Unworded
Review

Unworded (2000) is a narrative visual puzzle where you use letter shapes to create objects and solve puzzles. As you progress through the five chapters, you uncover the story of a writer who is in the hospital recovering from a serious accident.

Play involves moving letters around to try to create a picture that matches something from the quote on the page. For example, if it said "She ran to the back and was shocked, the door was closed and locked," the solution might be to combine letters to forms a key shape. The letters can not be rotated or resized so this often uses intricate positioning and overlapping the pieces. The letter puzzles themselves are quite varied and challenge you to really think about how you approach each new section.

This game is special because it tells an emotionally complex story about a writer processing grief through the written words in the brief story passages and the images and scenes created with the letters. The result is a unique puzzle experience, an emotional story, and an homage to writers and the artistry of the written word and typography.

Our examiner, Angela Hickman Newnham, first checked Unworded 19 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 10 months ago.