The Short But Engrossing Unhinged Is The Best Case Yet For Netflix Gaming

Netflix Games has proven itself to be an interesting development for the streaming service. While the primary focus of the company remains film and television, its efforts to introduce console-free gaming directly through the app have delivered on some fun concepts. For the most part, the games have been focused on multiplayer experiences, although there have been some original narrative-driven titles and ports of older games.

None of it has been as effective as Unhinged, however. Developed by Night School Studio, the same team behind the Oxenfree games, Unhinged is a fast-paced horror game that runs the length of a typical episode of television. Using your phone as the controller and taking cues from narrative-driven titles like the ones previously made by Telltale Games, Unhinged is a great little showcase for what narrative gaming through Netflix can be.

Unhinged Is A One-Off Horror Short That You Need To Try

Unhinged has a pretty standard horror plot — but the streamlined simplicity of the narrative and character work matches the quick gameplay and rising tension, delivering a great little horror short. During a Category 5 hurricane, Ava (Zoë Kravitz) decides enough is enough and tries to get out of the building. Across the street is her best friend Claire (Sadie Sink), who communicates with her over the phone. However, once the lights go out, Ava realizes she’s not alone in the building. It’s a quick-paced game that, like most Netflix Games releases, uses a smartphone as the controller. However, it was important to the team at Night School Studio to not just go down a different route but to embrace the immersive potential of the Netflix gaming experience.

In the game, your cell phone acts as a flashlight and pointer, allowing you to communicate with Claire, light your way, or try to figure out ways away from the masked killer following you. The entire experience only takes 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the speed of the player, which makes it ideal as a quick horror game session that doesn’t completely take over your evening. It effectively feels like an engaging short film, especially with the tone and tenor of the art and sound design lending it all a cinematic vibe. Unhinged isn’t all that difficult, especially for seasoned horror fans. However, there’s more than enough craft in the voice acting, tension building, and creepy horror to make this perfect for horror fans looking for a quick snack instead of the full-course multi-hour meal that most mainstream entries in the genre demand.

I Hope Unhinged Sets The Precedent For Netflix’s Gaming Future

There’s something deeply effective about Unhinged as an expansion of Netflix Games that has to be addressed. Playing a game on your phone through the Netflix app lends itself well to party games and simple experiences — which isn’t meant as a judgment call in the slightest. However, those games do lack the kind of depth that many gamers expect from single-player experiences. Unhinged proves that it doesn’t have to be the case, serving as a quick horror short where players don’t have STARS training or mysterious powers to survive. Unhinged does a great job at immersing the player in a horror movie — which is exactly how the streaming service’s gaming brand can stand out.

Games like FIFA World Cup Launch Edition highlight how effective the platform can be at arcade-style titles, stripping down the concept to the bare bones to make sure it’s as effective as it can be. Unhinged is something far more representative of a short film, a narrative that feels complete even with (and partly because of) the quick pace and reduced run-time. If anything, the knowledge that the game is so short actually bolsters the effectiveness of the piece. Every choice matters more when you know that any wrong move can get you stabbed to death in brutal first-person. There isn’t time to get the lore of the universe or reason to dive into big thematic messages; the horror is in the room with you right now, and you need to find a way out.

I don’t want to see Unhinged 2 or some deeper explanation of the world, but I can’t wait to see what else Night School Studio has in the works. I’d love to see the streamer adopt this approach to one-off stories set in the horror genre, potentially giving them their own interactive answer to something like The Twilight Zone that can allow different actors and developers to play in an adaptable sandbox that is only ever limited by the creative ambition of the game makers. Imagine little experiments in the horror genre that continue to draw in big names alongside the likes of voice acting legends like Troy Baker (who delivers a quickly memorable take on a stock horror archetype in Unhinged), bringing these quick tales to life.

Different challenges, explorations of sub-genres, and even tonal tweaks could work really well in this format, all short stories that learn from Bandersnatch and Unhinged to play with the format. Console and PC gamers can experience much deeper adventures on those platforms, but part of the appeal of Netflix Games is to have short games that draw players in as easily as a short film or episode of TV. Unhinged highlights how effective that can be, thanks to strong design all around. Short and scary, Unhinged is exactly the sort of title that Netflix Games should be releasing.

Unhinged will be available for all Netflix subscribers on June 30.