When talking about games that use the medium to elevate or enhance storytelling, this should be at least one of the de facto examples. Stories Untold jumps between text adventure and graphic adventure and a brief fling with a walking simulator (not derogatory); a kind of whistle-stop tour of the adventure-puzzle genre(s), with the express purpose of telling four seemingly separate horror stories with an underlying narrative that becomes clearer as you move between episodes.
It's definitely one of those stories and games that surely hits differently on subsequent playthroughs once you see the full scope of what it's presenting. Speaking of which, visually, it's incredibly impressively put together, with an 80s-enthused presentation that somehow perfectly straddles the line between laying the vibes and aesthetics on too thick to the point of parody and paying genuine homage.
The gameplay segments themselves are engaging enough, though they really hinge on how hooked you are on that particular episode's narrative since I wouldn't exactly say that the puzzles themselves are particularly engaging in isolation, though I suppose that's a moot point ultimately since the game is the story and the story is the game and so forth.
Without spoiling, your full opinions on Stories Untold as an interactive narrative experience are really going to depend on how you feel about the fourth episode. While I did enjoy what it was doing and how it tied everything together thematically, narratively, and gameplay-wise, I can definitely see it being a let-down for some compared to the rest of the package.
Still, for a first outing from No Code, Stories Untold is really great, and since they're going to be partially responsible for bringing Silent Hill back into the limelight, it should be comforting to many that Konami will be delivering at least one assuredly good game out of their upcoming roster, going by their work here anyhow.
8/10
It's definitely one of those stories and games that surely hits differently on subsequent playthroughs once you see the full scope of what it's presenting. Speaking of which, visually, it's incredibly impressively put together, with an 80s-enthused presentation that somehow perfectly straddles the line between laying the vibes and aesthetics on too thick to the point of parody and paying genuine homage.
The gameplay segments themselves are engaging enough, though they really hinge on how hooked you are on that particular episode's narrative since I wouldn't exactly say that the puzzles themselves are particularly engaging in isolation, though I suppose that's a moot point ultimately since the game is the story and the story is the game and so forth.
Without spoiling, your full opinions on Stories Untold as an interactive narrative experience are really going to depend on how you feel about the fourth episode. While I did enjoy what it was doing and how it tied everything together thematically, narratively, and gameplay-wise, I can definitely see it being a let-down for some compared to the rest of the package.
Still, for a first outing from No Code, Stories Untold is really great, and since they're going to be partially responsible for bringing Silent Hill back into the limelight, it should be comforting to many that Konami will be delivering at least one assuredly good game out of their upcoming roster, going by their work here anyhow.
8/10