1. I played this because Stories Untold has one of the most heavy-handed and pretentious game titles in my library and so, naturally, I was drawn to it. Nothing like a self-consciously experimental game to get the mind gears grinding. My only wish is they would have upped the ante by adding a colon: Stories: Untold. Then it would have sounded like just one in a series of self-consciously experimental games when no other self-consciously experimental games actually existed, which in and of itself could be construed as being self-consciously experimental. Holy smokes, I'm being as asshole!
2. This is broken into four sections. It seems to get fingered as a horror game but only the first section really is. The rest of it is more of a supernatural or sci-fi thriller if you ask me. If this is splitting hairs, I don't care.
3. Each of these sections w/ the possible exception of the fourth stands on its own as a relatively good, albeit rather short, game. You don't really get the full effect w/o playing them all though so I recommend you commit to that if you decide to get started. Or, you know, if you have the inkling you won't want to finish, quit right away.
4.The first game does the whole game w/in a game thing. You are sitting at an in-game desk, looking at an in-game computer and playing an in-game text adventure game. It's a pretty rad setup.
5. The text adventure game is not strictly great and it's annoyingly limited in the keywords it recognizes. It's serviceable though which is good enough. The magic is in how the in-game game relates to the in-game real world. Unfortunately, I can't give away much more w/o adding horrible *spoilers* tags all over the place.
6. Part number two is more puzzle-based. It's pretty chill. Really, it's more of a follow the instructions simulator. Or, honestly,
you do follow instructions for real so that isn't simulated but it's a game so, I
dunno, I guess you really follow directions in a simulated world.
7. You use a bunch of various 80s-looking
scanners and sort of evil medical looking devices to investigate some
sort of artifact. I wouldn't call this fun exactly but following these
instructions is actually quite engaging. By the end of the investigation, unsurprisingly, things take a turn for the weird. Again, I will avoid having to use ugly *spoilers* tags and not explain further.
8. Third part: you are in some kind of weather station and some sort of invasion shit is going down. You have to follow instructions again.
9. Specifically, you tune a radio, read on a microfilm machine and enter data into a computer terminal. Again, this is surprisingly engaging, esp. since it's a bit more a of a challenge this time around. The story unfolds as you work.
10. The microfilm is on a separate screen from the computer and the radio. You switch between these two screens by hitting tab.
Sometimes, you also have to do text entry into multiple boxes on the computer. If you
have used a computer in your life before playing this game, you
are conditioned to use the tab key to switch between text boxes. Fill in
one box, hit tab to go to the next box and, whoops, you are looking at a microfilm machine. This is so much fun I started doing it intentionally after a while.
11. Eventually, you reach a point where you've got to get up from your desk and run around for a bit and you discover something I can't mention w/o using more of those awful *spoilers* tags so I won't. This is the only time in the game where you run around, really, and it doesn't seem to be all that necessary.
12. The fourth installment ties the first three installments together in a neat little package. This is both in the sense that in combines gameplay elements from the first three sections and that it finishes up the story. I think some people would prefer this end w/ a bit more ambiguity but I kind of like how it's pretty cut and dry what's actually been going on this whole time.
13. Overall, I'd say the experimental parts of this self-consciously experimental game worked better than the game parts. The overarching narrative structure is well thought-out and executed well but the moment-to-moment gameplay was frequently less than stellar. If you are inclined to like this sort of thing, this is a must play. If you are the kind of person who goes on internet tirades about lack of recognized keywords in text adventure games, good for you but you are missing out if you can't get over that long enough to play Stories Untold.
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