Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2012
The Book of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles
Developer KING Art
The Book of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles (German: The Book of Unwritten Tales: Die Vieh Chroniken) is a point-and-click adventure video game created by German developer King Art Games. It is a prequel to The Book of Unwritten Tales that was released in 2009. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
200 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Jul 24, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
79
LovedLoved
151 positive · 41 negative
95% range 72–84%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 151 | 41 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
8 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
394 of 468 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 200 · most liked firstI am a big fan of the the original Book of Unwritten Tales and Critter Chronicles is certainly not a terrible game as adventure games go, but the thumb indicates whether I recommended it (not that it's an outright bad game!) and I unfortunately I just can't recommend Critter Chronicles - mainly due to the puzzle quality. The original game keeps a nice balance between the puzzles being relatively intuitive, yet not quite so blatantly obvious that there's nothing to it. Generally I could…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's at least one critical crash bug in this game which can prevent you from progressing, and which hasn't been fixed despite being reported on the Steam forums (http://steamcommunity.com/app/221830/discussions/0/846947320671653509/#p1) and the King Art game forums (http://forum.kingart-games.com/index.php/topic,11586.0.html) for a long while now. Clearly the publisher Nordic Games and/or the devs are not proactive in seeking out problems and helping players. Regarding the game itself (I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An enjoyable adventure with plenty of fun jokes. Silly and able to stand on its own, it is a good time for any point and click fan. I liked being able to play from multiple perspectives. Additional Details Operating System Ubuntu Linux 16.04 x64 CPU AMD FX-8350 GPU GTX 750 Last played January, 2018 Technical Notes No problems
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: Get it if you liked the previous game, but only on sale The Good The game is cute and funny with likable characters. It shows the backstory of how Nate and Critter met. There is a hard difficulty mode if you want to make the puzzles a bit harder The Bad It's short. Very few screens, so there is lots of backtracking between the same screens which gets annoying. Most of the puzzles are unintuitive, forcing you to go the route of clicking / talking / combining everything until something…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Wolf Among Us, and I imagine other Telltale games (but that’s the only one I played so far). It felt a lot like Life is Strange in gameplay and storytelling, even though it’s also a lot different. In a similar vein, point and click adventure games like The Whispered World, The Book of Unwritten Tales, or Syberia. The modern ones usually don’t have a failure state (as opposed to the infamous Sierra games), but unlike LiS you may get stuck on a puzzle.
unlabelledView post →...which probably should've just been a simple addition to the original. But more on that later. Let's start with the good things - this game, as the original, is fun and funny. It has a lot of cultural references yet manages to be unique and not loose itself in them. It looks fantastic. It mostly keeps puzzles fun and interesting - rarely too easy, rarely too annoying or needlessly complex. Unlike the original, this game is pretty short, which could be a plus, since the game could have had…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am disapointed :( The game is good it's funny but why when we are really getting into it is it crashing in the Yeti cave? For now I do not recommend this game, but I would love to change my mind it if they could come up with a possible reason and cure.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's all right if you want an additional humorous story in the BoUT universe, but the puzzles are a lot less fun this time around. They're more of the "try everything on everything and everyone" variety. The game also uses lots of arbitrary flags, a mechanic that the other games thankfully avoided.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I love the series, sadly I failed to read the reviews of this particular one. I enjoyed what little I was able to play, BUT, at the Yeti's when setting up the scale, candle and pot it hung up. Each and every darn time. I tried different ways. I just wasted my money buy a game I can not play. IF this gets fixed, it will be enjoyable. But until then, I do not recommend this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Let me start by saying that I like both "The Book of Unwritten Tales 1" and TBoUT2 a lot and wholeheartedly recommend them both. However, that is not the case with "TBoUT: the Critter Chronicles" which feels like a failed experiment, prior TBoUT2, for testing various game concepts. The two difficulty options "normal" and "hard" causes far too complicated puzzles on the harder setting. Other puzzles gets harder by having all spoken clues removed. The normal setting is playable but sometimes a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sequel to one of the best pont-&-click adventure games. Now addicting little drop sci-fi in a fantasy adventure in same manner of humor as before. I must say decoration for chapter 4 was something very amazing, beutifull and with piece of insanity in same time. Despite difficulty of puzzles, I enjoyed the apartments so much, that I forget about puzzles for a moment. Highly recommended for all who familiar with previous game and other's, who want to see good point-&-click fantasy adventure.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Critter Chronicles is actually a prequel of sorts to the Book of Unwritten Tales Series. The other two games have more story and a far more expansive world to explore than this game. In comparison 'The Critter Tales' feels less developed and smaller. In many ways though, it is meant to be smaller. The story isn't telling a grand arc, it's only really showing you the events that brought two of the BOUT's main characters together. Nate and Critter. It does explore a little about…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you liked The Book of Unwritten Tales, you will also like this funny prequel. Many negative reviews are because of game crashes, but I managed to get around the Yeti cave crash by disabling the steam overlay thanks to the info on the forum. And for some negative reviwers, the game appears to be too hard. But I managed to finish it in less than 15h on hard mode without any help. I recommend this game for adventure game lovers.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The only reason you would not enjoy this game is that you didn't like The Book of Unwritten Tales, so why would you read this review? You should play this game between the two main games. As a side story, the scope is reduced to fewer characters and locations, but the game isn't too short, especially if you play it on hard mode. I only finished it on hard, with extra steps to accomplishing your goals, which means I don't know exactly what steps aren't required in normal mode. Incidentally,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great inbetweener before Unwritten Tales 2. Solid 8 hours of gameplay and a nice tie in between stories. I really love this series and hope Nordic carries it on.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Decent. It is a Prequel to Book of Unwritten Tales. There are funny moments in some places.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A really enjoyable prequel, if you loved the first one you'll love this too: it's a "more of the same", but in a positive sense, and it even gives now the chance to choose between a Normal and an Hard difficult setting. It has just one flaw, minor or major is up to you to decide: in relation to the above difficult settings, you cannot get all the achievements because you will get only the ones related to the chosen difficult setting. Which make sense when you play Normal to not get Difficult's…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have looked forward to play this game after I had played "The Book Of Unwritten Tales". This game is just as fun, exciting, filled with funny characters and so on. The graphics have improved, but I am looking forward to see how good it will be in the next gen of this game. Last but not least, the game is super fun, but it's still hard to see some of the small objects that you have to find during the game. Continue the good work King Art! 8/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short version: 80% The prequel of Book of Unwritten Tales is shorter, a little more desolate, but has a tighter pace and most importantly, more Critter! It doesn’t exactly reach the same level of excellence as BoUT did, but it’s still a fun little adventure game. Long version: Critter Chronicles was created to fix the greatest error in the first Book of Unwritten Tales: not enough Critter. It also serves as a prequel, telling the tale of how Critter and Nate met and eventually wound up as the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not as good as the magnificent parts 1 and 2 of the series, but very nice nonetheless. Interestingly, it plays perfectly in 4k.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[The Book of Unwritten Tales](https://store.steampowered.com/app/215160/The_Book_of_Unwritten_Tales/) comes to mind. It's nowhere near as grandiose as any of your described games, but I fondly remember it being a very charming and wholesome experience. If that's the feeling you seek, you might enjoy it.
unlabelledView post →This is one of the most difficult games for me to review. I was planning on not recommending it for at least half of my playthrough, but in the end there's just enough to give it a thumbs up. But it's very close. I absolutely loved the first Book of Unwritten Tales and wanted more, so before playing the second, I decided to play Critter Chronicles. My first impressions were strong, the intro is pretty cinematic and a lot of fun. Then you get to the Northlands and at first it's great. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amusing but the puzzles are in places, very silly.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game does not start on current Linux distribution (tested on Ubuntu 18.04, including with numerous workarounds), support appears nonexistent at this time. (Update: I was able to get the Windows version to run using Proton, by forcing it to run under Proton in the game's settings. So far it runs at a decent performance, we'll see if I encounter any issues. Still, thumbs down for a broken Linux port.)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun and funny point and click adventure. Lovely art. Lively characters. Very silly stuff, which is good, because silly is good. Solve puzzles and be silly https://youtu.be/ZaQzRdIXZio
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tags: Adventure - P&C - Point&Click Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR: Weaker story than the original. Click everything on everything puzzle design. Difficult minigames. Short. Crashes to desktop.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The first game was 10/10 material. This one barely makes the cut. The first part of the game is OK, but once you get to the second part where you play the Critter, gameplay largely devolves into clicking everything in every possible permutation until something useful happens, and there's no rhyme of reason behind it. For example, why on earth would I use a sock on a generator? To make a belt out of it! Yes of course! Wait... what?! And then you need to use a fishing line on a baseball cap? To…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought this cos it looked just like the kind of dumb humour I appreciate. Completed and loved it so much, I bought the rest of the Book of Unwritten Tales series! The puzzles sometimes don't make sense (game humour logic) or can get very challenging, but if you figure it out without peeking at a walkthrough there's an immense sense of satisfaction. (No shame if you do look at a guide, sometimes I just don't know what I missed out despite combing the scene over.) Pros: +Great graphics…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game does not work properly. It is nearly impossible to proceed!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yet another wonderful installment into this saga. Love getting some more backgroud on Critter and Nate.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not super bad but definitely below average. Lots of badly designed puzzles in the last chapters which force you to use walktrough. Writing is quite subpar and too meta, not very enjoyable experience overall.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →dont even bother buying this one it wont even start and when it does it crashes and never starts ever again.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story is decent. The characters are decent. The game is terrible. This would be better suited as a webisode or something. The gameplay is so absolutely linear that you have to know exactly what the developers expect you to click on and in the correct order-- all the time, every time, which kills the game for me. Save your money and just watch someone do a playthrough on Youtube. This is true for both 1 and 2.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game has the same graphics as the original first title, but it has more puzzles than the original. Sometimes it’s a bit annoying that you can’t solve things straight away, but well… it’s an old‑school adventure game, so I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be. With the bottle in Chapter 4 I was running around for almost two days until I finally understood that I just needed to look at it again. I thought I had already examined it enough — apparently not — and now I finally have the vinegar.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I forgot to review this when I played it two months ago. As I often do, I had created a text file to take notes for a review. The text file for Critter Chronicles is empty. I guess there's not much I wanted to say about it. This the second game in The Book of Unwritten Tales series, serving as a prequel. It plays exactly the same as the first game, which [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/Eincrou/recommended/215160]I did remember to review. I enjoyed both games. Just one more to go!…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Story is okay, not on King's Quest level, but entertaining enough. Main character is also well-written. I especially loved how this game made fun of PETA, you know, Petra --> PETA, and how illogical and obnoxious they actually are. Also, there are some easter eggs, like Layla from Star Wars.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stay away from this one. If you play this and lose your account you have been warned. Danger Will Robinson ! Don't touch it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://youtu.be/2ariYgTPh60 Lacking some of charm and energy of the main line series there is just a lack of umph to bring players in early.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As fun as the 1st game. 7/10.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a Steam review for every game in my library (#347 out of 612)... it's time for The Book of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles. I found the original Book of Unwritten Tales to be torture. Awful writing, tedious puzzle design--the usual cardinal sins of the point-and-click genre. The Critter Chronicles compounds those with another popular sin: atrocious voice acting. To briefly retread my issues with the original game: the problem I have is a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Couldn't run it on Ubuntu 19.10. Too many missing libraries, some are deprecated due to security breaches. Please, can you update the requirements of this game to work on my machine? "Book of Unwritten Tales 2" runs perfectly.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No,,,,Its still buggy.. Worst of all, it cant even start my save game... Cant complete the game....so....its a waste of time to play this game...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a game I expected, but I'm thrilled that we got it. It's all Critter, all the time, and it's fantastic. If you like the others in this series, you'll like this one. Highly recommend all this series to anyone who's liked Monkey Island and/or Deponia.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unpretentious, funny game. The first BoUT was just OK. This is really good. 5/5 I played it on Hard without the need of any walkthrough. Can't say I haven't hit spots that I just had to try using every item on everything to proceed. But those instances were very few. Would recommend as one of the best adventure games I've played in a while.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Am kinda torn about thumping this up or down. The story is ok but alot of the puzzles can't be solved unless you exhaust every possible steps you can think of! even then I got stuck a couple of times that I needed to use the guide. Sigh....the game isn't that bad I guess.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a good, funny, super polished adventure game with great art and design. I finished it in less than 20 hours on hard mode. It's a decent length (if you get it on sale). It's a little short to justify full price.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Though not as amusing and funny as the first game in the series, this installment of the franchise still does deliver. Good, funny and witty dialogue with good puzzles. My complaint is that it is fairly short but definitely worth buying.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great game loved it graphics good story good good length as well so worth the money i got it on sale so cant complain but worth the money cant wait to play the others now do go back and forth quite a bit but still apart from that its good check it out yourselfs and see if you like these sort of games
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's an excellent point & click with lots of jokes and kaméos. And now i'm going to play the next one.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →wonderful. i loved the whole series. in this i enjoyed the refs to star wars and day of the tentacle, even pinky and the brain One of the best point and click games I have ever played - really funny and with a nice story to give some context for the other games. I find it quite nice to revisit especially as it has a mode with a normal difficulty, too.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you liked The Book Of Unwritten Tales, you will most likeley enjoy this one. If not, why not play The Book of Unwritten Tailes and find out?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Humorous casual point and click puzzle solver where we find out how Critter met Nate. Our pair infiltrate a submarine headquarters for the evil villain, an MC Escher inspired wizard's house, a hidden temple, an alien space ship, and a sasquatch cave. They meet the strangest people, make friends, (launch babies?) escape traps and drop references to other movies/games that make you laugh. Critter wants to save his family, impress his girl, defeat the bad guy, and save the world. Nate tries…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Critter Chronicles is old school Point n Click adventure done right. Simple story, excellent characters, and the most random and nonsensical ways of solving puzzles all while being humorous and referential. There really isn't much to analyze about the game. There’s no deep story or allegorical moral, just a straight adventure. But I've given too much credit to other games in this regards. The Critter Chronicles is very clear on what your goal is in chapter and even in the subchapters.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall good, not as good as the first though.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Funny and interesting, though I do get the feeling that this one was a tad bit illogical. I've tried the other 2 Tales and I can see the logic behind the puzzles after I solve it. The logic behind the Critter Chronicles is a bit strange. Conclusion, it's worth a try. Despite the fact that the game is linear, I enjoyed it. I hope to see more TBOUT in the future. I wonder how the Scepter of Time will comeback in the story? PROS 1. Wonky Story Love the crazy Yeti scientist chasing his own…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So what to say about this game? I have to agree with other reviewers here and say that while this game has some gorgeous visuals, having 3 chapters out of 5 taking place in the same 4-5 screens hurts the game significantly. Especially when the puzzles in those chapters are the least intuitive in the game. For example the chapter in which you get to play Critter for the first time - I wasn't really sure what I was trying to achieve so I spent a lot of time running from screen to screen…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A shorter game than the other two, better known Unwritten Tales, but still a worthy buy. From the characters, to the dialogue and the puzzles, everything comes together in a very entertaining adventure. The puzzles are not that hard, but they are fun to solve and they actually contribute to the story, an element that is very hard to find in adventure games at the moment. All in all, if you love a good, fun adventure story, don't miss on this one.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not so good prologue for BoUT, basic point-and-click Pros: -Beautiful graphics -Funny dialog and some great sarcastic scenes (PETrA and smoking) Cons: -Solutions to puzzles are logical but motivations to get there were sometimes obscure -Yes, I LOVE listening to Critters nonsensic gurgling when looking environment and stuff -Yes, I LOVE listening it twice for every item before to be able to pick up item -Yes, I ENJOY watching characters to reposition few seconds everytime when switching them
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed this game. I bought all 3 as a bundle and played one after the other, The story is good, with some heartfelt moments, it has some challenging puzzles to workout and you can change the difficulty as well. If you like point and click games like I do you will enjoy this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have the Steam PC version of The Book of Unwritten Tales, and have hit the infamous Wheel of Fortune - I have had to give up on this game as it clearly is impossible to win. I am not going to waste my time with this silly puzzle.
unlabelledView post →
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