There are some games that are absolutely perfect to indulge in when you’re tired of high-intensity multiplayer action or just want to kick back and relax. The Tale Of Bistun ticks that box for sure and personally I’d call it more of an adventure filled with deep narrative than something that is heavily focused on gameplay. Developed and published by Black Cube Games, it is readily available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC. With this kind of game, my attention span hinges on whether the storyline is solid enough to keep me engaged and focused especially since the gameplay is quite thin on the ground. There are however combat elements and simple puzzle-solving sections here though, but is this mythological story worth your investment? Let’s find out!

Introduction

The Tale Of Bistun takes inspiration from the famous Persian tragic romance “Khosrow and Shirin”. You start the game as Fashad who is a stone carver, you wake up from a snooze on Mount Bistun with no recollection of anything that occurred prior to the present day. Before you know it, you’re sent off to explore the blighted lands in search of answers and how you came to be on the mountain. As you traverse the world you’ll be uncovering your past experiences and encounters whilst changing a whisper amongst the lands. You must deal with hostility and the tainted wildlife around you to reveal the truth about your history. Throughout your journey, you’ll be battling mythical creatures and obtaining as much information of your secret past as possible whilst interacting with elements in the environment.

Gameplay

If you’re really into visual novels or just after a good story-based adventure and you’re not too fussed about getting stuck into some full-on action-based gameplay, then you’ll enjoy what’s on offer here. It’s extremely linear with not much opportunity to explore and you’ll be restricted to certain paths in order to progress through the chapters. What I did like was that each action that you used was in tune with how the story unfolded and trying to find out what happened next in the plot of the game was what drove me to keep going regardless of it seeming repetitive.

There are slices of combat during the course of the game where you’ll have to defeat enemies with an axe. It’s very hack-and-slash orientated and was so easy that you could just wade in and deal with whatever was thrown at you. I feel the developers could have perhaps made this a little more challenging. Aside from this, there were hidden bits of bobs within the landscape that you could go and discover to tick off those all-important achievements. There are statues, tablets and secret carvings to try and hunt down which does provide a little bit more to do other than just sticking to the linear path.

Graphics & Audio

Aside from the storytelling, The Tale Of Bistun is beautifully illustrated even from a top-down perspective. The range of colours is well blended into some really unique environments with an excellent traversal of day to night cycle. The lighting is really well done with some light weather-changing visuals along the way. The art style of the cutscenes mimics the already solid graphics of the core game and brings the same resolution quality. So many games of this calibre have downgraded visuals on certain portions of the game, but here everything is consistent.

When it comes to the audio, the majority of what you hear is in-game narration. This was brilliant and felt like I was listening to a decent audiobook whilst playing out everything on screen. This excelled the game a little for me as I genuinely get bored of reading subtitles if there is no voice-acted scenes, so this is a big plus for the audio team. Sound effects play out as you’d expect and with some fitting music to compliment the rest, it serves as an overall well-produced indie title.

In Conclusion

The Tale Of Bistun has a great intriguing story that is told exceptionally well in a well-animated and illustrated world. It feels as if you’re walking through unravelling the tale with some simple commands and traversing the environment with very little to do in the way of gameplay. There are some combat sections with the use of magical powers but these sections are incredibly easy and present very little in the way of a challenge. I’d liken this title to the very recent Raji: An Ancient Epic which is told in a similar fashion. I enjoyed it for what it was and you do have to take a step back and realise that it is trying to be different from the usual gaming experiences you constantly play. Sadly, once the game is finished there is very little reason to tread back and play it again. For me, it was a one-and-done game, but some may want to try and find all the hidden goodies and complete it to its entirety.