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Professor Layton and the Unwound Future Review
By James Best
Puzzle solving truly is a gentlemanly sport. This is proven in the acclaimed Professor Layton series. Each game follows the adventures of Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, as they solve brain-wracking puzzles and crack bizarre mysteries. The latest installment, The Unwound Future sends the deductive duo into the fourth dimension as they travel into future London to save the city from chaos.
Story 21/ 25
The Unwound Future, like its predecessors, is riddled with a cast of varied and loveable characters, from the impeccable Professor down to the villainous Don Paolo. The plot is engaging and keeps an excellent pace. With all of its surprising twists and turns, the climax of this fantastic yarn will catch you off you guard. There are a couple of plot holes, but they are only barely noticeable save through a bit of nit-picking.
Every time you start up your save file, there is an event recap. Although it is brief, it is tedious as it could have been done without, or, at the very least, it could have an option to skip it.
Graphics/ Art Style 25/ 25
The characters in any Professor Layton game are drawn with a charming, storybook-like style. This renders a shocking contrast to its relatively mature story. There is a surprising amount of violence and murder is as common place as any detective novel. But in the end, the art style and storytelling mesh together to make a truly gripping atmosphere.
The environments are extremely detailed. Exploring them by means of the touch screen is rewarding as it produces hidden puzzles, hint coins, and interesting quips from the characters.
Another prominent feature in the Layton series is the gorgeous, movie-quality cut-scenes. These are a sheer pleasure to watch and actually propel the action forward rather than slow it down.
Music/ Sound Effects 25/ 25
The score of The Unwound Future is well written and captures the mood of each scene. The accordion plays an important part in most pieces, giving the ambiance a decidedly European feel, which is understandable and even desirable given the European setting. With the amount of time you will spend working out a puzzle, it is a godsend that the puzzle music is unobtrusive and does not get on your nerves.
Gameplay/ Controls 19/ 25
In the Professor Layton series, your primary enemy is an army of deviously designed puzzles and brainteasers. Besting these riddles is a satisfying and rewarding accomplishment. There is a great deal of variety among them. In one puzzle, you may be working out a word problem, tinkering with blocks in another, in another finding a relationship among some seemingly unrelated equations, and so on and on. If a particular puzzle positively poses an insurmountable impediment, you can spend coins to unlock hints. These hints are helpful, but still leave some of the puzzle up to you to solve, so it rarely makes you feel as though you cheated relying on hints. Some puzzles, however, quickly devolve into a process of making thoughtless guesses until you find the right answer. There is also imprecision with some of the block puzzles, but these are very slight and cause little frustration.
A new mechanic to the series is the "Battle of Wits", which basically has you solve a puzzle given to you by another character as a sort of test. This is an interesting addition, but it needs a little more added to it to separate it them from other puzzles, like a time limit, for example.
Once again, Level 5 has hit gold with the Professor Layton series. The Unwound Future features an array of puzzles that will test your wit. Its story is well written an its characters are a likeable bunch. With superb artistic design and high-quality puzzles, The Unwound Future is an adventure that you will have a grand time playing through.
Score for Professor Layton and the Unwound Future for the Nintendo DS system:
90/ 100: Prime
Grading Scale
100- 90: Prime
89- 80: Excellent
79- 70: Good
69- 60: Exceptional
59- 50: Average
49- 40: Mediocre
39- 30: Bad
29- 20: Terrible
By James Best
Puzzle solving truly is a gentlemanly sport. This is proven in the acclaimed Professor Layton series. Each game follows the adventures of Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, as they solve brain-wracking puzzles and crack bizarre mysteries. The latest installment, The Unwound Future sends the deductive duo into the fourth dimension as they travel into future London to save the city from chaos.
Story 21/ 25
The Unwound Future, like its predecessors, is riddled with a cast of varied and loveable characters, from the impeccable Professor down to the villainous Don Paolo. The plot is engaging and keeps an excellent pace. With all of its surprising twists and turns, the climax of this fantastic yarn will catch you off you guard. There are a couple of plot holes, but they are only barely noticeable save through a bit of nit-picking.
Every time you start up your save file, there is an event recap. Although it is brief, it is tedious as it could have been done without, or, at the very least, it could have an option to skip it.
Graphics/ Art Style 25/ 25
The characters in any Professor Layton game are drawn with a charming, storybook-like style. This renders a shocking contrast to its relatively mature story. There is a surprising amount of violence and murder is as common place as any detective novel. But in the end, the art style and storytelling mesh together to make a truly gripping atmosphere.
The environments are extremely detailed. Exploring them by means of the touch screen is rewarding as it produces hidden puzzles, hint coins, and interesting quips from the characters.
Another prominent feature in the Layton series is the gorgeous, movie-quality cut-scenes. These are a sheer pleasure to watch and actually propel the action forward rather than slow it down.
Music/ Sound Effects 25/ 25
The score of The Unwound Future is well written and captures the mood of each scene. The accordion plays an important part in most pieces, giving the ambiance a decidedly European feel, which is understandable and even desirable given the European setting. With the amount of time you will spend working out a puzzle, it is a godsend that the puzzle music is unobtrusive and does not get on your nerves.
Gameplay/ Controls 19/ 25
In the Professor Layton series, your primary enemy is an army of deviously designed puzzles and brainteasers. Besting these riddles is a satisfying and rewarding accomplishment. There is a great deal of variety among them. In one puzzle, you may be working out a word problem, tinkering with blocks in another, in another finding a relationship among some seemingly unrelated equations, and so on and on. If a particular puzzle positively poses an insurmountable impediment, you can spend coins to unlock hints. These hints are helpful, but still leave some of the puzzle up to you to solve, so it rarely makes you feel as though you cheated relying on hints. Some puzzles, however, quickly devolve into a process of making thoughtless guesses until you find the right answer. There is also imprecision with some of the block puzzles, but these are very slight and cause little frustration.
A new mechanic to the series is the "Battle of Wits", which basically has you solve a puzzle given to you by another character as a sort of test. This is an interesting addition, but it needs a little more added to it to separate it them from other puzzles, like a time limit, for example.
Once again, Level 5 has hit gold with the Professor Layton series. The Unwound Future features an array of puzzles that will test your wit. Its story is well written an its characters are a likeable bunch. With superb artistic design and high-quality puzzles, The Unwound Future is an adventure that you will have a grand time playing through.
Score for Professor Layton and the Unwound Future for the Nintendo DS system:
90/ 100: Prime
Grading Scale
100- 90: Prime
89- 80: Excellent
79- 70: Good
69- 60: Exceptional
59- 50: Average
49- 40: Mediocre
39- 30: Bad
29- 20: Terrible
I just finished playing the Unwound Future about a week ago. It takes me awhile to get to play a Professor Layton game since my little sister always plays them before I do. The plus side is I can have her help when I am stumped by a puzzle and hint coins do not seem to help. The downside is I have only needed her help once. Or is that a plus side?
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Comments3
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I was afraid to read this in case there were spoilers, but it was safe, fortunately.
Nitpicks: "common place" is "commonplace." (Noun phrase=two words; Adjective=one word.)
Also, minus ten points for suggesting a time limit to any Layton puzzle. That game stresses me out enough without adding in any other nonsense like that.
Nitpicks: "common place" is "commonplace." (Noun phrase=two words; Adjective=one word.)
Also, minus ten points for suggesting a time limit to any Layton puzzle. That game stresses me out enough without adding in any other nonsense like that.