Heading into Chasing the Unseen, I used to be anticipating Shadow of the Colossus, however with out the sword. What I obtained as a substitute was a delightfully bizarre, conscious little expertise about climbing—and after spending most of my time this week taking pictures bugs for Tremendous Earth and desperately attempting to study tabletop guidelines for my gaming group, it is simply what I wanted.
You play a teeny-tiny monk exploring a surreal community of floating islands. You’ve got obtained a glider, a Breath-of-the-Wild model climbing button, and a leap—that is it. It is a fully stripped-back expertise crammed with eerie music, and whereas its beasties are a contact unsettling at first look, Chasing the Unseen is not actually attempting to scare you.
Its massive, sprawling ranges are troublesome to navigate and a contact irritating at occasions, however it’s value getting over that preliminary hump. For a sport about climbing, scaleable surfaces are literally fairly uncommon—as a substitute, you are meant to shuffle your manner via awkward, winding routes, navigating on precarious ledges whereas the world yawns away beneath you. It’s going to have you ever asking: “I can in all probability survive that fall, proper?” quite a bit.
For completionists, the capybaras are the place it is at. These little critters are your excuse to really discover Chasing the Unseen’s weird ranges. In any other case, your mission is to get to the highest—that is it.
If we will draw a direct comparability to Shadow of the Colossus right here, I believe the good factor Chasing the Unseen does with the idea is flip the colossi from antagonists to be slain (mournfully, certain, however slain nonetheless) into bumbling, comparatively innocent megafauna. I ultimately began treating them like previous buddies.
I am unable to inform whether or not the tense music that accompanied my rides with Mr. Octopus was some misplaced sound design or truly type of the purpose—feelings like nervousness, concern, and panic can really feel scary, however one of many first belongings you study when attempting to grapple with them is that they can not truly damage you. Certain, you would possibly get flung into the void now and again, however you at all times come again.
It is all very conscious, which is not stunning contemplating Chasing the Unseen’s meditative vibes and clear Buddhist influences.
Chasing the Unseen, in the end, is a delightfully bizarre and soothingly introspective sport. Should you’re in want of a palette cleanser from all of the live-service nonsense whirling about within the trade proper now, I would heartily suggest it. You should buy Chasing the Unseen proper now on Steam.