![]() Chapter three has you in an arctic base responding to distress signals and deciphering codes. In chapter two, you’re in a lab performing experiments on a strange subject. The next two chapters offer completely different scenarios. You see the keyboard in front of you on top of a desk scattered with other items, and as you play, the atmosphere changes around you… sinisterly. Clicking on the first chapter takes you to a slightly updated version of The House Abandon, where an old CRT screen is booting up a text adventure game. Text drives the gameplay, but it’s encased in graphics that are reminiscent of Alien: Isolation, which No Code’s lead developer Jon McKellan worked on as a designer. After the intro scene, featuring heavily synthesized music that sounds like it came straight out of a Stranger Things episode, the game opens to a menu including four chapters, all of which are locked except the first. Stories Untold isn’t simply a text adventure. It’s a childhood dream realized, with the same flavor of nostalgia as Stranger Things. Stories Untold is No Code’s follow-up to The House Abandon, and it includes the latter game remastered as the first of four episodes. Then No Code released The House Abandon, and that underlying sense of mystery I felt when playing old text adventures was suddenly brought back completely. ![]() Of course, I eventually grew up and started to gain a basic understanding of what went into game design, and the magic of text adventures was somewhat lost. Maybe there was a hidden command that would open up an entirely new game or reveal some secret knowledge. I always felt like there were deep and dark things hiding underneath the text if I just explored enough or typed exactly the right words. They were stories I could shape with my imagination, just like books, but I seemed to have more control over them. I kept coming back to them because despite their simplicity and lack of glitz, they were comforting. I didn’t know anyone else who played them or had even heard of them. Text adventure games were more like home-cooked meals–hearty and nutritious but hard to find outside my own PC. Games like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights were the burgers and milkshakes, the delicious indulgences that I enjoyed and often binged on. Genre-hopping: from psychological horror, to tense mystery and terrifying sci-fi Stories Untold is truly “4 stories, 1 nightmare”.I grew up on a rich diet of PC games. Ěchievements to unlock, and narrative secrets to discover Sublime synth-wave horror soundtrack, inspired by 80s horror soundtracks. ![]() Gorgeous retro-aesthetic brings back vivid memories, or a glimpse into what was. ![]() Play mind-bending text adventures, process radio transmissions and conduct experiments on bizarre artifacts ğour unique stories, with their own settings, gameplay and mechanics. “Stories Untold” was developed by No Code, a Glasgow based ex-AAA development team headed up by Jon McKellan (Alien: Isolation) and Omar Khan. The first Episode “The House Abandon” is now available for free via a demo, to give you a glimpse of what is in store in the full game. The game pulls together 80s retro nostalgia, innovative and experimental genre-defying gameplay, and tense, phycological horror to create “one of the most fascinating and unique tales you can play this year” (GameSpew 9/10). Combining a mix of classic text-adventure, point-and-click and more, 4 short stories are packaged together into a single mysterious anthology that has been described as “a fantastic, fascinating example of interactive visual storytelling” (Telegraph 5/5) and earning widespread critical acclaim since release. “Stories Untold” is a narrative-driven experimental adventure game, that bends the genre into something completely unique. Now available on MacOS (note: dedicated graphics card is *highly recommended* for the best experience)
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