First off, I will point you to the part of the header that states 'provisional'. That is there as I have not actually completed Korean survival horror video game Unstoppable. In contrast to its title, I frequently hit roadblocks, with my journey coming to a current end at the chapter three boss, that after weeks of trying I just cannot seem to beat. I do feel I have played enough of the game to write a review, though when I do eventually actually beat the game I will update this review to reflect my thoughts on the whole game.
This takes place in 1999, you play as a delivery man who has been tasked with delivering a package to an office block. Not long after delivering it however all chaos breaks loose, with the delivery man getting knocked out. He awakens to find that the staff in the building have gone feral, affected by a poison gas, they have become afflicted with rage, killing all that they come across. His task now is to make his way down through the floors of the office block, trying his best to avoid both the dangerous infected, but also a shadowy group who appear to have orchestrated the whole event for unknown reasons.
Unstoppable is split over four chapters, each of which is made up of around four to five floors of the building, each chapter culminating in a boss battle. The game has an isometric overhead perspective, and reminded me a lot visually of the 'Die Hard' section of the video game Die Hard Trilogy. That is no bad thing as I loved that game. Each floor of the building has you searching for the access stairway to get to the next floor down. Along the way you have to fight infected, mainly using melee weapons that have durability. I'm assuming the business based at the office complex dealt with hardware, as the default weapon the infected carry are hammers, so many hammers! Levels are small, but they feel logical, the lack of variety in the locations makes this feel more realistic than if each level looked wildly different to the last. There is visual storytelling with many corpses and signs of past violence dotted around the rooms and corridors. There are some notes and files to be found, but I wish there had been more than the handful there seemed to be.
Combat is mainly melee focussed, though there are a variety of guns with limited ammo to be found. You have both a quick and heavy attack, as well as a dodge ability. Playing with a gamepad I found the combat to be enjoyable, if a little on the hard side at times. If you don't pay attention the enemies can swiftly make short work of you, and I sometimes found the dodge button caused me to leap forward towards an enemy rather than away like I had intended. It is the boss battles that really slowed down my progress. These were always against non-infected humans working for the shadowy group behind the outbreak, wielding unique weapons. The first boss took me a good while to work out how to beat, but I found this more interesting to decipher than frustrating, even if dying meant you had to re-do the level leading up to the boss each time. The chapter three boss was just too much for me, its attacks able to kill me in around three hits, while even after a good two to three minutes of fighting I was unable to reduce his health by even a quarter.
You can hold up to two weapons at a time, but melee weapons have limited durability, while guns have limited ammo that can't be replenished. You later get a special rage ability that allows you to attack with unlimited stamina for a time once a bar has filled up. During this state however you are still susceptible to attacks, so makes you a bit of a glass cannon.
The cutscenes were not amazing looking, but they had an old school charm to them. The same goes for the barebones story, it is completely functional, and gives you reason for doing what you are doing. I did like the transitions between chapters, as well as the playable character slowly getting access to better armour. If not for the tough boss battles and a lack of difficulty settings I may have enjoyed this more than I did. It certainly is not a bad game, but it does fall a little on the bland side. Unstoppable is out now in its completed form, it can be purchased on Steam.
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