The drum line kicks in with a flourish. The bass pounds softly in the background. A strum of the guitar rings through the stadium as the crowd goes wild. A tear falls on the ground as the lead singer takes the mic. This is the final performance. There is no encore. Unbeatable isn’t a love story. But it also kinda is. After all, aren’t most stories just love stories?
Unbeatable tells the story of Beat, a young woman who loves music in a world that has condemned it. She eventually forms a band with a ragtag group of misfits, including Quaver, whose mom used to be the frontwoman of a rock band. At its core, this is a story about punk rock and rebellion. It’s about breaking the mold, sticking it to the man, and fighting the freedom of self-expression. Its vibe is a mixture of Scott Pilgrim and 80s anime, with over-the-top caricatured villains and incredibly cheesy dialogue about music the salve it provides your soul. As a result, Unbeatable can be messy and flawed at many points, yet it never fails to win you over again with just how earnest it is.
Before we get into all that, though, let’s talk about what Unbeatable actually is. This is a rhythm game with a very simple setup. Beat stands in between two tracks, where notes come flying towards you. Before they pass Beat, you have to hit a button in time with the rhythm to keep your streak going. Most notes require you to press once. Some require you to press and hold. If you’ve played any rhythm game before, you know how this works.
The music is a blend of dreamy pop and grungy rock tunes, depending on what the mood is at any given point in time. Stylistically and sonically, Unbeatable absolutely knocks it out of the park. I’m a huge fan of the whole Danganronpa-style cardboard cutout look where the 2D character models look like they’ve been pasted on top of static 3D backgrounds. I love the stilted look and animations, with splashes of color against grey backdrops that help to create contrasting environs of saccharine dreaming and harsh realities.
The rhythm game aspect comes into play in almost all elements of Unbeatable. Most times you’re playing music or performing, other times you might be beating up bad guys in time with the music, and every so often you’ll need to hit buttons in time while doing mundane tasks.
This brings me to my one major complaint with Unbeatable: the pacing. After an explosive opening that almost had me convinced this game had the potential to make it into my top five picks of the year, the pacing screeches to a jarring halt when you take control of Beat and start exploring the city. All of a sudden, you’re forced to wander around with a few vague hints and suggestions, and it certainly takes a little bit before you’re finally able to start engaging with the rhythm game portion. The new characters you meet outside of your band are somewhat interesting, though the dialogue often feels a little awkward and stunted. It’s all par for the course for a game like Unbeatable, I suppose, as I recognize its attempts to lean a little more into absurdist humor. Still, the uninspiring dialogue and uneven pacing took me out of the experience more than I’d have liked.
It doesn’t help that the story seems to lose sight of its own identity at times. The central mystery is compelling enough on its own, but every now and then, the story veers too hard into absurdist territory and the supernatural, leaving me feeling somewhat disoriented and confused. Without spoiling any major plot beats, I felt that the game tried to do too many things at once, making it feel overstretched in certain areas.
When it shines, however, it really shines. The moments where your band gets together to put up a hell of a fight against the antagonistic HARM group (basically the militarized arm of a fascist anti-music regime), Unbeatable soars. With the catchy soundtrack thumping in the background as you move to the rhythm and watch Beat do her thing, Unbeatable makes you feel like a badass.
It’s good, then, that once you beat the story mode, there’s still plenty to do in the Arcade. This is where you get to play songs and score chase, unlocking new tracks and characters in the process. As much as I enjoyed the style of Unbeatable‘s story, I found myself sucked into Arcade mode long after the credits rolled. It helps that the game loves doling out little clues to unlocking even more content, so it always feels like there’s something to chase.
There’s no denying that Unbeatable is a very special game. Yet as hard as I tried to love it, I constantly found myself being thrust out of the experience whenever the story took a weird left turn or suddenly decided it was time to do yet another mundane task that had no bearing on anything. When it was finally time for the last song, I was more than happy to let it play out and enjoy it for what it is. At the same time, I knew I wouldn’t be clamoring for an encore.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on PC.
