Okay I finished Fatehaven this morning, so here’s my review, for what it’s worth.
And I’m going to use the “three stars and a wish” assessment I used when I taught elementary school. I’d really encourage other folks to use similar assessments. It focuses on the positives while identifying one area for growth. Even though we’re not kids anymore, we’re all human and we tend to focus more on peoples’ criticisms than on their compliments, so why not give more praise and encourage growth as writers? That’s just my take on things.
*Star 1* This was one of my favorite narratives of the dozen or so CoGs and HGs that I’ve read. It really felt like the MC grew and matured over the course of the story. The stakes kept getting higher. And I did like that ending. It was unexpected and clever.
*Star 2* I enjoyed the characters immensely. I loved Patch (is it wrong I found her extremely sexy?) and pretty much all the folks at Redwater, including the little bard, and I thought Brigid had a nice little story arc. The characters’ dialogue and motivations rang true to me. I was truly upset when I find out that Patch was going to…well I won’t insert a spoiler. They seemed like real people, and to me, that’s what writers should strive to create.
*Star 3* I admit it. For the most part, I liked the tongue-in-cheek narration. I laughed (or at least smirked) many times. And in my view, humor is really hard to pull off in a CoG/HG or really in any writing. I remember lines like “every inch counts” when referring to the dagger and how “on paper,” a mage, rogue and knight would be a good combination. I also remember some line about something that happened nearly being a “bad plot device.” @MultipleChoice has a sense of humor that I appreciate, and I’m sure it took a lot of time to think of all those wisecracks.
*Wish* I would have liked more agency and control of the story. I understand that @MultipleChoice viewed Fatehaven as much more on the “story” end of the “story versus game” spectrum, and I respect that. However, it was frustrating to me not to influence the outcome very much, if at all. I felt like I was along for the ride, watching a movie where I was thinking, “If I were him, I’d do that!” and once in a while, getting a chance to coach the MC. I did pause and consider the ramifications for a few choices, like whether to proceed with Brigid’s plan to access the tower as opposed to Patch’s, but I’m not sure if it made any difference. I would replay and make different choices to test my theory, but the length of the game makes that very difficult.
Overall, I enjoyed Fatehaven. To me, the stars far outweigh the wish. Now would I love to see @MultipleChoice write another CoG/HG adventure with a bit more player agency? Yes, I’d really look forward to that.