Hi, I know I’m a bit late to the party here but I really love CoG books and this is probably in my top 5. It was an emotional roller coaster that left me astounded and honestly quite sad at times. Thank you @heather for writing this masterpiece.
I also saw some people suggesting ideas and cool things they’d wish if there ever were to be a sequel and I just had to drop my two cents in on this one. The universe in this book is so rich and I really would love to explore more of it. I think it’d be very interesting to see a prequel to this, possibly still using this book’s MC as the MC. Perhaps it could be during the war with the MC’s adventures with pierce, idk lol.
If this is a place to ask questions/for advice about Study in Steampunk, I’ve been having particular trouble in one instance that I can’t seem to change the outcome of. I’ve taken a break from the game when I became too frustrated to keep playing it, so I apologize if I get some names and things wrong.
In the second part of the game, you and your colleagues are retrieving the prince in the blimp(?), when his lackey (for lack of a better word) hijacks it in order to take him back/kidnap him for his own agendas (the whole political intrigue plot is blurry in comparison to the romance aspect, which I’m getting to). When he’s making his hasty retreat, I try all I can to stop him from escaping, but don’t have the sufficient skillset to take him down singlehandedly. Therefore, when my MC is essentially down, that’s when Finch is trying his best to stop the lighteater. They fight, Finch is losing, then they fall over the edge and out of this blimp.
When I wake up in the hospital, Finch is the first thing that comes to mind. But turns out he’s fucking dead. So at that point, I have just about no motivation to play the game in its entirety.
So the thing I need the most advice on is how to avoid Finch’s death, if possible. He basically becomes my MC’s whole world (they were married at this point, so that’s unsurprising) and with him goes any interest I had in the mystery we were solving together.
I have a theory that it’s all dependent on my skills. And what makes it harder to try again is it appeared to me that I have to start all over, from the beginning, to have the right skill stats the one time I need to save Finch when I couldn’t. I’ve so far been playing with marksmanship as my highest stat, medicine my second, and charisma my lowest. Though, every time, when we’re escaping the “info-gathering” mission at the beginning of part 2, I get my shoulder messed up, and my marksmanship therefore lowered. So then athleticism and medicine are my top 2 stats. But that never seems to do me any favors when it matters, when I can’t save Finch.
So what I’m ultimately asking is if anyone has been able to save Finch, and, if so, what skills I need boosted or what I need to do to ensure he stays alive.
Oh, thank you! I did want to hope he wasn’t really dead or that there was some way to save him, but I didn’t wanna keep playing looking for something that I wasn’t even sure was really there, yknow? Also, thanks for not telling me exactly how I’m to go about saving Finch. I try my best to avoid spoilers and I always like figuring things out on my own, I just need some motivation sometimes.
(Btw, I don’t know how to do the blurry word thing on here, even though I appreciate the curtesy it gives to others who might be spoiled.)
This is probably hands-down one of my top five favorite choice of venture games that’s fantastic and all the romances The The heterosexual and homosexual ones are fantastically done equally on par. Until Paul finishes lords I can’t see anything matching that.
I have no plans to write a sequel, because that would be insane. There are four distinct endings with variations within each, and no. Just no. Even I have some sense of self-preservation.
This game is my favorite! I cannot stop playing it again.
I enjoyed the part where MC allowed the Ripper’s kiss and went unconscious for weeks. My protagonist was in love with Finch. Knowing he had been deceived made his heart torn apart after feeling just numb for three years and I thought MC would want a little revenge even it meant his death. Because the truth made his professional and private(at least romance) life more meaningless at the same time. Yeah, my protagonist said he and Finch will build something but he didn’t have any desire to give Finch the time for it. So I liked that the Ripper did such severe harm.
I have to say, I’m eternally grateful to people who recommended this game to me. It’s very likely that I would never have tried it otherwise. I had no idea. And I’m usually very reluctant about trying hosted games. Silly me.
It is… Amazing in so many aspects I don’t even know where to start. The best reading I’ve had in a long time, no doubt. Plot-wise and choice-wise, this game stands head and shoulders above most of the CoG titles I’ve played previously. I LOVE it.
It’s long, well-paced, with many different sub-plots. It feels as if everything is intertwined and most of your decisions have consequences that matter. And I especially liked the faction-dependent plot division in the last part of the game, as well as the fact that this division doesn’t entirely lock you out of cooperating with other factions.
Also, despite not being able to maintain my chosen romance, I adored the Healers storyline (where I ended up during my 1st playthrough). It was so neat, and the interactions with Taggart and others so endearing, that I found myself not missing LI quite as much as I expected to. It just felt… nice. (Maybe the overall ending and what was achieved helped with the good feeling too, of course).
Can’t wait to play it again and see what else I can do - which should be a lot, judging by spoilers I’ve encountered and the achievement list.
It’s been so long since I’ve been active on here but I needed to get this out (and also pacing this out in a few separate posts for easier reading bc I need to gush for a moment here). I’d heard good things about this game but held off on playing bc i thought it’d be less interesting being forced to play as a male MC. How wrong I was. This game was A M A Z I N G.
I’ve always loved this sort of setting (and it certainly helps that I’m currently on a Sherlock Holmes kick) but I simply ADORE that we can be the badass Dr Watson figure that the original character deserves! As a kid, my first experiences with Sherlock Holmes were the Basil Rathbone movies and The Great Mouse Detective so for me, shamefully, Watson in my mind had been nothing more than a endearingly bumbling sidekick, only there to highlight how super cool and awesome Sherlock is. And then, I saw the Robert Downey Jr movies. And holy crap. Jude Law’s Watson blew me away. I’d always thought Holmes was the star of the show but realizing how unfair that is to poor Watson all this time, now he is my favorite. (Ofc, I realize that the Ritchie movies are less true to the original Holmes in the traditional sense, but to me they hold a dear place in my heart because they really are too much fun - amazing dialogue, action, and music - but best of all, they made me realize how important and how much of a total BAMF Watson is.)
So you can imagine how much fun it was to be able to play this Watson-esque character, not an oafish sidekick but instead the heart of the team, ex-army gentleman who goes out doctoring and saving lives one day then turns around and kicks criminal butt the next day.
But here I have to give you the author @heather proper credit. Bc yes your MC is very much an homage to Watson, but in his own right he’s so much more. This character has got to be one of the very best I’ve ever played of CoG. There is just so much great depth and heart and conflict that carries throughout the story, such amazing dynamic character growth, this MC was simply amazing. And I actually love that we’re limited to playing as this Dr Watson type (not only bc see above) but because as a video game it works so well. Here we have a set background and place in the story, we know who he is, but we control who he can be. The freedom is in his characterization, growth and choices within the game itself. That for me is the best balance of player agency, when it allows us to not be over/underwhelmed by too many inconsequential choices and instead have proper emotional connection because everything has a purpose. And you pull it off so well, the different storylines touch on different aspects of the character but overall it’s a great balance of freedom, replayability, and consequences.
Another reason I love this game is that the plot is very well thought out and always stays on topic and thematically relevant, there are no meandering or overly-boring plot threads that have little to do with your character’s growth / relationships or the world / overall themes / plot. I enjoyed the references to classic literature and the worldbuilding was just enough to be involved but not overwhelmingly hard to keep track of. The light eaters are an interesting aspect of this world and i Love LOve LOVE the fact that our character’s potential to be one is never glossed over but relevant to the plot in multiple ways. Also, the PTSD was a very relevant and well done aspect, the emotional parts were just tantalizing, and the romances, my heart!!! There’s this great sense of urgency in the action scenes and I really admire the way that those Oh Crap moments are pulled off. The writing is excellent.
My only criticism is that in some parts the exposition can be a bit dry and in a similar way the ending(s) do feel somewhat anti climatic. I think that’s because there seems to be little direct action, even though we do have input on the lead-up, the climax itself becomes more about telling than showing. But to a certain extent that is a bit dependent on what route is followed, and even so I was satisfied. Each route is interesting in different ways and there are so many great ways the good doctor can reach these points in his life, and I so appreciate that there’s recognition of the big moments. There was only a few times where I was left with a feeling of “wait, is that it?”. The big moments (and more importantly, the lead up to them) are treated with the gravity they deserve, not just shoved in your face and expecting you to care for no reason, I absolutely love it and NEED more of this (especially bc video games are usually pretty weak at this, but you pulled it off beautifully, it’s just enough to be in keeping with the rather stilted Victorian-esque style but the emotion, it is FELT.)
I can understand why a sequel would be a bit much, and I feel you’ve written a very gratifying close on the story (still torn on what will be my canon!) so you know what I would LOVE a prequel. Maybe MC’s first team up and missions with Woodward? I would kill for more adventures with Finch!
Which btw was another aspect well done, the detective puzzle type sequences where you have to think about clues and play to your strengths were a lot of fun. One thing I did miss in the main game is that I would’ve loved more time to bond and work in a team with Finch in the story itself. Although it probably would’ve killed me lol, I’m already so attached but I feel like that’s mostly because of the Holmes/Watson aspect (you just automatically feel they’re bonded for life, lol!) but what I would really love to see would be more development of Finch as his own character aside from the Holmes homage. In the main game the bond itself was very much there but I would’ve loved to see how they got to that point (and how hard/easy it was to get there!)
I’m sure I could go on for hours so let me just say, regardless of if you’d ever return to this setting, I had a terrific time. Thank you @heather for your hard work in writing this amazing game!
My MC got married in all my playthrough’s so far lol, both unofficially and officially. First playthrough Finch, then Grace, haven’t done an Alexandra romance! Tbh not sure if I ever will, even in the Grace marriage my MC is still a little bit in love with Finch. Not sure if I’ll ever be able to resist playing it that way :'o
