Stories Untold Review- A Modern Day Text Adventure

Stories Untold Review- A Modern Day Text Adventure 

Title: Stories Untold 

Release date: 27 Feb 2017 

Publisher: [Good 'ol] Devolver Digital 

What I find weird is that the only experience, before this game, I've had with text adventures is the one that is hidden in the menu of CoD Black Ops. Even then, I just went, 'oh that's cool.' then went on to play the top down zombie game. Stories Untold is, what I'd describe as, a modern text adventure. See, text adventures are clearly outdated; you can do everything they do but with amazing graphics you can have HDR and motion blur and V-sync- whatever that is (that was a joke, I know what v-sync is. It stands for very nice sink). With all that fancy stuff surely it's better than just reading some words. Right? Well let's find out: 

Gameplay 

I'll just start with my biggest problem first: Text adventures are clunky. I think I've mentioned this before, but my problem is that in games that are focused around text you can type something that seems perfectly reasonable to you but to the game it could be like you're asking it to go into space without a suit and literally fuck the sun without burning off your junk. Of course it can't do that, it's a game. 

The reason I'd say that it's a modern text adventure is because there's other little things to do so that the main gameplay doesn't get repetitive and keeps the player interested. At its core it is still very much a text adventure, just like a strawberry jam donut is still- at its core- a heart attack surrounded by empty calories. For example, in episode 2 (there are four episodes, we'll get into that later, or just jump ahead to story. Do what you want) you have to conduct a science experiment from what your computer is telling you to do, then it goes back into text adventure style. The third episode then changes slightly as well, it involves you doing something with a radio. That's all I know, you see I just couldn't figure what I was meant to do so I kinda just got really frustrated and skipped that level. Even if this happens I wouldn't recommend skipping a chapter because, even if they don't seem at first glance to be, all the chapters are actually continuing a narrative and then in chapter 4 the entire story is revealed; plus each part only lasts an hour or so and they do help you understand the end- that I won't spoil, obviously. 

Story 

This is gonna be tough. 

Instead of talking about the overall narrative I'll just give a basic look at each chapter, trying to avoid spoilers. 

Chapter 1 is probably the most text adventure and... I was just about to say normal but that doesn't fit actually. Basically you're a guy sitting at your old computer at your old house playing a text adventure about revisiting your old house and finding a computer and playing a game about going to your old house and finding your old computer and playing a text adventure about going to your old house and finding your old computer and playing a text adventure about... You know what? I think you get the point. 

Chapter 2 is about being in lab and taking instructions from the old computer and doing what it tells you to this heart in a safe. Then once you've done those things a few time you get fucked. That's it, you get fucked. 

Chapter 3 is about being in a communication station during a snow storm and something. Look, I'll take full responsibility for me getting really frustrated at this point; really I should have just looked it up or just simply tried more. I can take a guess at what happens though: you decode messages and they get weirder and weirder until you find a message from Hank Hill telling you the numerous benefits of propane. Ok, maybe I should have just played it. 

Chapter 4 is a secret. 

I think the strongest chapter is the first one, it just has the great mystery and atmosphere- strangely enough it's the only one that made me go 'oh what?' all the others were more along the lines of 'oh fair enough' except the last one. Gameplay wise, I think the second chapter was probably the strongest; once you find out you can change tabs on the in-game computer to tell what the things actually do. 

Horror elements 

Again, I think the that the first chapter was the strongest of all of them. Maybe it's just cause I really like that 'fuck with the player, but in a fun and games sort of way' along the lines of Pony Island or Undertale, or Oxenfree. But, if you know they're fuck with you games before you play them it can kind of ruin it so it's hard to really look for them.  

There's no real jumpscares here, although there was like two times in chapter 2 that did actually get me. Chapter 1 has great atmosphere and some great moments, chapter 2 I enjoyed but didn't really find it scary, chapter 3 is set in a sort of trapped at the artic style thing which I really don't like; it's a type of narrative that really just bores me, finally chapter 4 is more horrifying in how bad one can fuck up many lives in one swoop.  

In terms of presentation, everything looks really nice and the bits that are mimicking older things are quite authentic, I do like the whole sort of 80s vibe it has. Plus; the music is pretty nice too. 

All in all, I really do recommend this game; there is an interesting narrative throughout, the gameplay is largely engaging and never really overstays it's welcome even if I was stupid when it came to the third chapter, the game looks nice, and it has some really damn good moments. I'd don't know how end this one to be honest, look it's a good game and perfect for the spooky month. 

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