"Gorgeous, funny adventure undone by soft-locks and a cliffhanger"
About
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is a point-and-click adventure set in the fantasy world of Aventásia, where you guide a quartet of unlikely heroes—Wilbur, Ivo, Nate, and Critter—through interconnected scenes filled with puzzles and interactive objects. You examine environments, combine items, and solve logic puzzles to progress the story while uncovering what role these characters are meant to play in their world's fate.
Verdict
A handsome, sharply written point-and-click that earns its 15-plus hours through charm and voice work rather than puzzle ingenuity. The bugs are the real villain here, with soft-locks and audio glitches that can strand you mid-chapter, and the ending leaves Nate hanging on a sequel that never came.
You'll like it if …
- +you love classic LucasArts-style point-and-click adventures built on writing and voice work
- +you happily linger over genre references and meta humor across a long single playthrough
You'll dislike it if …
- −you want puzzle logic that always rewards reasoning over experimentation
- −you replay games and need fresh challenges once the solutions are known
Breakdown
- +Puzzles feel fair and satisfying at their best, with moments of genuine understanding
- −Too many puzzles resolve through illogical leaps that push you toward a walkthrough rather than earned comprehension
- −Once solved, the solutions don't change, limiting replay value after your first playthrough
- +15-plus hours of content provides strong value for the genre
- +Witty, character-driven writing thick with references and meta jokes that mostly land
- −Asking price feels steep against the bug risk; several players peg its real worth closer to a sale tag
- +Sharp, character-led humor with affectionate genre references
- +Unresolved ending stings precisely because you come to care about these four characters
- −Cliffhanger ending with no sequel to resolve it leaves Nate hanging
- +Hand-painted backgrounds and expressive animation have aged with grace, looking like a high-budget cartoon film
- +Voice cast is genuinely excellent and carries whole scenes
- −Audio bugs undercut the voice work, with lines that suddenly drop in volume or echo as if recorded in a cave
- −Soft-locks strand you in a room mid-chapter
- −Save corruption and audio cutouts turn a beautiful game into a gamble on whether your run survives
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