A couple of days ago I came upon a bundle of games on the site of Indie gala and Bionic heart was in it. It is really just a piece of interactive fiction with about a dozen of beautiful pictures. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the interactive genre.
Why do I like it? Despite the long blocks of text between each choice, each of the latter matters a lot. There are only 3 stats - the relations with the support characters and probably quite a few Boolean integers to mark some of the decisions you take.
There are 24 (I think) ends and it is just amazing how high the replay value is. One of them (not the best) is used in its sequel.
The story is nice, the women are beautiful and you can possibly keep them both, lol. Sometimes I wish more of the games in Choicescript were like it - a bit more simple with less stats, probably even fewer decisions but ones that are REAL.
I must disagree with your assessment. I found Bionic Heart boring and vapid.
I agree with the idea that decisions that feel REAL are important for story based games like this. No ‘what do you have for breakfast’ more ‘life or death situation you can only save one’. It’s much more entertaining when making a choice is hard.
@anon48296871, I have the feeling I won’t like it either. The pictures are different, there are some strange boss fight mechanics, the voices are gone (Tanya’s slow speech gives so much to her character). I’d like to be optimistic but I am not.
@Crotale, the more I got to know the story and its variations, the more sucked in I became. The achievement of getting acquainted with a serial killer who you can turn into a lovable and loyal friend is something that rarely happens even in interactive fiction.
Then again, people have different taste. As for me, I could easily compare Tanya to the infamous villain Prodigal from Heroes Rise.
Confirmed - Bionic Heart 2 is awful. It seems that someone tried to make money at the expense of a very strong original game. Damn it, Tanya needs to seduce a man in order to get him within a hitting reach? That is just not the original heroine.
The good news is that the bundle includes Heileen 1-3 and I enjoy the original so far. I don’t know why, but I love these relationship based girly games
I haven’t played Bionic Heart, I have played a few of the older Winter Wolves games though. I played Heileen right when it was first released, for instance and was surprised by the same-sex relations and I wasn’t forced to romance that dude whatever his name was.
Yes, this is the bundle and I am quite happy I found it. Well, I was quite surprised by Heilween 3, which is a dating-raising hybrid that is a grind fest. I guess the idea is to make the player addicted, but I find it a very bad game design.
I’ve wanted to get my hands on Loren Amazon Princess for a while. (Ha that sounds lewd, not like that.) That said I’ve a Steam Library full of games I’ve never played which I tend to buy in these sorts of bundles. It’s a steal for that price, amongst all of the other games.
I really admire what Winter Wolves does in regards to inclusivity and making games which allow for same-sex dating options.
It is a shame to hear that Heileen 3 isn’t fun. Maybe there’s some cheats that’ll make it fun?
Loren is charming, but the trailer didn’t show something I would actually enjoy. Having multiple characters, sophisticated skills and inventory and heroes-like battles is nowhere near my definition of fun.
About Heilween 3, I tried to find cheats but so far failed. If I go back to it, I guess I will go for the lust/dancer/Lora combo, but there are a few other games from the bunch I may play before that.
The funny thing is that when I put out my very first (and very short) interactive story on Google Play - Dating a Witch - Heilween was on top of the ‘users also bought’ list.
@FairyGodfeather, I am actually beginning to enjoy Hailween 3. I just needed time to get over the shock that it is not CYOA, which oddly (to many) I consider to be the pinnacle of interactive stories. The characters seem well developed and there is a lot of content.
I quite liked Heileen 3 myself, though it gets grindy if you are trying to get all the characters (considering I playtested the Steam version for them…ugh).
And I personally like the female romances much more than the male ones.
