I still clearly remember seeing UnMetal for the first time earlier this year. As an indie games publisher, we see a lot of pitches, and every so often, something truly extraordinary stands out. I felt it immediately with UnMetal. Tight, familiar controls. Gorgeous pixel art. Well-crafted gameplay. And… hilarious? I wasn’t expecting that, but within minutes, I was genuinely laughing out loud.

You play as Jesse Fox, just an ordinary dude who was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. If you forget, don’t worry. He’ll remind you more than once. The goal is simple: use your wits, fists, and whatever else you can find to lead Jesse’s escape from a military facility. Fortunately, Jesse will have some help along the way.

UnMetal is the brainchild of developer Unepic_Fran, who wrote, designed, and built the game entirely on his own game engine. He has a special place in his heart for retro games, which inspired its 2D graphics. Fran also has a love (and extensive knowledge) for films and TV shows from the ’80s and ’90s, which he puts to good use in UnMetal. You may notice more than a few subtle (and not-so-subtle) references during Jesse’s quest for freedom.

I mentioned earlier that the game is hysterical, however, don’t let the humor fool you into thinking that UnMetal is a cakewalk. The stealth-action mechanics are top notch, and completing each chapter will require some quick-thinking. I learned the hard way that you won’t get very far relying on pure brute force alone.

If my early experience with UnMetal taught me anything, it’s to use the environment to your advantage. Jesse ain’t got time to hide under cardboard boxes! Darkness is Jesse’s friend, and he can move about undetected, knocking out any pesky guards in his way. And if a particularly stubborn guard blocks your path, I’ll let you in on a little secret: guards love coins. Just sayin’.

For all you streamers and content creators out there, you’ll be happy to know that there is a cool feature under the Sound Settings that will shift in-game subtitles to the right to allow room on-screen for a camera!

And as an added bonus for you speedrunners out there, in the Options menu, you can enter the code SPEEDRUN to enable timers. Good luck!

UnMetal is available now on the Xbox Store for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. We’ve had so much fun working on this game, and we hope you’ll have just as much fun playing it. We look forward to hearing your thoughts!