BrokenLore: Unfollow Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

Fair warning, BrokenLore: Unfollow isn’t your average game. It deals with some pretty heavy issues, boldly and unapologetically. But also unconventionally, via the first-person, psychological horror genre. And that can deter some gamers from trying it out. I won’t go as far as to say it’s batshit crazy or scary. It won’t cause you sleepless nights, at least for those with some level of experience with horror games. But it also doesn’t hold back from the grotesque. And the jump scares, perhaps a little too enthusiastically on that front.

Anyway, is it worth your time? Serafini Productions, so far, has three BrokenLore games. LOW and DON’T WATCH were released last year. FOLLOW will be coming in 2026, along with Ascend. DARK DAWN and DON’T LIE currently have TBD release dates. You might think that’s a lot of backlog for the Tokyo-based indie studio. But the BrokenLore series has been short-form, story-driven games. You’ll only need a few hours to burn through a complete playthrough. They’re also independent, though sharing similar atmospheric, psychological horror themes. 

It’s probably a bad idea to be pumping out too many games within a short development period. But as long as they’re worth it, right? So, let’s get right into assessing that in our BrokenLore: Unfollow review.

Into the Deepend

As with previous LOW and DON’T WATCH games, BrokenLore continues in its mastery of unsettling stories with UNFOLLOW. Brief, but also quite disturbing. Its gameplay is also similar. Nothing sweaty or action-heavy. You don’t even explore much or engage with intense challenges. It’s a playthrough closer to a walking simulator, with minimal puzzles and interactivity sparsely littered around. Most of all, it’s the environment that helps unravel the story. Going through remnant documents and imagery, trying to decipher the character’s background and present circumstances. And bundled with an eerie atmosphere with dark shadows and tight corridors, stricken with fear and dread.

BrokenLore: Unfollow follows that blueprint, almost to a T. It leans heavily on the horror genre tropes, placing you in the shoes of Anne, the protagonist. Almost immediately, her history is revealed to you. A dark history laced with heavy issues that will leave any human being scarred for life. Anne struggled with body image, influenced by her eating disorder. And as a result, faced abuse by her mother and bullies at her high school. These are unraveled via the documents you collect while exploring Anne’s home, high school, and hospital. Themes of escapism are also addressed, as Anne meets a YouTube star and begins to entangle her life with social media. 

You unravel the good and bad sides of social media, with Anne facing cyberbullying. And her psyche continues to become increasingly fragile, her mental state at a delicate place. Eventually, Anne breaks, which BrokenLore: Unfollow is quick to relay via the world itself. And you can almost see where this is going: a first-person horror game, where the environments you explore are the very interpretations of Anne’s mental state. 

Mental Break

Initially, you could switch on the lights while you explore the seemingly normal world in BrokenLore: Unfollow. However, things quickly take a turn when Anne begins to remember her past. Her trauma resurfaces and breaks through to the physical world. At first, Anne’s inner demons manifest in the dimly lit rooms you explore. The dark shadows you can’t quite make out what lies beyond. The claustrophobic walls you have to get past, listening to creepy music that sends chills down the spine. This design choice does do well to turn up the dread in this sort of haunted house exploration, and later school and hospital. It creates suspense about what danger might possibly lie ahead. Since at first all you’re doing is exploring for more story and clues, you’re keeping all possibilities open. 

Then the jump scares hit at unexpected times. You’ll be exploring, and suddenly, a grotesque monster jumps out of nowhere. And I won’t lie, some did catch me by surprise. My heart might have palpitated dangerously fast as I ran for my life. BrokenLore: Unfollow has a stealth gameplay element, where you run from monsters (or risk dying). And given the tight corridors and low visibility in the dark, it’s often intense finding your way around. Perhaps a little annoying at times, when the dark design choice and clunky movement start to get in the way of clean escapes. You can also use a crouching mechanic to hide from monsters. But otherwise, nothing too complex to wrap one’s head around. 

Coming to Get You

Monsters also don’t kill you instantly. You get three strikes before you have to restart at the last checkpoint. This gives you reprieve and enough chances to get away. But after a few monster encounters, you begin to notice a pattern. The monster AI is scripted, which gets dull after a few encounters. Not to mention that some monsters aren’t memorable. Some are generic from horror games you may have played before. Others are hardly scary. But there are a few that I’ll commend for their interpretations of the issues Anne faces. We’re often treated to supernatural monsters. But this time, you have emulations of eating disorders, trauma, and isolation, with some direct interpretations, and others quite grotesque. 

And the fact that these monsters aren’t just physical fears, but representations of Anne’s inner struggles, creates an interesting perspective about facing your fears head-on. Well, at least that’s how I’d like to think about it, as BrokenLore: Unfollow kind of shies away from fully exploring its themes. Running away seems to be the only solution to facing your fears that Anne chooses. It’d have been great if there were a progression system, something engaging and interactive to track Anne’s healing journey (or otherwise). Otherwise, you collect some items while exploring and solve some puzzles, most of which are pretty straightforward. There’s an interesting bit where the social media comments for Anne’s posts come up on screen as she’s confronting a monster. And we view the number of her followers decreasing/increasing. But this element is only lightly explored in a section of the game that has little impact.

Real-world Issues

BrokenLore: Unfollow isn’t the first to address heavy themes via first-person psychological horror. The interpretation of trauma and mental state via horror and grotesque monsters is usually effective. But it still takes expertise and creativity to drive home the point and impact. To leave a lasting impression on the player that changes their perspective and possibly is even life-changing. But I’m afraid Unfollow doesn’t quite succeed in its endeavor. Perhaps because it wants to tackle too many issues in a playthrough that wraps up in three to five hours, a significant amount of which is spent running away from monsters. Bullying, eating disorders, social media trolls, parental abuse, and trauma are all heavy issues that still need creative unraveling. They need time to marinate in the player, to trigger an emotional response to both the story and horror. 

BrokenLore: Unfollow feels rushed. It ‘tells rather than shows’ in the story. And in the creature designs, it could have used more build-up and tension to truly hit hard. For such serious themes, the story and gameplay need to go the extra mile to feel genuine. For instance, when it’s revealed that Anne’s past skewed her view, leading her to become obsessed with social media. And while her impact online has been positive, it has also affected others negatively: the cycle of abuse and trauma that’s only lightly touched upon, but deserves to be developed further.

Verdict

BrokenLore: Unfollow isn’t for everyone. It’s psychological horror run-through does have its perks. The biggest one is the atmosphere, which uses dark shadows and tight corridors to induce claustrophobia and genuine dread. The story reveals its cards a little too quickly, which takes away the anticipation of a deeply emotional plot. Even when the themes are pretty heavy and will definitely connect with players struggling with the issues addressed, the development of the dialogue, writing, and reveal could have been pushed further for a bigger impact. 

Meanwhile, gameplay is straightforward. You explore the world, looking for clues and items to collect. It’s all by-the-book horror, with jump scares and grotesque monsters. Music gets intense when the chase begins, and you have to get away before the monsters catch you. The earlier jump scares are scary. But they’re scripted. So, the novelty quickly wears off, and your experience grows repetitive, especially with the maze-like rooms you’ll be exploring. This is probably not the best psychological horror you’ll play. But it might fill up a lazy afternoon with something leaning on eerie atmospheres more than it does impressive gameplay.