The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets Review
By: Limarc Ambalina
Tags: Gaming, Virtual Reality, Features, VR, Oculus Quest

The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets Review

A VR experience like no other

Reviewed on Oculus Quest.

The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is a short and sweet VR puzzle game that will remind you of the innocent fun and carefree peacefulness of your childhood. Despite it being a puzzle game, it is the perfect VR experience for when you just want to sit back, relax, and turn your mind off for a while.

The level design is creative, with cute 3D claymation style characters. The puzzle gameplay is simple, yet fun and at times challenging. Most of all, the music and voice acting set the mood so well that it’ll make you feel like the narration is a voice in your head and you are reliving childhood memories that don’t belong to you.

The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is available on Oculus and Steam VR.

On the surface, The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is about a bunch of your childhood pets that have gone missing. It is your job to revisit areas from you and your sister’s childhood to solve puzzles and find all the pets. But beneath the surface, the real story is a story about how you and your sister didn’t get along as children and have completely cut off contact in your adult lives.

What’s so great about the narrative is that it is told almost in the background while you are playing the game. It’s presented as an afterthought to an extent, yet it is what gives the game meaning and closure. Throughout the game, you learn about the issues that created a rift between you and your sister and by finding your missing pets, hopefully you will remember the good times you had together.

The objective of the game is simple: find all the pets in each level, while trying to find coins hidden throughout the area. You can rotate the area, pick up items, and interact with the environment. To find the pets you must open chests, search through houses and solve puzzles.

The puzzles start off very easy and rise in difficulty, but are nowhere near the difficulty of puzzles in other VR games like Last Labyrinth or The Room VR: A Dark Matter. Rather than make every level a head-scratcher, the game was made to be stress-free and a fluid experience from start to finish.

Furthermore, the game can be played in standing or sitting mode, allowing you to choose whatever feels more comfortable for you. Throughout my review of The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets, I completed levels in both sitting and standing mode and had no trouble shifting between the two.

While there are no hints available, each level is short and can be completed in 20–40 minutes. Total gameplay time can range from 2 hours to 4 hours.

The art style in The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is incredibly bright and vibrant, reminiscent of Disney Pixar films. The characters and pets were designed in a claymation art style and are incredibly adorable. You’ll often find yourself just admiring the art and petting the animals to see their cute reactions.

The 3D polygons are very clear with great definition, despite the Oculus Quest’s lesser-powered hardware. Since the entire game happens in one small area, the Quest can easily render the game with high quality graphics. I never experienced any controller tracking issues or lag whatsoever through the entire play-through of the game.

Gameplay footage (no commentary) by Limarc Ambalina.

While the game has a lot of great things going for it, the best thing about The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is by far its upbeat and calming soundtrack. The music was composed by the famous Swedish folktronica band, Wintergatan, which has over 1.72 million subscribers on YouTube. The music sets the mood very well, keeping you in the flow of the game from start to finish. If we were to review The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets based on music alone, it would undoubtedly receive a 10 out of 10.

Since the game relied heavily on narration by the main character’s grandfather, the voice acting played an important role in the game. Performed by Martin Cox, the soothing voice of the narrator helps bring the story to life. Furthermore, the sound effects were well-produced and greatly helped with the realism and immersion of the game.

With a beautiful soundtrack, superb voice acting, and a light, yet wholesome narrative, The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is a VR gaming experience like no other on the Oculus Quest. For those who want to find the unique experiences that the virtual reality medium has to offer, this game is a must-play. It is a journey into the past which will remind you of the fun and innocent days of your youth.

We hope you enjoyed our review of The Curious Case of the Stolen Pets on the Oculus Quest. For more suggestions on what Oculus Quest games you should try, check out: