The Book of Unwritten Tales 2

« One of the best adventure games from the German production and also one of the best games funded from a Kickstarter campaign. King Art Games were totally successful with this one. [Issue#250] »

« It's larger, more beautiful, more difficult, better in every aspect compared it its predecessor. At the same time, it proves that Kickstarter as well as Steam Early Access can significantly contribute to the very high quality of a game. I don't like being led to hasty conclusions, but via "The Book of Unwritten Tales 2" King Art Games manages to put Daedalic Entertainment, as well as any other developer, in a very difficult position regarding the creation of the best adventure game for 2015. A true masterpiece of its genre. »

« The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is the best representative so far of the modern graphic adventure genre. You will test your brain with hundreds of well thought puzzle while enjoying a very fine and satisfying storytelling. »

« It’s a comforting reminder that video games can still hark back to their traditional roots and produce an enjoyable experience without any overblown live-action trailer or day one DLC. This is a delight to play. »

« One of the best point and click adventure titles to be released, and stands as an example of what the genre has to offer. I would easily place it in the company of revered adventure titles like Grim Fandango or Tales Of Monkey Island, perhaps even surpassing them as it takes what made those titles great and expands upon them. »

« A lovingly made puzzle laden parody of fantasy games that injects its own unique personality in between the deliberately laid layers of cliché and trope. »

« A really good sequel and a great old-school graphic adventure. Graphics are very good, the writing is extremely funny, puzzles are smart and complex, and the game is really long. »

« If you love point and click adventures, The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is everything you could possibly want and more. »

« Dont remember it being bad per say but I can barely remember running through it »

« Nice, charming graphics and excellent humor is what expected after the previous games and I got it. »

« [SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.] »

« I'll reuse the main sentence of my review for the fist installment: It's pretty, humorous, surprising, well told, well interfaced, with multiple protagonists, and rich in possible interactions. It's definitely as good as the first one. Two things surprise me: I do not mind at all the characters being quite verbose (whereas I do in many recent games,) and I feel no loss of novelty factor, which is a risk with a sequel. That is telling when it comes to the quality of the writing and its delivery. Both BoUT are akin to old Lucas Art games with their flaws corrected, like the absurd inventory combinations. On the other hand, it adds a minor but common flaw with the abundance of references to shows and other games. They are distracting when understood, at best useless, at worst awkward when not (as not everybody watches the telly or expensive bad movies.) Still, BoUT creates enough new material with memorable moments and characters to win over its audience. P&C well done. »

« Score: 9/10. Story: The game starts after the events of the original. There is pretty big gap between timelines of both stories. The war is over and shadow army is defeated. Now Seastone is rebuilding and it's time for elections. Wilbur Weathervane, who is a Gnome, returns and now he is a Mage teacher in one of the schools of Seastone. Captain Nate and Critter are still together and happen to be inside the palace of Red Pirate for some reason. Princess Ivo on other hand is now a prisoner of her mother. She is locked inside her palace and not allowed to leave Elven woods because she wants to protect her from a new threat. Some characters from the first game also return. The game starts pretty slow and takes some time to pick up. But when it does, it's hard to stop playing. Just like the first game, this one also features a lot of references to other games, TV shows and movies. You can expect to laugh a lot due to those references and hilariously funny writing. However, that's not the only thing that you are going to experience because the story also contains some sad moments. Rest assured that almost all of these scenes are handle quite well. The only drawback of the story is the ending. A lot of questions remain unanswered. Design: It took me 30 hours to finish this game and enjoyed every second of this game. You control your character through mouse and click anywhere on the map to move them. The game uses 3D models and fixed camera facing 3D backgrounds. When characters engage in a conversation, you are given a list of dialogues to select. The game also features quick saves and one can save and reload the game anytime he wants. Unfortunately, there are some small bugs and few glitches in the game but nothing game breaking. The good thing is, the game's checkpoint system is extremely good and saves the game automatically after every few seconds and it happens so well that you won't even notice any lag or notification when that happens. Gameplay: Unlike other adventure games, this game also have side quests. These quests are completely optional but if you complete them, you can unlock some really nice looking outfits for your character. That's not all, some main missions can be completed in different ways too. Mostly, you can only control one character but there are some scenes where a puzzle can't be solved by one person and there the game gives you other characters to control. You can switch between characters to assign them different tasks (you hold that lever, I'll hold this one to open the door). Luckily, switching between characters is a lot faster than the original game. To progress the story, you click on different objects to get more information about them or pick them up as items. Then these items can later be used on other objects in the environment to solve puzzles. You drag and drop items on objects, you want them to be used on, to progress. You can also combine different items, For Example, attaching the string at the end of a stick creates a fishing rod, to catch fish. You can share different items with your friends and sometimes, you also receive important items by talking to NPCs. So don't forget to interact with them from time to time. Sometimes, you are talking about something else and NPCs change the subject and you receive an item from them even if you didn't expect them to do that during that conversation. Which means that you should always check every dialgue option available to not miss anything. Keep in mind that, pressing Space bar highlights important items, which is helpful for those who are not up for the challenge but I would say don't use it. Presentation: The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is a 3D game. It uses real time lighting/shadows. Character models look very good and while their facial animations are great, in some scenes their lip-sync is a bit distracting. Character animations are great and voice acting is excellent. Captain Nate is once again voice acted by Doug ****, voice of Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher. The game has great sound effects and excellent Orchestral Soundtracks. Most of the time, the story proceeds in real time but there are also some close up scenes where camera zooms-in on key characters and moves around to make the scene more appealing. The storytelling is great and the game contains graphics settings as well. I also didn't experience any crashes. Verdict: Unwritten Tales 2 is a worthy successor to the original. It is a great game and a must play for every PC Gamer. »

« Great game, even better than the first one. Charming graphics, funny characters and dialoges along with a suitable soundtrack make this game to a relaxing and enjoybale fantasy trip which makes references to other fantasy genres and even real world scnearios. »

« Has less humor and fun than the previous and more of the annoying type puzzles. After a while you get bored of trying to find out what the game wants you to do. What's more there are a lot of bugs (I have the 'finished' version, not the early access), so sometimes you don't know that what you try isn't okay because it's not the solution or because it is a program error... There are other bugs, clipping errors, very often when an ingame video is playing and it won't stop. You can't select anything or leave the scene, so you have to reload last save. Also the inventory hides a portion of the scene behind it and you can't move out of the way. What is the meaning of the early access if not fixing these bugs? Disappointment after the 1st game. »

« This deserves a 10 for the amount of work they've put into it. It feels like a story that could be done in at least 2 full games. It's amazing how big it is. Well, it's not like it's unheard of in other games but in Adventure Games the past few years mini-games were the norm and they became boring. This has an enormous amount of content for an Adventure Game. Good job. »