Untold Stories was selected after spinning my “Wheelspin of PC games I’ve never played before” and so I decided to give it a shot. Kyle was standing with me because he loves the thrill of my wheelspin nearly as much as I do. I decided to look up the trailer with him so he could share a part of what I might be getting myself into. It’s a text-based horror… And I don’t do horrors.
I’d set aside 60 minutes of gaming, knowing that this was technically a bad idea given that it would end too close to bedtime for me to fall asleep quickly. But I started Episode 1: The House Abandon at 9:07pm anyway and challenged myself to play until 10pm. At 9:37pm I was checking the time on my phone every few minutes.
Proudly, I only jumped seven times throughout my playthrough, and the game finished 13 minutes earlier than expected.
I struggled with phrasing my intentions in a way the game could understand, which gave me PTSD from all the times real-Simone attempts to communicate. Mixed with lights flickering, unexpected thunder cracks and the door behind me creaking (and opening), this game was a nightmare.
Logically, I’d like to have cleaned the kitchen so it was less horror-esque, but apparently my character is not a homemaker and the game wouldn’t let me.
It just… would have made me feel calmer, ok? ☹
I honestly thought a text-based horror might be the lesser of any horror I could encounter. But of course, when the phone starts ringing, I nearly burst into tears. And at one point, I request to read the in-game note I have in my hand, only to be told that I can’t read it because it’s covered in blood. This made me dizzy for a few seconds… IRL.
This is the part of the review where Simone tries to remember the storyline
I played two characters. Me, the one sitting at the computer playing Episode 1 of Untold Stories, and my in-game character playing The House Abandon on their old PC. Oh, now that I think about it, I play a third character too, who is the in-game-in-game me, exploring the abandoned house. In-game-in-game me senses someone is in the house, so they head upstairs, unlock the coded door to my bedroom to see the in-game me sitting at a PC playing The House Abandon. Then I realized I might have to kill myself (not in a suicide way but in a… kill this other-version-of-me kind of way) and I wanted to NOPE out right there and then. Mild irritation with the game that of course it wouldn’t give me an alternative ending, I was forced to admit (in-game) that “everything was my fault” and then the game ended abruptly (which also gave me a jump scare). Frankly, I don’t know what was “my fault”, but I don’t appreciate in-game-in-game me murdering in-game me when we could have just had a chat, a hug and talked things through.
Stories Untold Demo is free on GOG, Epic and Steam and allows you to play through Episode 1 in its entirety (that’s the one I played).
