Hey, all. I’ve been ‘back’ for a bit, but never really shared anything about my hiatus. Not going to go too deep, but between an apartment burning down and a few major life changes, I sort of shut down for a bit and it took a bit to get back to a point where I realized I was missing purpose.
Most of the ones I’ve posted since I’ve been back were ones I’d read and started writing on. Gonna still try to prioritize new releases (why Lies Under Ice is up next), but I’ve made some changes to certain things. Not using Twitter anymore for what should be obvious reasons, least of which is not wanting to send xhits, and not posting deadlines for myself. I’m still going to keep to a review (or two) a week in most cases.
I’ll slowly roll new releases I missed out into my current listing. If I find some other platform to announce reviews, I’ll look into adding it later.
Otherwise, glad to be back. Glad to be welcomed back. Glad to be reading again.
It’s lovely to see you again and I’m very glad to read your reviews (though gladder that you’re in a better situation having had what sounds like a very intense and tough time!) - just take things at a pace that’s right for you.
We are glad you’re here, and especially so if it is helping you deal with some other rough patches in your life. I pray you’ll be able to get some comfort from the familiarity of your review routine.
Also, Street Fighter movie referenced! Gotta love a dying man taking a role that was beneath him just to make his kids happy.
Delighted to see you back (really – promise I’m not just reppin for the Joels), sorry to hear things have been rough, and hope you take the reviews at whatever pace keeps them fun for you rather than a source of stress.
“We are above a great unknown depth,” Crux says. “While I don’t think you have thalassophobia, the ocean itself is a clear symbol of the unknown. We’re in uncharted waters here. And bigger space settlements have already failed. Some amount of concern is only natural….”
The idea that we know more about outer space than we know about the deep ocean is mind-blowing. That there are places within our own world that are more hostile to us, that bars entry more than outside our own atmosphere? Now, go try living there.
General Story:
Hand-picked by a major investor, you captain a colonization effort to the ice moon, Europa. Can you balance your own interests, the needs of your population, and the future of colonization across the stars? After you arrive, will you explore the deep waters below the ice. Is there more to the abyss than you think?
This is a management story in the vein of some previous titles, like Stronghold: A Hero’s Fate. The story is mostly reactive to the choices you made well before, instead of the choice you just made. You’ll choose the order of constructions, try to market Europa as a new home and engage with what may be psychological horrors inflicting by living in confined spaces… or maybe more.
Format and Typos:
The title itself is readable, with some minor already reported typos across my playthroughs.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
You’ll manage the normal opposed pairs, and various skills you’ve gained from your previous life within one of the major investors, but the bulk of this title is focused on managing your colony and the relationships with the power players back on Earth. This is a game of sacrificing one thing to bolster another. Did you bring more construction materials, or maybe rovers? The rovers would help you move the construction materials faster, but… well, you didn’t bring the materials. The materials will help build more, but you have to wait a while… you didn’t bring the rovers. Checks can use both skills or personality thresholds to pass, and tend to mitigate the negatives of specific actions if passed.
Replayability:
So much interactivity and variability. Something as simple as choosing to make an observatory to start, which requires that you build tunnels to the surface will influence you wanting to build something on the surface later. It is as simple as including a line like “this is easier because you already carved out tunnels to the surface”, but it really does make the story feel like it is yours, and you aren’t following something set in permafrost.
This focus on variability and various under-explained stats does hamper understanding if you are trying to figure out to get to specific endings. Another thing that suffers is that the major powers that are supporting you don’t really ‘feel’ different. They definitely have their own moments, usually administrative (and usually blackmail-y moments), but each of them lean on you in the same way at the same time, with the only difference being the resource or direction they want you to go in.
There are multiple romance options included in the title, but I would not suggest the title if that’s all you are looking for. They are there, and are serviceable for the most part. However, it might need a bit of a trigger warning for those who have issues with infidelity. There is a specific character who, though it is foreshadowed with what feels like one throw-away line right when you meet them, informs you that they’ve been cheating on you with another person after you’ve already ‘locked in’ the relationship. I feel like the game gives you some decent options to respond to it, but for some reason, this felt really bad. I understand that the moment is both realistic and it is supposed to be a realization moment for the other character that monogamy isn’t for them, but it’s at the players expense unless you decide you are fine with it after it has already occurred.
Dislikes:
No pun intended, but sometimes the world and the people involved can feel very sterile and cold.
Depending on your romance choices, you may want to be prepared for infidelity without much recourse or process time.
The peaceful resolution choice in the end doesn’t feel like it opens up a whole new world, but just makes this unknowable world in the depth of Europa not hostile? I feel like it missed the mark of what I was expecting in overcoming that problem of not knowing what we have in our own ocean depths, keeping a world hidden behind darkness.
Likes:
High levels of variability and how each situation is altered by your previous decisions makes for a high level of ownership in your story.
Interesting political conflicts, both Terran and Europan, allowing for quite a bit of nuance in how your purpose is presented to you.
The world of Europa’s deepest waters is equally amazing and scary. It really does capture that thalassophobic feel I’m sure the author was reaching for.
I fumbled mentally for a metaphor about information and cakes but gave up after a few moments. I would find it eventually, if it was important.
School is a pretty common theme in a lot of interactive fiction. It’s understandable, it works. Being a new student basically lets you start with a clean slate, few attachments, and no preconceived notions about goings-on. Mixing themes with school is even more common. Magic, supernatural…. I can think of at least 5 ChoiceScript games alone that use these mixed themes.
What generally makes all of those popular, however, is the amount of variability and ownership you have in a character you make. It’s perfect for self-inserts… the school experience, no matter how fantastical, is almost universal. So, it seems strange when this is the setting without the ability to self-insert.
General Story:
You are a genius, recruited by a mysterious and menacing benefactor to attend an influential academy under the guise of a student. But your real purpose is to act as eyes and ears within those high walls. A murder mystery and some minor psychological horror await.
Being upfront, this is a short story interrupted occasionally by choices. There is something to like here, especially if you are a fan of prim and proper dialogue that fools you into thinking everyone is smarter and better at holding a cup of tea than you are. Simultaneously, the read also almost evokes that feeling of children existing in a world without grown ups (to a certain point). If the story had stuck with it, it would have felt much closer to Oliver Twist or Annie where the only adults are villains or saints.
Format and Typos:
A few errors that tended to be related to coding issues. Line breaks where variables were supposed to be, that sort of thing.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
Opposing personality pairs that enable or disable dialogue options depending on the level, and make some alterations in the text, such as reacting shyly when spoken to if your Shy is higher than your Brash, for example. A few hidden stats did this as well, but were hard to follow and comprehend without the code open.
Replayability:
Almost none. Choosing to play male or female is essentially setting the names of other characters and some minor descriptions. There are no real personal choices you make up until the very end of the title (within one to two pages at the end). This is also the only real branch in the story.
Dislikes:
So many options blocked behind stats, and often being forced into picking only one option. Illusion of choice, but not really holding up the illusion.
You can choose your name, and influence a personality, but that is about the extent of your impact on the story.
Wide swaths of text without interaction.
Likes:
This is a short story that artfully mixes a twist and a compelling unknown backstory.
Some of the mental descriptions of anguish and confusion work fairly well.
Characters that were important to the story were written to be fairly three-dimensional, allowing for opinions to change and morph throughout.
It sounds more like the kinds of games that came out in the very beginning, except by this point the label was already several years old. Of course, even now a HG comes out every now and then which eschews actual interactivity. Have to take the bad with the good when it comes to the largely editor-free label.
Definitely like some of the older titles, that minor gamification of a short story. I am starting to learn that one of my irks is greyed out choices (with very few exceptions) basically removing your ability to choose.
Those exceptions are when it’s done a few times across games to illustrate that choice has been removed from you against your will. Mental anguish, psychological horror, compulsion, that sort of thing.
I’d rather risk failure choosing something I don’t meet the stat requirements for than have the ability of choice removed from me. I give a little more leeway when the missed requirement is listed in the choice, like in the old BioWare games, because it sort of guided you in a specific direction for further replays.
Luckily, you are only around the corner from the Museum of Natural History, and you could be there in a couple of minutes. You rush toward the edge of the park, put your suit on in an alleyway, and climb the wall and jump from rooftop to rooftop to the museum.
One of my favorite MMO experiences was playing City of Heroes. There was so much variety in character creation, and I played with my brother for the longest time. I was even logged in on the day the servers shut down. My favorite memory was competing and winning the backstory competitions that other players would hold right in front of city hall. Creating characters and having them be memorable is super important. This holds true for whatever you can cobble together for the PC in interactive fiction from what the author provides.
General Story:
In this world, a hero or a villain is created through happenstance. Your powers come from a glowing meteor shard you found while on vacation. It’s up to you who you are, what your powers are, and whether you use them for good or evil.
Starting with a very stat heavy character creation, you’ll find yourself in an almost episodic story where you take on the Steel Aeronaut and your boss, Emily. If that sounds like differing levels of importance, it kinda is. Early on, you’ll balance a day job with your cape job. There are so many different threads you can follow that none of them really feel exceptionally fleshed out, so the payoff doesn’t really land. This is a game that is much more about the mechanics than the story. I will say that I was not an exceptionally big fan of the ending that was updated when the sequel came out to connect the two titles.
Quite a bit of what is included in the game is going to be familiar to anyone who consumes any type of superhero media. Some story beats seem lifted straight from the pages and movie reels we’ve all grown familiar with.
Format and Typos:
Readability suffers a little bit. There are so many variables in the code, and so many different things you can do that sometimes a screen can just feel like a list of all the things you both have and haven’t done yet.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
It’s weird. This game feels like the opposite of many of some of my favorite titles. There is so much code that the average reader will never see, so many options and variations that aren’t really woven into the game as seamlessly as it could be… but it still works. This feels almost like a simulation game for day-to-day life of a superhero. Character creation is a beast, and it all starts with one of the neatest ideas for difficulty.You create your character using a point system, and game difficulty is just ‘how many of these points do you get’? More points equals easier difficulty.
You’ll get days and evenings where you’ll decide what you are doing, which tend to be either ‘experience filler episodes’ or raise your stats.
Combat is actually tracked through HP and damage. Damage resistance, accuracy and damage dealt are all based on your stats and powers.
Some opposed personality pairs, and skills that determine effectiveness of combat or even how much you make at your civilian job.
Replayability:
This is the bread-and-butter of this title. There are so many power-sets and variations in the game (expanded with a relatively recent update). Romances aren’t exceptionally deep, but there are a few scenes here and there (sometimes it’s difficult to know if you have any chance of being successful at pursuing them, too). A lot of your options during your time off are missions that turn into side episodes. Often, you’ll need to devote multiple days to complete one of these threads.
All of this means that you’ve got a pretty much endlessly replayable title, even if it just to see the little variations that have been included in each episode and this isn’t even including the fact that you can work towards being a Hero or a Villain (ooooh, he said the title of the thing!). There are achievements that can point towards paths you haven’t taken. There are still paths I’ve never even seen in the game, and I’ve probably put in at least 30 hours into the game since I originally played it.
Dislikes:
Wide as a comic book story arc, shallow as a comic book page.
If you aren’t interested in stats, the story here isn’t much more than what you’d expect from the Super Friends in the 80’s.
Mind powers introduce some moral quandaries. This is on brand for those powers, but it is worth mentioning.
Likes:
So many different options during setup, it almost feels like a character creation session with a superhero-themed tabletop RPG like Champions.
Difficulty being attached to how powerful your character is just makes so much sense in a world with superheroes.
So much content. You’ll have to play a lot to see every path and variation.
I take all the points you make, and I generally agree with your assessment of my own game I am glad you liked the character creation! Even the dislikes Wide as a comic book story arc, shallow as a comic book page. I am happy with… as I was indeed going for a comic book feeling, so I am very happy in a sense if I achieved that. Much of the game mechanics are indeed based on the Marvel Superheroes RPG, and when thinking of some of the stories I was often flicking through old comic books… dealing with your boss is kind of what like Peter Parker has to deal with (Mr. Jameson). The game continues to expand, and some of the storylines indeed have more depth than others, and I am glad that you appreciate the replayability (I am hoping to continue to improve and expand the game in the future). The ending is…what it is, as I needed by necessity to bottleneck everything into one path. My hope is that in the future I will be able to have two endings, one where you stay on Earth (going to Book 4 in the series) and one were you go to space (Book 2, as now). But, I still need to work quite a lot to get to that! Regarding book 1 my next task should be to try to improve the ROs in the game… my last update did a bit to improve that, but maybe I need to do a lot more!
Anyway, thanks so much for taking the time to review the game, much appreciated!
You are absolutely welcome, and thanks much for the game as well. Even with the negatives, I ranked it pretty high in my list and I stand by that. It’s impressive and ticks all of those satisfaction boxes. It’s like playing in a sandbox game, with all of the good and bad that style of game can muster. Throw in the threat of Flint Marko, and you’ve got a fun playground experience.
Glad that it comes across as a sandbox, as that is kind of what I wanted to make. Obviously there is a limit, but each time I update the game the number of options (in terms of the main story paths -the game starts to branch significantly after a point-, number of powers, side missions throughout the game, etc). Anyway, looking forward to seeing what you think of Battle Royale… it is a bit of a different beast, and suffers from me having spent less time developing it more as a sandbox (last update improved things slightly, but I reckon I need a proper DLC to fully flesh it out…)
Taking out one of its discs, the Lanista shows you a holographic projection of a group of three large lizardfolk. Each has sharp teeth, a long and powerful tail, and scaly purple skin.
“There is a request for one of our fighters to attend a mating contract between these three individuals. They are all of the Hizzhhhhhafolk race and are delaying the signature until one of our fighters agrees to go. Apparently, in their culture the presence of a renowned warrior is seen as auspicious.”
Sometimes it feels like the thing most people want is a copy of what has been done previously, but with enough internal variation so as to not feel like a complete retread. Sometimes a theme shift is enough, and sometimes it works against preconceptions.
General Story:
Following a maybe prestigious career as a hero or villain on Earth, you find yourself called to a competition between the greatest warriors of the galaxy. Plucked from your bed, you immediately get to work proving yourself to your patron and improving yourself to stay afloat in battles to the death. If you have any time left, you may want to watch the advancing Rebel fleets on the news.
This sequel is narrative whiplash, to be honest. You jump from a nostalgia-driven superhero story to a gladiatorial arena inhabited by aliens and super warriors that no one would blink at in a super sentai. There is a definite heavier focus this time around on a central story with specific beats, so it feels a little more coherent in advancement. Like last time, there are multiple story threads hidden behind the interlude activities that you can advance while taking on the gladiatorial fights. The central story arc really helps with getting to know the other characters around you, and makes them feel like people (and creatures) who exist outside of your line of vision.
Most titles feel like they benefit from playing one immediately after another. It’s why I set up my process to include jumping sequels and prequels ahead to play them all at once. I’m going to say I’d treat this title like Super Troopers and Super Troopers 2. You will enjoy the second one more if you put some space in between it. The title, like Super Troopers 2, uses some situations and events almost word for word from the first game and this is super noticeable if you play it immediately after the first. With a bit of space between the two, this feels more like nostalgic throwback and less like retread.
Format and Typos:
A lot of alien words, but few direct typos were noticed. Readability is good. Simple to follow, very apparent where extra information from your variability is placed as it can sometimes feel out of place. This makes your choices feel rewarding.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
Very much a continuation of Genesis. You have your powers and abilities from your previous game, and you’ll spend your interludes training up a couple of new skills (alien tech and alien biology), getting cyberware implants to upgrade your abilities further, getting to know your new squad mates and crime-fighting or crime-doing in the wider world of this new city.
Replayability:
Still the bread and butter of this title. Between loading characters from your previous career, pursuing the new serviceable romance options (including one returning), trying out the multiple paths and determining if you consider your new position an honor or forced servitude, you’ll have many playthroughs of the title. These plays will probably be quicker and quicker each round though, as there isn’t too much depth in each of the paths you might follow.
Dislikes:
If you play this title immediately after Genesis, you’ll notice re-used story beats lifted whole cloth from the previous title with words swapped out during some of the minor interludes. Whether intended as a throwback, or used to save on writing effort, it is a bit jarring.
It can be really difficult to understand how to start and maintain romances in the title.
Completely subjective, but I was not an immediate fan of the tonal shift from the comic book nostalgia into a space wars gladiator B-movie.
Likes:
Awesome combat segments, and a lot more instances to use your combat focused powers.
Much better at making you feel invested in the important NPC’s than the previous title.
Super Sentai style enemies and aliens make for much more memorable foes and characters.
You wade into the knee-high grass, and looking down at your feet, you almost forget there’s a house behind you. The ground is carpeted with dandelions, clover, dark moss, and pale flat-capped mushrooms. Unlike the indoors, which has been left to decay, the yard is thriving with life.
My mom was always working on her own little plot of nature next to our concrete slab porch. It started as a garden with Buddha statues, but when we got our new trailer and the porch went from our front yard to our backyard, she transitioned to a large koi pond that she had built. One of my earliest memories was being taught to read out of thick orange covered wildflower plant almanac and helping plant elephant ears. Most of my memories of that tiny little biome are positive… except for the pampas grass bushes we used as a privacy fence next to the road. Screw those little organic papercut factories.
General Story:
You are a witch in a new town, but it wasn’t really your choice. Ever the mysterious one, your grandmother sends you to stay in your childhood home in the town Silvertree after a strange occurrence in the deep forest and warns you to keep your magic a secret. As you settle into your new home, you find out that there are plans to bulldoze the forest to make way for developments. Can you save the forest, meet people and figure out why your grandmother sent you back here? You better hope so. What’s a forest witch without a forest?
This is a story that is trying to balance between a mystery plot and a cozy slice of life. Small town charms and small town woes. Even though there is impending doom in the way of NIMBY plots (especially considering the forest is literally your backyard), it never feels like anything moves very quickly throughout the story. The coziness, along with the mystery, sometimes come off as more lonely than anything. The space between conversations often have very detailed descriptions of the world and nature, but little in the way of connection to much besides that nature. You’ll attempt to suss out the mystery of both the developers and your own grandmother, but the information feels so much like a placement exam word problem. So much information is thrown at you in places that you end up becoming a little fatigued in trying to parse out what is important and what isn’t.
Format and Typos:
Very few typos, but readability suffers a little from long pages of text without breaks. I feel like I should explain this feeling when it comes to interactive fiction, though a lot of it is explained in just the name. This game doesn’t lack for amount of choices, but imagine you have a gauge that fills when you are interacting with a title (making choices, checking for stat changes, etc.), and drains when you aren’t. I always feel like more breaks cause a little pause in that drain, like it signals the brain that something new is happening so you become more aware for that bit of time.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
Standard opposed pairs for personality, and quite a few stats to manage. The mystery side of the title has a lot of hidden stats that will affect your endings, like how obvious it is you are a witch or how well you are advocating for the trees. Some of the stat choices get a little confusing. Like, what specifically is being agile? Does that use your speed or your precision? I’d assume being annoyed that you are wasting time might boost your ‘Doer’ opposed personality, but it seems to bump your Speed skill. That sort of thing. A lot of this is actually covered in the skill descriptions in the stats page, but even the descriptions seem to confuse things a little themselves. Using the included descriptions, Witchcraft is checked when casting spells, but Strength is checked when casting particularly powerful spells. Influence is used for trying to persuade or advocate, but strength is used for making a passionate argument.
Replayability:
There are quite a few romance options in the title (and an option to turn off the ability to pursue romance if you’d like), so the title has quite a bit of potential for replay. The mystery and ending outcomes add a very small amount on top of that. All of the romance options are worth pursuing, but I will say that two of them felt like they are ‘canon’ choices, as much as that can be in interactive fiction. They either have more relevance to the story, or have more heartfelt content.
Dislikes:
Dialogue sometimes feels a bit stilted, and at odds with what you choose.
Cozy moments feel lonely, and mystery moments often feel like they don’t have a foreshadowed payoff.
Stats often feel like they have too many overlapping uses.
Likes:
Descriptions of nature in moments of solitude are superb. You really get a feeling of being in a primordial natural world.
Many characters feel like they fit inside their world perfectly, shining when they get their moment.
Some interesting bits of interactivity with your new home, from how tidy you are to how much you want to hear an internal soundtrack of ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Axl Rose every time you open your door.
My first year out of college, I was on the west coast with the NCCC, and one of our gigs was going into California parks where the (non-native, invasive) pampas grass had got out of people’s gardens and colonized gullies, in clumps the size of my garage. I literally almost lost an eye to the stuff, and still have fine scars on my arms from those freaking enormous organic papercut factories.
I’m glad to see that these reviews are back, I really enjoy reading them! In particular I like to see your take on the games I’ve already played and the quote you use as the intro (Breach’s one still remains my favourite one!)
Thank you for the time you put in them, can’t wait to read the next ones!
Even should the throne or England itself ever fall, and all knighthood and chivalry be lost from the kingdom, the tales of mere squires will never be forgotten as long as they showed courage and honor, whether it be in these green lands or beyond the fields we know.
I’ve seen some complaints levied that the game demos for ChoiceScript games often include the most engaging part of the title. I tend to think that this is because there seems to be a strong theme, some descriptive action and not many plot threads to dilute a narrative direction (on top of the most engaging part: character creation). These serve to draw people in and market the title. You want to see what else the story has to offer and if it can continue its promise.
I think this game locked its best behind the end of the demo, but didn’t offer enough to entice people to cut their way through the brambles and thorns to see what wonders it offered on the other side.
General Story:
As a squire in service to both the Crown and your Lady, you find yourself investigating the disappearance of the King’s younger brother. A harrying chase of leads brings you to the entrance of a colorful fair, where all isn’t quite what it seems. Serve with honor, remember your loyalties, and carry a bit of cold iron.
The theme is a major bright spot in this title, mixing sort of a prim and proper story of chivalry with the fae realms of trickery and mischief. It is unfortunate, though, that there isn’t much to make you feel like you are actually in this world. You are essentially a silent protagonist, your choices and words are described or responded to, but you are a blank slate. This leaves everything feeling a lot more impersonal. Dialogue suffers, because every NPC has to both say what they are meaning to say, and why they are saying it, because you don’t ask questions or provide leading statements.
This story feels so back-ended as well, you are on a breakneck pace through this story until half-way through the title. There are a few very robust chapters, but the title settles back into a frenetic pace to end.
Format and Typos:
I didn’t come across any typos over the course of my playthrough. Readability is high, with only some unfamiliar words that might require quick access to a search engine to suss out. I felt like there were common issues with determining what specific stats would be tested, as well.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
Standard opposed pairs for personality, some choices at the end of the title require high or low personality to pass. There are also a couple of cumulative stats for Honor and Loyalty, depending on meeting the chivalrous code. There are a lot of skills in this title, seven in total. I was hard pressed to get any of them much higher than 40 percent, but the checks are low enough to be satisfied by these numbers. I believe this title may have benefited from having a non-percentage based skill set. Either using descriptions, or pips. Generally ChoiceScript games have trained me that I should have a high 70% at least in something to succeed in tests at the end of a title.
Replayability:
Replayability is fairly decent. There are quite a few romance options, and a major portion of the endgame and who accompanies you depends on who you’ve decided to align with. In fact, in a few playthroughs under my belt, there is still an NPC I’ve never met. There are specific parts of the mystery that you’ll likely only find out on separate playthroughs.
Dislikes:
Not having the PC be vocal, and just describing their actions and words makes the title super impersonal.
The beginning is a slog, and doesn’t really convey the strong theme that the title depends on.
It was sometimes confusing to determine what skill would be tested in non-combat situations.
Likes:
The theme is amazing, and the writing brings out that chivalry-meets-changeling feeling.
The fair(e?) is one of my favorite places in a ChoiceScript game. The descriptions alone, especially as a character who is more open to the supernatural, are stunning.
A good twist, and parts of the story all mesh well together as each playthrough will provide you a different insight into what has really happened.
Nicki takes your hand and you start down the star-shaped walk. According to the directions Darien has written out for you, the zoo should be just on the other side of the huge park near Brimstone Manor. The day has proved bright and warm, with sunlight turning the grass a brilliant green and the shadows cast by trees planted in various yards offering welcome patches of shade. The fresh air only accents how stuffy the interior of the manor is, and you breathe in deep lungfuls and let your body relax.
This title came out in a time when I was concerned that much of the Heart’s Choice titles weren’t going to really land with me as a reader. I am mostly going to want to be able to self-insert and that is going to mean I want to play a heterosexual male character. I prefer multiple options of romanceable characters of course, but I have read plenty of titles where there was one very well done option due to the sheer focus that is provided to developing that…
Unfair or not, this title kept me from coming back to Heart’s Choice for a very long time.
General Story:
Your past has brought you to the doorstep (well, back gate) of Brimstone Manor. Are you ready to settle into the position of nanny to the cutest demon child? Can you brave his hellhound protector and keep from falling for the head of the house? There is plenty of intrigue to be found amid the sleepless nights. Is the truth more important than your charge?
Nothing in this title shines more than the relationship between you and little Nicki. You will find yourself imitating Rosa Diaz with Arlo at a speed that is frankly amazing. For me, this is almost enough to carry the story from beginning to end but the title is touted as a romance novel. You’ll need to find substance in the romances to keep your attention. This, I believe, will be the largest draw to many. There are four options… two of which are probably meant to be the largest focus, one of which is a serviceable alternate… And one I found particularly disappointing…
I was drawn in originally to this title because, while it very much seemed tilted towards those seeking male companionship in the main Angel and Demon, there was an option for a female love interest. Honestly, though, this is one of the most lacking options within the title. In a supernatural romance novel, the only female love interest is a gender-variable human who is technically working against the main theme within the title as they are trying to spy on the family you’ve opted to protect and care for and expose the supernatural world.
Format and Typos:
No typos, and good readability.
Game Mechanics and Stats:
Opposed personality pairs and skills. Your standard fare. A few side stats that track your current job security, just how hidden the supernatural is, and where your position on the quarrel of heaven and hell stands. Never really ran into any difficulty with determining which skill applies to which option, but some of the side attributes were a bit confusing.
Replayability:
Depending on your romantic preferences, you may be able to find a good two to three play-throughs of the title… or you might end up with one disappointing one unless you are willing to avoid playing as a self-insert.
Dislikes:
The title feels very short and a bit break-neck in where it wants to go.
The supernatural reveal in this title felt a little flat, and had almost no real exploration of what that meant for the main character.
Some romance options feel like they were meant more for the bullet-points and not for the readers.
Likes:
The showdown at the end of the title was interesting, and fully utilized the supernatural theme.
Very few other titles have made me feel as protective of a character as quickly. This relationship alone could have carried the entire title.
I can readily see that both Darien and Michael would appeal to someone more interested in pursuing a male romance option.
