Lies Under Ice

A perfect blend of sci-fi, whimsical humour and moral/political quandaries to grapple with. Have played it through twice already and still enjoying trying out new paths.

Simply AMAZING! Depending on if you speed run choices, 8.6 hours of fun in spite of the "200000" word count. Plenty of replayability to be found, thanks to those perennial "What-If" questions trotting in our heads. It's a mix of everything: action, management, philanthropic, philosophical strife, a bit of interpersonal interactions sprinkled in-between. Good pace. I really felt like what I undertook moved the plot forward in a grandiose and meaningful way. I must say right now, if you slip up, don't be discouraged! You just might get a chance to make up for it. Keep moving forward, and it'll fall into place... My first (and only) play through (as of now) as Captain Lev Éclat, a Libertarian arcologist went swimmingly. Now, let me tell you all about it! Firstly, you are given a lot of leeway as to how you perceive yourself and want to be perceived. For instance, the customization options (name [first and last], sex [woman, man, neither], background [three factions with two title each; six different possibilities of your position of authority], career [six different jobs], skills, hobbies, and the likes) and the building options (where I pick to land, how we build the base on Europa, the order in which each new building is constructed, etc.) are vast but not overwhelming nor underwhelming. In fact, you can develop your character and their personality the most as you play. You actually are given the power of choice. Professed the right to dream. Also, your modus operandi varies on what you do and propound. You can be inclined to put the welfare of your people above all else (like I did), choose to be strictly business and science-like, work with your own interests in mind, act as a medium to further humanity's colonization reach. The opportunities are abounding. There are romance partner encounters peppered throughout the game (you will meet them if you have yet to start dating. …I think??), but you should keep in mind that some people may already be in a relationship or are merely uninterested in a love life. Rest assured, that is not the main focus of the story. It’s meager, at best. Secondly, you must be witty, cunning. The reason for this is the magic of interactive novels: diverging paths. Well, I suppose the story is semi-linear, given that there is an ultimate goal and the game does eventually end, though how and why and who you achieve this with is up to your brain and your brawn. Beware! Semantics are a black beast. Mundane tasks and things asked of you may have underlying, drastic repercussions. Your traits affect the story in predictable yet diversifying ways. You will often notice a passage, look inside your stats, and tell yourself, “hey! It’s because of…” It comes with the turf! Remember that career you chose at the beginning? Yeah, it comes with a perk. For example, the arcologist is a master of "sculpting", thus enabling stronger constructions of your bases, be it under the ice, above ground, or on water. You also receive another perk by picking a hobby. Great. Thirdly, I was the best person I could possibly be. An honest, warm person. I was the leader of the expedition, so I was the captain of our spaceship, the Asterion. Fittingly, when given the choice to do so, I named the place where we landed, and by extension the name of our community, Asterion Abyss. Due to my Libertarian roots, in my head, "a leader is called a Captain", so that was my rank as a leader. Indeed, I had been placed Captain the first time around, and after four years I proved my worth and why I should keep leading by demonstrating the quality of life improvements I brought, got reelected for another five years. I led my people on a blazing path of glory. We endured harsh times, but we thrived in the end. I dwelled under the ice, lived above ground, scoured snowy plains, and explored caverns and the sea. Not only that, but I tried to please everyone while remaining firm, but understanding, in my reasoning. Thinking I had their best interests in mind, I pulled my weight around while accepting their input, and it worked! Nice. Sometimes, thing were awry, but my acumen pulled us through. I helped out on Europa just as I helped out with tensions on Earth, Luna (the Moon), and a bit of Mars. I helped design the habitats, piloted our first submarine, prevented destruction, soothed ruffled feathers, and fought evil. Most choices I made were wise, though sometimes the world wanted me to fail: things got bad. Real bad. Of course, a Captain must tend to its fleet. So, I assumed responsibility, admitted my shortcomings as the leader, and promptly resolved any arising quandaries. Near the end, I became a War Hero (that's an achievement!) by fighting back against [SECRET}. At the end of my adventures, I went back to Earth to carry out my final days. I might have lived 60+ years living in and building a partly self-sufficient Europa colony, but I went back to my roots nonetheless. Overall, Lies under Ice is an agreeable game. Calculated. Mind-wracking. Thrilling. In other words, pretty cool. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it is the BEST CoC game. No, that would be unfair, as I believe all Choice of Games are delightful in their own rights. They're passion projects made by passioned people who want to share their passion with people whose passion is reading interactive novels, and some of those stories are about passion. Anyway. As with many other games published by Choice of Game, the game shines the brightest with the element of surprise due to a consistency in perpetuation of events. Many throwbacks can be found. Stuff transpires, you make a choice, you are left to dread if that was the right thing, and that makes it all the more exciting! Chekhov's gun is loaded: the storyboard is decently put together, and every choice I chose actually had a significant impact later on. I was oftentimes surprised by a choice or something I said earlier that came back to bite me in the hind. Naturally, you are given the tools to have a fighting chance. Still, nothing beats being in a pickle, no? Very fun! <3 Buy this game on discount (as it is at the time of writing this!) or at full price… I liked it. I sincerely hope you will enjoy this as much as I did! :D Thank you for this, Joey Jones!