“Ghost of a Tale” follows a little mouse as he sets out on an adventure into a medieval world populated entirely by animals. The mysterious Island of Periclave, which has long been a disputed outpost for the Army of the Rats, is abandoned now, and reputed to be haunted. Of course tales are told of a fabulous treasure hidden high up in the Tower of Periclave, but it would be folly to try and get there, even for a mighty warrior - and the little mouse certainly doesn't look like one. The island is a mystery, rewarding the little mouse’s curiosity and bravery with the discovery of great secrets.
Let us start with the negatives and "pseudo"-negatives:
-- The default FOV is way too low. I understand that keeping the camera close to your character lets you see the details on its model (and they are very well done), but it feels claustrophobic, since you barely see what is around you. My advice: go to the Graphics menu, and shift the FOV slider many notches to the right -- you will get to see more of the beautiful world, and understand better its geography.
-- If you are like me, you will spend a lot of time combing the environments for quest items. Do not do that! The game subverts some expectations; sometimes the missing item is in a place you do not have access to yet, or will be given to you by a character in due time; even for items laying around, as the game goes, you will get maps and abilities which will help with such tasks. And, by the way, if you are the kind of player that saves item uses, well, don't - pretty much all usable items can be found in large quantities throughout the game. One exception: if you are an avid achievement hunter, there is one achievement involving NEVER USING ANY FOOD, so do that if it rocks your boat.
-- Depending on the armor you wear, the walking speed is too slow.... I actually count this as a true negative (the game has a lot of backtracking), but know that things will get better as the game progresses.
Now the positives:
-- Graphics are very good, a lot better than you would expect from such a small team;
-- The character animations are absolutely superb; in a lesser game, many actions would "cut to black" or have some generic movement; not here -- the way this mouse runs, they way it enters barrels is super smooth and believable.
-- The story is good, and well told. There are few important NPCs, but they are well written. Though the game takes place in a very small section of this world, the surrounding lore makes this world feel like a "real" one.
-- Many item interactions aren't spelled out (at least not initially) and must be discovered. This is a *positive* in my book.
-- There are many very smart shortcuts somewhat hidden around the map (which really helps with the slow backtracking mentioned above).
In summary, I highly recommend this; it is the best game I played this year (and I did play 2 dozens of games this year so far!).