Ghost of a Tale (2018)

Ghost of a Tale is an indie stealth adventure game with impressive visuals and a deep amount of world building. Unfortunately, playing Ghost of a Tale is not very fun. The gameplay amounts to sneaking around guards, doing dozens of fetch quests and solving rudimentary puzzles.

The game takes place in a fantasy medieval world where characters are anthropomorphic animals like mice, rats, frogs and birds. You play as a mouse named Tilo, who has been imprisoned. Tilo receives an envelope containing the key to his cell by a mysterious beneficiary, who tells Tilo to escape and meet him on the Castle rooftops. Tilo is small and scrawny and has to use his smarts to survive in this world of much larger and stronger rats.

The visuals of this indie game are on par with games of much higher production values however the gameplay feels stuck in the 90s. It is easy to get lost in the game. Quest givers will only say their quest dialogue once, so if you accidentally skip over it, it is troublesome figuring out what to do next. I am frankly curious how many players actually finished the game without going online.

Even when the main objective is clear, there is an atrocious amount of backtracking. I did not find it fun walking past the same guard, having to don the sluggish soldier armor disguise and then re-equip to much lighter gear. The game does provide a series of hidden paths and shortcuts, but it is not enough the allay my frustrations.

I was still able to power through the game because I enjoyed the narrative and its characters. However, the straw that broke the camel's back is the final act. It's a frustrating gameplay sequence that deprives Tilo most of his skills and involves slowly carrying items back and forth. It succinctly summarizes what I felt about this entire game, that even at the game's "best moment" it is simply yet another fetch quest.

A lovely stealth and adventure game set in a very memorable world with beautiful visuals and great atmosphere.

The game tells a story of bard bard mouse. Locked in a prison and separated from his wife after standing up to some baron. The search for her will be the core of the game.

Visuals are amazing. The level of detail is great and locations are amazingly designed. At first the world feels huge, and it's unsure where to go. But slowly as you progress new short cuts appear and the levels wrap on each other. It has that souls like feeling where the world feels a lot larger at first but once you get to know it it becomes familiar and not that big at all.

The story and the lore of the game is detailed and has that grand fairytale feeling. Enough said - I loved the world, it's story and the characters you meet during the adventure.

The game consists of two mechanics. You need to sneak your way through a lot of areas. Once however you obtain a certain disguise the game becomes more of a classic adventure game. And when it happens I feel some of the magic fades out though I'm not sure sneaking through same areas would not become tiresome. The sneaking is very well done, requires patience but is satisfying. The enemies are not too bright but I didn't mind it.

Quests are mostly fetch quests but they didn't feel repetitive and just exploring this world felt very rewarding. The game also doesn't hold your hand throughout. There are no way points so you have to find your way around by yourself. There are some characters that for some payment will mark some things on the map once you acquire it but a lot of it is left up to you. A nice refreshing experience that makes you think and explore the world.

There is no combat in game and that feels right.

There are some light rpg elements, you gain experience and get more health and stamina with each level. Additionally after completing some quests you will unlock additional skill. There's plenty of costumes to collect, some of which are required for quests and have different stats, although those stats felt rather meaningless.

Loved the story as well and I suspect this will be one of those memorable experiences in gaming.

The only down side is the lack of proper audio and voice over. While no voice acting is better than bad voice acting I feel that this could have added even more character to the game. Since the main hero is bard and gets to sing his songs quite a few times, having no actual songs sung feels like they run out of budget. Would love to hear proper versions of them.

Overall enjoyed it a lot and would gladly return to the world a second time. Highly recommend it.