Unhinged Review (Netflix Games)

Netflix Games’ Unhinged proves that the streaming platform has a lot of potential, not just to make good interactive games à la Black Mirror, but also to create genuinely unsettling home-confined horrors that can take full advantage of the simplest of controllers. With as little as a phone (or a flashlight, in this case), you can experience the full weight of a corridor horror and never have to splurge on unnecessary components to feel a part of the world. And if a game like Unhinged does anything at all, it illuminates that fact in the best possible light.

With video game icon Troy Baker at the heart of this star-studded thriller, Unhinged opens the gateway for Netflix Games’ newfound interest in blazing a trail for its gaming catalog. It doesn’t need to do a lot to entice you, either. Given that it requires little more than a handheld device, you can easily jump straight into the pocket of its short yet oddly gripping experience in the heat of the moment. There are no formal instructions to follow, and there are no complex mechanics that require a third hand to navigate. It’s just you, a light, and a stream of turbulent energy that keeps you going through the night.

Unhinged doesn’t extract its greatest strengths from unnecessarily drawn-out plot points or in-depth RPG-like features. Instead, it chooses to reveal a story, and to give you the ability to add your own two cents. With your phone, you hold the light—the only lifeline to the world—and with it, a chance to illuminate the path and the secrets that loom deep within the cortex of a raging hurricane. You are not a fighter, and you do not have the technical skills to quell the situation. Simply, you have a phone, a single line of communication, and a light.

In the thirty or forty minutes that you spend with the game, you’re essentially handed the chance to check your phone for text messages, use your handheld device as a light source, and gradually peel back the pieces of a puzzle that connect a ravenous hurricane to a serial killer who looms just beyond the other side of the wall to your apartment building. Unlike your traditional video game, though, you don’t have dozens of buttons to navigate, and you do not have a second chance to make amends for any wrongdoings. Like a live-action movie, Unhinged pulls you in, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat until the credits roll. It’s simply your job to make it through the screening.

In a similar vein as your typical B-movie slasher flick, Unhinged builds its premise around two things: a power cut, and a serial killer. In the beginning, you receive a call from your friend—an event that pulls you away from the screen and towards your mobile phone. You answer the call with the tap of a button, and you formulate a plan to leave your apartment building before the power outage claims more of the complex. The light on your phone carries you forward, and before long you find yourself in the cold embrace of a seemingly sadistic intruder. The phone buzzes for a second time, and without thinking twice, you answer it. The game begins to unfold, and before you can so much as catch your breath, a daring chase sequence forces you to act on impulse. Unhinged has you.

As I said, the gameplay in Unhinged is mostly comprised of handheld inputs. For instance, during the first quarter of the journey you simply aim your phone at the screen, and light up certain parts of the room. Text messages, too, often appear on your phone, as well as various audio cues that shed a little extra light on the events taking place in front of you. On various occasions, you also need to make crucial decisions that can alter the events in question. It isn’t quite as consequential as, say, Until Dawn, though it does require you to remain on your feet as the story unfolds.

Despite the game being rather short, Unhinged gets a lot of things right. In addition to its photorealistic setting, it also shines bright as a perfectly casted horror with top-tier voice acting and plausible character development. The mechanics and general gameplay facets, too, essentially speak for themselves. While evidently scarce and without the full weight of a controller-based infrastructure, Unhinged does a tremendous amount with the ingredients it has at its fingertips. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t stick around all that long to push the proverbial boat out, so to speak.

I will say this: Netflix clearly has its eyes on the right deck of cards. While still an infant in the eyes of the broader demographic, the streaming platform has a good sense of what makes a compelling horror, and if Unhinged does anything at all, it reinforces that notion. It fills me with optimism, in fact, as it proves that even mechanically condensed handheld experiences can be made to feel immersive and positively more-ish. And, with any luck, Unhinged will be the first of many to sample the boundaries.

Suffice it to say that, if you do have a subscription to Netflix and happen to have thirty or forty minutes to spare, then Unhinged ought to make it into your to-do list. Again, it might not boast the same screen time as a big-budget box set or crime drama series, but given that it’s a free experience that doesn’t require much more than a palm and a slither of your sanity, I’d say that it more than warrants a quick look.

Verdict

Unhinged makes a point that even a streaming platform can knuckle in on genuinely brilliant video game ideas. While it is depressingly short and without a post-climax goodie bag, it certainly makes for a fantastic handheld home-based experience that can and probably will keep you awake for a lot longer than your average Netflix box set. To that end, I’d say that if you do have an active subscription, then you’d be a fool not to swing by and cast a light on Unhinged.