AbleGamers' Web Game of the Week: Unmanned

AbleGamers' web game of the week is Unmanned. This game is easily spoiled so it's better if you decide to play it before reading this entire article. Just like what I did for Appy 1000mg, I'll discuss the accessibility first and then move on to the game itself. This way, you can see how well you'll be able to play it and get to experience it for yourself. I'll only brief you by saying this: Unmanned has you playing as someone who works for the military and is at a very weird moment in his life. You get to choose his thoughts and how he reacts, so each time you play could be completely different.

Unmanned has some good accessibility largely due to the fact that you can't "fail" the game. Everything you do will have repercussions, even if not immediately, but there's no "Game Over" screen. The game has you go through various motions: clicking to move, steering a car, moving a target, and choosing dialogue options at the same time as many of these. Some of these actions require precision to accomplish, but should you fail the story will continue to go on, as I mentioned before. However to get different stories you need to accomplish things differently so some will be locked out of specific storylines.

Multi-tasking between doing an action and choosing dialogue is often required and may be difficult for some gamers. There is also one segment of the game that tasks you to choose dialogue options quickly, but the game will choose one for you if you don't click on anything and it has no impact on the rest of the story. That same timed dialogue sequence has music playing in the background which is somewhat important, so for that moment gamers with hearing disabilities will likely miss what is being conveyed. Colorblind gamers and those with low-vision will be fine.

Story spoilers beyond this point!

My absolute favorite part about Unmanned is how it asks you to multi-task actions and thoughts/dialogue. To me, this is true to real life. Have you ever been really involved in something while trying to talk to someone? Chances are you'll ignore what they're saying or sort of half pay attention to both things at once, which I think is really captured here. All of the little actions that you can do sort of took me by surprise, since this could have easily been a game of just dialogue choices. Driving the car, smoking the cigarette, and aiming the weapon all added to the reality a great deal. Even the medals, which seem so out of place, go a long way. I envisioned them as rewards that the main character was giving himself. So if you get the award for nailing the lyrics in the car ride, he naturally congratulates himself with a "medal" in his mind. I'm very interested in the paths and ideas that you guys took away from this, so if you do decide to play it let me know in the comments!