The Book of Unwritten Tales 2

Game contains a bug in item combination where it results in locking you out of progress. Will probably never be fixed.

I was tempted by the rave reviews to give this a try - I was looking for something in a different genre from MMO and 4x, which I've been playing exclusively for a couple of years now. The good thing first: this game is very pretty. I also think the interface is well designed, moving the characters around the screen, pressing space to highlight the things you can interact with - very nice indeed. This could remove a lot of the tedium, I thought, as a first impression. Unfortunately I find this kind of game still does not appeal to me any more than the old text based adventures "I do not see a lantern here" of the early 80s Infocom Adventures. I find the puzzles tedious. This is different from the fed-ex missions in so many role playing games only in that you get to combine some of these items from time to time and then use them on something else. But, basically, run from place to place, fetch a, b, c, d. Try to figure out which to use on what. The task of getting a lit fidibus from the firemaker to the fireplace was horrid, because certain things ended up on different inventory pages - that was a "gaaaah" kind of experience. The dialogues I have encountered are meant to be witty, but to me they are mostly lame and tedious, sorry. Oh yes, the pop culture references, the allusions to other games, but ... nothing I could get remotely excited about --- and if I encounter that sort of thing in a Terry Pratchett novel I mostly end up laughing like a loon, just to put that into perspective. I played through the first, second, third episodes, I got part way through the 4th ("hangover cure" for the initiated) and I just gave up. I just can't be bothered to go on. ..... The rewards (seeing more of the story) just don't seem worth the annoyance of getting there. Yes, the tedium does get annoying, at least for me.

I have purchased Part 2 because Part 1 was really nice. Part 1 has a good story and I did not discover any serious glitches. However, part 2 is just a catastrophy. Of course one could say that a shallow story and a total absence of black humor is just a matter of taste, but the whole story seems to be written for kids. There is no irony, very few spots with sarcasm and some dialogues making me feel irritated. For example a speaking book tells me that its always a good idea to read a book and then I reply with full agreement and that its indeed good to read books. I feel as if the game is really made for kids only, telling them all time what they should do in real life. The dialogues are way too long and boring. Yet you have to listen to all that because you might miss some game progress if you dont. Its really hard listening to all that nonfunny nonsense. But as said, its all a matter of taste and I dont say the game is a catastrophy because of the poor story, but because of all that bugs, which render the game unplayable. The more you progress, the more glitches you will discover. Most of them you can fix by leaving the room and re-entering (actor becomes invisible, actor does not move, camera does not follow actor). Then some glitches are just annoying like missing or mixed up sentences. Sometimes you only hear the echo of your voice, not the sentence itself. But starting from chapter 3 there are real traps which just destroy your game. The worst thing is, that there are some bugs you dont realize at first but maybe after 10 minutes. But then its too late and you can't continue. I made the mistake and had only 3 save games. Unfortunately all 3 were already rendered unuseable and I did not realize until it was too late. I have no way to continue my game. Since the game has been released one year ago, I don't expect any patches anymore. If you are a liker of sarcasm and black humor, I strongly suggest you NOT to buy this game.

I got it as soon as it came out, since Episode 1 was one of the best adventure games I played in the past few years. But I was so disappointed. The game lacks the smartness, the spark of the previous one. It is very slow placed and boring. Too many words, too many descriptions and the puzzles are easy and pretty banal. Big big disappointment. The magic of episode 1 as well as of the Critter Chronicles is gone. Too bad :(

"The Book Of Unwritten Tales 2" and "The Book Of Unwritten Tales 2 Almanach Edition" are identical. Don't buy the big bundle that has them both. It's utterly pointless.