Enter the Story: Volume 4 - Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities is the fourth entry in Enter the Story, an interactive world of classic novels of which the concept was started in 1997, independently developed by Chris Tolworthy. The main series acts as a framework with a separate background story and starting from this title additional features related to the framework are introduced. There is for instance a 'between games' functionality where items from the second game can be used in the first one and playing the second game also opens up new rooms in the first, and so on. The music can be shared along the different installments and tracks can be saved as favourites, which is also remembered across the different games in the series. After the fifth volume, the series shifted to an online choose your own adventure style of presentation. The original titles are now referred to as offline games and can be purchased together in a package.

Adapted from the 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities by English author Charles Dickens, it is set against the turmoil of the French Revolution. Lucie Manette aims to rescue her father and ultimately to rescue her true love.

The core gameplay is based on the characteristics of a point-and-click adventure game, but with major differences. It is largely presented as a visual novel with linear, interactive choices that further the plot. Controlled through the mouse, a left click is used to explore, double clicks have the player learn more about another character and right clicking is used for all other actions and suggesting ideas to characters. There is no inventory, but objects can be recognized and then suggested to characters as an alternative. Also very different is that the player is able to leave the protagonist behind at a location to explore other areas in the meantime. The game includes a help key where hints are offered to progress through the game.

The entire game is shown through a world with manipulated images and paintings, and stroke-based art for all other objects and the animated characters, with text for conversations and descriptions. There are no voices, but different music tracks in the background. Next to regular gameplay sequences, there are also cut-scenes. The game contains a map and a log of recently clicked people or objects, and recent conversations.