Death Collector

Not the best work by this author. Choice of the cat was excellent. This... This is just mediocre. You're stuck in an awful, soul-crushing job. Everyone hates you. Sure, there's intrigue, and sure, there's some interesting ideas, like the cloaks, but the whole thing is a bit of a mess. There's problems where things are just mentioned as [script error], or something akin to it, rather than just the normal spelling and grammar errors. What skills apply to what are completely unclear, and the game is damn unforgiving about it. A character can have a high relationship, but still call you an idiot. If you've had a crappy office job that involves some manual labor, that's this game, except in this game, people also cut people's tongues out. I recommend Choice of the Cat instead. This is just excruciating.

[i]I should really say sorry to you, my readers. My thoughts are a bit jumbled these days – holidays, summer, ice cream overdose. You know, the usual. However, I will try to do my best to share my feelings about this game.[/i] To be honest, I am on the fence as far [b]Death Collector[/b] is concerned. Here is a short backstory: I first learned about it when the demo was released in December 2018, if I remember correctly. I got immediately hooked after playing it, but for some reason, I did not buy the full game right away. So, now almost 8 months later, I finally got a chance to complete it – better late than never, right? And, hm, I should say, it was not what I expected – in a bad way, unfortunately. My review turned out to be neutral with a positive mark in the end because there are some aspects of Death Collector that are worth the praise; but downsides cannot be overlooked either, and trust me, some of them are noticeable enough to spoil your playthrough. [h1]The story[/h1] As a Death Collector, you have to harvest tongues from people who are about to die. You may ask, ‘Why on Earth do we need tongues if souls cost a lot more in the market?!’ And you will be quite fair to wonder, but only these organs can tell stories – lives of people are more valuable than anything you can imagine and can help your career skyrocket in next to no time. Intriguing? Well, try not to get too juicy stories or somebody – cough-cough-ministry-workers-cough – might want you dead after your very first publication. But nobody said that being ‘Death’s little helpers’ was easy! [h1]Truth is like tapioca pudding[/h1] [u]First,[/u] the setting. It is unique and interesting – how many games do you know about ministries that harvest people’s tongues to write down their life stories and publish them in newspapers? It is also worth mentioning that there are common people living right next to you, a Death Collector, and they know that one day you might come for the bloody harvest. Can you imagine?! [u]Second,[/u] I should also praise the writing: it creates just the right atmosphere of gloomy despair and resentment when necessary. At the same time, there can be even too much depression – all days are equally grey, everyone hates you, even the slightest ray of hope will be utterly destroyed (most probably). To be honest, I wad extremely tired while I was reading Death Collector because of some issues at work, so this kind of setting made me feel down in the dumps right away. What can I say: some games are not meant to be played in the wrong mood, right? [u]Third,[/u] the characters are amazing, at least at the beginning. A very charming and mischievous troublemaker; a smug and privileged brat who will eat you alive if he could; a conspiracy theories fan who might know more than she actually should; a stick-to-the-rules bore with secrets; your boss who seems to be exhausted and nervous most of the time; and a bunch of other background characters with their own agenda. Interaction between these people are quite dynamic and every day brings new surprises. But, unfortunately, there is a huge grain of salt: everybody is at each other’s throats and there is a lot of hate everywhere. Every day you come to the job where somebody is arguing, trying to blackmail others, expecting you to do all the dirty work and be thankful for it, and just generally trying to kill their colleagues. And your boss is always, always weary and dissatisfied. Oh, and have I already mentioned a snobbish house called Zythians that for some reason hates you and everyone else from your own house (which also turns out to be the worst of the worst)? Cue in the depressive atmosphere and you get the idea what kind of mood I had - this became repetitive very fast and started getting on my nerves more than I wanted to. [u]And the worst of the worst:[/u] the endings. I was expecting a lot more from them! Maybe I chose the wrong part, but the very first ending I got was extremely rushed – [spoiler]I published my first article, it was popular, and then hop! I was on the assassins’ list and had to run from the town. The end![/spoiler] The characters are interesting, but did not get enough development because of the abrupt outcome. There are various endings, of course, and not all of them are as bad as others, but let’s imagine for a moment that you get the one I did: the one that cut off several story lines without any proper answers, without any proper romance line. Would you be frustrated? I definitely was! [u]The last but not least:[/u] typos, extra words, coding between the line of text (that was a rare occasion, mind you, but still worth mentioning), ‘he’ becoming ‘she’, etc. [h1]My verdict[/h1] After reading my complaints, you might wonder why I eventually decided to give [b]Death Collector[/b] a positive mark. Yes, there are problems with the writing and endings, and some parts were too rushed, but speaking about other issues, I think we should attribute them to my taste and current mood. It is not to everyone’s taste for sure, but some people do like gloomy adult stories with gore and overall feeling of depression. Other enjoy competitive atmosphere and daring endeavors. And the third group will find characters fascinating enough to continue playing. In my humble opinion, [b]Death Collector[/b] deserves a neutral review because it is definitely not the worst text-based game I have read, but it needs some major improvements to be considered a good story. Anyway, I think you should still give it a try and see for yourself if this kind of setting is up your alley. [h1][url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/32296668-Casual-Game-Reviews/] More reviews on our Curator Page[/url][/h1]

Death Collector is a very interesting game by Choice of Games. A 300,000+ word interactive novel makes for a story that can be rather in-depth and full of choices - telling us a tale worthy of being remembered. Now see... Death Collector is memorable. The story has great depth and sets up an interesting world narrative that you end up thrust into... but it feels like it lacks in many aspects in more ways than I can really grasp at for particulars. The story is intriguing, the basis interesting and rather novel. But... the ending feels rushed and many of your own options feel like they don't make much of a difference. I felt as though no matter my choices the ending seemingly would end up the same. It also doesn't really make me want to replay it either to find out if that is the case. The story is well thought out, has depth, and I just wish there was more angles to have taken for who you were to make yourself out to be. It is a good story, but personally not my favorite Choice of Games game. It isn't like Choice of Robots or Hollywood Visionary. Choice of Games has made many great games through this and Hosted Games but this just... it lacks in many areas.

I disagree with the other review - I have been reading COG Games for a long time now, I even have a tattoo to do with the company. This story is well written, I found the concept quite intriguing and I could tell the authour put thought into their story. I agree that I was quite surprised to find the script error however it has nothing to do with the writing and can easily be patched out, it is rather hard to proof read every scene in a 300,000 word book. I found the charcters all interesting in their own right and I found that each had a distinct personality to bring them to life. I eagerly await what may come next for our charcters. This is certainly one of their top books out this year, and if you have time to spare and want an engaging read, give the Death Collector a try - I think you will be pleasantly suprised.

interesting concept unfortunately the choices are poorly worded and can lead to your character doing exactly what you didn't want them to do. it also so stonewalls you into doing choices that you didn't pick for example you are given the choice to not eavesdrop but end up being accused of eavesdropping anyway. also makes your character do things opposite to what you want them to do regardless. at that point why are you playing a choice game with no choice?

Most of the choices are petty and insignificant. The charaters are unlikable. And if author wanted to put words in the players 'mouths and force out some feelings that just aren't there, at least make them feel they MATTER in this story, which this game still fails at miserably. If you want to have a taste of what kind of quality Choice of games and Hosted Games have stooped to these days, just try this game.

Death Collector is mess of a narrative, a poor story, and a poorly told one at that. Paragraph after paragraph where you do nothing but read. That would be fine if this were a novel, I love reading novels. But this isn't a novel, it's a Choice of Games game, emphasis on game. There are few player choices, fewer still that actually matter. Even if they did, it would be negated by the cast of characters. They're all totally unlikable, and the entire narrative framework is structured around that fact, meaning you've gotta be just as terrible as everyone else. Maybe that's just the style the author was going for, but it makes for a slog of a read. Aside from that, the story is just plain boring. So much of the opening half hour or so is sitting around, reading about lore and characters and not actually doing anything. Endless paragraph droning on explaining who everyone is, what your job is, and how this world works without actually letting us do anything for ourselves. I've finished every single Choice of Games game and Hosted Games game I've ever played, but this marks the first time I was unable to do so. I can't take anymore of these utterly unlikable gits standing around yelling at each other, or reading about lore or other fun stuff I don't get to do myself.

I'm sure there are many out there who will enjoy this game. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. The story is definitely unique, and some ideas caught my interest, but it ended rather abruptly and with too many loose ends. It honestly felt like the story was going somewhere but the author cut it short/didn't have time to develop it. I also didn't like the ROs, which is a deal breaker for me.

Apesar das outras críticas negativas eu achei esse jogo muito bom, as escolhas sim tem significados e dependendo das porcentagens que você tem no stats a mesma escolha pode ter resultados diferentes. Também tem vários finais diferentes e alguns detalhes pequenos (tipo uma linha ou uma fala diferente) que mudam dependendo das suas escolhas (que inclusive alguns detalhes eu quase não percebi depois que fui jogar mais uma vez porque li muito rápido o texto pensando que estava igual quando joguei antes). Cada personagem foi muito bem escrito e você vai descobrindo mais sobre o passado, personalidade e detalhes deles quanto mais você joga. Tem vários mistérios e intrigas que você vai descobrindo ao longo do tempo também. Pra quem não se importa de jogar um jogo de escolhas puramente de texto e em inglês, vale muito a pena

I’m going to start this out by saying some nice things, mainly because I don’t want this review to be entirely negative, and there were some things I liked about this. The concept is really interesting. The idea of being “death’s little helper” is interesting, and the cloaks are super fascinating and a cool mystery to try and unravel. Plus, the concept of cutting dead/dying people’s tongues out to collect their stories is super fascinating and unique [b]So, now, the negatives [/b] The story can be oppressively depressing. I mean, I know the subject of collecting people’s tongues after they die is dark, but come on. Everyone hates each other and constantly argues to the point where it stops even being interesting storywise, and it felt like half of the time, even when leaning on my character’s strengths, I would never be able to succeed at anything. I’d try calling in some of the favors I’d earned, only for nothing to come of it. Yet I feel like I still had more success than the average player considering I’ve gotten achievements that 13% of people who played it had. If I had more success than average, I can’t imagine how obnoxiously hard it must feel for other people to play this game There were a lot of times where it felt like what I would choose didn’t matter, and I was destined to ruin things, which is really not what I like to see from a game that’s supposed to be based around your choices. I felt like I was frequently being railroaded, and the choices didn’t do nearly what I expected them to do, so I never had any idea what would happen based on my choices other than me failing in some way or another. It made it difficult for me to keep playing the game-- when I’m trying to do something enjoyable, I definitely don’t want to constantly feel like everything I do is futile and that I’m screwed no matter what I do For example, at one point [spoiler] my character was hit with a court summons for apparently antagonizing Kara, the librarian, and causing problems in the library. Which is weird because I never did that. Throughout the library scene, I took Kara’s side and did what I could to be polite, so I have no idea why my character would have been put on her blacklist. I feel like this is also related to an issue with the characters seeming to hate you no matter what you do. Kara specifically felt like this, since throughout my entire interactions with her in the early part of the story, we seemed to be getting along well. Suddenly, she dislikes me enough to put me on her blacklist for seemingly no reason, despite the fact that it still says the she “finds (me) amenable”. [/spoiler] I wanted to like the characters, but stuff like this made it really hard for me to connect to them since it felt like no matter what, they wouldn’t like me It seemed like my character stats hardly changed throughout the entire story. Maybe I was just picking all the wrong options, but I feel like most of the time, a good portion of your choices will affect your stats in some way or another with all the COG and Hosted games. However, several of mine remained exactly the same from the first chapter to the end of the story, which made it feel even more like my choices didn’t really matter. This feeling was only made even stronger by the fact that there were a lot of long pages of text, some of which would end without even giving you a choice of something to do. It felt more like I was along for the ride than actually able to make a choice in things, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, for a game where the whole point is you making choices, I felt like nothing I did really mattered I also encountered tons of glitches that made it nearly impossible for me to understand what was happening at times, sometimes things that I assume are from the code would appear alongside the actual text, and characters I’ve never met before would be referred to as though I was supposed to know who they were. I believe one other reviewer here mentioned that these could be easily patched out, and while they probably could be, it’s been 2 years since the game came out and the bugs are still there, so. Not really a great sign. At one point, [spoiler] I ran into a glitch where I was supposed to be interviewing three tongues. One of them needed to basically be resuscitated, and I managed to do that. Yay, based on the rarity of the achievement, that’s something kind of difficult to do. The excitement of having done something difficult on my first try was marred by the fact that I ran into a glitch where even after having gotten the thoughts from the resuscitated tongue, I could select to hear from it again. Assuming that there was more from it, I chose that option, and since the game was apparently only programmed so you could make three choices in this segment, that means I completely missed out on one of the stories [/spoiler] The worst glitch I had was an issue where what I assume there could have potentially been a conflict between myself and another one of my coworkers. However, there must have been a coding error or something, because instead of there actually being a person that I was up against, it would say “no one”. I assume what was supposed to be happening is depending on relationships with coworkers, you would have to try and succeed against one of them here, but since I had a neutral to positive relationship with all of them (allegedly, it felt like they all hated me), it just said there was no one To show how completely incomprehensible this was, [spoiler] again with my character being called to court, and I tried to call in a favor with Pedita. It said that “no one” had the same target, so I thought “oh, okay, that’s good”. Then the next sentence says “she throws you a hateful look”, and context says it's not Pedita doing that, which implies that someone else is. But the only other person who could be involved here is Roza since no one else uses she/her pronouns, and Roza’s not involved. Then several times throughout this page of text, it again refers to no one as if there’s a person that should be here. [/spoiler] It got to the point where I thought that this had to be some kind of intentional thing, like the author was trying to play with my mind somehow. Honestly, I wish it was because then I would have at least been able to figure out what on earth was happening in hindsight My ending also felt highly anticlimactic, and like countless plot threads had just been abandoned. [spoiler] I never learned what was up with the ministry and why my house was hated so much, what was going on with that assassin, what was up with the cloaks-- really anything about any of the mysteries that were set up throughout the story. I didn’t even get anything happening with my RO, though granted, with how I was treated by them sometimes, I'm not even sure if I was successfully romancing them. [/spoiler] I’m sure I probably just got a bad ending, but even the bad endings of other stories from COG/Hosted don’t leave every single plot thread from the story unanswered. Maybe one day I’ll replay the story to try and get something better so I can at least have some answers, but I doubt I’ll be doing that any time soon due to just how hard this thing was to slog through near the end I’d probably give this game a [b]3/10[/b]. The concept is interesting, but there are so many issues and the plot was so difficult for me to follow that I finished the game feeling unfulfilled and lost. Kinda disappointed I spent my money on this, especially when the demo was so promising, but at least I got it on a sale