The Wayhaven Chronicles is also so amazing,it’s a new-ish HG.
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My favourite games are those with an open world, non-linear storyline or sandbox approach (i.e. Tin Star and Zombie Exodus) because of the variety of activities and options you can do on a daily basis- as well as constant replayability that you can explore with different characters…
With that being said, Tin Star is my favourite because the game actually keeps in track every little detail your character goes through and makes the final epilogue matter, and your character becomes a legend in the Wild West. This is very important with regards to replayability and it shows. What I also like about it is how the random-events also interact with the main character and the sheer variety of choices in-game. No play-through is the same, in other words.
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I have to go with Broadsides. The story was executed brilliantly and the mechanics were great. It was my first COG and it got me hooked to all the wonderful games out there. It will always just hold a special place in my heart. The many hours I spent playing to get the best ending was worth it.
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I played alot of them , and kinda unfair to just choose one 
I base my favorite , on how much fun I get from them . when that happen , I play them over and over , and go bonker and try all the road and dialogues and wanna see everything .
choices are important . But there is more to a story then just choice .
Take Heart of the house for exemple . The cover and the Title already told me what kind of game it will be . And I jumped on it right away…cose GHOST HOUSE!!! yet , it was much more then that and I love it .
Or Midsummer’s Night’s choice : I love it because it was hilarious . Just like the choice of a cat . If you own or owned cats ? the whole game , you go ‘Omg thats so true !’ .
Or take Pendagron Rising : Where I wish there was a sequel . It was so good at making me feel like I was in old Britian .
Or Broadway : 1849 . Where I could see the old world clearly .
I loved alot of them . Like The Hero project (never get enough of super heroes) , Samurai of Hyuga (being a ronin )…etc .
But if I’m forced to choose , then…its Fallen Hero: Rebirth . Why ? because that story has a deeper connection for me . It’s one of a kind .
All the stories go with a theme . Well some of them do . But Fallen Hero: Rebirth is just different .
No . That usually is annoying . Dilemma are very tricky to write . either for the player or for a companion or romance . The whole ‘choose who gonna die here’ is very very annoying to me . Because often , you either don’t connect much with said person…or its written just for drama . I believe you can create drama without someone having to die .
Alot of them use a mold . X is like this…Y is like that…
So no . Take fallen Hero : Rebirth . The charm of the characters they created and we can romance . Stem from many reasons : For one Ortega isn’t young but older then our character . Believe it or not…not everyone is in their 20 lol . I for one , love when your romance isn’t your 20’ . My 20 feel like ages ago…lol (dont judge! LOL)
Also the way it’s written , it really screw with your mind . I have only seen one game do that . And it’s Kotor 2 . Well more like I only seen one character do that and its Kreia . Where you wanna do something…and the narrator make you doubt your action . Are you really gonna do that ? is it right ? is this path the one you wanna keep walking ? and I love it .
Where most story , the path is clear . You can pick up good or assholes answers . You can even close your eyes and pick the right one .
I guess thats what you call ‘Depth’ . Because even dialogues or background have depth .
Oh the story is well written . Most of them are .
Angst ? feeling ? tensions ? Dread ? emotions ?
I always say that a good vilain drive you trough a roller coaster of emotions . You can love them , you can hate them…you can have a love-hate relationship . You can pity them…etc .
But often games miss the mark . Its need all of this to be not good…but great . It need to ask you ‘why would you do that ? why do you care ?’ . Why would you go out of your way to do this and that ? and is this too much ?
So in Fallen Hero: Rebirth , the writer draw all these heavy emotions . And you connect . You connect so much into them .
Yet when it come to romance , it doesn’t lead you to them . It just set them up . They are there . They aren’t your Hot gorgeous romance you gonna chase . They aren’t there just to smooche you between the actions or when the story slow down a bit . They are part of the story . They are more then that . They are important .
Geez…I’m blabbering XD
Anyway , the last part that make a good story for me is the how long it is . The longest , the better . Alot of stories I read were a bit too short . Their ending sometimes felt rushed . And sometimes the ending was static . Meaning , you only had one regardless of choices changing .
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The first CoG game i’ve ever played was Choice of Romance. And that will always be my top 3 favorite CoG game. Besides the romance factor in the game, i also liked and admire the many endings and variables we can get with each different choices that we made throughout the game that really could really effect our ending and the whole plot of the story. This game just makes you want to replay again and again just to know what different types of endings you can get if you went on a different path in the game.
And the second one will definitely be The Wayhaven Chronicles: Book One. Plain and simple, it’s the whole Romance that really attracts me to this game in the first place. The awesome storyline and the lovable tough guys/girls characters are just the icing on the cake. Absolutely can’t wait for Seraphinite to come out with the sequel.
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For me, Wayhaven Chronicles is my ultimate favourite. I’ve played through many, many, cyoa games but I always find myself coming back to this one. I didn’t like Samurai of Hyuga much, since it railroaded a lot of stuff in book 2, and Masami irritated me greatly in 1. The Heroes series were good, but it was a bit tiring in some parts. I liked Mecha Ace, Choice of Robots, Alexandria, Kung Fu, and Ninja a lot as well. What are yours? I’ve played through at least 30 of these games, probably more, so I’d like to see which ones were others’ favorites and revisit them to see if I was wrong about some.
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“Tin Star” and “Lords of Aswick” would have to be my favorites, I enjoyed them so much and played them so often, they’re not stories where I’d get hyped till I finish the game then slowly lose the interest in. The fact that these are still so special to me speaks volumes about the authors’ work, great games really. As far as I’m concerned : character development is MEH (well, it’s always a plus, but it doesn’t make for a satisfying experience on its own) —> world building is KING.
“The Great Tournament 2” ; “Broadsides” and “Choice of the Rock-star” would be close seconds.
Though I have to admit that “Gladiators : Road to Colosseum” by @nauhziy 's game is shaping up to be my number one, I’ve been in love with it since playing it the first time. Give the demo a try, you’ll see.
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Thank you for your kind words!!! Hopefully the published product is as good as you make it out to be!!!
My fav CoGs will have to be the OGs Choice of the Dragon and Choice of Broadsides. Esp Choice of the Dragon cause I never knew how fun it was to terrorize little humans hahaha.
Other great ones were Doomsday on Demand which was truly gripping, full of tough decisions. And The Great Tournament, which had rly refreshing gameplay mechanics and a riveting storyline!!
Non CoG games (I know we aren’t going there but why not) Magium was amazing - character and world building was phenomenal and truly well written and thought out. Probably one of the best in terms of that. Andd the Kai Chronicles, which is truly amazing in terms of scale, more of a traditional game, and sometimes predictable, but truly amazing story that takes you for a hell of a ride!!!
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I think there is already a thread like this… Anyway my three favorite would be Psy High (that’s the first COG I ever played so that’ll always be special for me), So, You’re posessed! (I replayed it so many times and I still find it funny) and Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven (That character customization…).
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Ugh there’s actually a lot to mention. But mine will always be Strange Creatures Such As We, Vampire House, and Wayhaven Chronicles.
Strange Creatures Such As We was actually my first CoG game so it will always have a special place in my heart.
I loved Vampire House the first time I’ve read it, because vampires and werewolves.
I guess you could say that I’m rather obsessed with Wayhaven Chronicles, because vampires 
(nuff said), and romance 
.
Mine favourite is wayheaven chronicles series.its beautifully written.make readers laugh,cry and also shriek due to suspense.
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Bravo! You saved me 5 minutes of typing my thoughts. Rebirth is also my favorite.
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Tokyo wizard, it had cool magic, we got to decide what spells we wanted to learn, and had interesting power sources.
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Too many awesome choices! Magikiras, Infinity series, Zombie Exodus, Choice by Gaslight, Mecha Ace, Heart of the House, Slammed! etc etc. ^^
Only one I couldn’t stand was Choice of Rockstar. Too short, boring, limited.
I really loved Fatehaven. It was funny and charming with amazing characters right up until the ending, which wasn’t foreshadowed at all. You went through the entire story, empathizing with the character as they faced severe emotional trauma, made choices and tried to rebuild their life and make new connections just to have it all handwaved away at the end due to time travel.
It is even worse if you romance Silvanus because it is never explained why he needed to continually put you through that kind of emotional trauma. There should have been an option to break it off once you learn the truth.
I have rarely felt that emotionally manipulated and angry at a book/game.
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My favorite are the COGs that are more like a novel than a game. I hate making it 3/4 of a way into a game and making a wrong choice that gets my character killed and having to start over from the beginning.
Tallyho is amazingly well written, I enjoy the fact that there are no real failures in the game. If you fail a stat-check something equally as funny happens. There is a lot of replay ability and I love all the different characters and plot lines you can discover.
Thieves Gambit: Curse of the Black Cat was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed its campiness. Same with Choice of the Pirate. I tend to replay those and make all the same choices.
Werewolves: Haven Rising, Wayhaven Chronicles, and Champion of Gods are also amazing and I hope that all three get sequels.
The problem I have with stat driven games like the Lost Heir is I have to worry so much about stats I can’t really enjoy the story and make choices that feel “in character.” To complete the series without a premature death I ended up having to look up a walkthrough and to be honest after having to restart that game so many times I will probably never touch it again.
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I haven’t seen anyone mention my favorites really; interesting.
I’d have to seriously choose:
First and foremost, the Heroes Rise trilogy gets a mention, because those really brought me to love choice games.
But if I had to choose favorites…(in no particular order)
Samurai of Hyuga (HG) series: I love the writing style and the characters felt so real. The mysticism mixed in was so intriguing and fun. It’s always a series I’ll go back and replay.
VERSUS (CoG): Versus trials is by far the most “fun” to me. The stats system is different and I find myself micromanaging and planning in advance, which is okay for games as in-depth as this series. The political maneuvering is also a cool aspect.
Choice of the Deathless/City’s Thirst (CoG): I don’t know, something about these games really capture me entirely. The writing style? The choices? I have no idea, but definitely a favorite.
Metahuman: (CoG) The management and magic stuff is magnetizing. I think I see a pattern here…
Tally-Ho: (CoG) Completely took me by surprise. I replayed this a million times. I love how light-hearted it is! Just a really fun game that obviously had a lot of heart put into it.
Creatures Such as We (CoG): Beautiful beautiful game - always has a place in my heart. Truly made me open my eyes to the artistic side of creating choice based games.
Finally, The Wayhaven Chronicles (HG). Holy hell I love this game, I love the author, I love everything about it. Possibly the only interactive fiction that I’m always checking up on for updates, and I’ve replayed more than any other game. (I love M with my whole heart!)
Honorable mention: The Courting of Miss Bennet (HG): this introduced me to Pride and Prejudice, (which I’d never even thought of reading/watching) and I have only this beautiful game to thank!
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I am currently a freshman here at CoG forums, However I have played quite a lot. Want to your favorite picks from CoG or Hosted games.
My current favorite is recently released Baroque, Iove the great replayability value which is a amazing feat achieved by the author. Gothic Horror never felt so good to me before. However the writing seems a bit off.
I recently finished Baroque and absolutely loved it. The sheer replay value of the game makes it one of my favorites.
Also loved playing Great Tournament 1 and Samurai of Hyuga.
I was wondering what to play next, so I ask your for opinion. What are your favorite picks from the CoG or Hosted games?
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Kgold’s games are my absolute favorite games; to me they’re the ideal of choicescript games. I don’t want to disparage the others, but most of them I like to read more than play; I’d be around as happy with a book of my favorite route. Kgold’s games are the ones I play over and over again because after each playthrough I think “what would happen if I did this?” I’ll play through the others a couple times to see variations, but usually pretty soon I feel like I’ve seen all the good playthroughs; there’s still options I haven’t taken but I don’t want to play a protagonist who would. There’s a certain personality profile I like in protagonists; cool-headed, reserved, nice unless given cause not to be, doesn’t fight over trifiling matters but won’t give in on important ones; if standing their ground will set all the world against them but succeed they’ll stand their ground. I’ll generally play until I’ve taken all the significant paths that fit that profile.
Choice Of Magics is the first time I’ve actually gone achievement hunting actively, because there’s just so many different paths that fit that; every climax works. The magic is all the right level of partially but not completely controllable to bait even a coolheaded rationalist into deadly overuse; hilariously I spent a while favoring Negation on the basis that all the problems it caused could be solved by more Negation so as long as I was good enough at it there was no downside. So when I hit the Negation climax my in and out of universe reaction was “in retrospect I should have considered the possibility that using the concentrated magic of death as the basis for our entire industry and military could have negative side-effects”. And this was with me being incredibly gun-shy about using Viviomancy; since its side-effects are unpredictable I couldn’t judge whether they were worth it. But I still went for trying it specifically, figuring it’d be localized to the subjects so I could use it to create plants and beasts and just put down any that went wrong. Cue Vivomancy climax.
The fact that I was the one making the mistakes made the whole thing a lot more fun; I kept taking options I thought were good ideas which blew up in my face so I never got frustrated about the protagonist being a screwup.
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