Unavowed

Dave Gilbert, as Wadjet Eye, has been at the forefront of the PnC adventure game scene throughout the 21st century. Since his debut short, The Shivah, Gilbert and his frequent collaborator, artist Ben Chandler, have demonstrated a skill for classic adventuring with excellent storytelling. His Blackwell series of ghostly detective games are a huge pleasure, as are so many of the games the company has published over the years. But the standout among a very impressive collection is Unavowed, a deep and involving story of a team who control the demonic activity within New York City.

As well as being just a great adventure game, Unavowed goes a massive step further, embracing the conceit of BioWare’s party-based RPGs, in which the characters you take with you affect how the game is experienced. The result is, depending upon the buddies you choose, puzzles are solved in entirely different ways, and the story is uniquely told. On top of that, your own character can have three different career paths, each with a unique opening chapter, and then determining how you can solve puzzles throughout.

It’s a modern classic, and let it be known that releasing in 2018, it was named before this year’s great action-RPG Avowed was even a twinkle in Obsidian’s eye.