Ratings and Reviews by Nightwatch

It doesn't try to make decent use of those words involved, either. You could play this story in the same time you read this review and find out for yourself. Really.

Starts off with "you rape her" as the only option then (Spoiler - click to show)"My darling, you deserve better" on the next page though the rapist enjoys suffering, so it really doesn't make sense. Pointlessly edgy story without enough detail to involve the reader. It's over before you blink and there simply isn't enough content to be worth this review given its lack of polish.

SSS is a larger game, clocking in at over 300,000 words. All personalities have a depth I haven't seen prior to this story, and everything is consistent between branches. Actions you perform on Suzy's behalf are reflected in changes to her personality, and you get to see many sides to her character; the depth shown in characters and their dialog really drew me in. I recommend at least playing to an epilogue (intended endpoint, they're called "epilogues" in the story) for all 3 starting options.

Keep in mind SSS can be pretty dark, with sex and murder showing up variously throughout. As long as you don't mind that and loose grammar, the story is rich and detailed, with lots of space for dialog, spoken and internal.

The narrative tone sometimes came off casually like character dialog, but fleetingly. I don't have much else to criticize; the storytelling aspect is incredible.

This story was very appealing for its atmosphere and the interactions between the main character and her fox, which gave a lot of life to the protagonist. Beyond that, the story revolves around a plot with a clear focus: the discovery of an ancient enemy, and what you intend to do about it. The events that unfold don't deviate from handling this event (which is fine). Bill's stories are written with tightly controlled spelling and grammar; I saw around a dozen errors all told in this one, and spent over an hour reading it. The story is solid and very enjoyable.

I appreciated many elements of the story, starting with the concern around the (Spoiler - click to show)color red. The way it's treated and the mere fact it's used in curses says everything about how serious the superstition is. Reading between the lines, it probably originated from the fact that (Spoiler - click to show)Cryndy conflicts are bloody affairs, and that Cryndy seem to prefer guerilla tactics. There's blood on the field, and "suddenly they come". Being able to speculate about the events of a story that were omitted from description outlines competency on behalf of a writer, so I appreciate that.

My only complaint is that it's strange (Spoiler - click to show)Elia didn't cut her hair to begin with (though I understand its use in the plot and social dynamics). Trading hair for social acceptance is a very hard deal to pass up, and her inner dialog mentions her status begrudgingly just a few too many times for her to be the uncaring type.

Overall, this story is a nice break from real life and plenty worth reading.

This game is rife with blatant ruthless humor you'd have to enjoy in order to enjoy the game. Don't take it seriously.

With that said, the jokes are cutting and sharp, and I laughed many times while reading it. It doesn't get much worse than (Spoiler - click to show)fatherly love but it remains pretty edgy throughout. Not to worry, this is a wholesome story because it's full of morals you get to read at the end of every branch!

The number of branches is very even across all paths, and this story is very Cave of Time, so you'll hit endings really quickly and backtrack a lot to hit the rest; it's wider than longer.

There are three paths at the start of the game, each disparate from each other. The 1st and 3rd paths are random, especially the 1st path, with lots of shock humor in the 3rd. The 2nd path is more serious and involved because it's the precursor to Suzy's Strange Saga. The stories are interesting and there's a good deal of facetious humor especially in the 1st and 3rd paths.

An involved CYOA about a nuke going off that yields Fallout-style effects. Paths are deep and satisfyingly complex, varied, and the player character is competent. The storyline is a reasonable simulation of enduring the start of a nuclear post-apocalyptic wasteland (waving away some of the more clinical details associated with nuclear fallout).

The focus on gameplay coupled with the length and competence of the player character makes this a very interesting game well worth playing through. There are images that also enhance the atmosphere.

Play Skybreak!

I started the game, picked a species and talents, and inherited a spaceship that loved me. At first blush, the gameplay seemed a little choppy because I didn't know what to expect. I went through a cycle of landing on planets, making a choice, and leaving. But after the first ten minutes it started to make sense. Lots of sense.

A Fantastic Sandbox
Skybreak! worlds are hand-crafted. Travel seems random, but it's regionalized. The lore is deep, but delivered in pieces delivered across multiple playthroughs and locations. Every species has its own special encounters and background descriptions. Every talent gives you a different way to win, so you end up with many alluring playthroughs. Planets and encounters are all hand-crafted.

Trade System
There are two economies in the game. One is with goods, like mined ores. You can buy and sell these in various places, which you might end up exchanging later. The second is with experiences, like tales of adventure. Collecting these tales actually involves hearing them, much like opening a book in the game gives you an actual short story -- it's more fun than I can put into words. There's a third element, Adventure Points, which are awarded and stripped in special circumstances, and important to your character's longevity.

Ship Combat
Ship combat is an uncommon encounter, and was a little more confusing to me. You have a heading in the top left corner when in ship combat, which is relative to the direction the enemy faces, such that 0 degrees means both of you would crash head-on if you flew at each other. After knowing that, it became a lot more reasonable. I still considered it interesting to encounter, if challenging to handle.

Just Plain Addicting
I want to stress again how awesome this game is; really give it a whirl. The fact that every encounter is drawn from a list of approx. 4-8 things balloons the replay value when you consider the scope of the game. There are so many sub-goals in this game that crop up as you play. There are so many ways to play and the writing is just fantastic through and through.

Read Necromancer
Read Death Song

Read Necromancer (by the same author) first. It's responsible for the greater world events that take place in the story, and is very important to fleshing out the setting of the world. This story would be less interesting without that additional context, and there are references to elements of that story which are not explained in this one. Feel free to stop reading now to avoid spoilers.

Death Song is a sequel to Necromancer where the events occur at the same time. The branching style is still in the same, satisfying Cave of Time style, and has the same effect of providing more background information as you read the side passages you missed the first time, to enrich the overall setting.

Instead of a power trip, however, you play the opposing role of someone helpless to stop the events around them, which play out according to (Spoiler - click to show)the "true" path where the necromancer succeeds, ultimately. Thus there is no (Spoiler - click to show)winning scenario in the game; this doesn't make the game any less interesting for its variety and the actions you take (and you can play parts in world events of the associated story game, of course!).

Once again: read Necromancer, then read this for the best effect.

Read Necromancer

Necromancer is a fantastic game that lets the player lead a journey to becoming as bad as they can be. It has some dead ends, but they fork for a while off of the "true" ending and are satisfying and varied. Events are consistent between branches.

In short, this is a long and addicting power trip with a few majorly different paths. The narration is good, the spelling and grammar don't get in the way, and this is one of my all-time favorite stories. The main story arc lasted over an hour; I spent between 2 and 3 to explore the game in its entirety. The game starts off with the character (Spoiler - click to show)making a major presence in the world, then goes on to a (Spoiler - click to show)political game of how the character will conquer the rest, after having released some infernal competing threats.