Unto the End

Released on December 17, 2020 for the Nintendo Switch, Unto the End attempts to offer specially-crafted, side-scrolling, pixel-art fueled combat and adventure.

The trailer for Unto the End looked awesome. The imagery was epic. Incredibly beautiful pixel art, featuring a red-headed, bearded warrior, wielding a massive sword, fighting monsters in bloody, side-scrolling combat, through an incredible Nordic landscape. "Scripted enemy encounters" the game promised. Yes, I thought, this is just want I want. I'm sick of this lazy, rogue-like crap (I guess I forgot how much fun I had with Dead Cells). Give me a well-crafted battle situation that stands out in a narrative! That's what I need!

And also, blood spray. Blood spray is also what I need.

Then the game vanished. I Google'd it, looked for the trailer, couldn't find it, until one day, I was surfing the Switch eshop, and up popped Unto the End, on sale for a low, low price. I immediately bought it, and excitedly downloaded it, envisioning the incredible gameplay I was about to experience. And then I actually played the game...

 

I guess I should have paid more attention to the opening message, though in fairness to me, it doesn't say "also, don't play this game, it sucks."

From the start, the controls felt a tiny bit stiff, as I ran through an icy environment. Still, the graphics were incredible. Sound design was a little minimal. That's okay, though. I fall down into a cave, as part of the promised scripted gameplay--I guess I'm writing in present tense now. Inexplicably changing tenses fits this game. Anyway, I have to fight some monsters and solve some puzzles. Fighting one on one is cool. There's a high block and a low block, a high strike and a low strike. I've got to anticipate my enemies' moves based on certain tells, then block and counter with the opposite move--meaning, if I block a low blow, I need to attack by swinging high with my sword. Pretty cool. The puzzles I encounter are basically just picking up a key, opening a door, and also, I'm doing a little bit of crafting, making torches and daggers. Everything is just okay, and then I am attacked by two enemies at the same time...and the entire game falls apart.

 

Goodbye, cruel world.

Unto the End aims to balance its bloody combat with realism, but the point of a game is to be fun. My game-breaking scripted encounter goes like this: first, one enemy attacks. After a drawn out battle in a dark cave, where I've dropped my torch, I win. Then, I'm attacked from either side by two more of these goblins. As I start to block and counter the first enemy's move, I get stabbed in the back by another. Just a couple hits and I die. I start again, right before the battle, as the game thankfully autosaves quite frequently. I get the fight right back to where it was when I died. This time, I try utilizing the game's roll move to get behind both enemies. That seems to work for a split second, until one of the enemies just rolls right back behind me. I try to roll back behind both of them again, but I just bump into one of them this time and drop my sword. Apparently my character drops his sword very easily in this game. As I struggle to pick it up, both goblins stab me to death. I try and try again, but something like this always happens. No matter how I approach this battle, I always end up dead in the dark.

 

Will thinking about how beautiful this game is make up for its flaws, or just make it more frustrating that the gameplay isn't anywhere near up to par?

Developers can focus on making their game look beautiful. On that count, the husband and wife team who created Unto the End succeeded. Developers can focus on making their game realistic. While goblins might not be realistic, the interpretation of an average size man fighting them is probably realistic here--the goblins would quickly overpower the man, and he'd die. Is that fun to play? No, not at all. Because of Unto the End's clunky, unwieldy battle mechanics, the game is not fun--and that's the one thing a video game must be. Where it counts the most, Unto the End is an abject failure.

SCORE: 3.8/10