Ratings and Reviews by ChanceOfFire

ITFO is not your typical fantasy medieval tale. It’s a game which explores the difficult realities of the medieval world, as well as the brutality of war. The game touches upon some really dark issues, such as the deeper psychological consequences of the harshness of the setting on the player character’s mind.

All in all, the writing here is strong, going into deep detail on the medieval world around you and its impact on the people who live within. Playing this game really allowed me to feel the grim reality of the setting. There are also some battles in the game which do a good job of conveying the nature of warfare which take place in the setting, and which allow you to strategize and determine the best way to win.

It’s set in a largely patriarchal society, although you get to play as male or female, with the game detailing the differences in your formative experiences and how it eventually brings you to the current point in the story. There are some romance options, and while romance isn’t a very big part of the game, I enjoyed it and liked the characters.

The game is largely linear, although there is some branching at critical points in the story, including a very important one when you reach the end, where you can decide to play along with your given role, or seize power for yourself. Still, it’s more of a linear tale than a branching sandbox.

The story and writing here is definitely one of the strongest I’ve seen, and I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. Even if you’re not a fan of the genre, I recommend taking a look.

It’s a pretty straightforward short game, but with an interesting premise. In this aero steampunk world (we really ought to have more games like this), we play as an undercover cop of sorts, working with the outlaws, trying to remain undercover and feeding regular reports to our handlers.

The stat system here is pretty standard. You pick your strong and weak stats, and decide how best to deploy them during the game. There is also a basic shopping and inventory system. I was able to buy most of the items available, and I think they mighhttt have helped?

Apart from a few relatively fast paced missions, much of the game is spent choosing binary options to bring you closer to the pirate leader or maintain your mission as an undercover cop. Speaking of which, there are a lot of two choice options in this game. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but I believe CoG does encourage writers to aim for at least three choices. The game doesn’t really suffer for that, but the ‘at least three choices’ rule could have made things more interesting. The plot and writing in these sections also feels somewhat barebones, although there is a bit more excitement when the bigger missions are in play.

You have a (what else?) choice at the end where you decide whether you’re going to reveal your true colors and arrest your former comrades, or decide that being among the pirates has truly made you one of them. I chose to stick with my original mission to blow up the pirates from within, although I think I botched a choice at the end and got a pretty bad ending. All in all, it was a solid bit of entertainment for a short game, although the experience felt really compressed. I think a longer word count could have helped this title here.

The superhero genre isn’t really my thing, yet for some reason, I decided to try out this short superhero story.

I was definitely surprised, and impressed. The writing is the game’s definite strong point, with plenty of color and character. Scenes carry a good mix of humor and action, and it was definitely entertaining to read.

The story is also pretty solid, even if largely standard for the superhero genre, as you work your way to take out the big bad, while dealing with a bunch of lesser villains along the way. There is your love interest, your sidekick and plenty of the usual tropes. Still the strong writing is able to carry all these elements here and make them interesting to read.

The stat system is pretty standard, except that here, you have a consumable stat, juice, which you can use whenever your regular stats aren’t up to the task. Juice was handy in saving me a few times when I was confronted with some skill checks I would likely have failed, so I did like the system. I managed to beat most of the checks in the game, and used juice to save the day whenever my stats weren’t up to the task.

At 50k words, a long play time is certainly one thing this game can’t offer. Nevertheless, it was a very fun game for what it was, despite the short length.

I first played Choice of the Petal Throne when it was first entered into Introcomp. It did fairly well there, winning third place. I did enjoy what little there was, since there was a severe shortage of good choicescript games at that time.

Now, I’ve returned to revisit the game. Unfortunately, those experiences haven’t aged well. The worldbuilding feels very heavy, and it’s not very well explained to the reader in general. I found myself losing track of the setting pretty quickly. The plot and characters, on the other hand, have little in the way of depth and also end up being uninteresting in their own way.

There is one romance interest which started out fairly interesting, but started to feel flat as the story went on. I ended the game by asking for marriage, but it also felt pretty forgettable.

The game feels fairly long for the wordcount. Unfortunately, the problems lie elsewhere.

I have little knowledge of the Tekumel setting, and if that describes you as well, you might be hard-pressed to enjoy this game. The writing is solid for the most part, but it’s nothing which can save the weak plotting and characters.

All World Pro Wrestling leaves little to the imagination when it comes to the sexual content. The story, from the beginning to end, is filled with plenty of not-so-subtle sexual innuendos, BDSM concepts and the plentiful nudity and sexual content on display. It pulls no punches when it comes to spice level. Perhaps Extra-hot might be an understatement.

Generally speaking, the story and writing is solid. It’s well-written while not being hard to follow. There are a lot of characters to choose from, and they are mostly interesting, although some could use a little more depth. The stat design is also solid, and I liked the way the game is upfront about stat changes. The avalanche of sexual content from the beginning to end MIGHT be off putting to some folks, but YMMV.

There are some interesting characters, but the cast might have been too big. Less characters might have allowed for the story to focus more on each of them. Anyway, I picked someone I liked, and managed to complete the romance at the end.

If you’re ok with the spice level, this is a pretty good entry in Heart’s Choice.

I’m generally a free spirit when it comes to romance… but come to think of it, a female gender-flipped version of this game would be really really hot.

The premise is interesting. Your task here is to don your invisibility cloak and harvest the tongues of the dying, tongues which contain their memories. The story presents some interesting choices and conflicts throughout. However, this game also has substantial weaknesses.

The writing can get long-winded, and there are plenty of infodumps throughout which serve to expand on the game’s lore, but do so in a heavy-handed manner. There were choices to express interest in some characters, but I don’t know if there were actual elements of romances as I couldn’t find them.

The ending is sudden and really makes you go WHATT? Things were starting to tense up, and I was expecting to see more action. Instead, an ending screen just shows up out of nowhere.

There is a genuinely interesting concept and idea here, just that the execution is a miss.

Events and parties in 20s London! You play as a novelist, enjoying the glamorous lifestyle and going on misadventures with a bunch of friends. Meanwhile, a gossip column is publishing dirt on your friends, and happens to know some things which should have been a secret. It is up to you to figure out who's leaking the juicy stuff to the infamous rag.

Honestly, if you read the way the game description is worded, you could probably figure out who the culprit is. (Probably not intentional on the writer's part.) That said, I actually liked said character the most, and went on to romance them from the start, while role-playing a loyal and blinded-by-love character. There wasn't any kind of intimacy that I saw, although I'm not too sure if other ROs have more intimacy on their routes. Still, the romance and character interactions are strong enough.

The story and writing is solid, even if the plot could use more excitement. The stat system didn't work for me. There is a large selection of stats in play, but some felt like they had a lot of overlap with the other, in terms of meaning. There were many choices in the game where I was struggling to figure out which stat was tested, or if something was even tested at all, and ultimately just picked at random. A more focused system with more distinct stats could have worked better here.

Minor note, headers in the stat screen are sometimes much closer to the bar above than below.

It's a solid game in the writing and romance department. I didn't see any intimacy, not even at a mild level (maybe it's in another route), but that's a non-issue as the romance elements are solid.

This was a surprisingly strong entry. The prose paints a beautiful picture of France, as well as the mystery and intrigue within your life as a spy. There are interesting characters. The plot packs mystery and surprises. Also, it’s pretty good as a romance game, with a good number of romantic scenes, as well as little bits of affection here and there.

I romanced Charlotte on my first playthrough and didn’t leave disappointed. She was probably the most well written character in the game, although the others are also fairly good. The romantic elements with her are also good, and the game elegantly weaves together your business and romantic relationship with her.

Stat wise, the game is pretty straightforward. I dumped everything in Duelist and Chaleureuse, although I overwhelmingly relied on duelist, and I don’t think I was ever in a situation where I couldn’t beat any of the offered checks. There is a pretty annoying bug however, where the game repeatedly awards me the achievement for having a high skill level in these stats after every chapter.

The prose is good, but it also might be a bit heavy for casual readers. I noticed a very small number of typos during my playthrough, but nothing major.

The font for the chapter headings fits the setting, but it’s pretty hard to read. Additionally, they look somewhat awkward in the stat screen as the headers are physically closer to the bars above.

Either way, minus a few minor flaws, this is a solid entry, both on the story and romance front.

Undercover Agent contains pretty much everything you’d expect from the genre. It does not do anything outside the box, and is as standard as can be.

As far as plot and writing goes, you’re an agent for a government agency tasked with taking down a mysterious weapon. With the usual infiltration and espionage missions, there is little originality here. The spy genre isn’t really my thing, and with little here I haven’t seen before, it was hard to stay engaged. The writing is ok and pretty easy to follow, which is a plus, but a small one.

The stats (I believe) use fairmath, so reaching the higher levels can be tricky. I dumped everything into combat and IT, and ran into a few areas where I didn’t have the right skills to beat the available checks.

Like many other CoG (and some HC) games I’ve played, the romance is pretty throwaway here too. That said, I did like this one better than a lot of the others. There’s some flirting and affection, and the ROs role in the plot makes them better suited (in my opinion) to be an interesting RO.

Ultimately, this spy game doesn’t do anything wrong, but it doesn’t do anything right either. It’s up to you to decide if that’s your thing.

Despite the low word count, this game actually feels pretty long for something well under 100k words. This western title is no match for the 1.4 million word Tin Star in terms of the quantity of content, but still manages to punch above its weight.

It’s a strong story with a good mix of investigative work and action. I mostly dumped my stats into sweet talking and shooting, while leaning more towards sweet talking, and I think it worked out fine. There is a health system, but I’ve always ignored paying a visit to the doctor, and still managed to make it to the end (although I had to check the stat screen to notice that every part of me was hurting). There are a good number of choices on dealing with different groups and taking different actions.

Romances feel underdeveloped though, and that’s me being generous. I had some mild (me being generous again) romantic encounters with a few characters, but it didn’t amount to much. The stat screen listed some characters as my sweethearts, but it felt pretty meaningless.

Overall, I think the title is still pretty solid, even if it’s on the short side.