Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 62 Ratings

  • Summary: In a world torn by war, the aged gremlin archaeologist Mortimer McGuffin harbours the dark secret of a powerful artifact. Whoever calls this artifact their own will determine the fate of the world. While the Army of Shadows sends out its best and most devious agents to discover the secret, the Alliance's three heroes find themselves involuntarily drawn into the crisis. Enjoy a turbulent and humorous Point & Click adventure in an RPG world! Take Wilbur, Nate and Ivo on their treasure hunt, face bizarre characters and magical fantasy environments, and solve challenging puzzles that will tease your brain cells. [HMH Interactive] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 32
  2. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. Aug 9, 2012
    100
    If you're going to try and woo a modern gaming audience with old-fashioned gameplay, you'd better be pretty special. The Book of Unwritten Tales is. It's smart, funny, well-crafted and has tons of heart.
  2. Aug 20, 2012
    85
    Take the best scenes from every major sci-fi fantasy imaginable, add in classic 90's puzzle solving, mix this all with a clever sense of humor, and A Book of Unwritten Tales emerges. The North American release will attract players familiar with the adventure game and those looking for something fresh in today's market. Despite technical problems and somewhat boring puzzles, the game proves that simple gameplay can convey a memorable experience.
  3. Oct 1, 2012
    85
    The Book of Unwritten Tales is one of the best AAA adventure games in years. It has everything a true classic in the genre should have, but is at the same time very contemporary. Excellent choice of actors, great dialogue, interesting puzzles are the biggest assets of this game. The locations leave a little to be desired in terms of "epicness", but if you consider yourself a fan of adventure games, you shouldn't wait any longer - buy it!
  4. Oct 11, 2012
    70
    A smart, lengthy and logical adventure game that is consistently enjoyable without ever trying to be incredible. [Oct 2012, p.81]

See all 32 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 24
  3. Negative: 3 out of 24
  1. 10
    First I want to tell you that I am no newbie at this kind of games. "Syberia" 1 and 2, "Sanitarium", "Monkey Island" (all of them), "Day of Tentacle" and "The Longest Journey" are my all time favorites. I also was a fan of the "World of Warcraft" - in the long time ago when the game was actually smart and fun. But if you are like me and you loved all these games, I can tell you that "The Book Of Unwritten Tales" can occupy a proud first place among them.

    It amazes me to see how little appreciation is given to this game, although it was launched back in 2009 in Germany. They probably don't have a huge marketing machine in place. This game has everything: an excellent script, a wonderful story, humor (lots and lots of humor), strong characters, nice graphics and smart puzzles. Indeed, the puzzles were a bit more difficult in "Syberia" (this could be the only "bad" thing I could think of in regards to this game) - but it's not a major issue. A big problem with this kind of games is that sometimes inconsistencies appear in the story and in the course of action, but "The Book Of Unwritten Tales" has none of those. The story goes smooth and logical. The $30 you pay for this accounts for a good 20-25 hours of play.

    The humor in this game is addictive! It makes fun of many pop-culture subjects, it contains super fun references to WOW and Monkey Island.

    For a preview of the game you can search youtube (this is what convinced me to actually buy it and play it). If you liked the games listed above (and in general, if you like smart games) I can guarantee you will love this :D
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  2. A good point and click adventure game in a time that seriously lacks such games. The problem I have will probably only matter to people who have been playing these games since the times of Monkey Island and Simon the Sorcerer, as a few of the jokes are exact copies of classic adventure game humor. And by copies I mean the exact same joke, I swear they stole some of them. Call it a tribute or theft or whatever but I enjoyed the original jokes in the game and found the weird moments that literally took other developers work unnecessary and pointless.
    To those who can ignore something like this: It's a decent game with okay graphics, an okay story and good chunks of humor. One of the more promising new P&C Adventure Game series in the past years.
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  3. The graphics were really good. It is the first adventure game using 3D graphics i enjoyed playing, I liked the fact that they have kept the 2D gameplay style. Not like monkey island 4, that was just awful! (Hope someone makes a special edition of MI4 with 2D graphics!)

    The multiple character gameplay is really great. Although it is a little annoying that the swap (switching between the characters) isn't instant because the characters have to walk back to their starting positions (unlike "day of the tentacle" where the swap is instant)

    The storyline is good and there is a lot of (semi)funny references to the fantasy genre. The dialogues are wellmade and witty.

    There is a lot of different beautiful locations. But there is not much room for exploring (unlike the kyrandia-games) there's only the screens you need. If you do not have a purpose wtih scene you simply can't go there. Which makes the game a little easier.

    That brings me to the next topic the difficulty. This game is a too easy. The puzzles are very obvious and simple, do not expect to get challenged by this game.
    'the only time I had difficulties was when I had the temple-bug.

    Summary: A beautiful and funny game, but unfortunately it is way too easy,
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  4. I was pretty disappointed with the speed of the game, sure the graphics are pretty and it follows the same pattern of it's point and click adventure predecessors, but the slow movement speed/walking ruined it for me, especially since it involved a lot of back and forth backtracking like it's inspiration. Expand

See all 24 User Reviews