The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is a point and click adventure made by KingArt games. It is a direct sequel to 2009's hit. First game was pretty well received, both by critics and fans. So, the sequel had a lot to live up to. Let's see how it holds up against other adventure games and the original.
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Story:
The original had really good story with a lot of references to other games and movies. The game was praised for its funny writing and nicely done emotional scenes. The only negative part of the story was its final act, which felt a bit rushed. Luckily, this time things are different. 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. Easily the best character from first and this game, Wilbur Weathervane, who is a Gnome, returns and now he is a Mage teacher in one of the schools of Seastone.
He is not the only main playable character from the original who returns in the sequel but you'll also find Elf Princess 'Ivo', Critter and Captain Nate here as well. All of these characters are played by original voice actors. 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 thread. The game contains a lot of key characters and all of them have some really good background stories. Some NPCs from the original return as well.
As mentioned above, unlike the original game, the final moments in the game don't feel rushed. In fact, the game starts pretty slow this time around and takes some time to pick up. But when it does, it's hard to stop playing. It's always nice to see what happens next because the story is well written and becomes better with each passing moment. Just like the first game, this one also features a lot of references to other games, TV shows and movies. I won't spoil any of that but you can expect to laugh or at least keep smiling throughout the journey 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. While it's satisfactory, a lot of questions are not answered and some problems remain unsolved. Seems like KingArt wanted to make a trilogy, and this is second act of overall big storyline, which is going to be completed at the end of the third game. In a nutshell; The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 has a really good storyline brought to life by great voice actors and soundtracks but ending leaves you wanting more.
Design:
Unwritten Tales 2 is a lengthy game and it's rare for me to keep enjoying such games for a long time but this is one of few games that remain fresh from the beginning to the end. It took me 30 hours to finish this game and enjoyed every second of this game. Just like any other point and click adventure, you control your character through mouse and click anywhere on the map to move them. Unlike traditional adventure games, The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is a 3D adventure instead of being 2D and trust me, it doesn't look ugly like old 3D adventure games. Here you get a beautiful art, well detailed 3D environments and great character models.
When characters engage in a conversation, you are given a list of dialogues. Speaking some dialogues unlock the next one, which a lot of time are necessary to be spoken to progress the storyline. When characters talk, subtitles appear on top of their head. Color of subtitles for every character is different, so it is easier to focus on a talking character when there are more than two in one area. 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. One of the bugs in vanilla version prevented me from getting an outfit but that wasn't necessary to complete main objective. 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:
Yes, just like any other adventure game, you solve puzzles in this game to progress the story. But that's not the entire story. Unlike other games from the genre, this game also has some really good side quests. These quests are completely optional but if you complete them, you can unlock some really nice looking outfits for your character. For Example, playing a Pirate Poker with Red Pirate and winning it, unlocked a Pirate outfit for my character. That's not all, some main missions can be completed in different ways. So, unlike older adventure games where you solve puzzles in only one way and then progress the story, this game gives you the freedom to complete them as you want. In opening moments of the game I was assigned a task to catch fish from the pool. You can complete that task by keep trying which levels up your fishing skills (reference to RPGs) or you can read a book to reach the required level and gain knowledge about it (just like Witcher 2) or you can talk to the gardner to get some extra levels. Not only that but there were also different ways to create a bait to catch fish.
All four playable characters from the original game; Wilbur, Ivo, Critter and Nate, return in the sequel. 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 also 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. In original game you had to wait for unselected character to reach a certain point in the corner of the map before the game gives you the control over selected character but this time you get the control immediately.
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. Just like other adventure games, you drag and drop items on objects, you want them to be used on. When the item can be used on an object, the mouse pointer turns from yellow to brown. Same happens when you are combining different items in your inventory to create a new item, For Example, when trying to attach string at the end of a stick to create a fishing rod.
You can share different items with your friends by dragging and dropping items over them. 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. And if you are tired of going back and forth between different locations and can't find what is needed to complete the task, you can always press Space Bar, which highlights important objects in the environment. So, if you were missing something before, you will be able to see it after doing so but try to avoid that as much as possible because it feels more rewarding to complete the task without any hints. Gameplay wise, this game is a lot of fun.
Presentation:
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is a 3D game and it looks beautiful. The game is created in Unity 3D and uses real time lighting and shadows to make environments look gorgeous. Character models look really good and while their facial animations are great, in some scenes their lip-sync is a bit distracting. Original game had one animator and it still had really good and impressive animations for point and click game, here we have even better animations, created by 7 animators this time around. The game is brought to life by excellent performances of voice actors. Captain Nate is once again voice acted by Doug Cockle, voice of Geralt of Rivia from Witcher.
The game's sound effects are decent but what really shines in this department are orchestral soundtracks. All of them are composed really well and make the whole experience even better. The story telling in the game is also pretty good. 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. While camera focuses on a character, the background become blurry due to the use of Depth of Field effect, which makes overall scene look even better. We need more of these scenes in the third game because they are pretty cool. The game also has graphics options, so you can set between low, medium, high and ultra graphics. The game will run fine even on a potato on ultra settings. So, the game looks beautiful and also runs smooth as silk, so that's another bonus. Luckily, I didn't experience even a single crash in my 30 hours of playthrough. Presentation of the game is solid.
Verdict:
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 has much higher production values than the original game. The original game was praised by a lot of fans of the genre and it was even listed among 'Top ten best adventure games of all time' on some websites, so the sequel had a lot to live up to. Luckily, Unwritten Tales 2 is a worthy sequel to the original. Now, all we need to do is wait for the third installment to see how it's going to end.
Pros:
- Great concept and Well written story, with great characters
- The game is full of funny and sad moments
- Presentation is solid
- Soundtracks are awesome
- Multiple ways to complete some main quests
- Side quests allow you to unlock some cool outfits
- Close up scenes and references to other entertainment mediums
Cons:
- Minor bugs and few small glitches
- Lip-Syncing is a bit distracting in some scenes