The Superlatives: Aetherfall — Lead a superpowered team to save Victorian London

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We’re proud to announce that The Superlatives: Aetherfall, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, and Android. It’s 30% off until Octobet 26th!

Lead a superpowered team of “Superlatives” to defend 19th-century Victorian London! Battle a Martian warship, clockwork monsters, and nefarious inventors.

The Superlatives: Aetherfall is a 260,000-word interactive novel by Alice Ripley. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

The prestigious Society for the Advancement of Individuals of Superlative Talent and the Protection of the Queen has invited you to become their newest member! But on the very day the Society plans to initiate you, unknown Villains destroy the Society headquarters and kidnap your colleagues! As the sole remaining full member of the Superlative Society, you must initiate new recruits to investigate the abduction.

Meet your team: Nimble—faster than lightning; Wailer—a “banshee” with sharp blades and sonic shriek attacks; Arturek—the gruff Martian warrior; Tua—a Venusian who commands the power of plants; and Black Orchid—a strangely familiar new recruit. Your efforts are bolstered by your faithful Clockwork assistant, Gatsby, and your always-butting-in rival, Hallow.

Will your gain your team’s trust and convince them to work together, or will they fall apart under the pressure? Will you cut a deal with London’s Villains, or even turn the Society into Villains yourself? Will you trust the mysterious Dusk and Mr. Ink, who offer you help, or will you uncover their many secrets?

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bisexual, asexual, or aromantic
• Draw power from your preternatural nature, alien heritage, or genius gadgets
• Protect the Earth from torrential aetherfalls
• Keep your identity secret from your nosy landlady, Mrs. Rathbone
• Negotiate with minute Mercurian monarchs (Mercurians stand only four inches tall)
• Push your teammates to transcend their origins or pursue their destiny
• Foil the Nefarious Clockwork Contraptions of Dr. Eisengeist and discover his origins

Don your mask, take to the skies, and God save the Queen!

We hope you enjoy playing The Superlatives: Aetherfall. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend the game on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our ranking on the App Store. The more times you download in the first week, the better our games will rank.

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Are there romance options in The Superlatives? It’s not called out among the bullet-pointed features (as it usually is), so I thought I’d ask.

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If it says: play as gay/straight/bi/ace, etc, that means there are romance options :slight_smile:

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I’m not sure if this is the right place to point out bugs and the sort, but I encountered the following during my playthrough:

Summary

(I don’t seem to be able to attach a screenshot, so text only will have to do)

I chose the highwaymen mission and selected Nimble as a scout. He appears to be the scout and a member of the rest of the team at the same time. Unless I misunderstood the whole situation.

“Nimble needs help! Let’s go!” you call to the others and launch yourself into the air. The underbrush shakes as Nimble races by under you, toward the sounds of fighting.

  • Call Nimble back; you can’t risk everyone getting separated.

  • Catch up with Nimble with a burst of aether; the others can follow.

  • Let Nimble get ahead. The sooner Nimble gets help, the better.

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Excellent–thank you!

Please stop releasing so many great-sounding games : )

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I’m not yet through my first playthrough and I can already confidently say that this is my favorite game since The Eagle’s Heir (and not just bc I have a soft spot for period intrigue with elements of steampunk).

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Ah man… I’ve been waiting for this game for a week now…

I mention that because I’ve been let down a few times after waiting a while for a game (high expectations and all that)

Before I start a a review, I want to report a couple bugs:’

  1. There’s a couple errors in the Dusk romance path. She will still show you the gadget in her chest later in the game, before the final act, even if she’s already shown you during the romance path. Additionally, this struck me as fairly major, there is a bug that sends you to protect Gatsby if you select the “Protect Dusk” option. As in the “choice” will read “Protect the hostage, you have to protect Dusk at all costs” but the very next page will feature a confused Gatsby wondering why you’re busting into his room. If I had to surmise, it’s a coding issue.

Not sure if it’s possible but if this could be passed on to the author, I think it could enhance the game greatly.

As far as the game itself goes, it’s fantastic work. Good depth of characters and immersion, as well as a well-designed array of character options for customization and control. The concept is quite interesting, and the writing tone hits the perfect note to immerse the player in the game world.

The first two acts of the game develop at a perfect pace, establishing all the necessary pieces for an endgame third act. However, the last couple chapters develop in a slightly unfocused manner (though I likely have a compromised view due to the aforementioned bug altering the game experience). I particularly admired the frequent foreshadowing of future events; they evoked that “I knew it!” feeling when my suspicions were proved correct.

The Final Battle, however, was a masterfully executed set piece. Honestly the best I’ve read since Blogia.

All in all, a promising entry into the CoG library (and I’d like to extend a personal congratulations to the author)

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Don’t report bugs here. Email bug reports (with screenshots) to me.

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It’s not, you should email bugs to support@choiceofgames.com, screenshots helpful. Just reading through this, though…I don’t think it’s a bug. It looks like perhaps a misreading on your part/slightly obscure phrasing on the part of the author.

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Aw man. I’m not hugely into Steampunk but I loved this game. Assuming it’s even Steampunk. Feels more pulpish to me, with some extra etiquette and brass fixtures thrown in which clearly isn’t a bad thing.

Anyway. The main story was good but the Epilogue was perfect in every way. That really made the game for me.

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The author would beg you to know it is not steampunk.

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In my defence I took my cue from this:

But I am relieved to continue my disinterest in all matters Steampunk untainted. And still enjoy Aetherfall.

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Yeah. You’ll note I think that in the game’s actual marketing descriptions there isn’t any reference to steampunk.

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Meh. I’m not a fan of steampunk or machines powered by magic (or anything that isn’t oil). Even though I did a full playthrough and managed to do most of the quests I don’t feel like doing a test because it’s going to be very subjective.

If I had to give it a note… Dunno, anywhere between 11 and 16. Because as I said I am not apt to note it this time.

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Can’t talk to companions after update？I caught lily and nimble,before the update I could talk to lily and wailer then.But now they said there’s nothing to talk about

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Thank you for this game. Am totally in love :heart_eyes: with Dusk! And in another play through I wanted to romance Jane but I just could not resist choosing Dusk! Sorry Jane!
BTW can MC RO Wailer?

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You can only romance Jane, Hugh and Dusk.

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Right, thanks for that :+1:

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I really loved the game, and maybe I am just biased becuase of those Doctor Who references. Though I still love that Torchwood-esque feel. For me it is definetely worth a buy.

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As an aside, Mary,

While it may not be the right place, it’s definitely not a misreading, you choose to protect Dusk, and it jumps you to “Protect Gatsby’s” Scene instead, afterward the villain comments that they thought you’d be running to protect Dusk or defending your HQ. You are unable to make that choice as it stands on that path. I’m thinking of putting my playthrough on hold until it’s fixed, since that’s kind of huge.

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