Ratings and Reviews by ChanceOfFire

As far as free HG titles go, I’ll say that Dual Nature isn’t good but isn’t egregiously bad either.

In a different take on zombie games, you play as a zombie who hasn’t been fully zombiefied and still retains some humanity. The plot has a few interesting moments, but feels pretty chaotic as a whole, as you start by convincing your human girlfriend that you are still… you, before going on a wild adventure which ends with the destruction of a cult, then ends suddenly. Speaking of which, this is one of the few titles with a fixed player character and a fixed romance, although it’s not something which bothered me personally.

I was wondering if my zombie side would consume me fully at some point, but that didn’t seem to happen. After ending a pretty high stakes final battle with plenty of physical action, I felt pretty human after it all. There were some interesting moments with the human-zombie idea, such as convincing a loved one that you are not a threat, but it felt underdeveloped as a whole.

The writing is slightly rough, with a few typos here and there. There are parts where you get pages and pages of words before reaching a choice. Some action scenes were fairly enjoyable, but that’s all I can say for this.

It’s possibly worth a read as a free title. Still, I didn’t head back for a replay after beating the game and the bad guys.

You're dead and a ghost. Now, you'll have to figure out who took your life. Sadly, the murderer is determined by RNG.

The first section involves visiting different locations and trying to establish the identities of the different suspects. That said, as far as I can tell, this section does not change based on who the murderer is.

Once that is done, you'll need to figure out who the murderer is. Still, it's entirely a crap shoot. You have a small number of attempts to investigate (by random selection) the suspects and determine who killed you. If luck is on your side, you might find out, but otherwise, the final decision on who the murderer is will just be another random guess.

The writing is as rough as ever, and finding the murderer is pretty much picking at random and hoping that you've stumbled upon the right one. I can't even recommend reading this for fun.

The world is on fire. :( Anyway, while playing games and writing reviews here, I’m going to take a 100% politically neutral approach. I have plenty of political opinions, but these will not be mentioned here, and will not affect my reviews in any way.

Onto the game itself, you’ll have to deal with a linear array of scenes, handed to you in random order. Decisions made in these scenes may affect any number of four stats, which must be kept within certain levels to avoid a bad end. To get the good ending, you’ll need to complete all scenes without letting any of the four stats slip.

Other than the randomization, the gameplay is pretty straightforward. A lot of the jokes have a blustery feel, but just didn’t feel particularly humorous or witty. The writing is technically sound, but I don’t think the humor really worked for me here.

Honestly, if you want to read political commentary with an extra-large serving of satire or parody, you’ll probably find better content by reading a political blog or going on an online discussion forum. There’s more of this sort of stuff on the Internet than I can shake a stick at.

The People's House is a massive and content-filled game. The omnibus lists the word count at 460,000 words, yet it somehow feels larger than that. Not to mention, with a whole array of President stuff to do, like foreign trips, managing scandals and so on, this is one title which can keep you entertained for a long time.

There is a fairly detailed character creation system, where you pick the usual stuff like your name and gender, along with your background, political party, state, college and so on. It does a good job of setting up the backdrop for this political adventure. There isn't really romance in this game, but as President, you can start with a spouse and kids, with some degree of customization there.

Of course, being a president isn't a fun job, or a clean one, despite... appearances. You'll have to decide priorities, international relations, your relationships with other politicians and so on. Family might get thrown into the mix. There will be plenty of times people of power will offer the choice to do something dubious in exchange for certain benefits, and it can be a hard decision to decide if you want to do the right thing with other problems on the line. It was hard to get a sense of how the game was doing the math behind each choice, but there were plenty of times I stopped to ponder each decision and worry about the consequences.

Ultimately, I felt really bruised and battered after my first term, between all the political pressures, and decided to not to run again. I did somewhat better on my second attempt. Perhaps sometime, I'll figure out that perfect run and be a President worth something.

It's not a perfect experience, but if you're into political games, I can fully recommend this. If you're not... I'd say it's still worth a look.

I suspect folks who play this game will either love it or hate it. Mental health is a very complex matter and is a pretty difficult topic to handle in a game medium. For me, I suppose I’m in the category of those who liked this game, but I can understand why some would hate it. For the record, I have also struggled quite a bit with some of the things depicted in this game.

The game does not hold back in its depiction of matters like anxiety and depression, as well as associated issues. Still, it presents a few bright spots, such as a date with someone who cares after a previous episode of rejection. It will be a whirlwind of a weekend as you go through various ups and downs in your difficult mental state.

Generally speaking, the writing was technically solid. Still, some of the chapter headers had a very low res look to them, which was mildly grating.

I managed to get the best ending on my first attempt. I was definitely surprised, since quite a number of people appeared to have difficulty unlocking it even over multiple attempts. (Maybe the author updated the thresholds, or maybe I was just lucky.) Still, it was a good story of a protagonist who pushed back against the demons within. That works for me.

Tomb of the Khan is one tough game, in terms of difficulty. You will have to survive a gauntlet of choices with plenty of sudden dead ends. I can't remember how many times I replayed this, but eventually, I gave up and opened the code to read the ending. It was fairly interesting, and I was glad that I didn't have to throw myself at yet another possible bad end.

There are no checkpoints here, so prepare for lots of tedium if you're trying to work out the path to the good ending by trial and error.

The game is mostly well-written, depicting the historical khan with some sort of fantasy/sci-fi powers. There are also plenty of scares within. That said, the writing can go on for pages and pages before you finally get a choice, and the prose can also get heavy in some areas.

Go ahead and try this one out if you like. That said, if you find yourself in an early grave for the nth time, just do yourself a favor and read the code.

Another zombie game. Coming out during Stone Age CoG, it is hard to praise this title. It provides some mildly interesting choices and action scenes, with multiple endings, but the downsides are plenty. The writing is rough, the story and plot feel pretty flimsy and there are a good number of early dead ends. There is one ‘good’ ending which is another take on the ‘just a dream’ trope, but honestly, it’s as nonsensical as the rest of the story.

You get to choose a weapon at the start of the game, but as far as I can tell, it doesn’t have much of an impact on the rest of the game.

You will run into a few folks on this adventure, whom you can choose to join up with or go your separate ways. If you do join up with them, the game does give you a few choices to betray that alliance here and there. Reaching the ‘good’ ending required me to ‘recruit’ as many people as possible, but that ending was hardly more satisfying than the rest of the game.

You could try it for a bit of mild entertainment, but that’s all I can say for it.

Things have changed, and for the worse. Jobs are in short supply. Job interviews are gone, replaced by a violent trial, one which pits teamwork against expediency, if you want a job. Otherwise, it’s a life of near-slavery on the farm if you’re unable to beat the trial, secure a job or create your own startup.

The writing is fairly solid, although there were a couple of typos here and there. The game has a very straightforward stat-based system, where you pick the stat you are strong in and later pick all choices corresponding to that stat. Still, there were some times where I didn’t have the right stats to pass a check. There are some other characters you work with, although character development is still light at this stage of the story.

This game was clearly intended to have a sequel. Even the save import system had already been set up. That said, it is extremely unlikely we’ll be getting one, as it has been a decade since this title was released, with no word on any future work on this project. If you do decide to try the game out, just bear this in mind.

Another cutesy VN entry. You wake up, and fumble through your morning routine while preparing for your next appointment. The writing is sweet even if the story is the short and simple type, and there is plenty of nice art and music to go along with it.

As far as interactivity goes, you have a list of activities you can pick to perform in any order, with the occasional choice to go along with it. Replay value is light, as I think you'll need to do every activity to proceed, but one playthrough was already entertaining enough.

Note: There is quite a bit of coarse language in the game, despite the previously mentioned cute vibes.

Note 2: Self-control is important. Do not add too much butter when baking.

With strong writing, an interesting setting and plenty of content, Apex Patrol is another strong entry in the HG line. This title is one of the oldest games in the library (I remember when it was $1 on the iphone app store) but still remains a great game even by today's standards.

The writing is strong, providing interesting descriptions of the sci-fi world and raising the suspense and thrill during missions. Unfortunately, like Tin Star, the prose can get very heavy at times, but this isn't something I'll take a star off for.

There is also a pretty solid stat system where you decide your ship's upgrades and so on. The stat screen is a bit messy to look at, being all text, but again, this wasn't too big of an issue.

I did pretty well on my first run, completing most missions successfully and defeating the main villain right at the end. In sum, this was definitely a fun adventure, and one worth taking a look at.