My Review (A shorter but more challenging game compared to its predecessor)

[Ryan]

The Book of Unwritten Tales - The Critter Chronicles is the sequel, well story prequel to the original Book of Unwritten Tales by King Art Games.

If you had played the original, you will be immediately familiar with the art style, music and atmosphere of the game. It is a shorter story lasting around 8 to 10 hours depends on your play style, and tells the prequel story of how Nate and Critter first met each other, and their adventures that takes place before the original game.

Once again it is another light-hearted tale that pokes fun at itself and pays homage to lots of fantasy and RPG stereotypes and old adventure games. In fact one of the puzzle solution near the end of the game would not make much sense to someone who had not played a certain Lucasarts adventure game before. For those who have played it however, it certainly a funny and nostalgic treat.

While this game is shorter then its predecessor, the puzzles felt alot more devious and require you to think out of the box (at least for the hard mode version). More then once I had to consult a walkthrough as puzzle solutions can be a little cryptic.

The annoyances that plague its predecessor continue with this game such as not being able to make the character walk faster, and the typical "mouse-over everything on the screen until something is clickable" type of situations. This game doesn't end in a cliffhanger, but it would have been nice if it was tied directly to the first game.

Overall Rating: 8.0 / 10
Definitely pick this up if you enjoyed the first game in the series. For newcomers, I recommend playing the first game to better understand and appreciate some of the story elements in this game even though it is a prequel. Be forewarned, the hard mode of this game is alot more challenging then the original game.

[nail]

"mouse-over everything on the screen until something is clickable"

If you're playing hunt the pixel, hold down space bar and it will show you everything clickable on screen. It did in the first game at least. Just bought this, waiting until later today so I can play it with the Mrs.

[Radar Rush]

Yeah the space bar is equally useful in Critter Chronicles; definitely saves a lot of frustrating clicking!

[Tarran]

Spot on review. Exactly mirrors my own thoughts.