VERSUS: The Deathscapes

This is the conclusion to Versus series. Except there is no conclusion. Deathscapes mostly drops all plot threads from previous games. The politics from Trials, nah dropped. Romances, mostly absent. The scary abominate? Casually dispatched by the Villain. Also the books namesake area, the Deathscapes is present as extremely dangerous, then mostly casually skipped. Whats not skipped is the pseudo-philosophical babble introducing not one but two religions, that don't really matter after the introduction. Noticing a pattern? Everything in this books feels so rushed, shallow and meaningless. It should have been delayed by a year, so the author could flesh out everything. And last two crimes it commits are the absence of an conclusion of any kind and shilling a comic book at the end. The "ending" of this books set up a arguably more interesting event to come, think Mass effect one Sovereign and reapers, [spoiler] Vaccus being a scout and the real blot army approaching from the galactic void[/spoiler] . The problem being this is the conclusion of the Versus series. Meaning our character won't appear or will be minor npc with no personality or character in the follow up series. This …

It seems to me like the author got bored of his original concept of the whole "stuck on a hunger games esque planet with a bunch of aliens", and in the end it rushes through events that had been building up since the first book. If the series had relied more on its first concept and skipped the hundreds of boring floaty dream-flashbacks that take up 90% of the books of characters you don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about then this series could have been something interesting. Furthermore I chose to stay neutral in the lackluster conflict of the second game and instead of giving that option its own path, you are thrust into one of the ideologies which potentially goes against your chosen romance option. In the second book, it's explained that you don't really have a choice in the matter which is incredibly ironic for a "choose your own adventure game". But none of that matters anyway [spoiler]since almost the entire original cast (including your romance options) are incapacitated at the start of the third book with only have a few scant lines at the end.[spoiler] This series is an inconsistent mess with awful pacing and such a disappointment from the original Heroes trilogy.

So while I have absolutely loved every one of the stories from this author so far, I just found this one to be dull. The story had a lot of information that just didn't lead anywhere, and half of it cam across with the feeling of reading a textbook. As I got about halfway through this story, I had to just click through in an attempt to stay awake. The choices made in the previous titles seem to have made no impact in the final outcome, and it really undermines why the other stories were even there. Simply put, I didn't enjoy this one at all. A terrible way to end this series. 2/10

OVERALL: I strongly recommend Versus: Deathscapes - there is a lot it does really well, but also some big flaws. (The first 2 parts of the series were the best, on par with the great Infinity Series, and The Wayhaven Chronicles). I've tried to lay out what makes me think the experience is really worth it, as well as warning what to prepare for, so you can decide. PROS: Some particular strengths are its DLC content, allowing you to opt-in to extra advice. It structures its choices clearly, so you're not left guessing as to whether the choice aligns with the stats you have been culviating. It's stats were also quite interesting in that they built up and changed over time - an unusual but really interesting feature. There were varied endings in terms of the stats you built, and the alliances you made (rewarding for coherent choices across the trilogy), making the story feel truly responsive. And the scope of the narrative (using interesting philosophical experiences to explore the perspectives of various acquaintances) gave a depth to the world and its mysteries. These are all reinforced by its large, but earned, achievements. CONS: That said, I agree with some of the crit…

Honestly was so excited to see the conclusion to such a game but found the ending to be poorly written and not worth the hours to grind through this book. The characters' relationships are paced in a rushed manner, and there are too many talking points that seemed to drag out for no reason whatsoever. Honestly, the Lover ending was just so disappointing. Especially since the choices seem vague to begin with. Would not recommend .

It answers a lot of the questions from the previous games, though a little rushed.