Stories Untold
Description official descriptions
Stories Untold is an adventure game that consists of four parts. It was started with the first part, The House Abandon, which was originally created as a 72 hour game jam project for Ludum Dare 36. It is available as a separate, free game and it was remastered as a demo for this title. Building on the first part it was expanded with three additional parts that make up the complete story as the commercial title Stories Untold. The four parts are available right away and are selected from the main menu. They are meant to be played in order, but in the options all four can be made accessible at once.
The game tells the story of the character James Aition. Each part has a different setting and often very different gameplay, but everything is tied together in the fourth and final part. The first part is about playing a text adventure (literally, inside the game) in an abandoned house, the second part deals with assisting scientists to experiment on an alien artifact and the third one is set in a radio transmission station in a cold environment. Gameplay mixes text inputs, often as a text adventure, with point-and-click gameplay. Sometimes this is in a fixed location, while in other parts there is a larger freedom of movement. All parts share tinkering with equipment and machines.
Unlike many traditional adventures, there are hardly any objects to use as there is no inventory, but rather the player needs to interact in a meaningful way with machinery, turning knobs and adjusting systems. Clues are provided through conversations and instructions, elements in the environment, but also code books that require deduction and reasoning from the player, along with deciphering and taking notes. There are no permanent fail states and progress is entirely linear.
Spellings
- äøäøŗäŗŗē„ä¹äŗ - Simplified Chinese spelling
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Credits (Windows version)
103 People (63 developers, 40 thanks) · View all
Written by | |
Directed by | |
Executive Producer | |
Technology Development | |
Additional Design & Flow | |
Art Direction & 3D Art | |
Additional 3D Art | |
Additional Production Design | |
Scripting & Implementation | |
System Design & Tools | |
Composing & Sound Design | |
Additional Composition | |
Additional Game Design | |
Dr. Daniel Alexander | |
Dr. Williams | |
Devolver Digital | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 78% (based on 15 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 7 ratings with 1 reviews)
The Good
* Compelling narrative
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Varied themes and mechanics
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Lots of twists and surprises
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Detailed, realistic objects to interact with.
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Great soundtrack, voice acting, and sound design
The Bad
* Some parts of the game don't look so good -
Text parser and mechanical issues for each game.
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Can't save any episode in the middle.
The Bottom Line
Stories Untold is an anthology of four short, experimental, horror-themed adventure games. Utilizing a common motif of 1980s technology, Stories Untold takes the player through several scenarios that are vastly different in theme and gameplay mechanics.
The first episode, āThe House Abandonā, is a text adventure with a twist. The game takes place in a 3D room, with you playing the game on a CRT tv. Youāll use a text parser to navigate the gameās story. As you play, various things will happen in the surrounding room.
The second game, āThe Lab Conductā, has the player follow a scientistsā instructions by operating lab equipment. The player and the scientist are researching a strange artifact. Youāll be using point and click to interact with the various machines, while navigating between a terminal on the other side of the room which contains all of the instructions on how each electronic works.
The third game, āThe Station Processā, has the player on a radio station in the middle of the Arctic while strange events are happening in the world. Here, the player must tune their radio and figure out various codes by following the instructions in a microfilm on the left side of the room.
The last game, āThe Last Sessionā, features mechanics and themes from all of the previous games, and reveals the overarching story happening between them. While the individual episodes have supernatural and science fiction overtones, the main story is ultimately much more grounded in reality. Some players will understandably feel cheated by this. Others simply wonāt like where the story ends up. Even still, itās hard to deny how well told and brilliantly revelatory the whole thing is, and it makes you reinterpret the rest of the game in an entirely different light.
Graphically, Stories Untold looks pretty decent for most of the time. The various technological devices are finely detailed, and thereās a sense of visiting a highly realistic, detailed gameworld. The atmosphere is impressively realized, with great lighting. However, there is an unfortunate amount of blurriness and camera filtering during more active sections of the game, and some of the textures donāt look great up close. Graphic settings are also virtually non-existent. Thereās also some odd micro-stutter that was happening on my system, though as most of the game is ultimately stationary its not something I noticed for long.
The audio is fantastic, with very good voice acting and an ā80s inspired synth soundtrack that grows increasingly eerie over the course of each game. Itās most effective during the first episode, but all of the episodes have fantastic aural moments.
The individual games have their own little issues. The text parser in āThe House Abandonā can be oddly specific at times. You will often run into that classic text adventure problem of knowing what must be done, but not what to type to actually accomplish that. The actual puzzles are very simplistic to offset this, but it can still be annoying. The game gives you no help or list of commands you can use. Typing in a bad command can also waste time, as you have to wait for the terminal to finish typing before you can type anything again. The microfilm in āThe Station Processā is extremely difficult to read, even though you can zoom the camera into it for a better view. āThe Lab Conductā can just feel like you are following orders for most of it, and there is a certain puzzle during that game that is visually difficult to solve because the clues flash by so fast. Finally, there is no way to actually save in the middle of an episode: it all has to be done within one sitting.
Stories Untold isnāt one of the more technically accomplished games to come out in 2017, but it didnāt really need to be, either. Instead, it offers a surprisingly compelling, provocative story that you will almost certainly want to see through to the very end. Combine that with great atmosphere and some surprsingly tricky puzzles in the latter half, and you have a very unique adventure game, one that effectively blurs the lines between a conventional game and an art game. The only real complaint I can lodge against Stories Untold is its very, very short length. Still, I think the price is just right for what it offers.
Windows · by krisko6 (814) · 2017
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Sciere.
Xbox One, PlayStation 4 added by Rik Hideto. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Macintosh added by firefang9212.
Additional contributors: Rik Hideto.
Game added April 11, 2017. Last modified September 25, 2023.