Reviews by ChanceOfFire

In Swamp Castle, you play as the newly minted lord of a small fief. Gameplay largely consists of making decisions about fief governance, particularly in regard to taxation, construction, dealing with various factions and so on. Still, there is an overarching plot to follow, with a substantial bit of branching, which adds to the replay value. There are also plenty of little secrets here and there for players who try to venture off the beaten path.

The prose is slightly rough and won't win any awards, but it is mostly serviceable and has a nice touch of humor at times. The game also contains art, mostly stock images with little regard for consistency with each other, so it could be somewhat immersion breaking.

The gameplay elements, while straightforward, are actually pretty fun and fairly well implemented. Some management decisions are woven into the story, and battles provide a good bit of strategy, while being provided in doses not large enough to feel tedious.

All in all, the game provides a good example of how management and gameplay elements can be well implemented and fun in a choicescript game.

In this game, you play as a child who is sold into slavery and trained to become a gladiator. There is a pretty interesting cast of characters to get to know. As far as I can tell, the story is largely linear, with most choices affecting your stats or relationships with said characters, or testing those values.

It is also possible to die in the game, which ends in a final battle which will put your stats and decision making to the test.

The most disappointing part about the game is that it is somewhat short and clearly intended as the first part of a much larger story. It is great, but just leaves you wanting more. It is an enjoyable read, and I really wish it could have gone on to its intended end. Just be prepared if you do decide to take a look.

Reviewing this game is tough. In this short RPGmaker game, the developer talks about his own experiences working on previous game projects. Gameplay consists of visiting different houses within a small map, talking to some characters who briefly describe their experiences, and by doing so, recounting the developer's own experiences with developing those projects.

Is this interactive fiction? Given that it mostly involves talking to characters who deliver text-based content, I suppose the answer could be yes. However, being an autobiographical game, it is probably somewhere between fiction and non-fiction.

The bigger problem is that something like this might have worked better as a series of blog or forum posts rather than an actual game. As a game, it's just hard to make this fun. I enjoy reading about the experiences of others, just that I'm not sure that an exposition-delivering game is the best platform for this.

(Spoiler - click to show)There is a final boss in the game which completely destroyed me, while delivering some commentary about the current state of the game industry. I'm not sure if there's a way to beat it, but after 2-3 unsuccessful reloads, it wasn't something I cared to do any longer.

Flashpoint is one of the longer games I’ve tried in the SGC, and one which checks most of the usual CoG boxes. Players can select their gender, name, RO options, physical appearance and so on in the first part of the game.

There is an interesting cast of characters, and much of the first part is spent getting to know them. For the overall length of the game, I felt that a smaller cast might have worked better, but this is a minor complaint on my end.

There is also a basic stat system, with some skill checks when the story heats up. If you fail the checks or pick the wrong choices, you have the option to restart from a checkpoint, thankfully saving plenty of time.

I messed up the combat encounter on my first attempt, but managed to work out the right stats and choices upon a retry. All in all, it’s a short and entertaining game with a good dash of thrill and horror.

It’s an amusing and surprisingly thought-provoking entry, poking fun at how we constantly find ourselves late for something.

Gameplay is generally straightforward and as far as I can tell, the story is largely linear. What the writing actually does is reminding us how it feels to be late, then poking fun at our (often) fruitless attempts to do better next time.

It’s a short but entertaining read, reminding us of one of our biggest challenges in life.

In Temporal Thief, you play as an otherworldly being, out to obtain everyone's most precious yet criminally mismanaged resource.

While the game is broken into two parts, it's actually quite short, with just 1-2 choices in each part. Completing the first part activates a hyperlink which automatically brings you to the second part (an interesting trick right there).

The writing was evocative and helped to convey the suspense and dark atmosphere. I finished both parts in about a minute or so, but it provided a short bit of fun.