BrokenLore: Unfollow [REVIEW] – Social Media Screams 

Indie horror is often a roll of the dice, and you never quite know if you’re about to uncover a hidden gem or stumble through something that doesn’t hit the mark. Sometimes, you get a bit of both, and that’s exactly how I felt jumping into BrokenLore: Unfollow. It’s a game that wears its heart on its sleeve, tackling some surprisingly heavy modern themes with a lot of ambition, but whilst it absolutely nails the vibe and the narrative setup, it turns out that surviving this nightmare is tricky for reasons that aren’t always intentional. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

The setup of BrokenLore: Unfollow is pretty standard indie horror fare, at least at first. You play as Anne, waking up in her childhood home with a sense of confusion about how you got there. However, it doesn’t take long for the game to show its true colours, and they are pretty grim. As you start digging through the environment and uncovering details about Anne’s life, you realize this isn’t just a haunted house story – it’s a deep dive into the psyche of a woman battling severe body dysmorphia, depression, and a toxic obsession with becoming a social media star. 

This narrative framing is easily the game’s strongest asset. The themes of bullying and self-image are delivered tastefully, showing not just how these issues destroy Anne, but how they ripple out to affect everyone around her. It’s genuinely thoughtful stuff that will likely resonate with a lot of people, especially with the small, painful details such as seeing the calorie count pop up when you look at certain food items… a harsh reality for anyone who has struggled with those specific demons. 

The horror manifests in ways that tie directly to these themes too, with players not just running from generic ghouls, but dealing with a terrifying, twisted version of a mother figure who wants to beautify you, monstrous high school bullies, and even a grotesque creature obsessed with eating. The atmosphere of these encounters is aided significantly by excellent sound design and a soundtrack that knows exactly when to ramp up the tension, with BrokenLore: Unfollow doing a good job of making its more intense scenes feel atmospheric. 

“BrokenLore: Unfollow is a title that has a lot of ambition, with it packing in some cool ideas, effective jump scares, and a narrative that’s easy to get hooked into.” 

One of the coolest features is a live social media follower counter at the bottom of the screen, which adds a unique dynamic that constantly reminds you of Anne’s desperate drive for validation even in the middle of a nightmare. There is even one specific level where user comments start popping up on screen, reacting to what you are doing – it felt fresh and relevant, with it actually a bit of a disappointment that this mechanic was restricted to that one section. It tied into the game’s identity so perfectly and I would have loved to see it utilized more throughout the roughly three-hour runtime, especially since the social media counter doesn’t do a lot other than give a visual nudge to the theming of the experience. 

The story really pulled me in, but unfortunately, the gameplay frequently pushed me away. BrokenLore: Unfollow tries to be more than a walking simulator, introducing stealth sequences and chases that are a bit of a mixed bag. The stealth mechanics feel unbalanced, and when you combine that with environments that are often too dark and maze-like, the result is more frustration rather than fear. There were times during chase sequences where I felt like I was constantly getting attacked by the enemy just because I couldn’t see where the game wanted me to go, turning tension into annoyance. 

The puzzle design doesn’t always deliver either, with most puzzles involving finding items to progress. This is fine in itself, but the game has a bad habit of only letting you grab these items after you’ve initiated the puzzle. You might scour a room, find nothing, trigger the objective, and then have to go back to the exact same room to find an object that has magically appeared… it’s not great. In the house section, this is manageable due to the smaller size, but in larger areas like the hospital, the backtracking becomes a bit of a chore. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

As the game progresses toward the finale, things also get weird… maybe a little too weird. The later chapters lean heavily into surrealism, and while there are some cool ideas there, it starts to feel like a clash of random horror tropes thrown together when compared to the game’s earlier tone. It loses the consistency of the earlier, more grounded psychological horror, and whilst this does bring some variety to the experience, I think BrokenLore: Unfollow was at its best in the earlier chapters of the game. 

Despite these gripes, I still enjoyed my time with BrokenLore: Unfollow. There are plenty of collectibles and small environmental objects that flesh out the lore, and making specific decisions can actually alter your ending, which is a nice touch for a game of this size – it’s definitely worth playing through more than once. It’s clear that there’s a lot of heart here, but it just doesn’t always nail the delivery – with more titles to come from the series though, here’s hoping the developer can perfect their craft, because there really is a lot of potential here. 

Developer: Serafini Productions 
Publisher: Serafini Productions, Shochiku 
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PC 
Website: https://serafiniproductions.com/brokenlore/