Blood for Poppies

Not a good story. The characters are completely one-dimensional, including yours, somehow. The plot is both all over the place and non-existent. It's very short, probably because there's no real atmospheric or descriptive writing. Apparently there's a big to-do about morality in there, but since the entire thing is so flat and it's impossible to get into the story, it doesn't matter what direction you move in. It's all bland. There's a villain, but you know so little about him that you don't really care. Your character's personality is picked through several obvious choices, but it makes no difference to dialogue or behaviour. There are other characters - you don't really find out about them or connect to them in any way. Apparently you can romance some? It's impossible to care. You're presented with choices of activities - none of them are described. People complain a lot about having to use your own imagination in these choice games, but this is just ridiculous. You can't possibly be expected to imagine all the images, details and PLOT CONTENT all by yourself. It reads like a bunch of footnotes hacked together where everything is linear and the author thought "Damn, I forgot to put choices in!" so they shoved a minuscule amount of irrelevant options in without having them really impact anything. What's the story line? I 'unno. Like, three things happen in it. They might be interesting if they were expanded upon in any way. I think it's supposed to be dark and thought-provoking, but I was too busy wondering when the story would actually begin that I missed developing any connection to it. And then it ended abruptly.

Very sad to have to give this game a negative review. I would put it firmly in the 'ok but buy on steep discount' group of COG games out there. The story is very, very short and there are very few choices to be had. The characters are lacking in any real depth and just feel very one dimensional. Certain themes such as death are not handled well, such as some characters just not seeming to care about huge things such as their own death, leaving the home they've lived in all their life and killing others. It's just very unrealistic. I just can't see how a character would be totally ok with losing their life if asked to, and be able to agree to it without a moment's thought or hesitation. Even the setting was bland and one layered. No information about the character's hobbies or interests was really given, aside from one simple thing that was seemed like a bullet point on each character's profiles. No real issues arising from being held captive in a building for years on end was gotten into, such as how they survive on very meagre rations, don't seem to have plumbing or electricity to keep warm with despite it snowing outside or what they do to stop themselves getting bored to death. I really don't see how simply brushing your hair each day every day would stop you from getting utterly bored to death or getting severe psychological damage from your living conditions. If there was damage, it didn't present itself in game beyond perhaps a choose able option or two. I was really excited for a horror and morality based COG game as they're not as common, but the game lacked both of those themes. The plot often felt confusing at times but at the same time very bland. The choices I made felt like they didn't have any impact on anything other than maybe the endings as well, and the side characters didn't seem to have any motivations of their own. The romance options all felt like they were included last minute and barely had any content of their own. Of the 3 options it was obvious that one of them had more work and detail put into it. There was no mention of the character's past interactions with each other beyond very basic statements. As much as I hate to say it the whole game felt like a roleplay forum where teenagers played around with their OCs and barely gave thought to how their characters lacked details aside from their one defining physical characteristic. Some parts were interesting, although I can't go into those details without spoilers. I wish the game had focused on these instead of other things. The themes around trauma were only very tightly touched upon and did not feel as realistic as they should have been. The themes seemed to be played around with for drama and shock value rather than had any impact on the story and character's motivations. Overall, it's a fantastic concept with very interesting themes and a good basis for characters, but needs a lot of work to improve the quality, add depth to the plot and characters and make it feel like the choices have actual meaning to them. I would only recommend this game when on steep discount, or if drastic improvements were made in future. I hate giving negative reviews for these games and discourage people writing them, but this game needs a lot of improvements to it to make it feel worth the cost. On top of all this, the game has bugs causing crashes and such. Not really recommended I am sorry to say.

It's a solidly written game which makes you ponder about life, morality, mortality and other deep stuff, but the story is deeply depressing, and people with certain psychological issues should avoid it. ps: The writer could make the relationship between the doctor and the protagonist a more layered and complex one rather than an overly-simple and unpleasant creator/creation one by introducing more dark themes such as BDSM and Stockholm Syndrome. For example, the doctor could have more interesting features such as providing irresistable pleasures (be it carnal or otherwise) to his creations rather than being a stereotypical mad scientist who desperately wants to control what he can't. And the choices of whether to defy him or submit and whether to kill him or show mercy would be more interesting and meaningful to the players in this way.

I'd wait for a sale before buying it. 5/10. Not bad, but not great either.

Such an honor to play this amazing game just as it launched. I hope many many more players will find and enjoy this. This game is especially fitting for you if you like COGs, but don't want to read a 10.000 words text every time before getting to pick a choice; as the writing is more straightforward and simple than to be expected from stories like this. After 2 hours I reached my first ending - a fairly satisfying one - and I will keep trying out for more endings. A nice bonus this game has is an ending guide for just a few coins. Genius!

Do I have to buy it again in order to play it on my tablet? Steam tells me I own it, but won't run this game for me execpt when I am on my desktop--where it continually locks up.

a short read, somewhere between dark and bitter sweet. To be fair I had a good understanding going in that this wasnt going to be my usual cup of tea, but the price was low and I was curious. There are several opportunities in the story where you can define the personality of the MC by the choices that you make, and doing so will also trigger some steam achievements relating to them. Other choices are offered that will lead to different endings. I took what I felt were the "lightest" of options, which ended with me being the one that died (not a spoiler as it is mentioned on the store page that not everyone makes it out, you not making it out is an obvious option ; p) I might play through again and see if I missed anything that lets me get to the end alive without being the instrument of someone elses demise, but from my first play through, that does not look to be an option. Writing wise I found the story to be a bit well just short on everything, short on dialogue, short on descriptive narrative,... Sparse would be a good word for it. This was a very popular style of writing back in the early 1900's when everything was in print and space was at a premium, but these days there's not really much reason for such a dearth of expose. All in all I can see this having appeal for a certain kind of audiance, Know yourself and all that before you buy, unless like me you are just curious ; )

I remember playing this demo on the COG forum years ago, and I was so excited to see that it's finally been completed. It didn't disappoint at all. Even though each playthrough is relatively short, they've been enjoyable so far and I like the choices and their impact on the game The character development is fairly well-done, I especially liked Ashton, Kel, and Poppy. This story avoided the railroading I often see in RPG's, and I felt like I had a good amount of control over my player character and his personality, feelings, and actions The only thing I wish is that it were longer and that more was explored. I wish I could have spent more time scaring the apartment inhabitants, or going about my life after escaping

Unter den besten Spielen von HG und CoG die ich je gespielt habe. Einen derart hohen Wiederspielwert habe ch bisher kaum gefunden und auch die Stats spielen eine faszinierende Rolle. So viele Arten das Spiel zu beenden und die Charaktere kennen zu lernen, es ist klasse!

This game is very short, but very enjoyable, the setting is quite unique and I really enjoyed it's grim and gloomy aspect. I liked the fact that I could make choices almost every page, it beats other longer choice of games stories that resemble books more than gamebooks. The price is cheap, the story is very good, and there are many different choices and endings, go for it.