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| One of the areas Professor Layton will have to find puzzles in. |
A week after a time machine explosion makes the prime minister of London disappear; Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke receive a letter from someone claiming to be Luke ten years in the future. The letter asks Layton and Luke to go to a clock shop, where they are transported a decade into the future, to a London controlled by the mob run by a mysterious leader. It is up to Layton, Luke and Luke from the future to save London.
In Unwound Future, the player guides Layton and Luke as they walk around future London and they investigate. To achieve this goal the two have to talk to everyone, almost all of whom respond to Layton’s questioning with puzzles. Solving puzzles advances the plot, until the game is finished.
Most of the game is spent solving puzzles. Most of the puzzles are logic puzzles of some kind, like being asked a question that relies on clever wordplay to trick the player, or trying to move or rotate objects somehow. Several of the puzzles take advantage of the DS functions like the aforementioned object rotation puzzles. But, a lot of the puzzles do not take advantage of the DS as well, which is a waste. At least the player can write on the puzzles to help solve them.
The puzzles are really difficult, but they are not impossible. Several of them just require patience or lateral thinking. This is probably not a game for young children.
Several of the puzzles are worded poorly which make them nearly impossible to solve. Others make unfair assumptions about the player, like one puzzle that assumes that when people look at things from the side they are at eye level. A couple of puzzles expect the player to know about something beforehand, like giving directions on a ship or the metric system. For some horrible reason a couple of puzzles are slider puzzles. But the worst puzzles are ones that are just elaborate math problems. But there are over a hundred puzzles and most of them are fun, so it is not a really serious problem.
Solving the puzzles awards the player picarats, which act as the scoring system for the game. When the player answers a question incorrectly the number of picarats he or she gets goes down.
Scattered around the game are hidden hint coins which the player can find by tapping around the screen. The coins unlock up to four hints per puzzle.
The game is divided into chapters. Any puzzles that are not completed by the time a chapter is finished are collected at a special house which can be accessed at any time. Which is good, because finding hidden puzzle is really boring.
There are three mini-games the player can participate in. The first game is about putting the correct stickers in a storybook to make a story. The second game is inputting directions into a toy car so it avoids obstacles while collecting something. The third game is about creating platforms for a parrot to fly onto as it delivers a package. The first two are fun, but the third run involves a lot of guesswork as it is nearly impossible to predict where the parrot will fly.
The rest of the game is not too interesting. Future London is pretty small and a lot of time is spent running back and forth across the same area.
The plot is okay. It is a decent mystery. But near end the story goes crazy, pulling in a plot twist out of nowhere to create an excessive amount of drama and weirdness. It is exciting, but does not make a lot of sense. The ending is surprisingly touching.
All of the characters are enjoyable to watch and make going back a forth through the game really fun. Layton’s interactions with everyone are cool or funny, and everyone has a lot of comedic moments. It is not necessarily a comedy.
The graphics are drawn like a cartoon and look very nice, if rather stylized. Not one is drawn realistically, but it works for the game. The voice work for the characters is really good too. The music is pleasant to listen to as well.
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