The Fleet

It seemed that regardless of which choice you made about... well... anything, that the author didn't want you to make just immediately turned out badly. Most decisions amounted to "Well, I see what you were doing, and while that technically would work.... unfortunately, it didn't... so yeah, it went mad. M'kay?" I'm pretty frustrated that I just wasted my time reading through a story that short and frustrating. I'm giving this a 3/10.

An early choose-your-own adventure game from "Choice of Games", this is a decent read, that laid the foundation for later games... not least in adding features missing in this tale. (Others of their games allow for the choice of gender, orientation, and is a bit clearer on what you are doing. Also achievements.) Worth a try, though I would suggest getting it on discount.

I expected a CYOA-style novel similar to others of this kind that i purchased and enjoyed quite a bit. unfortunately this story is not only significantly shorter, it also feels incomplete. choices are not clear as to what they are based on, what their chances are, or what the consequences are. several stats are never actually used, as far as i can tell (mining support integrity, military & civilian support), or if they are used then only once in the entire story making their existence basically pointless clutter (them going up or down doesn't matter if they never actually do anything). then the actual plot you meet a lot of ppl and species without any real description of them or without them ever mattering in more than a scene or two. that creates a lack of investment and doesn't allow one to relate to or bond with any of them. The only exception is your second in command and even there its only 3 or so scenes instead of 1-2. the story is fast paced to the point of being rushed. things seem to happen with little rhyme or reason and the sequence of events (other than that alliance stuff) feels janky heck, the entire alliance thing is set up as if it was your only hope yet in the …

The story reminded me BattleStar Galactica at first, but as the story went on it turned into strange episodes with no logic in them, decisions that feel like they are not effecting the plot pretty much at all, the story line is always the same no matter what choices you do, except effecting your role at this stage or other stage (pro-allience or anti-allience). There was a stage where i had to drift with my dieing fleet through unknown secotrs and it was very confusing, when i got under attack i couldnt understand what it was, and i just almost randomly clicked just to try and understand what the hell is going on, and then it suddnley ended and the end of it had nothing to do with what i did or didnt do. I love the other books but this one is written in a very poor way, also it is EXTREMLEY short (2 hours with coffee brakes?)

amazing write your own story game it is good fun

I played through the game once trying to model a Starfleet officer type character. The game generally allowed for that. As others have noted, it's a relatively short game which is both good and bad. It make subsequent playthroughs to try different strategies less onerous but, at the same time, makes it difficult to develop a lot of depth in either the story or the characters within that story. Overall, for the price, it isn't bad. Just don't expect it to be the best CYOA novel out there.