Reviews by MathBrush

This is definitely one of my favorite Choice of Games so far, for my personal tastes. It manages to make you feel powerful while forcing you to choose between competing goals, and has great options and fun writing.

It has a lot of mysteries and it has a character with psychic abilities, and both of those things are personal favorite genres of mine, so I think others may not have the same response I did. But I can definitely say I enjoyed it quite a bit!

You play as a clairvoyant teen in a high school where much of the student body has unusual powers which sprang up the year before. Other students look to you for investigating strange or missing things, and there is a general conspiracy.

It had a lot of good romantic options. One is kind of pushed on you (in regards to your feelings), but in a way that feels true to my experiences in high school, when your emotions and feelings are out of whack anyway.

One thing that I've noticed is that as I play more Choicescript games, I enjoy them more. A lot of them have similar rhythms and expectations, and it helps me strategize and find a way to enjoy them more. I would definitely put this game in my top 10 Choicescript games so far.

I received a review copy of this game.

Out of the Choicescript games I've given 4 stars, this is definitely at the higher end. It's a pirate game, felt fairly long, had great worldbuilding and nice action scenes and romance.

The main thing holding me back from a higher rating was my lack of emotional investment, most likely due to the characters. Outside of the main character I romanced (the pirate captain Redwing), I couldn't tell you who any of the other characters really were or looked like. What side was Maurice from? Who is Lex? Pretty much everything else about the game was enjoyable.

There are a few sea monster fights. The game is set in an alternate Atlantic, with countries similar to England, France, and Haiti, among others. The main conflict is with slave traders.

There was also a bit of an issue with stats. I was disappointed at first that there were many stats and not many boosts in the opening chapters, but that soon went away as the game provides many opportunities to boost stats throughout the game.

But a bigger issue was confusion of stats. There was too much overlap. How can you tell the difference between a check for wits or cunning, or finesse for that matter? What is the difference between your combat skill and being straightforward in battle? I was able to succeed more often than not, but it made me realize that having closely-related skills may be a bad idea (something I've struggled with in my own game, having a stat for being friendly and a stat for having friends).

I received a review copy of this game.

This game, like so many other Choicescript games, has a pretty bad beginning followed by a much better middle.

I found the opening very slow, with children's book-style writing and very slow plotting. The second chapter was also fairly slow, and I found it difficult to push through, one of the openings I struggled the most with.

The middle was wonderful. I enjoy being exposed to other cultures, and Baba Yaga is about the extent of my knowledge of Russian folklore. However, every Russian I've seen comment on the game says that it portrays the folklore inaccurately or poorly. On the other hand, though, every such comment I've seen has also included a complaint about how the your sibling is non-binary (which you find out by them telling you they don't think they're a girl or a boy near the beginning). So I can't tell if it's actually really bad representation, or if people hate the non-binary thing and that makes them inclined to attack the rest of the game.

But as a fantasy story in general, I liked the middle. You have a choice of three extremely powerful villains to deal with. I faced a seven-headed dragon and a necromancer.

The ending was fairy tale-like, with simple surroundings and simple solutions. It felt like it fit the story, but wasn't the most satisfying ending, as it didn't tie up every narrative arc (the most thorough tying-up I've seen is in Herofall).

This game's approach to challenges had a lot of pass/fail with no real benefit to failing. That makes sense in some games; but with no undo (like in parser games or in Heroes Rise's legend-point-retry system), a long linear game like this with many chances of failure is too tedious to replay a lot. And another thing this game does that some other Choicescript games do is having a long series of difficult tests right after each other, where failing even one is heavily penalized. Much better is the system in Choice of Robots, Creme de la Creme or Tally Ho where your failures provide as compelling a story as your successes.

Nevertheless, the game was polished, descriptive, I found much of the interactivity interesting and I was emotionally invested. I'd probably give this a 3.5, but rounding to a 4.

I received a review copy of this game.

I was interested to play this game, as I know that on one hand it's been one of Choice of Games' best-selling titles for years, and that on the other hand its frequently vilified by a subset of the Choice of Games forums.

It's one of the oldest Choice of Games entries, the fourth one ever made. I've played a lot of the old ones recently, and have a lot more variation between them in length, use of stats, linearity, and romances as the company hadn't settled on a house style yet.

And this game has a lot of peculiarities as well, but manages to be more polished than many early games. The stats are clearly communicated. In fact, they are spelled out in the game. Your choices matter; occasionally you are presented with binary choices, but one is grayed out. That doesn't mean (as some steam reviewers thought) that you never have that option; it means that the game is keeping track of your past actions.

One peculiarity in particular is that there is a single forced narrative of who you are and what you feel. That doesn't really change from playthrough to playthrough; you're always the child of disgraced, incarcerated heroes; you always experience the same trials and betrayals; you always have the same powers. There's only one romantic option, and its fairly forced on you, the game describing in detail how you feel about the other sexually, one of things I found least enjoyable.

What changes, then, is how you get through these opportunities. Do you follow justice or fame? Are you defensive or offensive? Do you have hero worship or work on your own?

So I see why it's popular and I see why people on the forums don't like it. It doesn't fit the ideal of the current, refined in-house style of Choice of Games, with plethoras of backgrounds, branches and romances. But it's also a compelling story with good emotional involvement.

In my playthrough, as a hetero male, all of the female villains and the main romantic option were consistently described as sexy, busty, working in prostitution or seduction. I didn't find that enjoyable, and I considered taking off a star for that. But I believe that many people will enjoy playing this game, and for that reason I'm giving it 5 stars.

Edit: On a side note, after I played it last night, I had terrifying superhero dreams based on it that woke me up with fright. I guess its descriptions are pretty vivid!

I received a review copy of this game.

This is very entertaining title from Choice of Games.

It's a self-aware farce with characters drawn from broad fantasy/fairytale stereotypes.

You play as a royal heir who is constantly surviving kidnapping attempts. The bulk of the game concerns one kidnapping attempt, which involves you and four heroes (a bold knight, a proud Amazon, a peasant, and human raised by faeries) descending layer by layer through an enormous tower full of traps.

One compelling thing about this game is that it rewards bad behavior. Being a helpless drama magnet is one of the strongest ways to make it through the game. So is being selfish and mean, but being kind is okay.

It even makes good use of bad relationship stats. You have plenty of opportunities to decide who to throw in the mix of danger.

Some people have expressed difficulty knowing which stats connect to what. I admit to being a little unclear on the use of strategy vs intuition (neither of which I maxed out), and I stayed almost exactly 50% on 'ready for the ball' vs 'ready to fight'. I think one issue is that much of the humor relies on you making specific choices, so it can feel forced at times because it IS forced due to the humor requirements. I also found it a bit hard to get started.

I received a review copy of this game.

This game is one of the shorter Choicescript entries, around 80K words. It still had a comparable playthrough length to bigger games, so I suspect it just has less paths than most games (my game is in a similar spot branching-wise).

You play as a news reporter who is investigating criminal activity. Unlike most Choice of Games entries, the main character gets their butt kicked frequently. It can be a bit frustrating having so many negative things happen.

There are three main stats, and many parts of the game involve choosing your best stat. When I was writing for Choice of Games, they mentioned the 'three stat trap' a lot, and I wonder if games like this is where that comes from (just having every choice be an option between three stats).

It sounds like I'm being pretty negative about the game. The truth is its hard to design a satisfying story arc for one of these games in 80K words, unless you paint everything with broad strokes and have a lot of life-changing choices (like Choice of the Dragon).

Nevertheless, I enjoyed discovering more about the mystery, and the characters were vividly described, if somewhat one-dimensional (especially villains!). I don't regret my time playing, and the game was polished.

I received a review copy of this game.

Some Choicescript games stand out to me in different areas. Choice of Robots has a real sense of freedom. The Martian Job has beautiful wordcraft. The Treasure Seekers of Lady Luck has memorable and original characters.

This game had perhaps the most satisfying story I've played so far. Part of that is my personal tastes. I love mysteries, and Christopher Huang is one of my favorite mystery authors. This game is a superhero game, but it definitely has a mystery feel.

You play as a news reporter who must assume the mask of the hero when your (Spoiler - click to show)twin brother gets kidnapped. You have to face off against three superhero villains to get to the core of the plot.

The story has a definite narrative arc with a good buildup and one of the best denouements I've had in Choicescript games, which usually end quickly.

If I had a gripe, it's in the game having a lot of romantic options but having you start off engaged (though not married). It seemed kind of underhanded, though (Spoiler - click to show)upon replay I felt better about it.

I felt like I had real agency in the game. And Christopher Huang nailed something that I've found lacking in many choicescript games: making failure feel worthwhile. Failure in this game doesn't lead to messages implying "you are bad at this game". Instead, it leads to dramatic tension, the 'calm before the storm.'

Stats aren't superpowered in this version, making this less of a power fantasy. But that makes sense, considering you're a civilian that only recently took up the mask. There seems to be no way to manage your stats to pass every check somehow. But it's okay.

I can see why some people might not like this game. But it has all the things I personally look for in a game.

I received a review copy of this game.

This game is basically exactly what the title promises. It is a sword and sorcery game with dinosaurs everywhere.

Strip away the dinosaurs, and it is polished but generic swords and sorcery. The only real weapons mentioned are swords; there is magic, but it generally just does whatever you want without any sort of system; everyone has a class of some type, either a bard or a ranger or a wizard. The enemies are (Spoiler - click to show)dragons and a necromancer.

It's also oriented towards a younger audience, I believe. The language seems intentionally simple, the romances involve mostly hugging and kissing (which is fine with me). Everything is telegraphed and/or on-the-nose. Although you are an adult, there are segments like seeking admittance to wizard school or looking up info on dinosaurs that are more reminiscent of junior fiction.

None of this is necessarily bad. I think this would make a great Wesnoth campaign, for instance. And it had a definite narrative arc and some great characters. I enjoyed my neurodivergent partner who disliked crowds and touch, as well as my velociraptor Rex.

I had the chance to be evil at one point, and I took it. The game didn't really seem to want to commit to me being evil, but I did anyway, although I betrayed my new ally in the end and sided with others.

This game is currently the lowest-rated game on the Choice of Games omnibus app.

That doesn't correspond directly to quality; the two Nebula-nominated games (Rent-a-Vice and The Martian Job) are in the lower third of the app store, and I enjoyed both of those quite a bit.

In this game, you play as a young heir to a railroad line. As temporary president, it's up to you to prove you can be permanent president. Also, your favor wants you to get married.

There are an enormous number of romantic options (at least 8, I think?). There is also a recurring monthly budget meeting, similar to Methuman, Inc. but less consistent.

An unusual feature of the game is that its difficulty is set by the very first choice, which is not advertised to you directly. It asks if you are ready for the game, which I thought indicated some kind of 'intro to choicescript' or stats explanations.

I'm going to break this one down with my 5 point system:

-Polish: The game is very uneven at times. It swerves between the railroad management, playing with your cat, and romances. I found several bugs, including raw Choicescript code, getting an ending saying I never had my company sold to a larger company when I did, and getting engaged, then having a failed proposal, then having a marriage to the same person all in a row.

On the other hand, it has to be weighed against the games big ambitions. The more a game attempts, the more forgiving I feel towards bugs. On the other other hand, even larger and similarly ambitious games like Creme de la Creme and Tally Ho seemed more polished.

+Interactivity:This is a bit hard to measure,as I accidentally chose the greatest difficulty. I felt like I had real agency. I got frustrated with the money management so I sold the company, and the story let me do it, presumably changing quite a bit. The romantic direction I pursued had several scenes set up for it which were clearly tailored towards just this person. I was able to enter into and back out of anything I wanted at any time (except once when my father offered me a favor; I didn't have the chance to turn it down).

+Emotional Impact: Well, I certainly felt a lot of things while playing. The unevenness of the game blunted the emotional impact, but I was genuinely invested in my character's life and quite alarmed by several developments (in my hard playthrough, I had disasters ranging from passenger to death to industrial sabotage to extortion).

+Descriptiveness: This game is very descriptive. I was able to vividly picture everything. This is perhaps its best trait.

+Would I play again?: Yes. The numerous branches and the different difficulty levels make me want to return to this one eventually.

The original Superlatives game (Aetherfall) is one of my favorite Choicescript games. It provided a tale of a small group of young Victorian superheros trying to survive without leadership and exploring a fascinating world built by the author.

This game more or less puts that at a distance. Your powers and friends from the first game are shoved away. Alternatively, you can start a new character without a connection to them.

This time, you aren't weak, you are essentially an envoy or almost an angel for higher powers. Everyone respects the authority you bring.

This makes the game (as others have sad in reviews and discussion on other sites) that this is less a direct sequel to the first game and more its own standalone game. I agree with that, and will evaluate it as such.

This game has a lot more big politics. The two main threads are a delicate balance between three parties (Earth, Mars and Venus) to a peace treaty, and a series of strange rifts bringing strange and violent people.

The political balance was interesting and delved into worldbuilding. The rifts scenario had a twist halfway through the game that made it far more interesting.

The writing for this game is good, I think even an improvement on the first. I wrote down or screenshotted a few things that I thought were especially good. The love interests in this game are detailed and have their own private dates and side quests.

Overall, as a game, I loved it. As a direct sequel to the first game, pretty good. I would feel comfortable recommending it even to people who haven't played the first one, if they're interested in things like major diplomacy and dating spies.

I received a review copy of this game.