The problem with that is he assigns pronouns to Vaccus and TUO and he’s never communicated with either. If the gestalt was responsible for him assuming gender-neutral pronouns when not knowing their preferred, then they go against those rules. I just want the setting to be internally consistent.
Though, as you said, the revelation renders it a moot point but up until then it is just confusing.
I meant to suggest something about it during playtesting, about the
pronoun thing after meeting Dhanthik, but I might have forgotten.
Or maybe the PC's race have "genderdar" as part of their empathy,
and even while losing it after the full absorb it might have been included
in the enhanced reality vision.I bought it, I played it a while, and… I just dunno. I’m not particularly impressed, not as much as the others on this thread. At the very least, I enjoyed Heroes Rise a lot more than this one.
For a long, long while, the entire game was a data dump - worldbuilding, with customisation choices.
Later on in the game, it becomes a game of conformity. You are expected to “pick the correct choice” to maximise your growth and mastery stats. Much like Heroes Rise maxes the legend stat.
Overall, I felt that the writing wasn’t as amusing as Heroes Rise, and that the worldbuilding was mashed into the opening of the story - way too rushed, way too concentrated. If the worldbuilding had been carried out like Heroes Rise - giving you information choice by choice, letting you learn about the world as you play along - I’d have loved it more.
Additionally - the player character appears to lack… character, for the lack of a better term. In Heroes Rise, the player character is always sort of dumb, snarky, and his narration reflects that. In Versus, the main character is basically a shut-in who has never seen the world at all - and I don’t think the narration really conveyed the player character’s personality. The narration reads like Heroes Rise, only with different fantasy-words (and less jokes).
Of course, all of these complaints really just come down to personal preference, and I suppose I’ve learnt a lesson to never buy a game based only on its author’s name.
That said, what I think most people can agree on is that Versus lacked was a sense of completion, of resolution. There was a lot of stuff that was set up - and most of it was left unresolved by the end of the game. That doesn’t necessarily make it bad. Loads of first books in great series do that. But a Choice Of Game isn’t just a book - it’s also a game. And in games, there has to be some sort of magical solution that solves some, if not all, of the player character’s problems, or it’s going to feel as though struggling through the game again and again is just utterly pointless. Without that sort of resolution, the CoG doesn’t have as much of replayability in it - because nothing is resolved anyway, it just changes how things are set up for the beginning of the second game.
So just wondering, am I the only one who got through this game and was totally not down with Hir when we found out what shi had proposed to the Rebels and the robots? I don’t know, once I found out hir goal I was just like, “okay then I see our hero is tripping some serious balls.”
Overall it was a fun game. Looking forward to the next installation.
Well I know I wasn't that surprised, what Dhanthik proposed for the robots
and the humans is basically what the MC’s planet is all about, collectively
sharing one’s viewpoint and abilities.
The PC will be pretty close to what ze proposed after a full absorb of the
binarian, I figure.
Which is why I’m of the mind that once I save the planet if possible I’ll be out of there as fast as possible. Just feels a little too twilight zone for my MCs taste. If I can I’ll try to move to Ruton and destroy the robots. From there the galactic human empire will be formed.
Likely not possible you say? Pshh who needs likelihood? My new world will gather its forces, forge an alliance with the demigods and together we shall rule the galaxy. Or I’m gonna play through the next versus game and have everyone inevitably do what Dhanthik wants and fight the tar monsters. sigh the woes of being an amateur galactic warlord.
I thought it was pretty funny how that was very much the same as a certain AAA game that had the same exact thing presented as the best choice but the playerbase didn’t bite.
Though you should expect a lack of player agency in games made by this author, while it allows him to weave great narratives it can sometimes make the player’s choices feel unimportant. I personally felt it was a step up compared to the Heroes trilogy.
@Wyrmspawn
I had a bit of a problem with that kind of structure as well, especially since some of the choices seemed nonsensical in which stats they corresponded to. It felt like an effort to get me to buy the ‘WorningBird’ IAP which left a bad taste in my mouth, at least the IAP in Heroes Rise could actually be obtained without real money (though it was incredibly difficult).
Considering the PC is likely to have absorbed a binarian and possibly a
bominate before you get off that death world, you might not seem any
more human than Dhanthik, so the robophobic Rutanians aren’t too
likely to be happy to see you.
For empire building, I’d suggest either taking over the the Blot empire
after absorbing the Empress, take over Cuttaria and build your own
terminator army.
Or heck, the PC's people are already xenophobic, whip up public
sentiment and you could lead your people to conquer the galaxy.
I liked the game overall. However the one thing I had a problem with was Dhanthik’s “vision”. I mean I would support peace between the androids and humans, but combining them together seems unnecessary to accomplish that. I get that they want to fight some greater evil but turing every member of their species into a machine hybrid is rather excessive. I would have liked to have my character be opposed to the idea but there was no option for that. Allowing the player to have an opinion on Dhanthik’s vision would be nice to have in the sequel.
It seems to be impossible to get full status when your goal is to ruthlessly join the elite court. You can’t get Todrick’s relationship high enough.
A single word is coming in my mind for this book, intense! I can’t wait for book two! For more scheming and deceiving! Muahahahahahahaha!!! 
ok I can understand that this is the first of three installs but it’s far too…for lack of a better word long winded for me on the lore of the game.I actually got bored reading two chapters in which I hate to say especially since I really enjoyed hero rise and would end up playing those for hours on end
@Wyrmspawn Exactly!!!
You just took the words out of my mouth. First of all this has so many similarities to HR, the robot goddess who is essentially BM, the bird on your belt which is your implant chip and so on.
Where HR gave us some level of closure at the end of the first book this left me with a sensation of displeasure. The first half is so boring to read through and as soon as it starts to get interesting you are left on a cliffhanger. I was excited to see a new game from this author but to be honest it was a big letdown. And I liked slugger better than blerg.
Well I actually liked it, perhaps even a bit more than the Heroes books. It’s setting up a new series/world view etc which is why I think it did actually need a lot of the introduction stuff. It did feel a bit incomplete but since it is part of a series, I suspect that will be remedied with the stories that follow.
When I first heard this game I thought we were gonna be in some like gladiator arena but then I played it and it was a pleasant surprise
having a hard time being a team player and not use my abilities since it seems teamwork involves me absorbing skills and what not… wanted to play the game as soloist at first too but then all the choices i encountered so far makes soloist choices seem like a jerk… can’t rp that much in this game compared to heroes…
Just played a run through as a cooperative weapons master, ended with Team:
76%, and Weapons: 81%, so the idea that you can’t do it seems to be just a
perception of yours.
Although honestly I find the choice between weaponry and abilities a false
dichotomy. Not only is one of the powers mastery over technology, for crying
out loud, but I find it hard to believe that neither improved strength or agility
improves a high tech soldier’s combat skills.
Bought this yesterday as one of my first games from Choice of Games; quite an interesting sci-fi verse to step into indeed! Althrough as far as “eliminate your enemies by stealing their powers!” go, wasn’t much of that in my playthrough - though I guess that I might’ve gotten more opportunities there had I been more agressive/ruthless. Either way, will be interesting to see where this’ll take us next - at least, at the end of my playthrough, I felt like there was a number of potential pitfalls on the road ahead, but I guess there’s no way of knowing how it’ll turn out until the next part…
First off I would like to state that when I first played Versus for some reason I was sooo confused and always stopped at the part where You meet human-sized Rosae. But then I decided to play it again from the beginning and then the story clicked with me! I loved the lore and atmosphere of the game and I hardly ever got confused once I understood the setting of the game. I LOVE this game now and it’s definitely in my top 5 Choice of Games games. I love this author’s work and was waiting for another project by him ever since the Heroes Rise Trilogy. VERSUS: The Lost Ones is an amazing game with great story and characters I would definitely recommend this to all my friends. My rating of the game would be 4.5/5
Yes, it is misleading, you don’t actually steal power except in one case (an option for the bominate), although you do get to determine who dies in the game.
One would hope that you choose the person you aren't thinking of aligning yourself with. :)