Reviews by MathBrush

I have to admit, I didn't have high hopes for this game coming in. My own game is usually near the bottom of the barrel sales-wise (according to the 'bestselling' section of the iOS omnibus app), but Sorcery for Saps is usually right around there, too.

So I was pleasantly surprised by the involved and intriguing mystery story that played out over the couple of hours the game lasted. You have to impersonate your master sorcerer at the king's court, where he has been cursed by an unknown person at a critical time in negotiations.

There are many suspects and many side-intrigues going on, and it all ties together nicely. Even if you guess some of the secrets, it's still fun to see the others.

But this game had a few things going against it.

For me personally, I disliked that many choices were forced on you. So instead of 'Would you like to talk to the servant or do one of these other options?' the game would say, 'You've decided you like the servant, feel sorry for her, and go out of your way to cast a specific elaborate spell to fix her problems and gain her confidence. Why did you do that player?'

Imagine someone doing that when making dinner plans or game mastering. Instead of, 'Where are you thinking of eating tonight? We could go to Taco Bell or Mcdonalds since they're close,' it's more like, 'Well, I can tell already you're going to tell us to go to Taco Bell and get supreme burritos because you love their beans. What made you think of it?'

It makes for stronger storytelling, because you (the author) have complete control of what happens, and perhaps that's one reason I found the story so engaging. But I found it less engaging as a game.

The second issue that a lot of games lower on the bestselling list have (and mine does this too, though I've updated it a bit to work on it) is 'bad stat disease', where you can end the game with pretty much all of your stats between 50% and 60%, and your opposed stats at essentially 50-50, due to a combination of infrequent, low stat boosts, confusion about what tests opposed stats vs setting it, and difficulty figuring out what skill is used in each test.

The last thing is that the game has zany, silly humor, especially in the first chapter, with spells like 'CTRL-Z' or 'Thingius stoppius' (not a real spell, but similar to ones in the game). I've noticed that games with silly humor tend not to do well, even if they're actually pretty fun (like For Sale:Haunted House, Yeti's Parole Officer). The same goes for anything that seems targeted towards children (like my own game or Demon Mark).

So, if the authors read this, I really liked your game, and I think there are some things that can be improved, but overall your mystery was great and I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time. Loved the characterization of the ferret.

This game was ranked highly on the 'best exceptional story' poll on the fallen london reddit recently, and I wanted to check it out.

Turns out that it gives out huge chunks of backstory and lore regarding the royal family. This one story helped clear up the plots of Ambition:Nemesis, Sunless Sea, and Sunless Skies more than any other single story I've read on there.

You are given a strange doll, and it eventually leads you into the depths of the Shuttered Palace. There you encounter the royal family as they now are, after the transformations of the fall.

It's not as long as some of the other fate stories (most of CMG's are longer), but it has a hefty chunk of content, especially if you slow down and read everything. In terms of impact of the lore revealed, it is very high overall.

The writing on this piece was well-done, exactly the kind of thing you want in Fallen London (where you're left wanting more, but then more is offered...at a cost).

I am absolutely not a fan of visual novels usually, as they're harder to pick up and put down due to timed text and the graphics usually take up most of the screen making it harder to multitask.

Despite that, I found this game great. It's an entry in the French comp for 2021. The gameplay is spread over 4 days and several locations, each with their own theme music.

While art isn't usually part of my review criteria, they really nailed it here, and the art is very responsive, with parallalax movement following your mouse, different animations at key points, etc.

The characters are all unique and I definitely had favorites early on.

There's not many choices compared to a typical Twine or Choicescript game, but they seemed to have some kind of longer-term effect. There is one huge choice at the end. I translated it for my son who was walking by, and we cried a little at our ending.

Great game. I thought of giving it a 4 right after playing it, but after several hours I definitely think this is a 5 game.

This game is just straight-up a 'you are piloting a giant robot, go out there and fight' choicescript game. And it does really well.

The plotline is exciting. You are one of the best ace pilots in a resistance movement, and there is a hotshot pilot on the other side who keeps challenging you while both sides work on superweapons. The game is set at the culmination of a 5-year war.

Characters are varied, each with a couple of strong traits. I didn't romance anyone in my playthrough, but that's because I played a completely aggressive jerk.

The stats are simple and easy to understand. Difficulty comes not from guessing which stat to use, but about weighing your decisions, with some decisions and plotlines better motivated by different stats. So, for instance, you might have to choose between being cautious and saving civilians or being bold and striking the enemy while they strike you, with different stats helping different strategies.

I ended up with what I'd consider a 'bad' ending, but the game is smooth and varied enough that replay wouldn't be bad. I wouldn't say the game is short at at all, but it went by faster for me than most games of its size due to my interest in the plot and the lack of obstacles in terms of stat confusion.

I believe this one was very popular in past years and probably popular now. It makes sense; it's fun.

This game has an awesome concept. You are a Death Collector. You have an invisibility cloak, pretend to be death to get people's tongues wagging before they die, then harvest the tongues which now contain that person's memories.

There's all sorts of creative worldbuilding, with different houses, abundant hidden secrets, etc. This is a long game with tons of tiny effects on the text due to your stats.

Unfortunately, there were several aspects of the game that I did not enjoy.

First, I was very confused by the stats. It's typical in choicescript games to have fluctuating personality traits represented by 'opposed stats' that add up to 50%, allowing the player to change over time. You also have skills that (generally) only go up, representing your wisdom over time.

In this game, your 'skills' are all things that seem more like personality traits: 'procedural', 'intuitive', 'cunning', and 'charming'.

This wouldn't be that bad, but they overlap in myriad ways with the opposed stats. For instance, if you decide to break rules to sneak into a room, are you being 'cunning', or not 'idealistic', or 'shameless', or 'maverick'?

If you talk kindly to someone who's dying, is that 'charming', 'honorable', 'empathetic', or 'idealistic'?

This makes it almost impossible to guess which choices affect which stat; similarly, it's hard to tell if you're adjusting a stat or testing a stat.

It's like playing a racing game that never explains which keys do what and sometimes randomizes them; it increases difficulty, but not in a rewarding way (for me).

The tone is very negative as well. It's basically choosing 'what kind of loser are you'. For instance, here are the options for one choice:

-I'm horrified this place is riddled with incompetence. Something must be done.
-I don't want to jump to conclusions. It might backfire.
-Pretend I disagree, so I can use the knowledge later for my own ends.
-I have no sympathy for whiners who blame their problems on others.

So you can do snooty, cowardly, sneaky, or haughty. I know some people enjoy playing as 'the bad boy/girl', and I've enjoyed doing that in other games, but it's not as fun when it's forced on you.

Finally, the narrative just kind of drops out at the end. At what feels like a couple of scenes before the climax, the game just stops with one page. It would be like if, in Empire Strikes Back, right after the scene where they meet Darth Vader in the 'dining room', they got on the Millenial Falcon and fly away, with the credits scrolling.

Despite my many troubles, the basic idea behind this game was great, and I encountered very few bugs/typos. The writing was interesting (it was several strong profanities, as a caution), and I thought the scenarios were individually compelling.

It took me (an anglophone with moderate French skills) about two weeks to finish reading this, on and off. I expect a native speaker could finish it in 1-3 hours.

This is a very long twine game about a future earth where we have been visited by aliens and a New World Order is in charge.

It's in several segments that differ quite a bit from each other. The first is working on a space station; the second is engaging in combat and exploring ancient greek ruins underground; and the last is fighting in an arena.

The worldbuilding is intricate and silly (spoiler for midgame): (Spoiler - click to show)the gods you discover are Athena, Ares, and Trollus, who writes in emojis only.

The biggest drawback is the extreme restrictions on freedom. There are only 3-4 'real' options in the game, and those options are just which order to experience content in. The vast majority of choices are 'continue'.

This is listed as just a prologue. Overall, I found it funny, but would have preferred more real (or even pretend) agency.

In this Exceptional story, you investigate a man and a doctor who love each other but who are willing to go to any lengths to help each other, even against the others' will.

This ends up with you and them being pulled into a jousting tournament in the land of dreams, where you must decide who to support and whether you'll take the prize for yourself.

The characters in this are drawn broadly from mythology, including the legends of Reynard the Fox, Arthurian legends, and Fallen London's own chess mythology/lore. So figures include red queens and white kings, magical stags, etc.

The bright point to me were these characters, as well as side characters (including a snake jousting with multiple lances).

The drawback to me was that it was fairly constrained. We've been spoiled a bit by very nice Exceptional Stories in the past with a variety of mechanics. The bulk of this one lies in one continuous string of actions, with the main choices being who to talk to each day and who to support in the jousts. It felt like I didn't have much agency in the story, which probably helped it be more focused and well-written. It's hard to say what they could have done differently.

In the end, though, it was a fun play and one I think I'll remember fondly.

I love this game. It combines two of my favorite genres: high fantasy (such as Heroes of Kendrickstone or Choice of Rebels) and contemplations on the nature of storytelling and truth (like Creatures Such as We or the opera Capriccio).

You play as one of four adventurers who years ago staged the end of the world, with yourselves cast as the saviors. You, an illusionist, were crucial to making the world believe that a demon horde was going to destroy them all.

Unfortunately for you, the omens etc. are repeating, and it's not you doing it this time.

While there is a lot of action in this game, there is just as much or more political intrigue and contemplation about your past and your roles.

Most choicescript games (mine included) lock you in to certain paths after a time. This game has a lot more freedom, letting you choose over and over whether to reveal the truth about your lies or not, whether to fight the demons or befriend them, whether to pursue a romance or not.

Some people on the forums disliked that, feeling that it was the game heckling them to change their mind. On the other hand, I've been frustrated by other games where you can't change your decision once you get new information.

The author does a great job of making choices about balancing your interests and not just pass/fail. The game sets you up to be loyal to certain people before you discover awful truths about them, and sets you up to hate people before discovering wonderful things about them.

It is possible to 'fail'; early on, I had three goals when a demon came through a portal, and I failed all three, and considered restarting the game. But I didn't, and ended up having a good time anyway.

I also appreciated the ending. It provided satisfying conclusions to all stories (at least my ending did), with the characters you were invested in all going off to do their own thing and asking your final advice. It gives you a way to choose for yourself how to wrap up their character arcs. It does the same thing for you, offering you many final positions.

So, I think this game is great. If you don't like frequent philosophical introspection, it might be better to go with one of the other 'high fantasy games' (like Kendrickstone, Affairs of the Court, Choice of Magics, or Choice of Rebels), but if you're interested by the idea of dealing with a web of lies of your own creation, this is a game for you.

It's also very long. I played every evening for 3-4 days before completing it.

This game is fairly short (170K words but with a lot of branching, so smaller playthroughs). In it, you play as a young academic who has invented time travel. You use it to go back in time to study, hunt, or film dinosaurs while dealing with a rich kid who has stolen your credit for inventing time travel.

Skills were fairly easy to figure out, although they didn't vary much throughout the game. There are a few romance options, although most are on your rivals' team. The writing in each scene was well-done, and I felt like I had a variety of goals I could accomplish.

The overall plot, though, just didn't make sense in my head, and didn't mesh with my experiences or expectations. The way that people react to the existence of time travel, the things your character fixates on, the way people react both in the past and when you return, it just doesn't make sense to me, personally. But the rest of the game is not bad.

I really went back and forth on this game. The overall storyline is compelling to me: you are a new chieftain of a nomadic tribe in the steppes which is rapidly being overcome by an evil warlord who uses dark magic. The gods tell you of a safe haven in the far north, the Valley of the North Wind.

Gameplay generally consists of choices that affect your whole tribe and choices that affect only yourself, sort of like Choice of Rebels or Stronghold: A Hero's Fate.

This game is often morally ambiguous. There are outlaws that you can ally with to destroy towns or fight against, with little immediate impact. Frequently you yourself will be alone or in a small group and come across strangers who you don't know if you can trust or not.

It makes for an interesting game. It's also a hard game. There are several options that are literally 'go left' vs 'go right' with absolutely no strategy possible, just dumb luck. And there are definitely wrong choices in other parts of the game. I used a lot of my money early on and soon found myself with 0. It locked off major portions of the game, including one agonizing scene in a large city where you are there for three days, but every single option requires money, so I had to just pick 'do nothing' for three days in a row.

Overall, I'd say the game is a mixed bag. I definitely enjoyed it, though, and would rate it above average. Since I went back and forth on the score, I'll use my standardized scale:

+Polish: The game is very polished.
+Interactivity: Despite the randomness, I felt the game was responsive to my choices.
+Descriptiveness: The writing was pretty great, I felt.
+Emotional impact: I was invested in the story.
+Would I play again?: Yes, there were several mysteries unsolved, like the nature of the 'Eight'.