A Wise Use of Time

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 608: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆ (6/10) Mmmm. Ehhhhh. Okay? Those words are pretty much my reaction to [i]A Wise Use of Time[/i] after finishing it. My "meh" reaction is colored by Jim Dattilo's prose. It's technically able, and I haven't seen any glaring mistakes, but (sorry to bro) I do not vibe with Dattlio's writing style at all. I loved his other work, [i]Zombie Exodus[/i], despite his writing, not because of it. The mechanics were so deep and fleshed out. However, in [i]A Wise Use of Time[/i], there are no cool RPG-like mechanics to hide behind. It's also a surprisingly slow, slice-of-life, and again, his writing is not strong enough to carry a slow-burning plot. His writing isn't bad, but it was painfully dry to me. He has mini-character arcs, but they are so [i]flat[/i] and unremarkable, I honestly did not care about their problems. On a more objective level, though, don't go into [i]A Wise Use of Time[/i] thinking you'll get a thrilling, kooky adventure. In truth, despite your awesome time powers, the game is leaning heavily into a cozy, slice-of-life category. I didn't hate it, but I was keenly aware of the more important …

I wanted to like this game, I really did and it was starting off relatively strongly. It was going well, nothing amazing but interesting enough that I was excited to play it. That is until the second or third chapter, can't remember, where the agency for my character and previous choices were taken from me. No spoilers but I played my character trying to hide his power. I was given a choice to not admit to my power. Then on the literal next page, my character was not found out, was not proven to be lying or hiding something, but just blurts out the very thing I just chose not to reveal. It was very jarring and took me completely out of the story. What is the point of having the option only for my character to do the exact opposite? If he had been found out, if the plot had revealed him, I could do deal with that, but that's not what happened.

Good story, I enjoy the use of time mechanics in this book. Read it a few times. (past tense) Not a bad spend, for a short story, with multiple choices.

Didn't like this one. The choice and story go no where. The choice are lock in one choice path.

"A Wise Use of Time" had an exciting and interesting story while many of the choices were impactful, and only a few felt forced or railroaded, but these were few and far between. As such, I liked the game enough to play through it twice, and the lovely romances enhanced the experience further. (8/10)

A friend recommended this game to me. Definitely not what I'm used to or what I was expecting. It's a choose your own adventure text game. I'd played a few of them on web sites, but nothing this elaborate. The writing is very solid and there are tons of choices. You really feel like you're in control of the story. And judging by how I finished the game and only got 23% of the achievements, it seems like your choices really do matter. The plot is that you're living an ordinary life when suddenly you realize you have the ability to manipulate time. From there you can pretty much choose to use your ability however you want. You are also in control of your relationship with the other characters you meet in the story. Ignore them, befriend them, get romantically involved with them, whatever you want. That's where the main enjoyment of the game comes from. Feeling like you're building your own story with your actions instead of just being along for the ride. This was a new experience for me, but I'll be checking out more of these types of games. Highly recommended.