Hi!
I’m a fairly new lover of Choice of Games and have only played a handful of their games: Hero Rise trilogy, Lost Heir trilogy, Fatehaven, Creatures Such as We, and Samurai of Hyuga series. With the Steam Summer Sale of 2017 there are a bunch of discounts happening and my eyes are much bigger than my wallet. So far I’m set on buying Slammed! but I’m not too sure on what other games on Steam to buy. I would love comments persuading or dissuading me to buy these games and what you loved or disliked about them. I personally enjoy fantasy and romance the most but am open to any suggestions. Ideally I’d like to buy around 5 games for no more than $30.
Games that I am considering:
Champion of the Gods
Choice of the Deathless
Choice of Robots
Tin Star
Psy High
Life of a Wizard
A Midsummer Night’s Choice
Sorcery is for Saps
Feel free to suggest any other games on Steam as well, thank you all for your comments!
If you’re going to go for any of them, I would highly recommend Tin Star. It’s definitely money well spent. It was one of the first games I bought and I keep going back to replay because the story is so fun to read
I really recommend Choice of the Deathless! It might not be as replayable as games like Tin Star or Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven (not that it’s stopped me from playing it a million times) but the writing style is gorgeous and it has great world building
Recommend:
“Tin Star” is a must have, because it is worth it’s price and the time you are going to spend playing as it is, so passing up on the opportunity to buy it while on sale would be just plain sinful. (Unless you have a strong aversion to westerns, but even so…).
“Choice of the Deathless” is a second best choice. The world is interesting, the characters are memorable, and I loved the romance options. All of them. Maybe I just like the author’s style, but it is something you should check out if you have money to spend.
Not recommend:
“Life of a Wizard” - I barely finished a single run and have no desire to replay it, even for the sake of achievements. It’s more of a game book than an interactive story - not my cup of tea at all. It is not bad, mind, just not quite the genre I expected, and disappointing because of it.
Half-heartedly recommend:
“Champion of the Gods” is good for a couple of runs, maybe (I personally only finished it once, and that is quite enough). I wasn’t overly impressed with it, though it is decent. To be honest, I mostly enjoyed the world it is set in rather than any of the characters… or the plot itself.
“A Midsummer Night’s Choice” is too short, and romance options are not very compelling, imo. So long as you don’t take it too seriously, it is pretty nice.
As for other recommendations:
“A Study in Steampunk: Choice by Gaslight” is on sale now, which is good, so long as you don’t mind being gender-locked with a male MC. I currently use this game along with “Tin Star” as a measuring stick for all other CoG titles. It is slightly similar to SoH in that the MC is predetermined, but his personality and fate is still adjustable.
Did you play “Affairs of the Court” (which is also on sale)? It is romance and fantasy in equal measure. Well, almost equal. Okay, not equal at all. Fantasy is a background, romance is the focus in the 1st part, then it is all about intrigues and scheming. And not getting killed.
And in case you ever see “Hollywood Visionary” or “MetaHuman Inc” on sale, make sure to grab them too.
Seriously, it’s the game I’m still playing to this day. Can’t miss out on Midsummer, Deathless, Choice of Robots. My favorite not on your list is a Study in Steampunk, that one is probably the best written of all of them, imo.
@AAO I might consider CCH if I have some extra money to spend! And I played the demo of Zombie Exodus and didn’t really enjoy it all that much. I personally don’t really like post-apocalyptic stuff haha.
And yep! I bought the Lost Heir Trilogy about a month ago and couldn’t stop playing it!
@seabean Your suggestions are all on-point, they’re all on my list to buy right now! Tin Star is truly a masterpiece.
Based on all the recommendations I would agree that Tin Star is a must!
I played the demo of Choice of the Deathless and for some reason didn’t really understand the world but will definitely go back to replay it again (I’m sure I’ll buy it too because of the great reviews and recommendations it has)
Hmmm I was originally turned off from A Study in Steampunk because it was genderlocked but I think I can overlook it for the good plot and enjoyable characters.
I played the first game of Affairs of the Court and enjoyed it for the most part (although I didn’t like that in order to play the other games in the series you needed to be romancing the King). It also was too political for my liking so I don’t think I will be buying it anytime soon.
I looked at Hollywood Visionary and MetaHuman Inc as well but don’t think they’ll be making the top five games to buy this time, perhaps another sale!
Thank you so much for your detailed response and suggestions, I really really appreciate it!
Given the games you like, the genera you’re interested in and the ones you’re considering, I’d go for Deathless. The writing and story is good and it’s fantasy genera.
I personally quite liked Champion of the Gods. It thought the writing was pretty good and played it though a few times.
Life of a wizard is another I personally liked, but it is quite different to the others you’ve read in that it is more “game-ish”. Lots of re-playability though. Read the demo and see if it’s for you.
I also agree with a previous poster, have you considered choice of romance as a possibility? It’s got elements of fantasy and romance. It is loosely set in a fantasy Tudor time period, if you think it looks interesting, check the demo
Anyway, it’s all going to come down to personal preference unfortunately. What I like writing or topic wise, may not be what you will, so I’d always read the demos.
[quote=“AAO, post:15, topic:28101”]
You can romance 5 people at once[/quote]
Well, to be fair, you should probably mention that romancing all 5 at once won’t end well Also, while threesomes are possible, some characters simply can’t get along well enough for certain combinations to work. And there is at least one LI who doesn’t share. At all.
I would also add that it has the most unique world-building I’ve ever seen in any fiction. The Craft Sequence world is something that you ease into lightly throughout the game. The prose is eloquent and poetic, yet it knows how to have fun with it when the occasion calls for it.
It’s also a game where the biggest enemy is your student loan debt.
Deathless is one of the earliest games I bought and it’s one of the few CoG/HG I do not ever regret doing so. I still give it a reread every now and then and still discovered new scenarios every time. Recently found out that both Ashleigh and MC can become skeletons by the end of the game. That’s one hell of an awkward scene at the hospital there
I’m gonna echo what others have said and say that the ones I’ve gotten the most repeated enjoyment out of are Tin Star, Deathless, and Study in Steampunk (<— especially this one. The genderlock really didn’t bother me at all because everything in it was just done so well.)
I’m a big sucker for good characters and unique settings… also westerns. I love westerns. I’m also not someone who replays stories very often, and almost never do it in the form of finishing it once and immediately going back to replay it again. If I do replay something… there’s usually a solid month or two before I replay it so that I can forget at least some of the basic plot details. But these three are pretty big exceptions.
Tin Star because there’s just, as many have said before me and probably will say after me, so much to do! The writing is great, the setting is great, and it’s just a whole lotta entertainment all the way through.
Deathless has some absolutely gorgeous writing that I’ll never tire of, and the setting is wonderfully unique and intriguing.
And Study In Steampunk, to me, seems like a really cool combination of those above two points. I adore the writing, but (especially in the later half) things start to separate and you end up with some entirely different paths to explore, some of which intersect and diverge, and I just found that fascinating. Not to mention it has some of my favorite characters from any current CoG/HG.
So… yeah, those are my echoed recommendations from others above/your own list.
Yeah, I am breaking my subjectivity rule here and subscribe this recommendation. One of my favorite games around… I am not ashamed to have cried in some parts (yeah, I take role-playing a bit too far when I really like a game-book).
I am not sure, but the gender is never explicitly stated, or is it? I am honestly asking
In “Study in Steampunk”? It is stated on multiple occasions, actually. It also impacts the story in a way that a different gender identity (or lack thereof) couldn’t.
Also, while threesomes are possible, some characters simply can’t get along well enough for certain combinations to work. And there is at least one LI who doesn’t share. At all.
