As long as the Universe was known to exist, a Monolith sat at its core. Debates raged between the scholars from all corners of the galaxy as to whether it was formed at the dawn of creation, or if it was the Monolith itself that gave rise to everything else, with the answer always proving elusive. In the meantime, the race known as the Prime learnt how to reverse-engineer a fraction of its secrets, and that was enough for them to form an empire greater than any the world has seen till then.
Good times didn't last, however, as a force known only as "the wind from Abyss" had suddenly appeared and raised the Prime's dead as deadly cybernetic warriors. They fought valiantly, but eventually all was lost, and the Monolith Keeper chose his absolute last gambit - an extremely dangerous Prisoner, condemned to indefinite cryosleep centuries ago, who has now become the few living's only hope of cleansing the nine worlds of the dead.
Immortal: Unchained is a Sci-Fi Hack and Slash / Third-Person Shooter Souls-like RPG hybrid game, developed by Toadman Interactive, and released on September 7, 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Even before its release, the game has developed a reputation of "Dark Souls with guns", due to the obvious inspiration it's taken from that game.
Immortal: Unchained provides examples of the following tropes:
- Action Bomb: Enemies stuck with a bunch of green crystals with lunge at you in order to self-detonate. Said explosion also leaves cloud of poisonous mist behind for a few seconds.
- After the End: Pretty much everyone is dead or a hostile cyber-undead, with the friendly and/or living characters being few and far between.
- An Arm and a Leg: You can shoot off enemies' arms, while targeting their legs staggers them.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: Some weapons deal bonus armor piercing damage.
- Anti-Hero: Your protagonist was condemned to indefinite cryosleep for genuinely horrific crimes. The opening describes them as "black of heart".
- Arbitrary Weapon Range: For a futuristic setting, the range of your firearms is plainly pitiful. Even sniper rifle equivalents are powerless at the distances greater than 20 meters or so. Of course, this is meant to justify the use of melee weapons.
- Attack Drone: One of the enemy types. They are also present to support Soothsayer Commander in his boss battle.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Many of the enemies have weak points on their back...
- Boom, Headshot!: Which are often in addition to being vulnerable to headshots.
- Concussion Frags: There are grenades, which are used by both the player and the enemies. In both cases, they are as short-ranged as everything else in the game.
- Continuing is Painful: Getting killed once makes you drop all of the bits you have gathered up to this point at the location of your death. Getting killed again wipes that drop out.
- The Corruption: The "wind" from the Abyss, which caused the mess you now have to clean up.
- Critical Hit: All weapons have a chance of scoring one. It usually inflicts 150% damage, but investing in certain stats raises the damage bonus. Raider class also gets a bonus to scoring these.
- Cut and Paste Environments: The game was frequently critized for regularly repeated environmental elements in its worlds, and for making all nine worlds look very similar to each other in general.
- Damage Sponge: The combat is geared around the idea you'll either headshot your enemies, shoot them in the vulnerable points in the back, or engage in melee. Attempting to simply shoot your foes will quickly chew up through all your ammo.
- Deflector Shields: Some of the enemies and bosses can create these around themselves, which completely block all damage until they fade out after a few seconds.
- Degraded Boss: Almost every boss in the game appears later on as a regular enemy, albeit usually of the Giant Mook variety. The only exceptions are the 3 main story bosses, the Climax Boss, and the Final Boss.
- Dual Wielding: All of the melee weapons are dual-wielded by your character. The enemies that don't carry shields with their melee weapons will also dual-wield them.
- Easy Amnesia: The protagonist has lost all memories from the untold time they spent in cryosleep.
- Facial Markings: Your character's face is invariably tattooed, along with the rest of their body.
- Gender Is No Object: Playing as a male or a female character makes no difference to the game, and the female character has the same "Conan the Barbarian" build as the male character. In fact, you are even allowed to set the same kinds of facial hair for the women as you get for the men! Justified by the ending, which shows you were an extra-dimensional being possessing the body of Cathal himself, who is male.
- Giant Mook: Some of the enemy types are almost twice as tall as you are.
- Glowing Eyes: Pretty much everyone in the game has those - from the protagonist and Monolith Keeper, to virtually all of the enemies.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Cathal, an Expy of Loki, is responsible for all the ills facing the universe at the moment, but is long gone by the time the game takes place. Turns out he's you, or rather, you're an extra-dimensional being possessing his body.
- Immortal Life Is Cheap: Monolith Keeper treats your character with perceptible disdain, both due to their past, and because they know they'll never truly die.
- Laser Hallway: A literal example of a hallway where the floor and ceiling is lined with dozens of purple laser arrays, which all turn off and on in a strict pattern, thus allowing you to advance. One would think that sticking to just one or two laser arrays that would be switched on all the time would have been far more effective.
- Life Drain: Wanderer class heals a little every time they kill an enemy.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: The weapons of the enemies lack range restrictions all of your weapons are subjected to. Moreover, it is impossible for them to fall off the cliff or into the water, which are instant deaths for your character.
- Power Floats: Soothsayer Commander regularly floats high up during his boss battle, while also protecting himself with a shield.
- Practical Currency: Bits, which seem to represent processing power. They are used to upgrade both your character and their weapons.
- The Prophecy: Intro states that one foreshadowed your "unchaining" for the coming battle.
- Recycled In Space: One of the big twists of the game is that the entire story is a sci-fi retelling of the Norse myth of Ragnarok.
- Respawning Enemies: If you get killed and respawn at an obelisk, all the nearby enemies will respawn as well.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: They deal more damage per shot than the pistols, at the expense of having a lower fire rate.
- RPG Elements: You can improve stats like Finesse, Toughness, Perception, Endurance, Insight, etc. through investing bits into them.
- Screw Destiny: Depending on your actions, you can save King Naro and Orin from their fated deaths at the hands of Malog and Arlen.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The protagonist was considered one back when they were imprisoned at the Monolith. It is only the dire state of the world that got them released.
- Shockwave Stomp: Soothsayer Commander can send out a thick green shockwave from its staff.
- Sniper Rifle: Present, and while they are useless beyond 25 meters or so, they are still generally superior to the other gun types, as it is far easier to score headshots with them, and thus end the battles quickly. Marksman class also specializes in these.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Multiple enemy types carry shields, which may be round or of a rectangular tower shape, and be either purely physical or consist of green energy. Bosses like Castellan Peacekeeper or Holmeguard Commander also carry these.
- Short-Range Shotgun: Played absolutely straight with the Scattergun.
- Sprint Meter: Present, and used up during movement (including dodge rolls) or for melee attacks. There's also an Energy meter, which is used up for the special ranged attacks.
- Stationary Wings: The wings of the Soothsayer Commander boss.
- Sucking-In Lines: Many of the enemies' ranged weapons produce these before attacking, thus giving you a cue to dodge.
- Super Drowning Skills: Falling off into the water instantly kills your character.
- Teleport Spam: Late-game areas frequently feature enemies who'll teleport behind your back.
- Treacherous Quest Giver: Aras is genuinely trying to save the universe and needs your help, but secretly despises you, and will turn on you once you're done running errands for him, serving as the game's Climax Boss.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Present, like in any other Dark Souls-inspired game. Their effectiveness is dependent on your agility stat.
