Wayhaven Chronicles: Book Two

The Wayhaven Chronicles are one of the most popular series of commercial IF games available. They follow a detective in the small town of Wayhaven who has recently been assigned four beautiful vampires as partners, out of which the detective can choose one to romance.

This series is projected to last through 7 books, although only 3 have been released so far; with some over 1,000,000 words, it's understandable that this might take a while.

This second game furthers the romance in the first game while adding a new mystery. Now that the hero is aware of vampires, other mysterious creatures come into play, and a new carnival comes into town, complete with creepy attractions and a horrifying mirror maze.

I felt like the balance between romance and plot shifted even more towards romance here than the first game. However, due to the need to stretch the romance over 7 games, the progression of the romance is glacially slow (at least for the A romance I chose). It reminds me of the Twilight novels, where Stephanie Meyers had to come up with more and more contrived reasons to keep the two main characters apart, or of the Office and the way it dragged out Jim and Pam.

So for those reasons, I found this game less compelling than the first. The creepy carnival was fun, and getting to know my teammates and the world around me. The game is great at providing enough roleplay options to really act your personality. I played a generally positive and cheerful character who liked their mom and was happy with the supernatural, and even if sometimes there was only a single hopeful choice, I picked it.

I did encounter more failure this time around. Despite heavily investing in one skill and using it at every chance, I often failed checks for that one skill.

While I didn't like this quite as much as the first one, I consider it a 5 star game among the general field of interactive fiction.

I wrote about the series as a whole on my Book One review so I won't bore you by repeating it all again. Just know I love TWC, it's a great supernatural romance series, one of the best.

For those who haven't checked out the series at all, but are still reading reviews about Book TWO for some reason...if you like the romance genre at all...go back and look into Book One. Play the Book One free demo chapters. I know writing style can sometimes get in the way of liking a story even if the plot or genre is one you love, so playing the free demo chapters will be the best indication as to whether this is a series for you as the style is very consistent throughout the books.

About Book Two specifically...

Book Two is where you can start a relationship with a couple of the romance options, the other two are still being tough nuts to crack. TWC is extra cool because even though there are two characters ready to start relationships with your character...you don't have to (yet)! It doesn't end the possibility of romance, you aren't breaking up with them, as I mentioned in my other review there isn't any way to fail the romance. It just adds to the replayability! See how the dynamics and interactions change when you work side by side with someone you told "Can I have some more time to think about it". Ooh the pining!

I tend to be the type of player who finds the one path and one type of character I like and then I play the game that same way every time. However I'm having a lot of fun trying out all the different paths, especially seeing how decisions made in Book One affect the story now. I can just tell I'm going to have sooo many save files from trying out everything.

Book Two is still funny and lighthearted, it does get a little steamy (for one romance), and a little sad--I even teared up a little! Definitely a roller coaster of emotion. Very fitting given the carnival subplot.