I know that there was talk about Unheard when it was still in development, but I’ve managed to miss on it completely. And it wasn’t until after release that I got curious about what this game is. Finally I had the time to check it out and it was most definitely time well spent.
Unheard is a rather curious concept which I haven’t encountered before, at least not in this format. Essentially, it’s like a mix of Return of the Obra Dinn and a map from a Hitman game. Except it’s all played like a video feed from an event from the past. You get a top down view of a location which has several people moving around and talking. You don’t know who is who, so usually the first goal is to follow at least one of the people to see how their story plays out and hope that their name will be mentioned so you can tag them. Sometimes to learn their name you’d rather need to see them do something (like not answer a phone call) and then by following some other character and seeing them make that call, learn their name. To help keep up with all the events happening at the same time, you can comment on the timeline, so it’s easier to make connections. And the main goal is to not just identify who was who on the scene, but to answer specific questions like “who stole the real painting and who had it in their possession in the end”.
It’s a very simple setup and each story is presented in a really smart way, where you’re meant to learn one side by following one character, then replay the video and follow another character and all this until you figure out who was doing what. There are constant little twists along the way, sometimes ones that completely change the way you perceive the narrative or the characters. Sure, it calls for things to be often overly dramatic, but that’s where the Hitman comparison is most notable – it is like seeing several 47s going through the stories and doing their thing to subtly get to their goal without arousing suspicion, so what seemed like an accident might turn out to be an intentional action upon reviewing the footage. The main story does get too full of itself by the end, presenting you with several endings (none of which make complete sense), but just like in Hitman titles it doesn’t matter, because the little stories on each map make up for it.
The game’s biggest problem lies, I’d say, with how the developers try to increase the complexity with increasing the video time, something that’s most obvious with the only (at the time) DLC localized in English. It’s way too long, way too complex and unlike most of the main game, will require you to take out pen and paper to answer the questions in the end, otherwise it’s just too much clicking in and out of the answer form. Luckily, the main game is pretty smart about the amount of people involved and the length of each map and the puzzle of answering the question is genuinely enjoyable each time.
I loved playing Unheard and it’s essentially perfect length for what it is. And despite a few typos and weird mistakes, the English localization of the main game and the first DLC is top notch, with some recognizable voice actors involved (hearing James Horan, probably most known currently for Skull Face in MGS V was super enjoyable), so one can only hope that the developers find the budget to localize any future content for the game. So I would definitely recommend playing Unheard, just do make sure to use headphones as it is best experienced that way.