively called "walking simulators"). That narrative and the gameplay combine to form an allegory, which I will share my thoughts on in the next section.
[i][/i]
👍 : 2 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
172 minutes
New Review now that i have played the full version... Game was supposed to be cheaper for the people that buy it early, but price didnt go up, while great for new players, early supporters got kinda shafted, we did get a $15 game we just paid full price from the start.
Beautiful game original and great looking design, great performance with a 1080, nice voice acting...
But the wait wasnt worth it :/
The game i felt was really basic in most, if not all aspects.
The awesome great visual assets become repetitive fast, the puzzles are very simple, i didnt feel any challenge other than finding the next button or lever to push so it opened the next area so i pushed the button in there, sure there is a bit more to it, but in the end i didnt feel clever or satisfied after completing them.
Interaction is very limited, Mechanics dont feel smooth, level design was very basic, very short enclosed levels.
And i found annoying bugs and glitches that really lowered my enjoyment of the game.
Index Controllers are missaligned, having your hand float where your irl hands arent, is liveable, but you can never use the aiming reticles on the "gun" because you just cant twist that way because how weirdly angled the controls are.
Most of the stairs and monkey bars where a bit too high, like i had to tippytoe or make small jumps to reach some of them that i think should be easily accesible.
In one place i just lifted a platform and i supposed i had to jump on top of it, but the teleport indicator never turns green (indicating you can jump there), i kept looking for a way up because the obvious one didnt work. Had to look for a gameplay video to see what i needed to do, and yeah that the first thing i tried, but it just didnt work as it should, after trying different angles and places i finally could teleport and continue the game, but i was like 10 seconds away from calling it.
The game also has this annoying thing that if you "enter" a wall or similar the whole world goes white.
Well, something happened to me on the ending where i got teleported between walls? or something, it kept telling me to do something with the data (like literal the last step to finish the game) but i couldnt do anything, not move teleport or nothing... if i turned around everything went white... reloaded the last level 3 times, it happened every time and i just couldnt finish the game.
So i had to go to youtube again to watch the ending, i missed the last ~4min including credits.
So even if i kinda enjoyed the short time it took me to finish the game, and i liked the art style and the whole concept... i really cant recommend this game because of the bugs i encountered in the short time the game lasts.
👍 : 5 |
😃 : 0
Negative
Playtime:
146 minutes
Unbinary is a VR puzzle game where you are guided through a series of test chambers by an advanced AI, akin to Portal.
In the game you are given access to 3 masks which when equipped change which objects you are able to interact with, as well as how NPCs will interact with you. I really enjoyed this mechanic and it allowed for some unique puzzles.
Speaking of puzzles, they were enjoyable throughout the entire game. The first half of the game was maybe a little too easy, I wouldn't have minded if the difficulty began to ramp up a little earlier. The latter half had puzzles with a more satisfying difficulty, where a couple of times I did have to stop and think before proceeding. The game was never frustratingly difficult at any point.
Unbinary also features a hand-painted art style that was just lovely to be immersed in. Objects and characters looked great in this style, and I even found myself saying hello back to every robot that greeted me. Some aspects of the environment such as walls could have used a touch more detail to give a bit more atmosphere, but overall the game looked great.
Story wise, there was enough to keep me entertained for my play through with decent voice acting, but this game is more so about the puzzles.
Unfortunately there were a few minor technical issues in the game. Playing on a Quest 2 with virtual desktop, I couldn't find the button to open the in game menu, even after trying every button on the controller. If I wanted to quit the game or restart a level I had to bring up the steamVR menu and exit the game there (UPDATE: This has now been fixed!). Luckily the game did save my progress. I also encountered one bug that prevented me from progressing without restarting. I had stacked two blocks on top of each other to reach higher ground (something I had done in a previous level and is intended) but the game only let me move onto the lower block and I couldn't separate the blocks to try again.
Overall though, really enjoyed the game and would say it's definitely a worthwhile experience, especially at the price. Great looking game with a fun puzzle mechanic and enjoyable puzzles.
👍 : 7 |
😃 : 0
Positive
