![]() When you finish it, you can’t help but feel like you got punched in the gut, but in a good way…right?Īnother aspect of the game’s overall design that really made it hum for me was the ‘80’s aesthetic. There was something pleasantly resonant and impactful about the game as a whole. Each individual chapter, played on its own, would be enjoyable and interesting but wouldn’t strike nearly the same chord as the entirety of the story when it is all put together at the end. ![]() Simple things like the buzzing of a fluorescent light bulb or the hum of a computer fan or the crackle of static on a radio all these things come together to create an acoustic atmosphere that is greater than the sum of its parts.Īnd that’s really the best description of the game as a whole. The audio clues are what really key you in on the evolution of the scene. The visual fidelity is really well done, but you are usually in a fairly fixed position, looking at a set of devices that you are interacting with in various ways, so the visuals can sometimes become almost like background static. One aspect that sets this game firmly in the category of “great” games, is the sound design. I would stress to anyone playing this that none of the puzzles are too hard to figure out without help and that the feeling of pride in yourself you will get for having done it all without assistance will be worth the patience required, especially during the third chapter. There was one moment in particular that I was very close to being tempted to looking up a solution online however I was able to figure it out through the use of a lot of scratch paper and trial and error. Still, there were rarely any points where I felt like the challenge was too hard. Coming from games that advertise as puzzle games but then spend agonizing amounts of time showing you exactly how the puzzles work ahead of time has become something of an annoyance with me. The game designers did the player the honor of assuming that we are not complete idiots and gave us just enough to allow us to figure the rest out ourselves. There is a wonderful mix of analog and digital devices keyboards, radio dials, switches, toggles, buttons, and there is very little in the way of tutorial or direction. ![]() Each scenario boils down to you sitting in front of a technological device of some kind and interfacing with it in various ways. I will, however, talk more about the user interface, which I mentioned before. They are four distinct parts of a single story, and when you realize the link, in part four of the game, the crashing realization of what unites all of the otherwise seemingly very different scenarios is a true shock. At first, I thought they were four unrelated vignettes scary short stories, each with a unifying interface mechanic. The game is broken into four distinct parts or chapters. Perhaps I am weak, but I had a review to write. This time, I came back a little more mentally prepared…in the daytime…and I turned the vibe function off in the game menu. The sound design, combined with the vibration effect of the Switch, especially at one particular moment, was enough to put me over the edge. ![]() It wasn’t so much that it was “scary” as it was unnerving. That’s what I thought.Ī grand total of five minutes later, I had to put the Switch away for the evening and have a stiff drink so that I could put myself to sleep. It was perfectly dark in the room and I was ready. The first time I sat down to play Stories Untold, I was actually laying down in bed with my Switch and a pair of earbuds in my ears. This is exactly the kind of game that you want to go into blind, so I will try and write this review with as little in the way of spoilers as possible. It lives, it breathes, so therefore it must also bleed. ![]()
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