Ghost of a Tale

Ghost of a tale est un jeu comme on en voit peu par les temps qui courent. Alors que la mode est au "die and retry", le jeu est aux antipodes de ce concept, et vous permet d'avoir une expérience mignone, plaisante et sans frustration (du moins pour quelqu'un comme moi). Malgré tout, simple ne veut pas dire simpliste. L'histoire et le folklore du jeu sont riches pour qui se donne la peine de lire. L'environnement est magnifique et tellement plein d'imagination, il pourrait nous venir tout droit d'un Disney , un savant mélange de Winny l'ourson et Taram. Aidé par un level design éfficace, nous avons la un environnement qui ne cesse de vous donner envie de l'explorer. Le personnage principe est touchant et attachant, sa modélisation et son animation y sont pour beacoup, quelle animation ! d'ailleurs tous les personnages en profite. Il y a de nombreuses quêtes annexes, chacune apporant un détail supplémentaire à la quête principale, qui s'en sort très bien toute seule. Mais elles permettent de mieux comprendre le leiu dans lequel on évolue ainsi que les personnages que l'on rencontre. Ici il n'y a point de combat, mais de l'adresse, de l'agilité et même la fuite, mais tous les outils sont à notre porté pour avancer, il suffit d'être observateur et de bien écouter les conseils de nos compagnons de voyage. le gameplay est ponctué de plateforme, d'infiltration et d'enigmes. Ces dernières sans être insurmontables, ne sont pas toutes évidentes pour qui ne dépense pas un florin chez le "forgeur". C'est un jeu que je conseille fortement pour qui aime explorer et trouver des solutions sans violence. L'hsitoire est riche. Visuellement magnifique. Environnements super (la vue du port quand on arrive du versant nord...). Personnage excellent. Un gameplay rafraichissant. De belles musiques, mais trop peu, surtout quand on entend la qualité. A faire.

I'll keep the review short: This is a delightful, top-notch game. Think of the book "Redwall" meets the game "Thief" + maybe "Skyrim" or the "Witcher 3" or heck, even "Deus Ex". You play as a mouse, Tilo, who has to escape the prison run by the Rat King, in order to then go on to rescue your wife, Merra. The Rats are big, strong, and powerful, so the emphasis is on stealth and exploration (hence the comparison to "Thief" or even "Deus Ex", games where stealth played a huge role). There is also quite a bit of lore and wonderful description in the game (sort of like "Skyrim") and some genuinely interesting and humorous interactions with NPC's (ok, not like "Skyrim," where you pretty much travelled places and wound up just killing the NPC's no matter what...but reading the journals and letters were fun!). If you are like me, you've bought a huge number of games, and then barely play most of them, and/or start a game, but get bogged down, something pulls you away and you can't bring yourself to start over again. This game has me hooked...I keep coming back for more, I love the exploration aspect and I don't mind backtracking over areas I previously explored. The game is that fun! I will also mention, the graphics are top-notch! Hard to believe this was the work of primarily one person. The music and audio are fantastic, too. My only wish was that it was a bit easier to play with keyboard and mouse, but honestly, the Xbox joypad is perfect, I just had to dig it out from the bottom of a drawer.

The game is beautiful, but not much more. The history is boring. The quests are badly discribed, so the player wastes a lot of time running in amoc in the claustrophobic castle from place to place. The AI is stupid, the big rats are following you for 10 meters and then they meet the end of their area, so they go back like nothing ever happend. Because of that player starts to run like crazy instead of being sneaky. After playing it for few days I came to conclusion that it's not pleasant to play this game, it reminds a work, because nothing really rewards your efforts and not much happens in the game. Well, I don't recommend this game, this is the perfect example to not judge a book by its cover.

TL;DR: for those that love games like KOTOR, this is something for you. An overarching plot with character driven subplots winding around a beautiful and interactive world. Gameplay: it's all about sneaking and solving puzzles, the best aspect is that you are rewarded for exploration. Investigating your surroundings is a must, and you will find characters, items, and paths through your work. Controls: the weak point of the title, occasionally janky and needs some getting used to. Graphics: gorgeous, though some computers may struggle to keep up. The design overall is phenomenal and immersive. Story: mainly in the form of text, though a lot of world building occurs in the environment, a lot of love and tears has gone down into making a believable and interesting fantasy world with endearing characters. That's my take on the game, a work of art if you ask me, I hope we will get a Ghost of a Tale 2.

It's sweet and funny and gorgeous, with such incredible attention to detail. It even managed to make me tear up a little bit without ever feeling poe-faced. It's just great story telling, great world building and great gameplay. Possibly the most imaginative game I've played in years. Do bear in mind that, being an early access title, it is somewhat poorly optimised so you may not be seeing the graphics at their best in order to get a decent framerate, but the art style still holds up well at lower settings.