Cape

Cape is a story about the making of a superhero, rising from petty crime to be the scourge of a corrupt city. A thief down on his luck finds power from an unexpected source and becomes a vigilante. A familiar tale, but slickly executed and told. The quality of writing is obvious, and you get drawn in by the details pretty quickly, until the story itself draws to an all-too-soon conclusion that leaves you wanting more.

The only thing dragging it down, in my opinion, is a lack of actual choice and interactivity - the only things essentially up to you are your powers and your cruelty, which in most circumstances would suffice, but I think perhaps it should have been expanded on further. I did explore all possible choices, and while there are slight variations there's not much other than flavour. It's up to you whether you go back for further readthroughs, though I do think it is worth it.

Nonetheless, it was a great read from beginning to end, and I only wish there was more of it. Four balaclavas.

It was just starting to get from amazing to spectacular and I get hit with an ending.
What a shame that the story does not continue from there.
Either way, absolutely loved the experience.

Now I'm off to find another ending.

Loved the game, very simple and complex at the same time! Well made!

Definitely worth playing unless you know you don't like the superhero theme. Took me about 2 hours for one playthrough.

I haven't encountered this format before and really liked it. It's choice-based instead of the parser-based stuff I'm used to. I appreciate the fact that it's clear what you can examine and can do, so you don't encounter situations where there's a disconnect between what you want to do and the parser's ability to interpret it.

At the same time, there's still a disconnect at times between what you want to do and what the story will allow you to do. You are roleplaying as someone rather than as yourself. As such, some of the decisions in this game feel less like a question of "what do YOU think is the right thing to do" and more of "what do you want to happen next?". I think I came to this with slightly the wrong assumption, thinking the decisions are about providing a simulation with which to test my decision making ability. After playing, I think I realize more that it's about exploring the consequences of a particular line of thinking (it's a "game" in the sense of being something that lets you play with an idea, rather than being something that you win or lose). Overall, though, I think the main character's mind is pretty made-up with regards to what he's going to do with his newfound powers. I would've appreciated being able to do something else.

The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because I like to leave a little room at the top for something absolutely mindblowingly amazing, and this wasn't that (though it was very enjoyable). I don't know if the limitations inherent in a choice-based IF would ever allow for something to achieve the level of 5 stars, for me.