Choice of Broadsides

Now that I've played several of the very early Choicescript games, I can see a bit more of a pattern. They are all very adventurous, leaning heavily into the TTRPG/gamebook style of one encounter after another. They tend to have the narrator comment on your actions, are quite a bit shorter than later choicescript games.

That can work well; I really enjoy the fast-paced dramatic action in Choice of the Dragon, and the first third of Choice of Romance (which was the only part initially available) is likewise a quick fun play.

This game didn't do it as much for me. But I've never really liked seafaring stories, besides Moby Dick (which was more of a whale encylopedia, which I am into). For some into Horatio Hornblower or the like, I think this would be amazing.

It has a fairly satisfying rival set up, providing the best moments of the game, and lot of action. There are 3 romances (you can't romance your rival, but there is quite a bit of underlying tension there).

Again, this is a great game, but it pales (to me) in comparison to some of the other great Choicescript games out there, many of them inspired by this one. It's kind of like Ditch Day Drifter, a game which kicked off the whole TADS movement but which was surpassed by its followups.

This game is also notable for letting you genderswap the entire world, making women the fierce and soldiery types of the world and men the gentle beaus at the ball.

I received a review copy of this game.

This is the first Choice of Games game that I played and I really enjoyed it. You play a member of the navy of a fictional country, roughly equivalent to 19th century Great Britain. It isn't particularly deep or long, but it was fun to guide the main character through not just a single battle or campaign, but really his whole career. You make a high-level choice for how to proceed with the next step in a battle or your career, and then watch the result play out in front of you, with your choices having lasting consequences throughout the game. While I usually go for more characterization and detail, this game is a nice change of pace. An excellent introduction to the Choice Of Games model/style as well.

Choice of Broadsides is the first choicescript game I played, back in 2010. For some unfathomable reason, I decided to come back to it some fifteen years later. It brought a slight bit of nostalgia, but not much else.

The game breaks a few modern recommendations. There are a good number of two choice options, as well as fake choices which do not even change flavor text. Mini walls of text are present in some of the choice options, making them look somewhat unsightly. Also, while I recommend a long and linear approach to writing CS games, this one is linear to a fault.

Apart from one character who serves as the player’s main rival and final antagonist, a lot of the characters, including the ROs, have only a little more character development than a name on the screen. There is a lot of copy-pasted text for the three ROs, reducing their depth even further. There is one part where you have to choose a subordinate officer, but there is so little development for the selected characters that it’s difficult to make this a meaningful choice.

Choice of Broadsides is free to play. Still, there are plenty of better free choicescript games around, even under the Hosted Games label.