Who Among Us

This is the third Tia Orisney game I have tried. I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie and Alistair Maclean, and this game was a great homage to them.

Set in Russia, you are a thief coming to pick up your stash. You meet a cast of 10 characters, and deaths start to happen.

The game is in Twine. Most paths are identical in result, but the game feels very interactive because the choices feel REALLY important (e.g. do you attack someone or team up with them?)

Orisney's games are their own genre, closer to old CYOA books, and in that genre they are superb. This game has more rough edges than Following Me or Kane County, though. The warden is called WARD once, some notes slipped into the text (something like "click snd choice to continue"), "brake" is mispelled as "break". Also, the plot has a few big holes in it, but most murder mysteries do.

Overall, the rough edges were made up for by the great story. I may come back and play this again in the future just for fun. I'd read a book by Orisney for sure.

This is my kind of game; entirely entertainment. Choices that move the plot along, interesting characters, competent design. The main character is an actual character, with a past, attitudes, and goals (like everyone else present) and I found that a refreshing change.

Mystery buffs will probably not have much trouble figuring out the killer; I was fairly certain who it was by halfway through, although the author includes a solid red herring that is more than clever enough to leave some doubt. There was still plenty going on to keep me reading through the end, and the protagonist is, while flawed, definitely likable (and thankfully proactive) enough to want to find out what happens to him.

The writing could use a bit of editing, just to tighten things up a little, but I think the genre contributed to the sense things should be terser. I would also have liked more variation in the endings or maybe a twist or two in the endings themselves -- the wrong choices essentially played out exactly as expected -- but the right endings were satisfying and appropriate.

I think this falls more firmly on the side of thriller than mystery, as figuring out who the killer is definitely takes a backseat to survival (and does it matter if you figure it out if you don't have any way to defend yourself?). Definitely fun, and definitely worth playing if you enjoy the genre.

Now, this has to be one of the few games that are more like a choose your own adventure. Which I always loved as a child, flipping through the pages, finding out my decision would end up killing the main character. Then quickly turning back to my last page as if nothing happening. It's a fun genre, if done right, and this game it is done right. I found myself playing this for more than an hour when my son was away at my parents for a few days. Truly a classic of our time.