I really like the Choice of Games. I check for new offerings at least once a week and auto-buy I only ever do this with Choice Of and Kairosoft games.
I feel like CoG as a company must be going through growing pains because I feel the titles are providing less quality now as the originals did.
I disliked The Fleet, butā¦ I canāt like every game. And then I found Slammed was incredibly linear - it pushed you into what it wanted you to do. Despite the fact I chose polar opposites in my second run-through, I still ended up with basically the same story.
But Choice of Ninja only took an hour for me to complete. I was flabbergasted - I bought it before a road trip expecting it to last most of the journey, as the others before it have done. At the end I had ā1 Ally, 1 Enemy and 1 Woundā ā But they didnāt affect the storyline at all in itās current iteration, and feels like someone had grand plans for the book, but then gave up half way through and hurried it out. Itās the first Choice Of that Iāll be asking for a refund.
As said; these games are brilliant and my faith in Choice of Games has not been knocked. While my favourite isnāt even a Choice Of production (Itās Life Of A Wizard, so deep and diverse) I know that Choice Of are making some of my favourite games for the iDevices.
Iād love to see the quality get back on par with what it used to be.
I love Choice of Games too. There are a few games Iām disappointed with as well, but I just assume Iām not the audience for those. I think part of it is that they have a variety of different authors now creating the game and those who can write well canāt always write good games.
Weāre going to have to disagree about Slammed! I loved Slammed! Itās my favourite Choice game. When writing games you generally have a choice of short with many choices, or long and more linear. (A bush or a tree so to speak.) I think that Slammed! provided plenty of different choices, many of which had an impact on the plot. There were four romantic paths (plus none at all), three ways to deal with JJ, various different things you could do during your āretirementā, multiple endings, and even the endings where you failed were interesting.
Now it was linear and some events you couldnāt change, in the name of the story, but there was plenty of choice too.
I was sad to see they didnāt change Choice of the Ninja from when I played it though.
@FairyGodfeather
Wait, there were 4 romantic paths? Did I miss one? I thought there was only JJ, Ecstasy and the blogger lady (whose name I unfortunately canāt remember right now).
Is there another choice when you play a straight character?
Speaking of recent CoG-branded games, as in published within the last 12-18 months, Iāve noticed a drop in quality too. The newer hosted games, found under the āMake Your Own Gamesā tab are generally better than the newer official CoG-branded games these days.
Iām not a fan of either āThe Fleetā or āChoice of the Ninjaā either. Professional wrestling is of 0 interest to me. So I havenāt played āSlammedā, and canāt comment. Nevertheless most people who have played it, like @FairyGodfeather, seem to have loved it.
That said, while I havenāt played the final release yet, I really, really liked the Orpheus Ruse beta. Itās a pity its release hasnāt gotten more publicity. The entire game concept is highly unique, and the writing is very solid. Assuming itās only gotten better since, this may well end up being my favorite CoG-branded game of the year. (Of course, if this one got a long pointless political lecture glued to the middle of it during later editing like HR2, Iām going to be rather disappointedā¦)
And for that matter, while it had some flaws (including the bad political lecture), I found HR2 fairly entertaining overall too. Thatās coming from someone who hated HR1.
I love Slammed! Slammed! is nothing like The Fleet, or Choice of the Ninja. (Well I assume with the Fleet since Iāve not played it).
Paoloās a great writer and Slammed! is one of the best choice games. It has a good balance of choices that have an impact, and story, and even the fail-endings make for great reading. Professional wrestling has absolutely no interest for me either, but it was still a highly enjoyable game with a great story and interesting characters.
I liked Heroes Rise 2 as well, although it is flawed what game isnāt? And itās a vast improvement on the first game. Itās also the most popular game on the site so clearly it is doing something right.
It was only City of the Clouds that was seriously bad. All the games Iāve bought so far are mainly worth it; compare any recently released ones to City of the Clouds and youāll feel a lot better.
@FairyGodfeather No argument. I defer to you on Slammed, and I completely agree on HR2. It is a vast improvement on the first game.
@Wyrmspawn I started City of the Clouds and couldnāt finish it. It wasnāt badly written, I just wasnāt part of the intended audience. For that matter, most people arenāt part of this gameās very limited target audience. If youāve never studied for a masterās or PhD in the humanities than you probably will find City of the Clouds rather dull.
Well, most CoG users arenāt on the fora, so while weāre loud, weāre also a minority.
I definitely agree that Ninja was a botch; Iād say it was as much of a botch as Heroes Rise, and coming from me, that means I wonāt be touching it again. (Also, Iām not touching Heroes Rise 2 because I hated 1.)
I liked The Fleet (it was short but very tactically interesting), I liked Till Death Do Us Part (murderous political intrigue for the win), and I liked Slammed! despite having no interest in pro wrestling; the dialogue and writing quality was nearly a match for Sabres of Infinity (and Cataphrakās ability to write dialogue is unequalled on this site).
Oh, and yes, Orpheus Ruse is good, giving me hope that weāre turning 'round again.
Heroes Rise is one of their best selling games. Itās not a botch. I enjoyed Heroes Rise, especially after the fixes that had been made to it. I am glad I didnāt buy it when it was released since I do think certain things would have frustrated me. But the version that exists now is enjoyable. Iāve gone back and replayed it.
I didnāt enjoy Choice of the Ninja though and that was because the choices just didnāt matter. Heroes Rise at least had some variation, there was absolutely none in Choice of the Ninja. Each choice would just impact the next section of dialogue and that was it. The one thing remembered was whether you agreed to that womanās deal or not. Otherwise you couldnāt fail, you couldnāt alter the story in any sort of meaningful way. I didnāt even feel like I was playing a proper ninja.
I really enjoyed Choice of the Vampire 1, Choice of the Broadsides, Choice of the Dragon, Choice of the Star Captain, the Choice of Romance trilogy, Eerie Estate Agent, Way Walkers: University 1 and 2, Sabres of Infinity, Life of a Wizard, and Apex Patrol.
I didnāt really like The Fleet, Choice of the Ninja, To the City of the Clouds, Choice of the Vampire 2, Paranoia, What Happened Last Night?, Popcorn, Sodaā¦Murder?, Dead Already, Dilemma, Zebulon, Land of Three Classes, Sons of the Cherry or The Paradox Factor.
The rest were alright, but not great. Basically what Iām saying is there are good and bad gamebooks spread out through the labels and years, and although the first few were amazing, there are some amazing ones recently as well, and I donāt think theyāve gone downhill at all, theyāve just been inclusive with a lot of first time writers.
@Ramidel
I would think that Sabres of Infinity and Way Walkers: University 2 would give you hope:P
Iāll have to disagree with you there on The Paradox Factor. I loved The Paradox Factor. What were your problems with it?
With Choice of the Dragon, Choice of the Vampire, and Choice of Broadsides, I felt their endings were something of a disappointment. Well in so much as two of them didnāt seem like they had endings, just to be continueds.
@FairyGodfeather
I remember reading the old version (Mike made it in another programming language years ago, I think) and it actually had choices, whereas the Hosted Games version doesnāt. I loved the story, and the writing was good, but it was more of a puzzle than an actual interactive novel, because you were basically searching for options that allowed you to progress, instead of choosing your own. It was a cool concept and I respect that itās unique, but I didnāt appreciate that I couldnāt make my own choices.
And the reason I donāt count that as a bad thing is because Iām still hoping for sequels:P I think everyone wants a sequel, and they would be huge hits, considering how popular the debuts were, so I hope they decide to make one some day.
@Samuel_H_Young Yeah, I do think thatās a valid criticism, in so much as itās not really a game where you can influence the story heavily. I do think that it is an interactive novel though. Itās a story which you interact with, itās just different.
There are four endings so your choices do matter at the end, but admittedly that is just at the end. I liked it because it was different.
I like stories with set ends. Good solid endings. I loved that Slammed! had a proper ending. It was satisfying.
@FairyGodfeather
It was a clever concept, but if all of our games were like that, Iād resent them as much as Tin Man Games (they make interactive novels that are awesome, but then ruin them with dice rolling)
Really the only thing I liked that much about SLAMMED! was that it was amazingly longā¦it had fairly good writing but it seemed railroaded, the stats were too static and there were too many fake choices. Fake choices can be fine if used well, but too many of them just makes the gamebook linear and the choices too ineffectual.
I agree with FairyGodfeather. Slammed! was fantastic. While heroes rise I and II were both flawed I did enjoy both adventures. My biggest dislike of Ninja is the brevity of it, also the lack of distinct choices for the ending. Paradox was a different kind of adventure and it was alot of fun, it made me sad there were no āhappyā endings, but I think that the writer made that choice deliberately.
@Samuel_H_Young Tin man games with role dices are awesome . They are game books not interactive novel. They came from for rp gamebooks such as fight fantasy, lone wolf saga or fabled lands.
You are comparing two genres totally diferent , lol.
@R3dSt1ing although I was impressed that I was somewhat intrigued by a PRO WRESTLING gamebook, I still didnāt like it, probably because Iām not in the target audience.
@MaraJade
True, but I wish the outcome depended on your intelligence, strength or charisma as opposed to pure chance; it makes it annoying and impersonal. Plus, I feel no satisfaction at all if I win, and resentment when I lose. The writing and art are very good, but the dice rolling ruined it for me. But if you like that style of gamebook, I suggest checking out Warlockās Bounty. Itās a gamebook with card playing.
I only ever do this with Choice Of and Kairosoft games.