Unholy review

The horror of Unholy could have been so much better if it wasn’t held back by some poor enemy AI and awkward controls. It’s frustrating because the photorealistic visuals are impressive. Playing as a woman who decides to leave a cult, only to watch her son get dragged into an alternate hell called The Eternal City is never going to be a fun day out. While it comes with its flaws, I still liked the majority of it, even with some grating voice acting and rough transitioning between cutscenes and gameplay.

As Dorothea, you must find a way to get your son back. At first, you witness a ceremony taking place where your son, Gabriel, is about to be sacrificed for the twisted prophet that is leading the proceedings. The church burns down and Gabriel goes missing, leaving you as a woman scorned, dedicated to finding her son whatever the cost. After learning about a ritual to lead her to him, Dorothea enters The Eternal City, a messed up version of the real world.

It shares similarities to Silent Hill and the Upside Down from Stranger Things, yet it stands on its own as being a nightmarish world for you to explore. The core gameplay revolves around the use of a mystical slingshot that’s used to open doors, provide cover, hurt enemies, and more. I have no idea why a slingshot was the weapon of choice, but it kind of works, even if you don’t look particularly badass or menacing. Dorothea isn’t a warrior, though. She’s just a mother who wants to find her son, and she’ll do whatever it takes to get him back.

The ammo for the slingshot all relate to different emotions such as sadness, fear, anger, and desire. They can be switched between once unlocked to do a whole manner of things, and while it doesn’t take long to work out what to use when, it’s a nice feature that helps you out a lot. On top of your slingshot, you’ll also unlock different masks that can be used to unlock new abilities, like the ability to see parts of the environment that can be interacted with to help blow open a passage or unlock a door.

An important part of getting through the Eternal City is stealth, and while these various tools can help, you’ll have to run away from the cult’s guards and hide in nearby lockers. The enemy AI is poor, as they won’t bother you even if they see you climb into one, and once you’re inside they take a while to leave the area. It’s not done to the high standard seen in the likes of titles like Alien: Isolation , and it shows.

With AI being this way, it takes away a lot of the nerves, turning them into frustrating periods that break immersion. Unholy struggles under its own ambition, ruined by some technical issues like texture pop-in mere metres in front of Dorothea. Cutscenes go from a character being stood there to disappearing, and rough transitioning going in-and-out of these sections.

While the environments are intricately designed, some of the character animations are poor, looking like wooden puppets when they talk. The voice acting is wooden as well, and never encapsulates the fear in the story. It’s a shame as I can handle the technical issues, but having them both a hindrance does hamper the overall enjoyment of Unholy. With weak enemy AI, it also ruins your time being in awe of the design of the Eternal City. Stealth is a pain, and with weak AI these moments are just frustrating.

Unholy could be so much more if all of the kinks were ironed out before releasing. It came out on PC last year, so you’d like to think some of the issues would have been fixed or even tweaked a little. Saying that, I did enjoy the story, and the environments are stunning. The gameplay tries to do something different, and while the slingshot is a strong tool, switching back and fourth between the “ammo” as well as changing your masks for certain situations isn’t ideal, and a lot could have been done better.