Showdown at Willow Creek

Well, its no Tin Star, but Showdown was okay. Pros: -Western setting, with funny colloquialisms to describe some of your stats -Decent writing, author made efforts to include each attributing stat a choice in important decisions -very forgiving got shot 3 times and lived happily ever after? Cons: -VERY SHORT, I read fast, but 1 playthrough was just 60 minutes. -very linear story, nothing to really side track you -very little character progression -very forgiving got shot 3 times and lived happily ever after! All in all, I recommend if you want a short story to play with. Showdown looks to have some replayability with the other stats and choices. Maybe get a couple extra hours out of it...

my biggest takeaway from this game is: could've been better, could've been worse. pros: - very nicely established setting with little nods and slang terms fitting for the time - likeable characters with their own motivations and relations - interesting story, with a couple twists and turns despite the length of it - the writing has a good flow and doesn't feel overly cumbersome or needlessly pretentious cons: - very short - narration often tells rather than shows, and brushes past events very quickly (e.g. the choice o i talk them down immediately leads to the statement 'you talk. they didn't like that and beat you tf up. you go home.') - often doesn't clarify between your character's thoughts and speech in choices (e.g. someone insults you and the choices are o i don't take offense, i'm just here to get paid o "go sit on a cactus," i tell him but both lead characters to react as though you've said everything aloud one-to-one) ???: - i got beat up by a gang, knocked out and left for dead in a cave, and then shot twice, but still somehow lived through a happy ending - you can pick a sweetheart, but only get to know their name and occupation beforehand - there's no strict time constraints for activities (aka you can pm just ask all the questions always) - you can be a native american lesbian who spied for the confederacy. or a gay cowboy who fought slavery. or a former slave and buffalo soldier. - everyone will treat you the exact same, regardless of your choices about gender/race/alignment in the civil war/etc. all in all, a neat little story, but not really anything to write home about either

I actually really loved this story. Great characters, fun and entertaining to read through.

In a quick summary. It could have been better. I found it a little bit short for my liking. The characters were interesting, as was the story, but you don't lose anything for not playing it. Could be a 3.5/5

I've played many of the "Choice of Games" and this one is one of my favorites. It's short and sweet and does the western theme well. I felt satisfied with all of my choices and all the characters were quite entertaining.