Unorthodox; Sounds About Right [Unorthodox By Spellmage]

Unorthodox is a game created by spellmage

Hey all, another review will be made today and it's on Unorthodox, a recently published game by Spellmage, for my 33rd review. I know Spell as a really cool guy to talk with from the forums and he's made some games that I really like such as Mist, Lonely Roads and Unreal Tournament II, notice that 2 of those 3 are Algorithm Crew games. Along with Youngcaliman I view Spell as one of the best with the 3D creator, so naturally I was jumping at the thought to play Unorthodox.

The style of Unorthodox is exactly that, Unorthodox, I haven't ever played a Sploder game like it which is good, I always love seeing new concepts pop up now and again to keep the games coming out exciting. Unorthodox is a heavily story based murder mystery, in Unorthodox, like many others, I played it all wrong, running through to the end, thinking "where were all of the enemies". I was playing it wrong, quite frankly I've never given a bleep about reading in game messages until now, because that's the whole point of the game, you can explore all of the rooms looking for clues, interacting with other players and the game wasn't just that with the story, there was some humour which legitimately made me laugh, such as Tookewl smoking and the bathroom bleep scene, etc. The story keeps you really into the game and the game can take about a minute if you rush through, however can surpass 20 minutes by reading all of the text. Astonishing.

^ I'm not going to release story spoilers since you all may not have played it yet.

The scenery was fantastic, it gave the correct feel to the game and it suggested your location, the different rooms and such, it was mostly pretty much perfect, it matched the style of the game and reflected the locations really well, the scenery is better in this game then most other 3Ds on here, except maybe Two Souls One Goal, which had some pretty interesting scenery too. This was another great thing about the game, it was visually appealing. Nice work.

The point of the game wasn't fighting waves and truckloads of enemies, it was to read, find clues, explore places, towns and the like. It's Unorthodox for a reason. There really was only one or two real scenes of actual fighting gameplay. Like gameplay, there weren't many, if any puzzles at all, a few hidden switches but that's about it, it didn't matter to me because puzzles and battling weren't part of the game's style.

Spell was really creative with this, to me it worked well, it's the first game of it's kind on Sploder and personally I'm inspired to try something like this myself. It probably has revolutionised the creator with more ideas coming around that the creator is not all about a simple line 'em up and gun 'em down type thing, most of us were saying the creator desperately needed an update, there were no more possibilities. Now I'm not so sure, Two Souls One Goal and Unorthodox have changed many members' perspectives, the creative aspect is all there and you just need to think more about your making and you may end up with something completely new and somewhat revolutionary. I like how this game gets to the point of making different kinds of games, it doesn't always have to be action puzzle action puzzle to get recognised or good feedback.

Unorthodox is a fantastic game, I liked the atmosphere of the game and the way it was set out with the murder mystery plot, great scenery, humour, and overall the new style of game making that we haven't seen before.

5/5

I gave Unorthodox a 5/5, because I don't judge games on what they don't do, I judge games on what they do, do, and what they were meant for. Spell's intention for the game was pretty much perfect, so a perfect five is on the cards.

I also think this game deserves a spot in the EGL, it's the first of it's kind with real quality, it's different, it's an epic style of playing 3D games in which there usually isn't a whole lot of success. I hope to actually see more games like this soon.