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If you need to break the ice off your heart, then look no further than The Book of Unwritten
Tales: The Critter Chronicles. It’s here to shake the icicles off with a whimsical
point-n-click adventure. Critter Chronicles tells an unwritten tale
in this book of never before seen fictions while Nate chronicles his adventure through
narration. Yes, even though it’s a book of unwritten tales we, the audience, still
get to experience it somehow. That way is, well, through… the chronicling of a tale.
The story starts with Nate; he is the new-found owner of an airship, but right on his tail
and attempting to capture him is an orc bounty hunter, Ma’zaz. The apprehension goes sideways
and unravels a chain of events that link together how Nate and Critter first met. Critter is
the second protagonist, a strangle little purple googly-eye creature. Critter and his
crew have been stranded in an tundra because a very important part of their ship has been
stolen – a part aptly named “the heart.” Nate’s airship happens to crash in the same
frozen wasteland and he breaks a deal with the critters to recover the stolen heart if
they help fix his ship. Critter is also in love with the daughter of the captian, so
he sets out with Nate in hopes of impressing her ever-disapproving father.
Whether it be metaphorical or literal, both Nate and Critter are after a heart that they
just can’t move on without. So they set off on a point-n-click adventure that will
take them through the beautifully detailed environments and truly humorous pop-culture
references and quirky satire. The gameplay is comprised of searching the
environment for clues, items to use, and other characters to speak with. Well, that’s about
95 percent of the game; the other five percent is little mini games like picking locks or
other random complex puzzles – a little too complex at times.
The first game in the series was somewhat ridiculed for being too easy, and as a result
this second installment has become difficult for the wrong reasons. For example, puzzles
may have Nate or Critter performing the most obscure of tasks with the random disheveled
items that are acquired. For instance, to progress they may need to place a sock on
a generator as a rotator belt or wash the label off of one bottle so they can swap it
with a different bottle of brandy to get a penguin drunk. Really… it’s hard to tell
what the game is going to throw at you in order to progress onward.
In an attempt to help alleviate being marooned on a single puzzle for too long, Critter Chronicles
does allow you to hold the spacebar to see what you can interact with, but the sheer
amount of objects can make for exponential possibilities which bogs-down the pacing as
well. Regardless of speed bumps in the puzzle-solving
pace, it’s still a charming and enchanted adventure. Critter Chronicles is brought to
life with a high production value through beautiful visuals, quality voice acting, challenging
puzzles, and snarky pop-culture references so much so that it feels like Pixar made a
point-n-click adventure. At the end of the day I really want to know what Nate and Critter
are going to do next, which is truly the mark of a good game.