Developer: Godolphin Games
Publisher: Godolphin Games
Platforms: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Unknown Number: A First Person Talker – Review
With new technology come new ideas for games. One of the newer, yet quite unexplored technologies, is speech-to-text. It’s been around for a while but big companies are still developing it so it gets better for self-driving cars, phones, and general artificial personal assistants. At this point, developer Godolphin figured it would be good enough to use it in a game, and thus Unknown Number: A First Person Talker came into existence.
Story
Unknown Number is a game that uses simulation much like games such as Simulacra. These types of games often create realistic items that you can use to go on a detective-like search, collecting information to progress. In Unknown Number, you get to use a phone and a working internet browser in case you need to look something up. On your phone, you get regular calls from two eco-terrorists who are trying to steal something valuable from an abandoned oil rig, and you get dragged into an adventure that you did not exactly sign up for. It’s a great story that will take about three hours or less to run through, and it’s also a story with a purpose.
Unknown Number is fully supportive of green movements, which is something you see the moment you open the in-game browser as it opens the Google Chrome extension Ecosia. With this, “you” plant trees by searching the internet, as profits from search prompts are donated to planting trees. We love that a game isn’t afraid to get political without putting it too thick on everything like, let’s say, Disney. You will not notice the message of this game during the entire story. It’s not forced upon you, and it’s well-made.
Graphics
We did not expect much from a game that uses a fake phone and a browser with a real internet connection, but we were definitely pleasantly surprised. While the set-up of the entire game is rather somber, there’s a whole load of motion graphics present that enhance the experience. It looks like a game that’s been made by professionals who put a lot of effort into small details, such as your phone assistant being animated to mimic whatever is happening on the other side of the line. The numbers of your phone often swirl, rotate, move, and are even used as maps or parts of puzzles with slick animations and we truly appreciate it. It’s just a game that knows how to handle its presentation, even if there is little to go on.
Sound
The sound design is half of the game, which is why it should be good. Luckily, as with the graphics, Unknown Number knows what it’s doing with the sound as well. The voice acting is absolutely great and enjoyable. The game is divided into part playing and part listening which alternate continuously, and it’s in a way as much an audiobook, or maybe even a movie, as it is a game. The quality of the audio recordings is enhanced by a ton of good sound effects throughout the entire game which visualizes what’s happening on the other side of the call or set the mood with i.e. spooky voice alters. This game is full of good design choices.
Gameplay
As the title states, Unknown Number describes itself as a “first-person talker”. In reality though, the amount of talking involved is not much more than an extensive gimmick. You sometimes have to talk, though most lines that need to be said are a simple “yes” or “no”. There are a few original or fun speech things, though we will not spoil any to keep the surprise. Aside from talking though, you will need to click on stuff to dial numbers, search for information, and solve puzzles. This is where the game becomes more than a talker, and proves itself to be more of a digital escape room than anything else. Solve a puzzle, and get ahead.
We feel that, while Unknown Number is great as a digital escape room, there are also a few downsides to the game. For one, the talking bit, as well as repetitively typing the same numbers, gets rather tedious when you do something wrong and need to restart a puzzle. Luckily, the game has previously dialed numbers saved under call history on your phone, though you can’t escape certain audio parts or slow puzzles where you need to repeat the same steps several times. We felt that certain shortcuts would have kept the fun going more. Another point of critique is that the game seems pretty open with multiple choices and stuff to do at the start, but turns out to be rather linear afterwards. This is in line with a regular escape room as you need to get from the beginning to the end by going through puzzles with only one correct way to solve them, but with a few more secrets or different paths, this game would just have been a tad bit better. That being said, we still enjoyed ourselves.
Conclusion
Unknown Number is a great digital escape room where you talk and click your way to the finish, and the game is also backing a good cause. While the talking aspect is a bit gimmicky and the game could have used some minor improvements, the story, graphics, and audio (voice acting especially) are great, and together they create a very interesting and fun game. Enjoy solving an escape room with a good story on your own? This one is probably for you!
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