Stories Untold

The good: - especially in episode 1 there are some good ideas in the game and it felt like a real horror adventure Neither good or bad: - big parts of the game are text adventure based, it works well with the atmosphere in the game The bad: - total playtime less than 3 hours, the story is rather thin - in episode 3 you operate a device with a digital display. The display is showing you the digital numbers you are setting. But you have to additionally switch it on to get it operating. The display is already on ... - in episode 3 you have to listen to a morse code and decipher it. For me this was a pain. The gap between the short tones is too short (at least for me). - in episode 3 you have to read some texts and always zoom and focus around. This is annoying and makes no fun. I would have given the game three stars if episode 3 would have been better.

First of all, I would start by saying that three stars isn't a 'bad' score nor do I mean it as one. This game is certainly a game. It has gameplay, a story, themes and I believe anyone who picks this up that is vaguely interested in horror or thrillers will have some fun with it (I certainly loved seeing old school text adventures being rep'd in the modern day) and it has value in being what it is, a short, concise playthrough that tells a story and ensures you have some fun doing so. As some good points, I personally love how gameplay is switched up and changed between episodes, I think graphically the game is impressive in its own unique way, perhaps an odd compliment but the keyboard sounds in game were oddly fitting and pleasant and that attention to detail is admirable and, to reiterate, I like that this game is what it is, not aiming to be a world renowned tour de force spoken of in artistic myth, it is a short game that tells its story without trying to mess the player around. I also appreciate how the game handles horror, there are no spoopy, blood drenched jumpscares here, nor tortured allusions to insanity straight out of a high school drama club's interpretation of the DSM-5 like some other games I could mention. It has atmosphere and oddities and it does it well. However this does come with the caveat that you need to go into this game expecting to play it, enjoy it and not pick it up again which, again, isn't necessarily a bad thing, more just an expectation to be aware of and managed. You will have *some* fun with this game (how much really depends on your appreciation of puzzles and what this game is trying to accomplish) and for the price? It's worth checking out if this game is your kind of thing. Though as a final note, do be aware of some scenes with heavy amounts of flashing lights.

Gets very tedious in chapter 3. Loads of instructions/codes/frequencies etc that you need to look up in an old microfilm-viewer manual, which is very tedious. Back and forth, reading out numbers from tables, decoding, scrolling to find the right page, decoding morse alphabet, tuning in the correct frequencies on a radio and so on and so on. And it never seems to end either, so I decided to give up there - wasn't very interested in the story anyway. Chapter 1 and 2 were ok though and a bit cool...chapter 3 though is like some bad math homework...

First off; the text parser is terrible. Be prepared for that. This game definitely has some surprising moments that could have made a really great game, but sadly the heavy-handed writing / thematic elements really bring the story down - it's also one that relies on creating a feeling of powerlessness which is an unusual and difficult subject for something that's interactive - that was relatively successful but when you're already struggling with the poor text parser (for example, words that work in certain situations do not work later in situations that mirror the previous ones, even when the word that gives you the clue is right there on the screen) the overall effect is more one of contempt for the design than for the situation you're in. It probably didn't help that I initially played this on a machine that more than met the minimum specs, but was unable to get through the last session due to terrible drops in FPS. When I finally played this on a higher specced machine, having to play through the first 3 episodes again was rather dull - there really is no replayability value here - there are no randomisers for puzzles, for example (maybe one, I'm not sure) - and as the story had already been spelled out to me by that point, it was more an annoyed plod through the terrible text parser (they seriously made it more annoying during the last level, presumably in an attempt to convey impairment, but it felt like a bad choice to me at that point - I was already being very sarcastic with the game by then...) The 3 first scenarios are all very interesting, and I enjoyed how they were related while all being very different. I'd probably prefer it if they hadn't gone to the trouble of spelling everything out in the final chapter - though I did like the way they wove the first 3 into the 4th. The problem was, they spell everything out in the first few seconds of interaction in the 4th, and from that point on you're stuck waiting for the story to catch up, or to surprise you, and it really does neither. Worth it for the experience? Probably, but ideally for 50% off, to be honest. Look at it as an experiment rather than a fully-formed game and you'll see the ingenuity behind it. Look for a well-told story and you'll be left disappointed.

A very atmospheric and intense horror game which unfortunately doesn’t actually tell much of a story. The 80’s nostalgia and old style computer programs as puzzles is great, as long as you can put up with all the inconveniences of these systems. The variety of interactions is good as is the way each episode gets longer and more complex, but it’s still a very short game and there’s no replay value. The graphics are also very good, as is the sound effects, although the voice acting quality varies. Overall, it’s just not that rewarding – the story’s reveal and conclusion isn’t that spectacular, and after all the effort of solving the “puzzles”, the ending is disappointing. I was expecting a lot more from the plot rather than just a jumble of events tied to an unrelated trigger event. The last episode does bring it all together nicely, but is rather dull in comparison to what it could have been.