UnMetal is a love letter to retro games with explosions and humor

I still clearly remember seeing UnMetal for the first time earlier this year. As an independent game publisher, we see a lot of releases and every now and then something really extraordinary stands out. I felt it immediately with UnMetal. Close and familiar controls. Gorgeous pixel art. Well crafted gameplay. And… hilarious? I wasn’t expecting that, but within minutes, I was genuinely laughing out loud.

You play as Jesse Fox, an ordinary guy who got arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. If you forget, don’t worry. It will remind you more than once. The objective is simple: use your wits, fists and whatever else you can find to lead Jesse to escape from a military installation. Fortunately, Jesse will have some help along the way.

UnMetal is the brainchild of developer Unepic_Fran, who wrote, designed and built the game entirely on his own game engine. He has a special place in his heart for retro games, which inspired his 2D graphics. Fran also has a great love (and extensive knowledge) for the movies and TV shows of the 80s and 90s, which he puts to good use in UnMetal. You may notice more than a few subtle (and not so subtle) references during Jesse’s search for freedom.

I mentioned earlier that the game is hysterical, however don’t let the humor fool you into thinking that UnMetal It’s child’s play. The stealth action mechanics are top-notch, and completing each chapter will require quick thinking. I learned the hard way that you won’t get very far relying only on sheer brute force.

If my first experience with UnMetal He taught me anything, is to use the environment to his advantage. Jesse doesn’t have time to hide under cardboard boxes! Darkness is friends with Jesse, and he can move around undetected, knocking out pesky guards that get in his way. And if a particularly stubborn guard blocks your way, I’ll tell you a little secret: Guards love coins. Just say’.

For all streamers and content creators, you’ll be happy to know that there is a cool feature in Sound Settings that will shift the game’s subtitles to the right to make room on the screen for a camera.

And as an added bonus for speed runners, in the Options menu, you can enter the code SPEEDRUN to enable the timers. Good luck!

UnMetal now available in the Xbox Store for Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S. We have had a lot of fun working on this game and we hope you have so much fun playing it. We look forward to hearing your thoughts!