Trap for Winners

The writing's fine, but it's mostly the same on repeat playthroughs. The minigame (which you need to play a bunch to succeed at all) is absolutely awful though: time-consuming, random, simplistic, and you can't see where you're going.

Like previous game from this developer, recommended for all IF/CYOA aficionados. This is gamebook adaptation, made with love and it shows. Story revolves around strange unprovoked conflict with alien race and young officer helping post-war relieve effort and investigating causes behind this war. There's at least one quite enjoyable plot twist. Main gameplay, where you making decisions, is pretty fun. Be it maintaining labour camp or investigating a strange war, outcomes of your choices give you pretty much what you expect. I didn't really like "battles", as they are too random, and you'll just end up re-rolling them waiting for more favorable setup. Anyway, there's not really a lot of them and change of pace is nice sometimes.

I am not sure how Steam calculated 8hrs play, when I was able to finish the game in one evening. It's exactly what it says it is - a nicely done interactive novel with choices. Story is interesting and there is some replayability if you aim for higher score. I will definitely check if there are other products from this developer once I finish writing this review.

A wonderful adaptation of a real classic in the gamebook genre. I waited more that 20 years to see the best Bulgarian gamebook author to be published in English. This is a dream come true.

In my hour of gameplay, I unlocked one of the endings, and am completely uninterested in the alternatives. The writing is dull, the 'plot twist' is something I guessed correctly on reading the prologue, and the tactical minigame is a godawful exercise in cursing the developer who couldn't work out how to scale the map or move the camera sustainably, and implemented one of the worst user interfaces I've ever seen as a result. The main thing stopping me from asking for a refund is the fact that I only spent $2. Makes me want to be able to go through some of the positive reviewers and mark them 'never trust this reviewer again'. (Which is not to say that they're lying. But I've been reading science fiction for 4 decades now, and anyone fascinated by this story is clearly someone with less exposure to the genre.)

It is a gamebook like an upgraded CYOA - better in the plot and better in game mechanics. I love the story and the art.

Thumbs up for this masterpiece! I love the story and the way you get to choose how it develops. The battles are also very enjoyable, putting a nice variety in the game. I enjoyed the soundtrack and graphics, too.

Recommended. a short but enjoyable read, with decisions. The mini-games are random but not experience-breaking since they are optional. As noted this has no replayability because almost all text is the same in different playrhroughs. on sale = nobrainer (but i wouldnt recommend buying it at full price)

I never thought i would be writing a positive review for a game that's technically about two hours long.. However, I enjoyed Trap for Winners a lot. The story was fun and interesting and it didn't drag anything out with the puzzle-like APC missions and i still want to play through it again to see the other (spoiler) endings. This game won't be for everyone but if you like "choose your own adventure" books OR you like strong sci-fi storytelling OR if you want to play something different then i would strongly recommend giving it a shot, especially for the price.

A digital adaptation of a classic Bulgarian COYA gamebook, featuring a range of game mechanics and multiple endings. The RNG-based mini-game can get tedious, and the soundtrack could use more variety, but other than that it's a solid game, and worth picking up while on sale or at full price.