The Book of Unwritten Tales has been around for several years, but has only just been released internationally. Developed by KING Art and published by Nordic Games, Unwritten Tales may not revolutionize the genre, but it’s a truly great adventure. That it’s the first major commercial release for KING Art, it shows just how much talent and passion the developers possess.
Like many point-and-click adventures, the core gameplay of Unwritten Tales lies in directing a character around a given area to finding items, solve puzzles and advance the plot. But that’s like saying any given first-person shooter is all about aiming a gun and pulling the trigger: it’s an oversimplification, and the experience lies in the details.
Without giving too much of the plot away, you’ll play as one of four characters, including Wilber the gnome and Ivo the elf, as they try to stop a war that’s been ravaging the home of the alliance of humans, elves, gnomes, and dwarves. The adventure starts off in earnest as Wilber, a young and bored gnome who dreams of being a hero, receives a magic ring that could be the first major step in achieving peace.
If that plot sounds awfully familiar, it’s intentional. Unwritten Tales is an extremely funny game, one packed with self-aware references, stage whispers, and plenty of homages to famous stories. While the Lord of the Rings reference is pretty blunt, you’ll find that “The One Ring” soon directly references Star Wars and adds a little Temple of Doom before all is said and done. Though Tolkein-esque fantasy is clearly the strongest influence of Unwritten Tales, it isn’t long before the world spins off into something unique.
KING Art unequivocally succeeds in creating a place that mocks its own tropes and clichés while simultaneously embracing them, which is part of the reason why Unwritten Tales is one of the best adventure games I’ve ever played. It also features solid writing, beautiful graphics, a pleasing soundtrack, and logical puzzles without reliance on cheap tactics to extend the play time. The major characters are all interesting, clever, and a joy to interact with, but so are the minor characters who populate the world and give you items to get you through your journey. Be on the lookout for an incredibly depressed Grim Reaper, and the pot- and shroom-smoking minotaur Shaman.
Each character is voiced well by actors who were clearly having fun with the material. Even they know how silly the references and tropes are, but their voice acting is top-shelf. There are a few odd spots where the text doesn’t match the speech, and there are a few typos in the subtitles, but it won’t detract from the plot in any way. The story itself seems to end too soon, as it sets itself up for sequels or spin-offs, but perhaps it’s because Unwritten Tales is a victim of its own quality. These are characters we want to know more about, whose individual backstories are complex and well developed. I’m curious to see them all fully concluded, but several plot threads are left hanging. The story in a vacuum does end with satisfaction, but I had to say goodbye long before I was ready to.
Unwritten Tales relies heavily on tasking you to fetch this item for that character to advance the story, and obviously that type of gameplay isn’t for everyone. However, the worst offenses of the genre are avoided and allow you to really settle in, easily figure out the rules of the universe, and succeed to move the plot along. There is very little “moon logic” involved in the puzzles; almost every one can be solved through common sense and careful examination of your items. Some of the puzzles are tricky and will require significant brainpower, but every single one is clever and coherent.
Unwritten Tales also uses several tricks to allow all players, adventure game veterans or newcomers, to focus on progression and remove guesswork by blindly clicking on everything. The first scene is basically a tutorial that shows you the entire interface in a handful of minutes, demonstrating how to examine the environment, collect and combine items, and gather hints from character conversations. Veterans will blow through the first scene in ten minutes or less, but the dialogue and basic controls set the tone and establish the game’s rules for you with little fuss.
Even better, any given object’s “hotspot” (the clickable area to interact with it) simply disappears when it’s no longer relevant. For example, in one of Wilber’s first areas, he has to explore a kitchen. Choosing to look out the window will result in a line of dialogue, but then the window can no longer be looked at again. This way, you know that the window is not necessary to complete any of the puzzles in the area. If you do find an object that doesn’t lose its hotspot (such as the pot in the aforementioned kitchen), you’ll know that it’s necessary at some point, even if you can’t figure out its use immediately. It allows you to mentally note which objects will be important and which are not, decreasing the amount of time you would otherwise spend clicking at random and hoping for a result.
The feature of most adventure games that I find most annoying is pixel-hunting for tiny objects. Though there is some pixel-hunting in Unwritten Tales, it’s only about one object per area; all other objects are either large enough to be easily seen or given to you through the minor characters. There were a couple spots where I was basically waving the mouse over every single feature of a given area, but it never felt torturous. Unwritten Tales walks the line between cleverly testing your eyesight and actively annoying you, but it stays on the correct side from start to finish.
The items themselves are large and logical, and there are thankfully no red herring items. If you can pick it up, you can be sure that it will be used for something, even if you may not know exactly what when you get it. Items can be combined, but once again Unwritten Tales takes a simple shortcut to keep you focused. If the item you’re holding can be combined with a different one, the cursor changes color and text appears when you mouseover the correct combination. If two items have nothing to do with each other, the cursor remains normal and no text appears. If you ever get stuck, you can simply mouseover all your items just in case there is a combination you’re not seeing, which once again minimizes how long you’re stuck in an area. Unwritten Tales is completed in just about 18 hours, and most of that will be spent thinking and exploring rather than blindly clicking at everything because you’re confused. There is very little to cause you frustration.
Beyond gathering items, you will want to explore what the world has to show you. Every scene is absolutely gorgeous, created by artists who want to pull you into the world. Every area looks lived in with a bit of a cartoonish hook, but there are subtle uses of color and flare, light and shadows, scale and camera angles that really bring you into each area. This is a breathing world that begs to be explored, though sadly due to the nature of the game, you can’t simply roam around at your leisure. The music and sound effects range from epic to cartoony, but all cue timing is appropriate. You’ll never feel like the game is a photorealistic venture into an alternate universe, but you will definitely appreciate the plot and have fun in the journey.
Source : ign[dot]com
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