‘The Conjuring: Unspoken’ delivers clever phone-based ghost-hunting mechanics, but a lack of genuine scares keeps it from greatness.
Netflix released another interactive horror game. The Conjuring: Unspoken follows protagonist Francesca Noakes as she tries to help a grieving family confront the supernatural horrors plaguing the Red Lion Inn.
Francesca is called in to help the family before the game starts. The typical ghost-story back-and-forth about whether what is happening is real is skipped. Thank God. Francesca is there to help, and that is settled. The biggest problem, however, is that these otherworldly entities focus primarily on eight-year-old Bryony Cooper. And she stopped speaking entirely when her mother passed away. Makes it a bit difficult to communicate what she is experiencing.
In typical Conjuring fashion, however, this is not just a ghost we are dealing with. Yes, we’re dealing with the ghost of Florrie, an old English wife murdered by her husband, but also the demon Vinea, another of Solomon’s 72 Goetic Demons (much like Valak). Because, you know, dealing with one supernatural entity in an old inn simply isn’t enough. Francesca uses her ghost-hunting tools- an EMF reader, an infrared camera, a radio, a rosary, and a letter of encouragement from the Warrens to help this family. Literally fighting their demons in this case.
Like Unhinged, The Conjuring: Unspoken uses your phone as a controller and adds unique mechanics that spice up gameplay. The touchscreen of your phone is both your joystick and your EMF reader. The color of the border around the screen changes, and the phone vibrates when you get closer to a new clue or point of interest. Sometimes, this shifts into Francesca pulling out her infrared camera or her radio to interact with and catch these supernatural clues. The phone screen turns into an infrared camera, showing hot and cold spots in the game’s environment. You need to settle on the colder spots to examine them. Or it shifts into a radio, and you move your phone around, trying to catch the clearest signal you can.
These mechanics are a clever way of making your phone feel like an actual piece of ghost-hunting equipment instead of just another controller. You aren’t simply pressing a button on your controller or selecting an item from your inventory. You are physically moving your phone around to investigate the environment. That makes sense for a paranormal investigation game. After all, if you are going to play as a ghost hunter, you should at least get to use the tools of the trade.
Courtesy of Netflix
It also builds on what made Unhinged’s phone integration so interesting. Your phone is something you already use daily. So turning it into an extension of the game’s world creates a more immediate connection between the player and the character. Instead of simply watching Francesca investigate, you partake in the process. It makes the whole experience feel that much more personal.
The game is developed by Supermassive Games, the studio behind games like Until Dawn, The Quarry, and the Dark Pictures Anthology. This means there are going to be some choices to make and some hidden items to find. These choices can affect how your story plays out. Whether or not characters trust Francesca. Whether you can lay a certain spirit to rest or not. Who lives and who dies. It’s all very much in line with Supermassive’s gaming ideology.
Supermassive has built much of its identity around giving players some control over how a horror story unfolds. Decisions that might seem insignificant can have consequences later, and exploring your surroundings can be just as important as making the right choice when things go sideways. In a story about a family dealing with grief and supernatural forces, those decisions have the potential to make the investigation feel more personal. You’re not just trying to survive the night. You’re also deciding how Francesca approaches the people who need her help.
There is one thing worth noting, however. For a Supermassive Games title, The Conjuring: Unspoken feels remarkably linear. Yes, there are choices to make, items to find, and consequences to deal with, but the overall experience feels a little more guided than what I have come to expect from the studio. Given the developer’s history, I was expecting a little more room to explore and experiment with the story. Instead, the experience feels fairly condensed and focused on getting you from one story beat to the next.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. For such a condensed experience, a more focused story makes sense. Trying to cram a sprawling branching narrative into a shorter game could have easily worked against it. Sometimes a focused story is better than one that stretches itself thin trying to give the player a dozen different paths. I would have liked a little more freedom to see how my decisions could change things, but I can appreciate the appeal of a shorter, more directed experience. Not every horror game needs to be a massive branching narrative with enough endings to make you question whether you have actually seen everything.
As for the scares themselves? Well, this is where things get a little more complicated. Maybe I have simply developed a high tolerance for horror after years of playing games and watching movies and falling asleep to podcasts designed to make me deeply uncomfortable, but The Conjuring: Unspoken did not scare me in the slightest.
That isn’t to say that the subject matter doesn’t work. Demons, haunted inns, grieving families, and children who don’t speak are all perfectly reasonable ingredients for a horror story. But there is a difference between understanding that something is supposed to be frightening and actually feeling frightened by it.
Courtesy of Netflix
And unfortunately, I never really got there. I could appreciate what the game was going for without feeling particularly unsettled by it. Of course, horror is subjective. What leaves one person sleeping with the lights on might barely register for someone else. So I wouldn’t necessarily take my lack of fear as an indication that the game won’t work for other players. But if you’re coming into The Conjuring: Unspoken hoping for an experience that will leave you genuinely terrified, I would temper those expectations a little.
I do want to spend a little bit of time talking about Vinea, also known as Vine in the source material. First of all, Supermassive has done their homework. The depiction of Vinea fits with the descriptors listed in the Ars Goetia: lion, black, viper, soldier. His sigil is accurately depicted as well. And Francesca has a convenient page dedicated to Vinea in her notebook. Which I found odd at first until I remembered that I, too, have a copy of the Lesser Key of Solomon in my own apartment (don’t ask why; I don’t really know). Not that I’ve ever summoned anything, of course. I’m a responsible adult. Who just happens to be priced out of all of the necessary equipment. Have you seen the price of gold?
I appreciate this sort of attention to detail. The Goetic demons provide a particularly interesting source of inspiration, and incorporating those details helps give Vinea an identity rooted in something beyond simply being another scary monster.
And honestly, I will always appreciate a horror game that gives me a reason to crack open a book about obscure occult lore. Is it a normal hobby? Probably not. Is it useful when a demon shows up and starts making everyone’s night considerably worse? Potentially.
Overall, The Conjuring: Unspoken is an interesting addition to Netflix’s collection of interactive games. The phone-based mechanics are a clever way to bring players into the experience, and the combination of supernatural investigation, player choices, and familiar Conjuring lore gives the game a solid foundation. Supermassive’s experience with interactive horror is evident, even if this is a more linear outing than I would typically expect from the studio.
It isn’t without its shortcomings. The story feels more guided than some of Supermassive’s other games, and despite all the demons and supernatural activity, I never found myself particularly frightened. But a lack of genuine scares doesn’t automatically make for a bad horror experience, and the shorter format has its advantages. Ultimately, The Conjuring: Unspoken makes good use of its most interesting gimmick. Your phone isn’t just how you control the game. It’s a part of the experience itself. And considering the things Francesca is investigating, maybe keep that rosary handy.
