"Unwind" Game Review

Hi, gamers! Here’s my quick review of Unwind!

Recommendation: Good

Gameplay 4/5

Content 5/5

Graphics 5/5

Music 5/5

Sound 4/5

About Unwind

Unwind is a browser game designed by Leah Tillock (President of ATN World News) and coded by Doug Moses of Christ Games. It’s free to play, ad-free, and accessible for anyone with an internet connection. You can play it on any type of computer or mobile device without you having to sign up to the site or install any files.

The object of the game is to spell out words of three or more letters. The strategy is to get as many points as you can to advance to the next level. Some of the letters (Q, X, and Z) are worth 100 points vs. the normal 40 points, so you’ll want to use those when you can. You also want to make sure that you’re not spelling yourself out of options in a certain area of the board.

You can click on the letters one at a time or drag your mouse or finger through the letters to complete longer words.

There's Leah Tillock on the right!

Pros

The game is very easy to play and has some light Christian subtext to it as it provides Scripture references in a few places. Overall, it’s a fun game that makes you think creatively as you brainstorm what words you could spell.

It also made me curious to look up some words. When the game accepted “bas” when I was going for “base,” I was curious to know what “bas” was. It’s apparently the English plural form of the word “soul” in Egyptian mythology. I also found that it accepted some acronyms I wasn’t familiar with, so the game has the added benefit of teaching you some new vocabulary if you’re inclined to look up some new combinations of letters. And you’re on the internet playing the game already, so you might as well “Google” some definitions while you’re at it, right?

If you get stuck, you can use each of the power-ups once per level.

Here's me using my first power-up. Look at all those "E"s on the board!

I enjoyed the ambient sound and the ability to choose my wild spaces. As you can see, for this playthrough, I chose coffee and fruit. I also chose the Tropical soundtrack. The graphics for the game are very clean, and the creators made some nice selections for the background sound. The ambiance is a nice change from listening to music.

But speaking of music, you will get one victory song as the cat walks across your screen once you complete a level.

Cons

Unfortunately, there’s no way to save your progress. If you’re stuck on a board or run out of time and need to close the browser window, you can’t come back to that same round later. That’s the trade-off of not having to sign up for an account or download any files, though, and you can usually leave your browser window open as long as you need to finish a game.

One of my pet peeves is sound effects, and the cancel sound effect in Unwind is the only non-relaxing part of the game. But, again, this could be me being too picky, and if that’s my biggest complaint, I guess Unwind doesn’t have too much bad going against it.

Who Should Play Unwind?

I see three types of people enjoying Unwind:

• If you’re a casual gamer and pull out your phone when you’re out and about or navigate over while you enjoy your morning coffee.

• If you enjoy word games and want to get into the strategy of using the power-ups and planning which tiles to clear.

• If you enjoy learning new words and don’t mind taking a break from the game to look up something it accepted.

Play Unwind for free and check out the other ministries of Christ Games and ATN World News!