Diabolical

This story doesn't take itself seriously and, if you want to enjoy it, you shouldn't either. You're in for a cartoony romp with a straightforward plot and lots and lots of deus ex machina if you play this game. I didn't enjoy as much as I thought I might but that was likely because I went in with the wrong attitude but I'm certain many people would find its silly and irreverent tone to be quite entertaining as long as they were aware of it before getting in too deep.

It's not as long as other Choice of Games or has as deep a meaning but highly enjoyable letting you play a super villain getting to go with every villain cliche from millitary leader sparing no one to a more trickstery character who causes non lethal chaos. It's short, entertaining and who doesn't want the largest ball of aluminum foil?

Do I like Diabolical? Yes, absolutely, but it's not a game that I could ever recommend. The writing is good, entertaining, and occasionally funny, but all too often the game railroads you into different choices. You'll be given a list of options, but the response will almost always be "He isn't really listening" or "You thought I was serious?" What feel like major decisions are quickly made irrelevant by randomly changing circumstances, and you never get the chance to truly direct your villain. The character decides their own overarching goal or plan, and you pick the specifics, which seems to me to be the opposite of what one would want from a game like this. Diabolical can be fun, but it doesn't offer nearly as much choice as you would want from a text-based game.

If you know the other Choice games, well, you won't be surprised. This one is a lot more lighthearted than some of the other ones I played, even if you go relatively evil and kill a lot. There are some surprising twists, but the whole game has a little bit too much "deus ex machinas" for my taste. But anyway, if you want to be the villain in a cartoony way, this is definitely your game. Not regretted it.

Have you ever wanted to play a game in which you can be a cackling, all-out, theatrical villain? Or perhaps the more tech/gadget-focused, stone-cold killer villain? If so, then [i]Diabolical[/i] is definitely the interactive novel for you! Choose your minions, pick your lair, decide on what kind of weapons you want to use, and don't forget to spend some downtime with your goons at your underwater lake (bingo has always been a favourite). [i]Diabolical[/i] is a beautiful homage to the stereotypical comic book or TV cartoon villain, and now you can take on this role for yourself. You're a young and upcoming new villain, trying to steal or murder you way through the world and climb up in the ranks so you can end up with the big baddies. However, one of the big baddies turns out to be Really Freaking Evil, the biggest villain organisation ever is on your trail, and the good guys won't leave you alone either. Who will you ally with? And will you save the world, destroy it or do something ridiculously over-the-top with it? [h1][b]The Good[/b][/h1] + Hilarity! Ham acting! Buying lava for your secret volcano lair! + Also includes a few more serious moments amongst all the light fun + There's plenty of interesting villains (and heroes) around who (1) gossip about you, (2) are in your way, (3) want to kill you or (4) want you to join them + The possibility to have a threesome in space [h1][b]The Bad[/b][/h1] - At 130,000 words, it's relatively short, and you can finish it in ± 1.5 hours - The choices aren't very imaginative, and sometimes don't really have impact on the story - There is little depth to the characters, including your own - Limited romance options - No save points and no skip options If you're looking for an interactive novel that doesn't take itself seriously in which you can become the villain, then you will probably like this game. Just mind the short length of it, and the fact that some of the choices aren't as impactful as I'm used to in Choose Your Own Adventure games. You also don't get to customise your character to a great degree. In the end though, I had a lot of fun playing as a theatrical gadget-focused villain who had a threesome in space but eventually saved the world -- and I will definitely replay this game again!

I can't recommend this game, because of the lack of player agency especially in action scenes. Outside of action scenes the players choices have only superficial effects in the story. The player can choose what their villian looks like, what their villain drives and choose from three interchangable sidekicks, but any time a meaningful selection of choices is presented they end up like this: Choice A: The writers preferred choice Choice B: Different way of going about the same thing as Choice A. Choice C: A legitimatly different option from Choice A that will autofail if chosen. But far far worse than this is the action scenes. Every action scene is the same sequence of choices: Sequence 1 Choice A: Action Choice B: different action Choice C: Joke No matter what choice you chose in Sequence 1 the game says "Psych you were hit/fell down/etc. while trying to decide". No matter what you choose in sequence 2 you will partially succeed, leading to sequence 3 where no matter what you choose you will succeed. I can't reccomend a game where even the choices in action scenes do not matter.

Disclaimer: I played this through with steam "offline" on a road trip, so my "time played" appears lower than it is. Frustrating, I thought it would save the achievements at least... Don't get me wrong, I love Choice of Games. But more importantly, I ADORE villainy. Anything where you can be a villain is an automatic buy for me; I am a total sucker for the gimmick. That being said... This game is well-written and quite endearing, and it's certainly very funny. In that sense, I almost feel like it's not taking your character seriously. (That's not necessarily bad, by any means.) The story is short in comparison to many of their other works, and it just doesn't have the same replayability value. Maybe I was pursuing the wrong routes, but I felt like they were all much the same. Disappointing, but at least I got to be a villain. I'm still a sucker for the gimmick.

This game has the exact same problem that almost every other game of this type has. Your choices do not matter. It's funny, too. Diabolical is such a short, breezy experience that I ended up playing it twice. This is the first game of its kind to really make me realize just how little choice I actually had. The story it tells is a charming one, and I enjoyed my first playthrough a lot, but this game has no excuse for its railroading. Telltale games have their excuse, those being that they can only program so many different outcomes for the budget they have, but this game is made up of pure text. Seriously. It just comes across as almost laziness on the part of the devs, and I can't recommend supporting that.