Review: The Book of Unwritten Tales

 Goutham Jayaraman

Ravencrow Game Review #23

 

The Book of Unwritten Tales

https://store.steampowered.com/app/215160/The_Book_of_Unwritten_Tales/

Genre	Point and Click
Platform	PC
Developer	KING Art
Publisher	THQ Nordic
Playtime	18 hours
Date Completed	6/6/2021
Date Reviewed	8/6/2021
Overall Grade	S*

 

The Book of Unwritten Tales is an immersive Point and Click game that just simply oozes with fairy tale charm from every corner. It was an absolute pleasure to experience it’s beautiful landscapes, lovable characters, quippy narrative and engaging puzzles.

The premise of the game revolves around some kind of artifact that an evil band of monsters wishes to abuse for whatever nefarious purpose. The artifact is initially in the hands of a capable mage, but soon finds its way to a terribly innocent little gnome, who must then take responsibility for it and set out on an adventure to deliver the artifact to the arch mage. Along the way, he will meet up with a wood elf and some funny dude with an even funnier creature. Honestly, it’s all very random and seems to follow a typical fantasy trope, but ends up being very charming and enjoyable all the same.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the game takes a slightly more modern approach seen in a few other games. Only correct or interesting actions are allowed, which saves on production costs and player frustration. Besides this mechanic, the game is entirely standard point-and-click gameplay without any minigames or the such.

To me, the game became immediately established as one of the top Point and Clicks in my library and the whole 18 hour experience was absolutely worth the effort. Even though the game’s plot developments could be described as random, it was still exciting for me to see what would happen next as nothing was set in stone. The diverse fantasy elements and classic humor also kept me happy throughout the playthough.

 

What I liked

-          The brilliant humor in the game

-          The fantasy setting, which was not only charming but eloquently presented with a wide assortment of quirky characters, fantasmical locations and interesting items.

-          How long the game was

-          How comfortable it was to play.

-          The voice acting which felt natural and added to the game’s humor

What I disliked                                                                   

-          The ending was abrupt anticlimactic

-          Story was not so cohesive or meaningful

Gameplay 22/20	+ Standard point and click gameplay + Only correct and interesting actions are allowed. This eliminated frustration from randomly trying stuff out. + Game still felt fairly challenging whilst maintaining a relaxing mood + Many sections of the game were open and expansive and were fun to explore + Good humor and usage of tropes + Swapping between different characters was fun and felt meaningful
Game Design 22/20	+ Creative item and puzzle design which was deeply interwoven with the game’s fantasy setting. + Some items such as the talking weapon set are definitely worth a mention and possibly an accolade too. + Nonlinear design in several areas with multiple goals to pursue + Multiple character mechanic was well implemented, actually adding flavor and depth to the puzzles = No hint system, but honestly all games need to do is to phase out useless actions
Graphics 22/20	+ Gorgeous locations that look like they came out of a fantasy world whilst still sporting a touch of realism. + Characters and items look good, fit the fantasy theme and are quite varied + Very diverse environments that range from
Audio 20/20	+ Lifelike voice acting + Soundtrack is fairly varied. Some tracks give the vibe of going out on an epic quest, some are designed to fit the specific location and some fit certain characters.
Story 11/20	- The story is probably the only weak point of the game. The only thing that I really remember is that the story involves an artifact, an arch mage and some kind of evil plot.   - The narrative is cohesive enough to get the job done, but events are quite random and the game does hop between characters frequently so it caused some disconnect when it came to the story.   - Was not really impressed by the ending either. It just suddenly happened without any kind of final confrontation.   = The time paradox aspect made for nice puzzle design and created some humorous plot points, but didn’t help the story all that much
Lore 24/20	+ Very varied cast of characters ranging from gnomes to elves to dragons to orcs to ogres to gremlins to wizards. Literally every fantasy trope you can think of is represented here in solid form. + Characters are highly memorable and have personalities that stand out + A wonderful little touch is how characters look at you when you haven’t given them actions for a while. Really brings out their personality, and made Wilbur in particular very memorable. + The critter was an absolute riot + Nate starts out as a snob but grows mature over time whilst maintaining his comedy standard + Wilbur gains respect from his fellow peers slowly but surely and it’s quite admirable to see + Ivo seems like the most balanced character, and had a cute bird companion who sadly didn’t do too much + I can still fondly remember all of the NPCs - The villains were not as memorable - The critter did not get enough screen time
Value 19/20	+ Lengthy but high quality gameplay experience + Fair price + Part of a series - No replay value
Overall Grade 20/20	S*
Score	100

 

With such phenomenal world design, memorable characters, gentle puzzles and jovial dialogs, The Book of Unwritten Tales is a game well deserving of its S* grade and should be a must play for any adventure game fans out there. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this game and I'm sure you will too!

 

[NOTES]

The characters in this game are extremely well done. They absolutely feel alive. They look at the player when they dont know what to do. They have very distinct personalities. They grow throughout the course of the story. They are also as funny as they need to be. NPCs are also all designed well. 

 

Environments are quite varied and model a fantasy setting very well. You get a lot of interesting places to explore and equally interesting characters to interact with. A dragon's den, orc camp, lush forest, coastal town. A dragon, two headed troll, an annoying orc, even undead clowns. This game has definitely been very engaging in that regard. 

 

Puzzles actually have a comfortable difficulty. I didnt need to use a walkthrough except at 1 or 2 points, but still did have to spend a fair amount of time dealing with the puzzle sequences. 

 

The game does a good job with making its puzzles nonlinear as well, giving you multiple tasks and locations to work on at a time. 

 

Extremely funny at times, plenty of humor in every scene. 

 

Story is okay, it is engaging and will keep you motivated enough to finish it. Not the best or deepest story but youll enjoy the random events that occur. 

 

Gameplay features meaningful character swapping and even a time warp situation, which was particularly clever 

 

The critter is an absolute riot. 

 

Only correct or interesting choices are possible (so you cant use a random item in a random manner). This does help make the game feel more relaxing without feeling easy thanks to stellar puzzle design