Ever since Hi-Fi Rush first came out in 2023, I’ve been looking for a game to fill the void it left as a game that blended both rhythm and action elements. While there were plenty of great rhythm games I’ve played since, there has never been something that combined multiple genres into one cohesive experience. However, when I was first introduced to UNBEATABLE, I hoped that this would be the game I was looking for.
UNBEATABLE is an indie game that was funded via Kickstarter in 2021. The game sports stunning hand-drawn visuals, an elaborate story that balances rhythmic battles and exploration, and an entirely separate arcade mode where you can freely play tracks to compete against players online in a leaderboard.
All of this, on paper, should make for a great game. Unfortunately, despite a solid premise, lovable characters, and a great soundtrack, the overall experience is undermined by a lack of focus thanks to some bizarre gameplay choices and countless bugs.
A Young Girl Plays A Song
UNBEATABLE begins with members of an unknown band delivering what will end up becoming a fateful performance. Soon, the perspective changes to a young woman by the name of Beat, who awakes in a world where music is outlawed in all forms. Beat soon meets Quaver, a kid who yearns to honor her mother by performing in the venue where she made her name, despite the action being extremely illegal.
Quickly, they are hunted down by the H.A.R.M., or Harmonious Audio Reduction Maintenance. Along the way, the two meet Treble and Clef, two other musicians who have been equally oppressed by H.A.R.M., and together, they will form a band that threatens the system and start what will quickly become a revolution: “UNBEATABLE.” The four must contend with abnormal monsters, police officers, propagandists, and the mysterious leaders in charge of this terrible world order as they carry out their rebellion.
The premise of UNBEATABLE, for lack of a better term, rules. The emphasis on music-based revolution is such an intriguing concept, especially in a reality where music itself has been outlawed. It helps that it’s very easy to become invested in the characters and their journeys. Beat, for instance, has confidence that masks her deep insecurities. She seems to come from a world similar to our own: where music is normal, and H.A.R.M. was never in power.
The other side characters are great too: Quaver has a sense of youthful optimism that hides her deep rage towards the world, Treble is an aloof keyboarder who lost an arm in an unknown incident, while Clef is stubborn to a fault due to previous traumatic incidents. The antagonists are great too, with each member of H.A.R.M. serving as interesting foils to each member of the band.
A lot of the charm of the characters comes from just how beautiful the presentation is. The visuals are fantastically hand-drawn, with each character having idle animations that add to the charm. It feels like a classic anime or cartoon, especially with how bright and shiny the backgrounds are. For a dystopian world where a fascistic organization controls the output of music, the scenery is surprisingly stunning.
Of course, a rhythm game is nothing without a good soundtrack. Thankfully, the soundtrack of UNBEATABLE is great and does a nice job of balancing different genres. Some tracks fall into the category of indie rock, while others fit more into the lens of techno or drum-and-bass. I’m looking forward to listening to each track on the OST more closely when it releases on streaming services.
If I were to offer a criticism of UNBEATABLE‘s story, it would be in its writing. A lot of the dialogue can feel very same-y at points, with characters constantly talking over each other and using elaborate metaphors to illustrate their point. It’s not inherently a bad thing, but once you start to notice it, you realize that it litters most dialogue exchanges between characters, whether it’s between the band and the antagonists, members within the band, or NPCs.
Easily, though, the bigger issue is how vague the narrative can be at times, especially towards the end. There are several reveals about the identity of certain characters and connections they share with each other, but it’s often really hard to understand who is who. Part of that is due to the aforementioned snappy nature of writing, but it could also be because of some glitches leading to cutscenes cutting out and not displaying at all, with even the final cutscene being a completely black screen.
That leads to a broader issue with UNBEATABLE as a whole. While the story is good, the lackluster gameplay and frequent technical issues muddy my enjoyment of the characters, writing, and presentation.
Too Much of a Good Thing
UNBEATABLE tries to implement a lot of mechanics and gameplay concepts into one package. While the main foundation is the rhythm aspects, it’s not the thing you will be doing the most in this game. For most of the runtime, you’ll be running around on foot and exploring the environment around you, talking to people, doing mini-quests, and running to your next destination.
While at first, you may be in awe of the colorful visuals and the gorgeous scenery, the novelty will quickly wear off due to just how boring exploring feels. There really isn’t a purpose to running around, and the actual movement controls are quite clunky, with Beat being unnatural to maneuver. This isn’t helped by how erratic the camera is, and how it often won’t even follow the characters as you try to find your destination.
For some reason, there are also brief moments where you’ll need to platform in order to progress. UNBEATABLE isn’t a game that feels designed for platforming, and as such, the act of trying to jump onto scaffolding, cars, or a giant toothbrush hanging from a billboard is extremely frustrating to get used to. At one point, I spent almost fifteen minutes trying to get to the next area because of how difficult it was to gauge where Beat was jumping and where she’d land.
In between these moments, there is admittedly a great setup with the rhythmic battles you can have with monsters. It is quite satisfying to nail the timing of each note in tune with the music. There are even sections where you’ll be using the beat of the music to fight enemies in hand-to-hand combat, rather than the traditional grid-like system of most rhythm games. However, much like with the exploration mechanics, the novelty quickly ends up wearing off due to several major problems.
For one, the combat will often switch between two different grids on a track, like a fighting game, where an opposing player will go to your opposite side to get the drop on you. While that’s a fundamental part of the fighting game genre, it doesn’t work when you’re playing a rhythm game, and the perspective can rapidly switch between two points. It often feels disorienting, and it caused me to miss multiple notes that I shouldn’t have.
That, I could get used to. What I couldn’t get used to was the frequent amount of stuttering in the middle of each battle, causing me to lose my rhythm. At one point, in fact, the game stuttered to such an extent during one specific battle that I instantly hit a game over, and not even two seconds later, my game crashed. This, combined with the previous issues with cutscenes, was almost enough to completely ruin my enjoyment of UNBEATABLE.
Furthermore, UNBEATABLE will often hit you with other rhythm-based minigames. Some of these are fun, like grinding on a rail or a motorcycle and hitting police officers in time with the music. A lot of them, though, end up dragging down the overall experience. When you’re constantly going back and forth between bartending and going to the batting cages, it’s hard to enjoy the main rhythm mechanics.
That is the main issue at the heart of UNBEATABLE. Even if all the glitches are fixed, the game doesn’t focus enough on its main rhythm mechanics and instead highlights exploration, minigames, and other elements that feel unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. That’s why I really liked arcade mode, where you can pick songs to play in a more focused-version of the rhythm sections. Yet, even these moments were ruined by the frequent bugs.
Every single concept that UNBEATABLE introduces works on paper, but when combined into one game, it creates an unfocused mess. It’s such a shame, because I was so excited to play this game from the moment I first learned about its existence.
A Frustrating Disappointment
Rhythm games are really hard to get right. There’s a reason that, save for a few small examples, the genre has mostly fallen into obscurity. Only now is it starting to make a comeback, with Hi-Fi Rush delivering a mix between it and the action genre, and the upcoming Rhythm Heaven Groove seeming to deliver a more traditional rhythmic experience.
Sadly, UNBEATABLE is an encapsulation of all of the genre’s potential weaknesses. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if the game is one of the worst I’ve played. There is a solid foundation here, with how great the visuals, soundtrack, and characters are. Additionally, the gameplay premise and overall rhythm mechanics are fun to use. Soon enough, however, these high moments were undone by frustrating glitches and design choices.
The strange choices in the writing, plus the emphasis on exploration, platforming, and random minigames over the main rhythm mechanics, create an unfocused package that is often quite frustrating to play through. The constant glitches, too, detract from any enjoyment I could’ve found in both the narrative and gameplay. It got to the point that even the final cutscene didn’t play, and the main rhythm sections would constantly stutter, to such an extent that my game crashed.
I wanted to enjoy UNBEATABLE so badly. It looked and seemed like a game that was made for me, especially as someone who’s loved rhythm and action titles for a long time. While there were some moments where things clicked during my playtime, by the time the credits rolled (which also didn’t appear due to the glitches), I found myself deeply disappointed by the overall experience. I can only hope that some of the issues are mitigated in future patches, but for now, I don’t think I can recommend this game to anyone.
Disclaimer: Playstack provided a PlayStation 5 copy of UNBEATABLE for review purposes.
