External Links
Have you played this game?You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in. |
About the Story
Take command of a platoon of Astral Troopers! You’re a recent graduate from the Astral College and strike officer training, you have just been posted to the Astral Corps’ Levantine Regiment, Hoplites troop, and been given command of the Fifth Platoon. You must prove your professional competence to your fellow officers to qualify as a strike officer, while fighting a rebel army and combatting a deadly plague on a hostile planet.
"Fog of War: The Battle for Cerberus" is a 170,000-word military sci-fi interactive novel by Bennett R. Coles, where your choices control the story, based in the universe of the award-winning Virtues of War novels. It's entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
As a newly-minted sublieutenant, you and your platoon are caught in the middle of fierce combat in the dry, rocky highlands of the planet Cerberus. You know that your forces are up against the rebel leader, Major Zhang: notorious across the galaxy as a formidable enemy. Meanwhile, a deadly plague has broken out on Cerberus and is spreading quickly. The Astral Corps has a vaccine en route from another star system, but the local population has to be convinced to accept the vaccine when it arrives.
Will you be able to put down the rebellion? Will the locals accept your bid to ensure their safety? When you find yourself separated from the rest of the Hoplite platoons and harried by rebel forces, how will you survive in the Cerberan landscape?
• Play as male, female, or non-binary; straight, gay or bi.
• Find romance with your commander, a fellow platoon leader, a Fifth Platoon pilot, or one the troopers in your command.
• Hunt down rebels, infiltrating and destroying their base, or use diplomacy to broker with them peacefully.
• Face the notorious Major Zhang, holding his life and the rebels’ fate in your hands.
• Crush the rebel presence on Cerberus, or join their cause and betray the Astral Corps’ mission.
• Convince the colonists to accept the Astral Corps vaccine, or leave the colonists of Free Lhasa of their fate.
You’re fresh out of battle school with a lot to prove. Will you win hearts and minds, or grind this planet to dust?
Ratings and Reviews
This game is, I believe, by an author who has achieved some success in traditional publishing, and I think it shows.
This is a war game in a futuristic setting, and most of the game features tactical missions and decisions like advancing, retreating, calling in strikes, and broadening out to politics in general.
You are a brand-new commissioned officer sent to the planet Cerberus to deal with rebels and deal with a vaccine distribution that people are suspicious about (this was written pre-covid).
The stats are easy to understand at first glance, but become more muddled and confusing as the game goes on. For instance, 'diplomacy' and 'charisma' are especially difficult to distinguish, and there is a frequently-reoccurring set of choices that don't seem to correspond to any stats (essentially being cautious, being reckless, or being in the middle).
Especially confusing are options related to 'mission', 'honor', and 'leadership', as I thought I had those pegged at the beginning but they become increasingly obfuscated over time. I ended up with all less than 60% and no matter what I picked, the people I talked to laughed at me for my presumption at thinking I had honor or supported the mission.
As other reviewers have noted, there is failure baked into the game in ways that are indistinguishable from player failure, so even if you're doing everything right it feels like you're losing.
On the plus side, there are several romance options. For mine (the dropship operator), things progressed really quickly at first and then we were an established couple the rest of the game, having 4-5 more scenes together after becoming close. This felt like an unusually high amount in a good way.
Overall, the line-by-line writing was good, and I think any war buffs are definitely going to want to try this one out; it's near the top tier of CoG games for dealing with things like strategy and tactics.
I purchased this game with my own money.
Tags
Game Details
First Publication Date: April 27, 2019
Current Version: Unknown
License: Commercial
Development System: ChoiceScript
IFID: Unknown
TUID: 8jzsi4jd2flk1ass
RSS Feeds
New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page
This is version 1 of this page, edited by R.E.Towers on 29 April 2019 at 1:40pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page
