The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 Chapter 1 Review

The first chapter of The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is here, and it has managed to live up to all expectations. It has all of the charm of the original game, and throws our unlikely heroes into another adventure with great aplomb.

As the story begins, the four heroes are adjusting to life after their great journey, and are each finding their lives changed in different ways because of their experiences.  Any time they have contemplating their existence is short lived however, as they soon have to discover the source behind a magical force that is taking over the human world, and seemingly the elf world as well.

The art style of this game world is charming as always, and the animation of the characters is wonderfully smooth.  The music is also fantastic, having a cinematic quality that lends to the fantasy setting nicely.  The voice actors have done a fantastic job, delivering great performances.  The game's puzzles are also top notch, with a nice amount of difficulty suitable for a first chapter of an adventure game.

In this chapter the player will take control of three of the four main characters, beginning with the human Nathaniel.  This is just a short sequence at the start of the game that is there to get gamers used to pointing and clicking, but it is funny and well done.  The meat of the game begins once the elf princess Ivo's chapter begins.  The elves have discovered that a magical plague is taking over the human world, and the Ivo finds that she has become ill for the first time in her life.  Her mother wants to shield her from the world, so she has to escape in order to find out what's happening to both the human world and herself.  The second half of the game seems less urgent, as the gnome wizard Wilbur finds himself having to get used to his post as the only professor in the newly reopened magic school.  Of course, as he goes about his task of trying to get the school back into shape, he soon discovers that there is more going on in the background surrounding his ascending to such a prestigious post.  As this is just the first chapter out of five, the story is just beginning.  However, it already feels quite epic, and has all of the humor and references to popular fantasy literature that fans have come to expect of the series.

Chapter one of The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 begins the story on a high note.  It continues the high standard of the series, with the fantastic art style and all the well written and humorous dialog that fans have come to expect.  The voice actors are fantastic, the music is cinematic and fits the atmosphere wonderfully, and the puzzles are quite good, and at a perfect level of difficulty for the first chapter of an adventure game.  The story is quite memorable, and by the time it ends you'll find yourself wanting more, which is exactly how episodic storytelling should be done.  It's still too early to tell, but if this quality continues throughout the rest of the chapters, it's possible that King Art might just have a must play adventure on their hands.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

The Book of Unwritten Tales review coming soon

Chapter Two Review

The Adventuress Has A New Template

I've updated The Adventuress to use a new template. I'm working on formatting the posts and pages to fit better fit the new template, so you might see things in a bit of an odd state for the next few days. I've been holding off on this for years. But it's really time. The old template was for the original Blogger, and was really just held together with staples and glue at this point.

 The sidebar began being obstructed by an imageshack image a few days ago in Safari browsers. So, that was the pebble that broke the dam, and today I finally made the switch over. I offer much appreciation that you've continued to visit here over the years, even as the site was getting increasingly unwieldy, and I thank you for your patience in the next few days while everything is worked out.

Choices-and-Consequences Game Review: The Walking Dead: No Time Left

The first season of The Walking Dead concludes, bringing its story to a satisfying conclusion.  It may not be as long, or have as many puzzles or non-quick time event style action scenes as some of the earlier episodes, but it's likely its gripping story and fantastic pacing will leave you satisfied, yet wanting more.

The episode begins after the shock ending of episode 4, exploring the consequences of those events.  You are given an option to try to remedy the situation, which leads to differing scenarios of how the characters react to Lee.  The episode quickly shifts to a rescue mission, and this is where it shines, pacing wise.  It conveys a sense of urgency throughout, and because the team is rushing to their destination, it has some of the most nail-biting encounters with the undead Telltale has given us yet.

The episode does slip a bit in terms of the improvements in player interaction that have been made the last few episodes.  The puzzles haven't been difficult this season, but they have improved in quality over the course of the season.  That's sadly not the case in this episode.  Gone too are the action scenes with direct player interaction, as this episode consists solely of quick time events.  This episode consists solely of quick time events and choice based gameplay.  However, the choice based gameplay that leads to differences in how you are perceived by the group continue to be strong here, and since that is the main gameplay of this season, it does manage to mostly make up for the lack of gameplay in other areas.

The music is atmospheric as always, fitting the episode well, right up to the closing credits.  Where the episode really shines, however, is the voice cast.  They have always put in fantastic performances this season, but they are at the top of their game here.  This episode has the most emotional story of the season, and the voice cast helps with that tremendously.  Both returning and new characters have their lines delivered with great passion, and in a story that tugs at your heart strings as much as this one does, that's extremely important. 

Even though the gameplay is not as robust as the last few episodes, No Time Left manages to finish up the season remarkably well.  It may be lacking the puzzles or action scenes with direct player interaction that Telltale has been fine-tuning in the last few episodes, but its well told and well paced story does well to compensate.  The atmospheric music and solid performances from the voice cast help tremendously as well, with the latter delivering their best performances to date.  All in all, it's a satisfying end to an exciting season.

Final verdict:

4 out of 5

Duke Grabowski is Funded, Now Accepting Paypal

The Duke Grabowski kickstarter campaign is now fully funded and they also now accepting Paypal donations for the digital tiers (you'll find the Paypal links at the bottom of the main page). So, if you wait for that option before backing a crowdfunding campaign, and you want to play a campaign with an awesome art design by Bill Tiller and a game design by Dave Grossman, Bill Tiller, and Gene Mocsy, then you can now be a backer as well.

Oh, and my rendition of the pirate song is on its way. I'll try to get it done soonish. :)

Point-and-Click Adventure Review: Sam & Max Hit the Road

Sam & Max Hit the Road was the first video game to star everyone's favorite freelance police, Sam and Max. The game successfully brought Steve Purcell's comics into the interactive realm and remains a well-loved classic of the genre.  Like most of the other adventure games by LucasArts, it has withstood the test of time quite well.

The game is inspired by a comic titled On the Road and sees Sam & Max on a road trip across the United States searching for a missing bigfoot.  As the plot suggests, it is a silly, humorous tale, and has all of the humor that fans of the comic (or fans of Telltale's later Sam & Max games) expect of the series.  The voice cast does a splendid job, with Sam & Max themselves expertly voiced by Bill Farmer and Nick Jameson, respectively.  Sam's lines are delivered in a film noir-style voice, which fits the character perfectly.  Meanwhile, Max is voiced as somewhat high-pitched and sarcastic, which is a style that each actor would employ in all of Max's future appearances, minus the Brooklyn accent.  It really is a pleasure hearing these characters speak, which makes the CD talkie version the definitely preferred experience.  The music is also delightfully absurd, with a fantastically wacky musical number in the middle.  If you can get a hold of the CD version, you are in for a bonus, as the disc also includes CD audio versions of some of the game's most memorable music, which is a great treat, as these tracks are fun to listen to, even outside of the game.

The art design of the game is also great, as it manages to capture the look of the comic quite well.  It doesn't quite have the dirt or grit of New York city as portrayed in the comic pages, but it manages to look quite close, which is quite impressive, especially for the early 1990s.  This pleasing aesthetic makes it fun to play even today, as although it is pixelated, it still retains its great charm. 

The game has many wacky locations to visit, which are parodies of tacky tourist traps throughout the United States, and each location has wacky characters to meet as well.  New locations are added to your map only after you find a new inventory item that gives you a clue to go next.  This is a nice game feature, and gives the game an added feeling of scope, as it seems to expand as you progress.  The puzzles can get pretty wild, as should be expected, as Sam & Max's world was never grounded in reality, but for the most part, they stick to logic that can be worked out if you allow your mind to adapt to Sam & Max's crazy world.  There are one or two puzzles that go a bit into twisted adventure game logic territory, but for the most part, they are really well done.

Sam & Max: Hit the Road is Sam & Max's first video game outing, and it is still one of their best.  It's one of the fondest regarded games of the LucasArts adventure classics, and rightfully so.  The CD version is the version to get, as it has wonderful voice acting. In addition, its humourous story, funny, memorable dialog, a fantastic art style that closely mimics the source material, and excellent music really help to make this game still a blast to play today.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Sam & Max Save the World (Telltale Games sequel) Episode 1 Review

Duke Is 90% Funded, Dave Grossman Joins Team

There is some good news at the Kickstarter for Duke Grabowski: Mighty Swashbuckler! Dave Grossman, the co-designer of the first two Monkey Island games (and Tales of Monkey Island), has joined the team as a co-designer. Another LucasArts alumni, and the current co-writer of Teen Wolf at MTV, Alyssa Clark, has also joined up to write dialog for the game. In addition, Larry Ahern, the co-designer of The Curse of Monkey Island, will be joining Dave Grossman in voicing versions of themselves in the game.

Duke is now 90% funded, and new slots have been added to the sold out upper tiers as incentive for those who want to pledge that high but missed the chance.  There's just over two days left in the campaign, so there's still time to make the goal.  Oh, and if the goal is met, I promised the readers of The International House of Mojo that I'd perform all four parts of The Curse of Monkey Island pirate song.  So, if you want to watch a grown woman try to mimic four men in a pirate shanty, there's always that for incentive. ;)

Ben Jordan: Land of the Rising Dead Review

Ben's cases begin to get more dangerous as he teams up with the friends he met in London.  Luckily, the rising of the stakes also goes along with the rising of quality, as the Ben Jordan series continues to get better as it goes on.

At home after his experience at the Number 50 in London, Ben receives a conference call from the two people he got along best with on that trip.  Simon and Alice invite Ben to Osaka, Japan to investigate a series of murders that have been labeled the "ghost killings".  As he arrives, however, signs point to zombies being the culprit, and the case finds itself headed in directions that none of the three had expected.

The graphics are more refined here, and more closely resemble the deluxe editions of the first two cases.  It's still presented in a 320x240 resolution pixelated format, reminiscent of the Sierra and LucasArts games that inspired it, but everything is nicely detailed.  The portraits look more realistic than the last few cases, and the backgrounds are lovely, capturing the look of Japan quite well.  The music is also really nice, with a nice blend of spooky and Japanese inspired music that fits the atmosphere perfectly.  There is still no voice work, but the game's dialog makes up for it.  This is Ben Jordan's most intriguing case yet, which is saying something in a career that has seen him go up against skunkapes, witches, and ghosts.  There are many twists and turns in the plot here, as well as multiple paths to the ending.

As usual in this series, the puzzles are done quite well here.  Alice is the only one of her companions to speak Japanese, so there are instances where Alice must conduct the investigation while Ben looks on, in a situation reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.  The Gabriel Knight influence also shows heavily here, as Ben finds himself reading the daily newspaper to find clues for the day's investigation, as five days pass on their visit to Japan.  As usual, it is possible to die, but the danger is obvious when it comes, so it gives you plenty of time to save before hand (and, luckily time freezes once in the inventory, so you'll have plenty of leeway to think your way out of the situation).  There is one puzzle where the answers aren't given to you by the game, and only relies on your own knowledge (or luck).  However, even if you lose, you don't die, you just don't get as many of the game's arbitrary points, which shouldn't be a big deal for most gamers.

The Ben Jordan cases continue to improve as the series goes on.  As this case was released in the same year of the first deluxe edition, the graphics more closely resemble those versions, so there isn't as much of a clash for those who experienced first experienced the deluxe editions as there was the last two cases.  There still isn't voice over work, but the game's intriguing storyline, interesting characters, and excellent music make up for it.  Like the other cases, Land of the Rising Dead is one of the best freeware adventure games available.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5