Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

The Book of Unwritten Tales Review for PC

The Book of Unwritten Tales Review for PC

An Epic Point-and-Click Adventure

For years, the point-and-click adventure genre has been sitting contentedly in a comfortable little rut: Publishers, most prominently Telltale Games, push out games in episodic format, with cartoonish graphics, witty dialogue, and a detailed hint system. Sometimes a great license is involved (Back to the Future, Strong Bad), and sometimes the content pushes a few boundaries (Hector), but when it comes right down to it, you always know what you’re getting from a point-and-click game.

The Book of Unwritten Tales, a two-year-old German game that has now been translated into English, destroys this entire template. This isn’t a clever little diversion that will entertain you for a few hours each month until the episodes run out, because it’s not in episodic format. It’s not always simple, and there’s no hint system. While it’s certainly lighthearted, it tells a complex story. And most important of all, it’s a 20-hour-plus adventure told from the perspective of several different characters. This is, in short, a real gamer’s point-and-click game, an “adventure” in the fullest sense of the word.

The Book of Unwritten Tales Screenshot

Unwritten Tales’ plot carefully navigates the intersection of parody, homage, and originality. You will see witty references to other fantasy stories constantly . In fact, one of the main plotlines is the quest of Wilbur Weathervane, a gnome, to bring a ring to the person who needs it. It’s clear that the script writers love fantasy, simply because they know so much about it, but they are also keenly aware of how ridiculous it can be. The developers devote entire puzzle sequences to making fun of World of Warcraft and Magic: The Gathering, two of the genre’s sacred cows.

But make no mistake: This is not just a hodgepodge of well-crafted references, but an intricate and epic story in its own right. From the very beginning, you’re cast into a world under siege by evil forces, and you meet a stunning cast of characters who are trying to stop it. There’s Mortimer McGuffin, an aging archeologist and gremlin who has stumbled upon an artifact that could save the world but has been kidnapped by dragon-riding members of the Army of Shadows. There’s Weathervane, the gnome who dreams of adventure until McGuffin crashes down right in front of him and hands in the ring. There’s Ivo, a sexy elf princess with an irresistible British accent who gets swept up in the fight when she tries to rescue McGuffin. And there’s Nathaniel Bonnet, a handsome human adventurer.

The Book of Unwritten Tales Screenshot

All of this is presented in colorful 3D graphics, and while the visuals look more dated than they should after just two years (the overall look reminds me of Psychonauts: cute but not cutting-edge in 2011), they are lovingly crafted and a joy to look at nonetheless. Each character model oozes personality, the settings are varied and colorful, and the cutscenes truly bring the story to life. While Unwritten Tales might not have the most technically impressive graphics, it’s clear that the developers put effort into perfecting every last corner of this large and complicated world.

They put some effort into making the game funny, too. Obviously, different countries can have different senses of humor—just look at the British and American versions of The Office . If jokes are steeped in parody, an audience in a different country might not understand the references. And if two countries speak different languages, as Germany and the United States do, that introduces a whole new set of problems. The English-translation team for The Book of Unwritten Tales had quite a challenge in front of them, and it would be understandable of some of the humor here just plain didn’t work.

The Book of Unwritten Tales Screenshot

But somehow, amazingly, it works perfectly. Either the jokes naturally translate well for American audiences, or the team carefully adjusted them to fit the new culture. It’s possible that I missed some references, but so far as I could tell, all of the fantasy culture that the game draws upon will be familiar to American players. The dialogue is amazingly well-written, and the voice actors have terrific comedic timing. Here, the developers didn’t just make the best of a tricky pitch; they knocked it out of the ballpark.

That brings us to the puzzles. With Telltale’s point-and-click games, I often find myself checking the hint system too often—and sometimes the solution to the puzzle is truly stupid, something no one would think of by themselves. Here, that problem is quite rare—which is a good thing, because, as I mentioned above, the developers don’t include a formal hint system at all (though sometimes the dialogue will point you in the right direction). I’ll confess that I checked an online walkthrough a few times, but overall, the puzzles are intuitive and well-designed. Several of them are even true brain-teasers—the kind of problem you won’t solve right away, but that you should work through instead of just looking up the solution.

The Book of Unwritten Tales Screenshot

No review is complete without a few gripes, so here goes. As good as this game is, it’s awfully hard to stay interested in a point-and-click adventure for hours at a time. I found Unwritten Tales most enjoyable in small doses, which might explain why so many point-and-click publishers prefer the episodic format. Also, the version of the game that I played (which I received more than a week before the release date) had a very serious bug: Most of the options on the menu screen were invisible (“unwritten,” you might say). After some trial and error, I eventually got everything set up, but this is something that absolutely has to be fixed. Hopefully, the version available commercially has already been patched.

Frankly, though, these issues didn’t really faze me, because I had such a great time with this game. I would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy stories, has a sense of humor, and is capable of enjoying a well-made point-and-click adventure. With a list price of $30 and a three-hour demo available, it offers great value for your money and deserves a place in your library.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.0 Graphics
They’re not cutting-edge, but they’re lovingly crafted and a joy to look at. 4.5 Control
A menu glitch can make it hard to change the options, but during gameplay it’s just point-and-click. 4.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The voice actors have great comedic timing, and the music fits the fantasy mood of the game. 4.5 Play Value
A 20-hour classic adventure story for $30? Sold. 4.4 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • A classic point-and-click adventure set in a fair and beautiful fantasy world.
  • Innovative multi-character gameplay. Three playable heroes whose skills have to be used cooperatively to achieve your goals.
  • More than 150 cleverly designed puzzles with a perfect mix of dialogue and logical brainteasers, most with multiple solutions.
  • Over 200 items to combine and to use.
  • Massive game world including over 35 weird characters and more than 60 diverse and lovingly designed locations.

  • To top