The game is supposed to be a horror game but its horror is gross not scary. It's supposed to be a meaningful game but instead its merely fatuous. The result is that rather than any genuine emotion I felt distaste. The fundamental problem is that the writing is simply bad because the author is approaching material he doesn't have the maturity to handle. It simply isn't worth one's time and money.
This game is so bad that I think it is a troll. The great thing about indie games is that sometimes one can find hidden gems. The bad thing is that one comes across games that are a total train wreck. This is a train wreck of a game. I have no doubt that it has its fans, so do Lindsey Lohan and Brittney Spears. That doesn't make them--or this game--any good. This game is essentially a set of random design elements in search of a plot. It's as if someone took a class called "Game Developer 101" and then thew all their home works assignments in a top hat, pulled them out of the hat in random order, and claimed it was their final class project. I think not. If I was a professor I'd fail them and so should you. Don't buy this game. Don't reward this nasty behavior. Let's keep the hijinks more fitting for a British boarding school in a boarding school and not in our PCs.
Excellent graphics, vivid characterizations and voice work, and some genuinely funny satire can't overcome the glacial pacing and standard plot lines. This is a video game in the same way that cotton candy is food. Maybe I made a mistake playing it directly after To the Moon which does everything wrong that the Book of Unwritten Tales gets right and yet To the Moon is the better game because it made me /care/. I really wanted to like The Book of Unwritten Tales. It's creative, fun, and even funny but winds up being the type of girl you'd love to hang out with but never get serious. The original Broken Sword has better drama and something like To the Moon or The Longest Journey has more meaning. Only get The Book of Unwritten Tales to play when you want to zone out and be brain dead.
I heard about this game before release but extensive experience has left me quite jaded about low-budget indie games. A few like the Blackwell series manage to rise above the low-budget blues but most indie games are just awful. So it has taken me awhile to get around to play To the Moon and the recent sale by GOG.com convinced me to try it. How good is this game? It has to be talked about in the same breath as The Longest Journey or the original Broken Sword. In fact, if this game had the budget of those games To the Moon might have made the grade as the best game point and click adventure game ever made. As a game, this game is far from perfect. There are too many problems with it to call it a "masterpiece." What makes it stand out is its creativity, imagination, music score, and story and the way these elements combine to create a mood that suspends your disbelief and transports you to another world. This isn't so much a game as an interactive novel. You OWE it to yourself to play this game. You do your life a disservice if you don't play it. This is one of those games that will still be talked about a decade from now.
