I'm in awe after finishing
Stories Untold.
I think I haven't experienced anything like it in gaming at least in the storytelling department.
I know it's not a
game for everybody, but it clicked all the right spots for me. I guess being an 80s teen who grew up with a ZX Spectrum and loving what we called
conversational games (text-based adventures) has something to do with it XD, but man, what an exceptional ride. It got me so hooked that I finished it in two sittings. At first I thought it was going to be a somewhat generic horror game with an 80s setting but as the story unfolds… I couldn't be more wrong.
I can't talk much about the game without spoiling parts of the story as there's some kind of a
hidden narrative in there (I knew nothing about this game until Devolver announced a few days ago it was being released on the Switch), but in summary it's an episodic
point-and-click-ish text adventure game where you spend most of the time reading and
solving puzzles in front of a table (or two, with a button to switch between them) as the story unfolds in front of you.
There are four episodes which will unlock right after you finish the previous one, and each one lasts about 45 minutes/1 hour, so expect the game to be finished in about 4 hours. Take in mind that
you can't save in the middle of the episodes (I can understand that design choice for the sake of immersion after playing it).
Each one takes place in a different setting: one in front of a desk with a ZX Spectrum 128K <3, an old CRT TV where you are playing a text-based adventure game called The House Abandon, and another one in front of what seems to be some kind of laboratory where you have to follow the instructions to make experiments to a
subject inside a box, and… that's it, I can't tell more without spoiling things.
If you like text-based adventures, point and click games, nicely written stories (oh, and the voice actors are great), with small touches of horror and sci-fi, give it a chance. Just one thing, once you start the game, finish it.
The game may be on the
short side for some (4 hours to me is just about a perfect lenght), but for 9,99 € is a steal IMO.
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The trailer and some screenshots (not from the Switch version as I didn't grab any… the story had me hooked so much that I forgot to, and I use to take a lot of screenshots XD but the game looks fine on the Switch at least in portable mode (I'm 100% handheld):