The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

Title: The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets
Developer: Fast Travel Games
Publisher: Fast Travel Games
Website: www.fasttravelgames.com/thecurioustaleofthestolenpets/
Genre: Adventure, Casual, Puzzle
Platform: Oculus Quest
Age Rating: Everyone
Release Date: 14/11/19
Price: £10.99 – Rapid Reviews was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.

A touching tale of finding your childhood

A great VR game to me, usually comes in a few varied genres. I really like a good puzzle game with a touching story, and The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets delivers on those fronts, even if it has a short time for completion as you search the half dozen levels. The game’s narrative is told from the perspective of your grandfather as he tries to reunite you with your sister through vignettes that harken back to your childhood.

This diorama style game has you interacting with the varied worlds as godlike, being able to spin the environment around while interacting with various pieces within the sets. These come in the form of small puzzles that for the most part are solved in a linear fashion from start to finish. There are some worlds that require some dimensional thinking as well as the use of fire, water, and ice. 

Your main objective towards completing each level is to find the numerous hidden animals found in the world. By solving the puzzles and finding the pets as well as hidden coins within each level, you will unlock the next world and progress through the storied campaign.

A good storybook feeling

The main conceit of The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is that you and your sister have been at odds, and it’s the job of your grandfather retelling your childhood to help you see her for who she is, and forgive her for the distancing you created. As you visit the various worlds, your grandfather will recount the past and show you how you used to love your sister and care about her. In the end it’s merely a means to the linear narrative, but it’s a cute story nonetheless.

Puzzles but not too puzzling

The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is not a difficult game. In all honesty you could finish the game, one-hundred percenting each level, finding all the pets, and hidden coins, in 2-2 ½ hours. The puzzles are pretty straight forward, though most of the time the journey to the solution was a fun one. The way the developers encourage you to search every nook and cranny looking for hidden coins and interacting with everything you can in the world welcomes you at every corner.

A few of the puzzles have a genius way of being multi-step in how you will do something in one area of the world, and then have to do another thing elsewhere to trigger an event which will open up another part of the world to find a hidden pet. These multi-step puzzles were the highlight of the journey through the worlds created in Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets.

Reaching potential

The things The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets does well doesn’t quite hit the highest point by the end of the story. Like many VR games we have played and reviewed for the site, VR games in general still strike me as mostly experimental and short-sighted in the end. The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is similar in that the game gets really good and fun just as it ends. I hope that the developers are able to add puzzle worlds to the game in the future, perhaps expanding on the new found relationship with your sister in the end and establishing more multi-step puzzles in the world they created.

A childlike experience

The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is sure to be a fun one to introduce younger and more casual gamers to VR. Movement in the game is primarily standing in one position and moving the world around you turning it left or right. Then you will need to look about the world top to bottom to find the hidden coins and uncover the pets. There’s not much visually to overwhelm you, except maybe the way in which you interact with one world, the changing water level. 

Fairytale ending

If you have played Ghost Giant or Moss, you will get a sense of what is in store when it comes to the level of interactivity in The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets. Though this game is minimal in the way in which you interact and the puzzles a lot simpler, much of the interaction level in VR space is similar. The game is fun, just short, and not 100% living up to its fullest potential.

Rapid Reviews Rating

You can purchase Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets from the Oculus Store on the following link: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2439217169469931/