Unnatural

I think Unnatural could have been an enjoyable game if it had been given the chance. Its problems are not game-breaking, but there are just so many typos, missing quotation marks, missing fullstops, commas etc.. Lines were repeated; I chose one option, but later my character acted like I had chosen another one; At another point I was given two options, I chose one, but the game showed the results of both. The entire game is a disorganized mess with problems like the ones I described above. I don't know how they let it be released in such a state. On another note, I'm either extremely good (or lucky), or the missions are just plain impossible to fail at. The cases you take on in the game are beyond boring. The companion you choose to take with you doesn't seem to make any difference. The gun you choose also doesn't seem to matter. Sometimes you choose the option to do this or ask that, but nothing helpful ever comes out of them, they're empty choices that make no actual difference in ...

[i][u][b]Unnatural[/b][/u][/i] is a CYOA (Choose your own adventure) novel, written by [i][u][b]Sam Kabell[/b][/u][/i] and published by [i][u][b]Hosted Games. [/b][/u][/i] Just a warning, this is a bit more of a rant than a review, but I do cover important points on the structure of the game and address what exactly I feel is wrong with it and why. I would like to provide my feedback/review. Let me start with the basics here: this CYOA novel is 285,000 words according to the store page. It's a decent length BUT the game starts with a scene that sees the MCs family all killed off. This turns out to be a nightmare from past events. Now, there is nothing wrong with that, however, this nightmare is repeated in detail (and obviously always the same) several times throughout the book. That alone will cut the overall word count down by a fair percentage, unless, for some reason, the repeat isn't included in that statistic. But it doesn't end there... Throughout the novel there are sentence...

If you've done any of these multiple choice text adventure novels from Choice of Games and others, you'll know what you're getting into with this. Just keep in mind there isn't much apparent variation that has a significant effect. This has a story to tell and you'll be able to Bioware some choices where you get a personalized tale, not necessarily wildly different ones. At least from the options available it did not seem that way. The setting is fine. It isn't anything amazing, it isn't particularly enthralling, but it's always fun to experience a modern fantasy universe. It lacked a bit of oomph as far as the monster encyclopedia goes though. The world of magic is introduced and then everybody seems to be fine with the status quo, and monsters as a whole were just bloodthirsty creatures so it took away from most morality issues you might have had when they say certain monsters are shoot to kill. The twist and basic setting for the more interesting creatures was interesting if a bit...

I play a lot of CYOA games, but I couldn't get through this one. It started off promising, you play as a child and progress into your teens and adulthood. This lets you increase your skills, establish your character, and sets up some story events later on. But once you join the SRT it just gets too weird. There's a lot of new characters thrown at you, a bunch of stuff happens all at once, things and characters radically change, characters do not act rationally, newer characters and concepts are constantly being introduced. It felt like the more I read the fewer choices I had. There's a lot of missions to go on, usually pick between a couple options each time. There's a right way and a wrong way to complete them. Picking the right weapon, partner, and way to handle the situation will keep you alive. There's also downtime to increase your stats and progress your personal story. The monsters you're up against are your standard vampire, werewolf, golem, ghost, fairy, those sorts of thing...

This book is a mixed bag, to an extent, so I will break this into Pros and Cons. Pros I really enjoy the story, it is well writen and the world/lore is very detailed and consistant. As a tabletop gamer and wargaming enthusiast, this alone makes the book a worthwile read, but others may not get the same level of enjoyment out of it. Good NPCs. Every NPC that the players deal with regularly are well written and interesting. There isn't a ton of details and backstory, but that actually helps. The author gives you the right amount of info without bogging you down with anything unnessecary. Cool Powers. I like the way the author handles the players powers and his description of them. It is no only well thought out, but well exicuted in a narritively presented way. Cons Typos. So many typos. Spell checker exists, please use it, then get a proofreader. Many stats feel arbitrary, with no real consistancy with how they work. In many other areas, there is no way to figure out how they...

It was really fun, for being the first part of the game, and I unlocked two plus codes on my first playthrough so that was interesting. I ended up having Denise a cured lycanthrope sleep with me and rest next to me in my ending.

I really enjoyed this game. I bought it as an "urban fantasy", not realizing it had a "Horror" tag. The horror, while not kid-friendly, is pretty mild. For a CYOA game it has a surprising amount of replay value: Tactical team or CSI tech? Shadow or Azure powers? And that's not counting that you get a choice of 3 missions each time your character "deploys" as a member of the Supernatural Response Team (SRT). Plus the usual variety of romance options. Kudos to developer "Sam Kabell". My only gripe is a relatively small one: My version of the game (Mac) had a number of bugs in it. Nothing game breaking, I have completed it twice already. But it can make for some strange reading: one page said I found no survivors in a werewolf lair; next page she is resting in the hospital and will make a full recovery. Anyways, it is supposedly the start of a series but the ending is still satisfying if that sort of thing annoys you. Recommended.

It's unfortunate I cannot recommend this game, as it does have an interesting concept and a decent replayability factor. The framing of the story as a TV series is an original thought, and the game does offer a lot of choices and variation in aspects such as handling missions, the MC's development, and which characters are present or not. Sadly, all these nice things are overshadowed by the game's poor writing. It reads as if written by someone not used to writing - it's understandable, but not engaging or enjoyable. Some passages end up sounding weird or downright silly. There are also punctuation mistakes, namely missing commas, throughout the entire game. This being a text-based game, all of this becomes impossible to ignore and ruins the experience.

This one could have been a real gem of a game. Its got all the right makings for it: A nice long time line in the game for the character to grow on the player, and as a person, A large cast of interesting characters to get to know over time, A believable story world to live in, Internal and External dramas to resolve or succumb to. There's even Game + mode, where you can play again and use codes you have earned from previous play through (s) to make your next character even better. But instead its more akin to a diamond that was cut wrong, its value diminished greatly from what it could have been, even though there is still no denying that whats left is the broken pieces of something beautiful. At times the writing is poor enough to make you struggle to read it. There are moments when the writer doesnt respect the choice they just gave the player, forcing them to do something they were just given the option to refuse doing. There are other moments when your character is just f...

Not much to say other than it was a good idea but just so damn boring.