Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

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.

This is definitely an unusual Choicescript game. You are a psychic that steals bodies, and you're caught in a war between two psionic organizations.

In a way, it contrasts with Jim Dattilo's A Wise Use of Time. Both are Choicescript games where you a human with an exceptional power (in that game, stopping time; in this game, possessing other people with your psionic powers).

The time stopping game worked really smoothly but had fairly dull uses of your power: taking a break before work, keeping a kid from scraping her knee.

This game shows off all sorts of psionic powers in amazing and creative ways, from the first chapter to the last. The aspects of having and using an awesome personal power really stick out.

Storywise, it worked very well for me, one of the stories I've most enjoyed in the game. And, having played a lot of Choicescript games with weird choice sets, I felt comfortable picking a path through much of the game.

However, I see this game down by mine near the bottom of the sales charts almost every week. Why?

I think a lot of it has to do with the inherent failures in the game. One thing I learned from playing and writing parser games is that no one will ever find a puzzle where you have to die to proceed, because dying is perceived as failure and people will UNDO to win.

But there is no UNDO in choicescript, and most games provide no saves. Every game is in hardcore mode. So when the game pulls things that feels like failures, you either have to accept that your whole run is ruined or restart. And if it happens more than once, you might as well give up.

There are several times in this game where you have to either go against some major principle you have or lose much of your skills. One major choice can completely reset one of your opposed stats. Often the game will tell you you messed up or did everything wrong.

I think that this 'fighting against all odds' improves the story, but it makes the gameplay pretty grim, and I believe that has contributed to the low sales of the game.

This game has faults, and I don't think I can recommend it for a pleasant experience, due to the above issues. Content-wise, it has strong profanity, moderate violence and optional sexual encounters. Despite these things, it satisfies all 5 points of my 5 point scale (being polished, descriptive, has good interactivity, emotional impact, and I would play again).

I received a review copy of this game.

This was a fun game, and I thought about giving it a 5, but it has a few issues. But it's not that bad, and if the subject matter interests you, I'd go for it.

In this game, there are 20,000,000 or more 'moreaus', or sentient creatures resembling mammals which are the result of genetic experimentation. They are second-class citizens.

You, an ordinary citizen, have a rude awakening when your building is bombed. You have to navigate between two gangs, the cops, the press, and a ton of people (both human and moreau) who are very attracted to you.

I enjoyed the game overall, but it does have its problems. Pacing is one of them. In the beginning of the game, a bomb goes off so you stand outside of your apartment. That event takes up 3 of the 10 chapters just by itself. There's just not a lot of meat to the chapters, with only 1 or 2 significant things happening in each (but with each event having a lot of detail).

The characters are both expressive and generic in a weird way. They were memorable and distinct in my mind, but don't really express themselves strongly about things and don't have much backstory.

The stat gains and checks are reasonable (although there seemed to be a lot of 'cunning' checks which isn't a listed stats) up until the end, where as others have said it gets really hard. I died, but the epilogue was just long enough to be satisfying, especially as my death fixed essentially every problem.

This game contains explicit sexual scenes, strong profanity, animal-type violence (all of those in moderation) and many mentions of both drug use and suicide.

In this game, you play as a 'thrall' (a member of a servant caste) in a community where gryphon riders are trained for war against wrym riders.

One day, a gryphon mom rejects a small egg. You hatch it and raise it, which is against society rules.

Most of the game is about hiding and raising the gryphon, with a slightly smaller chunk involving the aftermath of being discovered.

The game has a very small number of stats for yourself (with several more once you get a gryphon), but manages to be fairly confusing with the stats. It's pretty hard to know which stats are being tested when.

The game itself is oddly toothless. It sets up some worldbuilding but doesn't do much with it. There is tension between 'thralls' and 'keepers', there is a war, but what is actually going on? Everything is so vague. Are you 12, or 16, or 24? (That may have been answered somewhere, but it's hard to tell). One second you can be what seems like a highschool kid, and another you can scare a guard by saying you've killed people. The wyrm riders are different from you, but how? Do they speak another language? Wear weird armor? You are in the wilderness for months. What does that do to you, mentally and physically?

Nothing really gets answered. And like other reviewers here and elsewhere have noted, there's not really a climax; you kind of wander around until the end, with the ending final scenes very similar to scenes from the middle of the game in terms of tension and result.

All that said, the best parts for me were the ones interacting with the griffin and training it. In that respect, this game reminded of The Last Monster Master, but with less systematic training and more individual personality.