Faisal Ghaffar 
At first glance, it does seem like there are enough elements in Unholy that will make it an interesting and engaging horror adventure. You play the role of a vengeful and desperate main character and have to go against an evil religious cult that requires you to first infiltrate it and then destroy it. You are given a bunch of special powers that are fueled by emotions. All of this sounds great, but when it comes to execution, Unholy only crashes and burn. The AI is erratic, the controls are unresponsive and the instant deaths can be very frustrating.
The story
Spring of Eternity is the religious cult that Dorothea wants to escape from, but the problem is that the soul of her son Gabriel is under the control of the high priest of the church. He has fled to Eternal City, which is a supernatural world. Dorothea meets a spiritual guide in the form of an old crone and it allows her to cross over to this gloomy world via a ritual. This is where she has to overcome a number of zombie types and armored guards.
As far as Eternal City’s landscape is concerned, it is quite similar to the real world, only a bit darker and there are considerable areas on fire. It is obvious that a lot of thought has been put into crafting the underworld of Unholy and the apocalyptic environment is one of the game’s strongest attributes.
Emotion controls
Dorothea’s journey is quite emotional because it is possible to harvest feelings in Eternal City from corpses and you can make use of them. For instance, you can blast ‘anger’ via the supernatural slingshot, or use ‘shock’ for frying power circuits as it generates bolts of electricity. Likewise, you can lure guards away with ‘desire’ and ‘sadness’ comes in handy for use as smoke bombs.
The issue is that the enemies in Unholy are stunned only momentarily when they are attacked. The only way for Dorothea to get rid of them is to maneuver them close to an electrical trap, or explosive barrel and shooting it. But, if you miss, then they are likely to dispatch you very quickly.
The flaws
The enemy assaults would have been bearable if Dorothea was quick on her feet, but unfortunately, she does not know how to move with urgency. She often has difficulty in climbing surfaces that are easy to climb and gets stuck where she shouldn’t. Moreover, it is not helpful that enemies also block your exit and you cannot move them if you have used up all the emotion orbs.
Dorothea also has to mask up because of a plague widespread in Eternal City and the only benefit that the mask offers is that it hides her stiff facial animations. Nonetheless, it cannot hide the way she delivers her lines and her attempt at sarcasm lacks charm.
The Verdict
The environment detail in Unholy is undoubtedly rich and it adds to the appeal of the sinister underworld setting, but otherwise it does not have much to praise.
