Review: The Book of Unwritten Tales (PC)

One of the best gags from The Secret of Monkey Island​ placed our scrappy hero behind a wall where he got into a series of preposterous events out of view. All players could see was onomatopoeia describing his exploits while the HUD showed him using bizarre objects until he emerged several seconds later with his pockets full of random, inevitably useful items. The new point-and-click adventure, The Book of Unwritten Tales, recycles this bit. It's still funny today, but far from original. This is endemic of the game as a whole; it's a loving tribute to the genre's heyday that cribs from the best, but fails to build on them.

The story surrounds a handful of characters whose fates intertwine with an elderly archaeologist that holds knowledge of an artifact that could end an ongoing war. Initially you play as a wood elf and a restless gnome looking for adventure, but the playable cast gradually expands. Most of the time you can only control one character at a time, but specific sections later allow you to toggle between characters at will.
Review: The Book of Unwritten Tales (PC)

It's a throwaway plot, but that's only a small part of the story. Characters are well written and exceptionally voice-acted by a European cast. One thing I really appreciated about the dialogue was that the lines you select are slightly different from what comes out the character's mouth (ala Mass Effect​). It's subtle, but it makes things slightly more engaging when you've not already heard your next line verbatim.

More often than not the humor is clever with plenty of sharp satire, though there was a bit too much fourth wall breaking for my tastes and it occasionally crosses the line from homage to rip-off. Its numerous pop culture references are more akin to Shrek than The Princess Bride, but it's still nevertheless charming. My only major qualm with the script came in the last two minutes when the subtitles inexplicably reverted back to their native German before the incredibly abrupt, unsatisfying denouement.

The game looks beautiful with a smooth blend of 3D characters merged with 2D backdrops. Animations are lovely, making it especially rewarding when you crack a solution. It's a gorgeous world, too, with varied set-pieces and some creative character designs spread over its dozen-plus hour campaign.
Review: The Book of Unwritten Tales (PC)

In many ways The Book of Forgotten Tales feels like a throwback to vintage point-and-clicks, though its puzzles play things too safe, rarely straying from the "use everything with everything else" formula. Often the best brain teasers from classic games required you to think outside the box, but there's none of that here. Most of the solutions are sensible, but too obvious. That "a-ha!" moment you get from figuring out an unusual way of using a typical household item is lacking.

Making things easier, the streamlined interface allows you to highlight objects you can interact with and all actions are handled by one button. For better or worse, you can't attempt to use inventory objects where they won't work. On one hand this makes trial and error much quicker since you can tell by whether your cursor lights up if you can do anything. Unfortunately, one of the best parts from old-school point-and-clicks was listening to characters chastise your stupider suggestions, which is missed here.

For something called The Book of Unwritten Tales, it treads awfully familiar ground; yet it does so with moxie and high production values. It's generally knowing and polished enough that it can be forgiven for not innovating a great deal. The Book of Unwritten Tales feels like a great cover of what's come before, even if it can't quite capture its forebear's magic.

PROS: Smart, funny script; fantastic voice-acting; splendid presentation, clean interface; puzzles make sense.
CONS: Uninspired puzzles; some jokes over-explain themselves; a few translation issues.