Sky Pirates of Actorius

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.