Stories Untold Critic Reviews

It’s a fantastic, fascinating example of interactive visual storytelling. It would absolutely only work in the form that the developers have created, and it’s a game I’ll no doubt be permanently using as an example in future when I want to illustrate just what can be done in the genre. It’s also an excellent, creepy story which is deftly told, and a game I can recommend without reservation.

Stories Untold is a great example of the endless capabilities of video games. No Code created a horror sci-fi experience that pushes the boundaries of story telling and on their way there they do not forget to enrich it with high aesthetic and an eerie atmosphere.

Stories Untold places a hidden story within a hidden story; a puzzle that only reveals itself once you piece together its outer layers – and it’s one of the most fascinating and unique tales you can play this year.

A whirling nightmare made of green phosphor screens and infinitive verbs.

In this innovative title from No Code, players can relive classic horror movies and late-night television, enjoy simple, light, but intuitive gameplay, and discover a spine-tingling story that’s guaranteed to keep them on edge long after they’ve finished playing.

If you're looking for a tense, unnerving experience in a simple yet eerie setting, this is it.

Stories Untold is an experimental text adventure with a great 80's vibe, a sort of "Stranger Things meets Zork". You'll find soon engaged in a captivating, horrifying and amazingly old-school adventure full of lo-fi technology, dark secrets and terrible text parsers. It's a short ride, but incredibly satisfying.

An eerie trip to your earliest pre-adolescent memories of wrestling with twenty verbs and a parser and somehow transported into another, darker, more dangerous, more real dimension. Stories Untold is a love letter and a step forward for an extinct genre. Impressive and impeccable in it’s execution, this is something all discerning horror fans owe to themselves to experience.

Stories Untold is a unique four-hour experience that both horror fans and those who love to dissect head-scratching enigmas should check out. Though a number of frustrating puzzles may prove too tiresome for many, those who stick with it will find themselves rewarded with a treasure trove of gruesome and morbid delights.

There's great variety here, too.

Creative tribute to text adventures and an in many ways surprising storytelling experiment with a well-done 80s-like scary atmosphere.

As much as we’d love to go into greater detail about what exactly makes Stories Untold such a successful adventure game, it really is the type of experience you need to check out first-hand. What starts out as a simple ode to classic ’80s games peels away its layers ever so slightly as you progress, until your jaw drops quite a bit upon the reveal as to what’s at the core of it all. It’s a quick ride, one that should be over in about three hours at most, but a ride that will leave quite the impression on you nonetheless thanks to its twists and turns all wrapped in the guise of a campy cult television series. It’s easily a notable sleeper hit for both horror and sci-fi fans, and so it’s definitely recommended that you check it out ASAP. You know, before any spoilers start to leak out. Seriously, sorry we couldn’t say more, but man, that finale…

An atmospheric collection of clever, surprising interactive short stories with a gorgeous retro aesthetic.

In this text based adventure, the 4 stories packed with clever enigmas and tinted with a very pleasant retro atmosphere are really fascinating.

If you loved what Stranger Things did with 80s, you will love this game. Retro text adventures are a hard thing to sell to modern generations, but this game knows how to do it.

An unforgettable journey.

Stories Untold’s first three episodes are very effective as retro horror vignettes, though, and the fourth can’t undo that. This is a unique package with a strong sense of identity, one that finds a new, exciting way to weaponize nostalgia. Just know that you might not look at the old Spectrum or Commodore 64 you’ve got packed away in the attic quite the same way again after playing.

The first of four chapters is remarkable, but the next two are worse and the last one is simply pathetic.

What could have been something lasting, something real, is instead a two dimensional narrative which brandishes plot twists and visual trickery to camouflage a lack of rich storytelling. Nonetheless, I would still highly recommend Stories Untold to writers and game developers: there are ideas in the first few episodes which are fascinating, and I’m dying to see where No Code’s metafictive experimentation might take the text adventure genre.

Stories Untold is better than the sum of its parts, even if this collection of horror-themed interactive fiction vignettes never quite capitalizes on the potential of its concept.