Ratings War

Honestly, I liked this story a lot and thought it was well-written and entertaining. That said, there just isn't enough content here to justify the upvote in my opinion. There was so much that could have been done with this that wasn't. It had all the makings of a really interesting epic story and in the end it felt like the writer got bored with it and shipped it incomplete. Also apparently a couple of achievements are bugged. That's annoying as hell. The amount of programing it took to make this game and they didn't get one of the few features it has to work? Come on now.

An RPG that leaves all decisions to you. This allows for a variety o fevents tailored to how YOU want to play the game. Everything is included. Everything impacts. And nothing just doesn't make a difference. By far the one of the best RPG's I have a ever played.

(How i got here/trivial/skippable) I got to this game via "Choice of Robots" which positively surprised me. I got Choice of Robots via a sale and was simply interested in playing a completely text based C&C game. I really liked Choice of Robots, your coices really mattered and you were able to explore totally different stories. I think i played around 7 playthroughs of Choice of Robots, this game sadly appears to be a little different. I managed to stop at a playtime of 115 minutes - yes i am a slow reader - before writing this little review, and at the moment I am contemplating whether or not i want to refund the game, not necessarily because of the money, but more in order to weighten my verdict. Keep in mind that i interrupted my first playthrough and that i am thus not capable of garanteeing anything, the far smaller amount of achievements - compared to Choice of Robots - nevertheless reflects my thoughts. The story seems to be rather out of your hand, while you could make nearly every single decision in Choice of Robots, this game let's the protagonist or other characters take crucial decisions for you, eliminating the possibility of different playthroughs diverging significantly storywise. To elaborate what i mean i'll have to comment on one example for this, which is impossible without a mild spoiler. The scene where i stoped and looked at my playtime: [spoiler]You are making your first real investigation (it did not seem to me that the story could have diverged earlier) and interview someone who called for help, you get out and talk to your "editor"/helper who wants to meet and talk about the leads you gathered. The protagonist and her helper quickly talk about where to meet and it is decided that you meet at a coffee. You can't decide differently and you still get an achievement for drinking a coffee. This just feels odd. Espacially since the consequences of meeting in the office rather than in a coffee place are talked about, instead of giving you the possibility to think about the different outcomes and make a reflected decision, changing the path the story would take.[/spoiler] All in all i am fairly dissapointed at this game atm, and will consider whether or not i will refund it within the next days.

Got to about chapter 6 or 7 before all the heavily influenced liberal nonsense just ruined the story. I don't appreciate whenever a story forces a political narrative in a story where it has no place. I forwarded through after that. As far as worrying, I'd give the story a solid 5/5. Overall though, I'm giving it a 4/10 because the forced politics ruined the story.

This was the first title by the 'Choice of Games' that I have played, and I was pleasantly surprised to rediscover the 'choose-your-own-adventure' genre in digital form, having only encountered it previously in childrens' literature. 'Ratings War' is, however, far more comprehensively realised than most examples of it's kind on your bookshelf. Though I wouldn't discourage children from playing the game I would emphasize it's maturer writing style and suggest it's suitability for any age, according to taste. The story itself is engaging, reasonably original and has a good sense of narritive cohesion, though now on my second run-through I'm unsure whether the choices I made had any real impact on the story itself, rather affecting other more superficial (but equally important) features. It's difficult to give a specific example without spoilers, but romantic implications, for instance, may arise that affect your gameplay. I picked it up at £1.34 in a sale but at it's normal £2.00 price 'Ratings War' more than reasonable for an evening's entertainment. With a playtime of around 3 hours and some deal of replayability it's definitely worth a look. The free demo contains the first chapter, which I think is enough to decide for sure if this is the game for you! To conclude, in case you haven't realised this by now, I would thoroughly recommend this game to any fan of crime fiction.

I usually enjoy Choice of Games' products very much, with the Hero-saga and Choice of Robots being among my favorite text-based games. However, this game seemed a bit... off. The ending was slightly abrupt, and the game seemed to be pretty bland, with your choices having minimal effect on the actual story. The setting seemed cool, but it was left largely unexplored. If this game was being sold for a buck, then sure, but three euros is too much for the quality provided. If you want to try out a text-based game, I'd recommend something else, like the aformentioned Choice of Robots.

It's like if Adam Jensen worked for a news network, and couldn't fight for ♥♥♥♥, and the whole world was even more dystopian cyberpunk than before. It's a short, sweet, to the point adventure that I heartily recommend for anyone who enjoys the Choice of Games line. I feel like there was some wasted potential in how long it took for me to complete it, there could've been more stories, more politics, but hey, for what it is, it's good. Choice of Robots will always be my personal favorite, and what I compare all their stories too. I didn't enjoy this one as much as Choice of Robots, but I can say it was very solid, despite the inherent weaknesses of the genre.

Ratings War is a story about being a reporter in a near-future setting. It's competently executed and I've recommended it to several people already. The cyberpunk theming is nice, but not deep, which I think is actually the fault of the character POV rather than the author. It isn't sci-fi to the character! The author does seem to have given thought to the implications of the technologies presented. I can't give an unmixed recommendation, but I'm going to limit myself to one big complaint. My biggest complaint with the game is with a certain character who is both 'the cavalry' at a critical point, and then talking about throwing the PC under the bus a few pages later. Come on, that doesn't make sense. An ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ can save the day without ceasing to be an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. "I don't like you, but I'm not letting THAT happen to you," is a thing people can be motivated by. The protagonist herself (her by default; player can choose otherwise) is a peaceful but tenacious individual who is sympathetic in every path I've played so far. I like that decisions are typically given sympathetic treatment whether they conform to the preferences of people outside of journalism or not. People aren't villains in their own POV. (I wonder if accepting that bribe is treated sympathetically, too...) In general, the game's writing is empathetic, and save for the character I complained about in the second paragraph every character major or minor is given some footing for the decisions they make. That's pretty awesome. Although it is not without its quirks, I recommend Ratings War as an experience.

For the price of a coffee you can have a brilliantly written, gripping, and hilarious short interactive novel. Filled with interesting characters, difficult choices, and tone so thick you can feel it oozing off of the page.

Well written as some sort of short polar story, but not as a choice novel. Choices are really limited, the branching is obvious and once you made one choice you're quite of forced to stick to all choices similar to that one "skill choice" you made at the beginning. The story is very linear and there is very little differences in the writings or in the story based on your choices. Same can be told about the endings : very little variations. Well written, but not really a choice novel, more like a short kinetic linear novel. Enjoyable, but I would not recommend it because there are'nt really anything specific here and it's not free.