Empyrean

I really wanted to love this game. The setting, the characters, I wanted it to be great, and it was at first. Then came the choices. The stats are too overly complicated to relate to the choices given to you and it's hard to figure out exactly what each choice will come out to be. Not that I'm against being surprised, but when you're trying to decide if a game changing choice is going to use your "reflex" or "finesse" skill then it becomes too stressful for this genre of game. The writing, oh god, the writing. It was superb, easy to follow the narrative, and it was really immersive. Until about half way through the game. The author wanted to make the plot more complex and add new characters and mechanics, but ultimately it ended up being a quagmire of different words that felt important, but was hard to relate to other parts of the story. This includes the characters too. Each character felt unique and special in their own way, but when you got into the nitty gritty of the story in the later chapters, they lost their luster and unless you were focusing on one or two specific characters, you simply could not keep track of them and many were left in the background as you went throug…

The stat system in this one is terrible.

I was recommended to play this game and I have to say this is among the best of text-based genre. The story is breathtaking and engaging with satisfying romance. The saga is wonderous and believable enhanced by brilliant writing. Although there are several flaws that are hard to ignore (spoiler alert). One is the main villain. He's just so stereotyped like other villains in superhero movies. Since he is your father, I had expected more interactions with him and more depth to his character, like turning him around by high persuasion skill or appealing to his fatherly love for you, but no, he's just a stereotyped ambitious short-sighted villain. It was a huge disappointment to me. Second is I felt that some characters are just inserted into the story to "add flavors" to romance arcs, but they are just so unlikable with no redeeming qualities, like a rich man's son who literally shoots you then tries to steal your aero and the manipulative female fatale who sabotages and murders to overtake your nation. Even though they did spice up the story quite a bit, I can't help but feel they should be replaced with more interesting and less stereotyped characters.

To be frank I'm surprised this game doesn't have more love. It deserves it. But then I'm also a person who didn't have any problems with stats whatsoever, like game specifically tells you what it's going to test and it also tells you that your piloting skills and your fighting skills aren't the same so why would there be any confusion I can't say. And I have been playing it before the changes. On the other hand the game has a very rare diselpunk setting, the best writing on COG games I've ever seen, lovable characters, a lot of replayability, and I find myself coming back to it again and again. Can't recommend enough, 11/10, like seriously.

Still one of the best Choice of Games. A single story that doesn't waste a line or a minute creates a wildly original and detailed fantasy world that might comfortably host a six-book series, with crisply sketched, enthralling characters, poignant motivations all round and scalpel-sharp dialogue throughout. Kyle Marquis made little worlds of wonder in 'Pon Para', 'Silverworld' and 'Tower Behind the Moon'; Empyrean brings it home again, with a vigorous anti-authoritarian bent essential for the 'punk' in dieselpunk, and a smattering of old-time pulp adventure. Even the romance with a 'what-is-this-s*x-that-you-speak-of?' jungle girl, a curious staple of Marquis titles, comes off marvellously without anything problematic. The gameplay certainly isn't the simplest among COGs, being even less straightforward than Pon Para, possibly less than Tower; displaying the 'Combine character' and 'Revolutionary character' stats might have been an idea. The more intricate and finely-crafted a Choice of Games title, the more the need to copy and save the game files before a choice and/or check the code, which I think personally are legitimate means of exploring a brilliant story more fully. Freque…

A good game that provides a surprisingly in-depth approach to politics, not just forcing you to ally with the "heroic" revolutionaries but also allowing you to work through the systems put in place by the combines to achieve your goals. Despite this, it is difficult to feel completely in control because options are not clearly explained. For example, skillful fencing requires you to have high reaction and vigor, whereas shooting requires high vigor and sensitivity/nerve. However, these subtleties are never actually explained in the game itself. As a result, you will often end up blindly guessing which combinations of stats you need for each choice unless you choose to read the game's script, which is a shame, because this is one of the few COG games which allow you to make meaningful political choices.