For the uninitiated, Stories Untold is a creepy collection of four stories, each taking no longer than an hour or so to finish, and each with different gameplay elements. The first and by the far the best episode pays homage to the old school text adventures that you might have played if you grew up in the '80s. The trick is you can actually see the computer you're playing the game on as well as other items in the room, and the game uses the environment in creative ways to really ramp up the tension.
Unfortunately, after the first episode the game goes off the rails. The second and third episodes introduce increasingly annoying puzzle mechanics that sap the experience of momentum, and ruin the creepy vibes that episode one so expertly puts in place. One puzzle, for example, requires you to know morse code in order to solve it. Now, perhaps you know morse code. Maybe you're sending coded messages right now to outwit ze Germans, but most likely you're going to have to spend a couple of frustrating minutes Googling the answer.
It's hard to talk about the final episode in anything other than the vaguest of terms since it might ruin some surprises. Whether you enjoy it or not will likely depend on how much you need your stories to be wrapped up neatly rather than being left open to interpretation. For our money it's unnecessary and overly eager to beat you over the head with explanations, but it's more consistent and creepy than the middle two episodes, and a suitable conclusion for the series.
Each chapter of Stories Untold is framed like an episode of a Twilight Zone-style anthology television show, replete with a killer John Carpenter-esque synth-backed intro. It pays more than a passing nod to the introduction to hit show Stranger Things, but it's undeniably cool, and we'd love to see an Untold Stories 2 that continued the theme, only with a more consistent episode quality.
Comments 6
I played this a few years back on PC. It is definitely something to play through with friends.
This review is fair. The first episode is almost worth the price of admission alone.
The next two I had fun with, and would recommend to fans of Observation but the puzzles are similar to the ones in that game. (I don't know Morse code either but the manual in that episode does have the answer there so there's no need to google)
The last episode is a real waste I agree too... But the first episode is one of my favourite horror gaming moments.
Not a completely fair review.
It's certainly a game best played with a keyboard (the switch port is decent and works well enough).
However, the game definitely doesn't expect you to know morse code?? I've played through it twice (once on pc, once on switch), and there is a puzzle including morse code, but the info and documentation on deciphering it is in game, and was a decently tactile and strangely fun experience.
If you do actually know morse code, then it's not really a puzzle, as it would be a complete breeze.
In the immortal words of someone, somewhere...
Played this on PC a while back and really enjoyed the first episode, but they do kinda drop off after that. If you see it cheap enough I'd say it's worth it for that first one alone, but very fair review overall.
Still undecided on both this and Visage. Probably wait for a sale. Thanks for the review (and the dissenting opinions in the comments).
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