Reviews by MathBrush

This game is well-written on the line-by-line level or even scene-by-scene but doesn't know what it wants to be. It starts out seeming like a promising kid's fantasy, then changes to a bit older (you're told that all the patrons at the science society are hot and get divorced all the time because of it), then into more slapstick comedy, with some magical adventure thrown in.

The main thrust of the game is that you saw mermaids as a child and want to join the Marinological Society to study them when you are grown. You need to pick a patron to support you (and the game informs you that patrons are often romantic partners), then you go to the island to look for evidence of mermaids.

Parts of it were actually pretty great and/or funny, while other parts were a bit more weird. Instead of skills you have only opposed stats, and once you pick a patron if you want to please them it determines a lot of the choices you have to make.

There were some big choices to make near the end, and I ended up alone and sad, but at least I kept my promises.

This one was hard to review: didn't like it at first, liked it a lot more near the end, but not sure about it overall. So I'm going over my 5 point scale in hope it helps me.

+Polished: I didn't find any bugs or typos, which is normal for Choice of Games.
+Descriptive: The game was certainly descriptive and vibrant.
+Interactivity: There were a lot of options to fiddle around with: your sound, your relationship with your frequently-annoying brother, whether to sign with a record label or not, going solo. The ending was somewhat abrupt but fit in with the rest of the story.

Some people have pointed out that a few key points are forced on you. In one very late game move (involving relationships) (Spoiler - click to show)you find yourself in a relationship with a famous artsy person. This wasn't a problem for me, as I was pretending to be Paul MCcartney the whole game, playing bass etc., so I was fine dating 'Yoko' and splitting up the band by going solo. I suspect that a lot of the choices I made worked out for me because it was the 'ordained path'. A lot of the reports I had heard from other people seem to confirm that (for instance, the game seems to favor your brother).

+Emotional impact: I had fun. I disliked it at first but grew to like it.

-Would I play again? I feel content with my choices, and it doesn't seem like there's a lot of wiggle room, so I'm not sure I'll revisit this one.

This game has a little bit of history, much of which I don't know. It's a sequel to the original Choice of Broadsides, a navy battle game, but by a different author, Paul Wang, author of some games I enjoy quite a bit (mostly fighting games).

The original game was low in wordcount but long in feeling, spanning an entire career in the navy by having quick narration and choices that could affect months or years at a time.

This game is longer than the original but feels shorter. It is a 3-chapter game that essentially retells a specific part of history of the War of 1812, as described by the author at the end.

I believe it is related to the free games Zip! Speedster of Valiant City and Sky Pirates of Actorius as being commisioned by Choice of Games as shorter games to offer free on the omnibus app. I may be wrong there.

I think that the reason this game feels shorter is that it reads much like the intro to a longer game. Like I said in my review of Zip! Speedster, both games feel like instead of being constructed small from the get-go, it took a larger setup and shrunk it. There are very few possible changes to stats, and the plot arc seems to start slow and never really take off.

I saw a comment on Twitter by Dan Fabulich that suggested the timespan in-game can contribute to a feeling of length in a game, and I think that's true. This game takes place over a couple of months and covers the lead-up, action, and denouement of a single action.

In any case, the historicity was fascinating, but I don't feel this game succeeded in its 'small package' design. I do enjoy the author's writing quite a bit, though, and as a game free on the omnibus app and relatively short I feel that any fan of history should try this out.

This game placed highly recently on an 'underrated choicescript game poll'. It's pretty easy to see why it placed highly and why it's underrated.

The strikes against it are it's size (it's in the bottom 20% in terms of size) and the fact that it is centered on younger kids (Choicescript games that appear to be for kids tend to sell less, including my own).

The good things are the writing, the stats, and the strategies.

Writing-wise, the game has an episodic structure (about 5 mystery cases) and a lot of freedom in how your character can approach them: greedy, secretive, friendly, etc. Each of the main characters seemed fully-fleshed out to me by the end. The finale seemed fairly abrupt, but it makes sense for a game that is more a string of episodes than anything else.

The stats were great. It was generally very clear which stats applied to what, how to raise them, and where you stood.

The game kept it interesting by strategizing. Staying secretive sometimes benefits everyone but sometimes keeps you from getting money or making certain friends. Similarly, having integrity locks you out of many options but feels good.

Some events had risks you could take with rewards or failures that were logical but unknown ahead of time. I like this better than randomness (from playing a random game earlier today), but it still provides some tension like randomness does.

One nice thing I've noticed through playing Choice of Games entries is that they're willing to take chances with games, leading to some nice results like Nebula-nominated games or niche works that appeal very strongly to specific people (like Cannonfire Concerto, for me).

This game, I think, is an example of an experiment that didn't work out too well. Specifically, it relies heavily on randomization. You can train in 5-6 different kinds of pitches like curveballs and fastballs, and then a big chunk of the game is you facing different hitters with you pitches. It lists the chance for each pitch of getting a strike, a 'ball', or them hitting it, and using the same pitch several times in a row makes the batter more likely to hit it.

I appreciate the idea but both gameplay and roleplay-wise I wasn't really feeling it. In general, I just chose the best strike option, although I realized near the end that choose the lowest 'in-play' option was a different strategy. But then much of the story ended up as a result of these randomized choices.

I don't think randomization is horrible, but most games that use randomization well are games that have frequent save points and involve repeating the same tasks over and over (like gambling mini-games, RPG combat grinding, etc.). In this game, with no save points and no second chances, it's rough, and that's playing as a 'power player' (the game's easy mode).

Outside of that, the game has a lot of threads towards interesting ideas but doesn't really pursue them in depth. I did enjoy the freedom to go to a completely different country for a chapter and playing on the moon was cool. The last few chapters have a focus on preparing for your life after baseball and that was by far my favorite part, as you strategize things that might hurt you in one area (like your friendships or future income) but help you in another. Very cool part.

I can't help but compare it to Slammed!, which for me did a better job with making a story about humans. Ironically, my character in Fielder's Choice was very analytical, and when I first tried out sports broadcasting I was told to back away from the stats and focus more on the human element, and I think that this game itself could probably benefit from that advice.

I received a review copy of this game.

This is a shorter Choicescript game from 2017. In it, you play as the avatar of the recently-dead god Wolf, in a pantheon shared with Spider, Gazelle, Eel, and Bear.

The game draws on mythology from several different cultures. It is fairly quick, but has several replay options.

Most of the game feels like a spiritual journey, like an ancient Odyssey. You constantly run into the avatars of the other gods, and you are essentially judged on which God you become the most like.

Simultaneously, you can choose to ally with a group of anti-God soldiers.

There are actually quite a few Choicescript games where you play as a powerful champion of the Gods and must decide whether serve them or destroy them (the most well-known being the aptly-named Champion of the Gods). I have to admit, it's a genre I'm a big fan of.

The stats in this game are communicated fairly well, although it can be hard to know when a stat is tested vs changed. There were some story threads I feel could have been deeper, but I feel that Avatar of the Wolf succeeded for me both as a story and as a game. It has the single-mindedness and simplicity that made me like Sword of the Slayer.

This game highlights Sergi's unique approach to choicescript mechanics.

This is book 2 in a series. You are in an alien competition among the most powerful beings in the universe, and you have to pass three intense trials to see if you can join a powerful faction.

Unlike most successful choicescript games, there is definitely a right and wrong answer to every question (based on your past choices). But what Sergi does is constantly give you feedback about your stats so you are at all times aware of your strengths and of what your possible strategies are.

Each choicescript game is both story and game, and this feedback makes the game part significantly more engaging.

There is a lot of worldbuilding in this game, including literal worldbuilding. As the description states:
-Create a planet and culture in your own image

This is a big chunk of the game (at least 15-25%), and is pretty fun.

Another big chunk of the game is being sorted into different personality tests, essentially like horoscopes or Meyer-Briggs or Harry Potter houses, but with bigger consequences. There are at least 3 or 4 major sortings that happen. I found it pretty fun.

Overall, I look forward to the finale, but I enjoyed this game by itself.

I received a review copy of this game.

I've been going through the last of the Choicescript games by order of size from largest to smallest, and I'm near the end. Most of the smaller games don't have as much punch as the bigger ones.

But this game was actually pretty great. (spoilers for first chapter or two): (Spoiler - click to show)You're an alien from a planet where people can absorb others' abilities and memories. In the middle of a deadly war, you're taken to a gladiatorial planet.

The variety of characters is a big plus in this game. There are robots, gods, blob-things, etc. with one character being a superhero from Millenith, a planet where everyone is a superhero (a reference to Millenium City, the setting of the author's Heroes Rise trilogy).

The game is generally fast-paced. There was a giant chunk of world-building near the middle that was a bit hard to digest (and involved a lot of 'Next Page'), but besides that I found it very engaging.

Sergi's games often do the things that I find annoying in other games, but makes them work. His games tend to have pass/fail stat checks and some routes definitely 'win' more than others. However, he liberally sprinkles help and suggestions throughout, and offers an in-app purchase for hints. I'm not a fan of IAP's in general, but by having this one as an option and not getting it, it made me feel more motivated to try to 'win' fairly.

I look forward to playing the next one. I had heard for years that the third versus game has been more or less delayed, but I believe it's moving again. Either way, I don't think stories have to be complete to be enjoyable.

I received a review copy of this game.

This game is a spy thriller, just like the last Choice of Games entry I played, 'It's Killing Time'.

But in a way, they're kind of opposites. 'It's Killing Time' was a series of one blood bath after another with overwrought emotions.

By contrast, Undercover Agent is, at times, bland. You are an agent for a generic government agency, and you work undercover at a fairly generic company. Everything in this game is done competently, but it just didn't 'pop' for me.

The stats had some good variety, but most choices for stats were fairly simple. The big choices that you could make in the game were 'like your bosses and be nice to them' or not, and 'blackmmail people or not'.

In a lot of ways, this game reminds me of my own game I wrote for CoG, so I definitely don't think I could do better, personally. But, just like my game, I feel like this could have used a little bit more. I think that as of now, my favorite spy game from CoG is 180 Files: The Aegis Project.

This is pretty much as straightforward as you get with Choice of Games. You are a professional assassin. In this game, you kill people and watch people get killed. There is also some professional association with other assassins.

There are some plot twists, but the majority of the game is violent shooting and fighting scenes, in the vein of John Wick, Jason Bourne, or that Shooter movie.

That's never been my genre (I haven't seen John Wick, for instance), but even from a position of inexperience I felt like the big moments in the story didn't fully land. Frequently the game takes over for a few minutes to pilot you through some actions that you do.

Stats are straightforward but meager. My highest stat was 27/100 by the end of the game and you get an achievement for getting 30/100. Some checks have pretty high difficulty, and I failed several times.

The high points for me were the pace of the action and the several mysteries threaded through the game.

I received a review copy of this game.