Ratings and Reviews by End Master

This is a classic case of controversy bringing more attention to a story than it otherwise would have received. Only heard about this one thanks to all the fuss made about it, and a couple of upstanding CYStians reviewing it. Figured I might as well throw my opinion of it into the mix.

So it’s porn. Well, that’s nothing new in the IF world. It also doesn’t have much of a plot, which also isn’t anything new in the IF world (Unfortunately).

As for the content, well whether this did anything for you in the lower regions area I guess that’s between you and whatever higher powers you believe in (or don't believe in). If you were offended well you probably shouldn’t have been reading it in the first place based on the title alone and if the title didn’t deter you, the graphic intro most certainly would.

The whole premise of the story is pretty absurd since it pretty much hit the ground running right from the start. No build up, no foreplay, just right to the sex. Well I guess if you’ve got a vision, no reason to mess about right?

That being said, this type of story really isn’t my thing. I laughed a few times at how dumb the concept is and the intro, but that’s about it. I don’t care about any of the characters or the “plot”. Hell, the sex act law that this game seems to be built around isn’t even really addressed much which is arguably one of the more interesting concepts of the piece. This is basically a severely condensed “Handmaid’s Tale” CYOA but with willing participants, minus the religion and ramping up the focus on the sex.

It’s a little hard to tell if this game was written in a way to be serious or if it was written to be over the top. If it was supposed to be serious, then it failed because the game is so over the top with its scenarios that it really crosses the line from offensive to humorous. Well not like those two things are mutually exclusive I suppose. Which is the only reason why it’s getting two stars rather than one since it at least wasn’t boring for me to slog through.

Does it accomplish what it set out to do as far as the sex content? Well yeah I imagine it did for people into this sort of stuff. It gets right to whatever humiliation fetish (and other types) the reader might be into in an efficient manner. It’s not long so I imagine that also helps with people…um “using” the game. Nothing is bogged down by virtually anything that might normally be considered important in the writing world.

I imagine this review is going to get rated down by its fans, but before they do, keep in mind I’m not attacking anyone. The fans and the author can enjoy their weird water sports and pseudo-bestality fetishes all they like. Not judging the content, but rather the lack of ambition.

When I first heard about Sunless Sea, I figured it was just Fallen London, but on the water, which is basically is, however this one took everything good from Fallen London and took out all the things I really hated from it, resulting in a game I liked a whole lot better. I could buy the full game and never have to interact with other people!

Much like Fallen London, it doesn’t really hold your hand on what you’re exactly supposed to be doing, but you can choose a long term goal for yourself. Whether you bother to try to achieve it or not is up to you. It’s definitely a sandbox you have a lot of room to mess about in.

The game is a mix of several different genres. From RPG to even action given how the combat works. Early game is tough going since you’re sort of stumbling about at first and your ship isn’t very fast or powerful. You’ve got to resource manage your food, fuel and crew too. As you start unlocking new things though, it gets a bit easier, but you’re definitely never completely safe since there’s a lot in this game trying to kill you. Of course I’m a big fan of grimdark settings.

Sticking with the IF bits of the game, the writing in this was just as good as it was in Fallen London. I always found the lore interesting in that game, so it worked in this one as well. I also had the Zubmarine DLC which added some more content and the ability to go under the water. Made an already Lovecraftian toned game even more so with the new locations to discover.

There’s a lot of choices to make and most of them change things quite a bit in the game. Companions you can bring with you all have their own stories which you can participate in to determine their fate. (Sometimes resulting in them leaving forever) Doing stuff like helping governments being overthrown or putting intrusive creatures in harbors can have dire permanent effects on those places. Choices definitely have consequences.

As unforgiving as the game can be, the funny thing is there are even times when a game will outright warn you NOT to do something, claiming it’s a very bad idea (Like eating your crew and going insane) but you’re free to choose it anyway!

Death via the Zee is just one common ending to your character, you can certain choose to just retire or even get a different type of non-standard ending. This doesn’t end the game as you can just pick things up with a successor who can inherit some of your stuff. If you bothered to get married and have a child, that successor can be from your direct bloodline.

The only complaint I have with the game is it didn’t get rid of the grinding aspect which slows down the exploration process more than I’d like. I’ve played the game quite a bit and I know I still haven’t discovered everything. I probably won’t either given how massive the game is.

If you don’t mind the traditional “gamey” elements in your interactive fiction, then this one is worth playing.

I sought out Fallen London after years of hearing a few others on other writing forums mentioning it and saying that it was fun to play and there was all sorts of things to discover. Some were even saying it was the greatest thing ever if you were into choice based RPGs.

When I eventually sat down to play it, I definitely was captivated by the setting, the lore, and the general writing. There was certainly no shortage of things to explore or do. The game doesn’t really tell you what your goal is, but I didn’t mind that since I figured finding your own path was part of the game. With as much stuff is packed in the game, I probably would have spent a lot more time on it, however two major things stopped me from enjoying it as much as I would have.

The first one being you only get a limited amount of turns to do stuff and then you have to with wait until your turns fill up again or pay to play. Yep, not going that route. I can be convinced of buying a game with a one time expensive price. Hell, I can even be convinced to shell out another twenty or so for sizable DLC for a game that probably should have came with it in the first place. What I’m not doing though is paying real money for more play time.

Okay so I’ll have to wait. That’s not ideal, but I’ve certainly played games with that sort of system before, and played them for a few years in my rare dabbling of online games. This makes grinding a lot more unfun since not only do you have to do it (Staple of a lot of online games) but you can’t even do it consistently to maybe get it out of the way to achieve whatever goal you were going for.

Okay, well I can sort of deal with that aspect to some degree too. But then the final nail in the coffin is in order to advance in some of the storylines, you have to actually interact with other people on some level and when I’m playing something with IF trappings, I’m just not looking for that aspect.

So yeah, with all those things working against it, the game just wasn’t for me, even if I found the setting very interesting. I don’t see myself ever going back to it, but I was glad to at least give it a few plays.

Reigns has you take the role of a king dealing with the kingdom’s day to day operations based on what various problems people come to you with. Most of these are royal advisors, but they can range from mad prophets to your queen (if you should marry).

The game primarily uses a binary choice system to move the narrative along. Swipe left or right like one of those new fangled dating apps I’ve heard so much about and usually something happens to the four stats that you have to keep an eye on as the game moves along. The four stats are religion, people, military and money. Let one of these stats go completely to the bottom and your king will suffer some sort of bad end. It’s equally important to not let the stat reach all the way to the top either though or else you’ll still reach a bad end! The type of death is a bit different though, so for example, if you let the military run out, you get overthrown by the peasants. If you let the military reach the top, you suffer a coup. Nice of the game to have variation like that. The game’s dedication on insisting on balance probably helps in making sure you don’t just keep picking things that will top out any of the stats.

Death however isn’t the end, far from it. You just continue with a new king and pick up where the predecessor left off. This inevitably can result in repetition of choices, however based on some of the choices your predecessors made, future kings can potentially get new ones opened up to them and new characters to interactive with. There’s plenty of hidden stuff and bonuses to discover such as certain things that can render a stat “safe” meaning you don’t have to ever worry about it going up or down anymore. There are few conditions which will slowly increase a stat over time without you even doing anything. This is a double edged sword since while you never really have to worry about it going down, you definitely have to keep picking choices that make it go down on a regular basis.

Another one that occurs is when your king has managed to survive many years which makes everything everyone says appear jumbled as a result of your king going deaf. This of course makes the game a lot harder to make choices since you can’t exactly tell what you’re agreeing or not agreeing to. I’ve yet to have a king die peacefully of old age. Besides all the hidden stuff to find, the game has a lot of achievements to unlock which adds to a reply value with a game like this.

It’s very quick to play through a few king’s lives while you’re waiting somewhere so it’s nice in that regard. Even with as many times as I’ve replayed it, I still haven’t unlocked everything so it’s definitely one I’ll come back to every now and then.