Silverworld

10/10 used "Hey look over there" successfully on an eldritch god. In all seriousness, however, this is a very strong game from the author of Empyrean. The magitech aspects are back, this time against the backdrop of a primordial fantasy world. There are errors; my character's name had a period after it the entire time, but the game, as a whole, is fun as hell, and full of memorable moments. In some cases, it was unclear what skills played into what, and I never did manage to get writing established in my civilization, but the game, as a whole, was a rather splendid work of fiction; I look forward to other entries by this author.

So I enjoyed Silverworld. The Steampunk meets Magical Stone Age theme is original and brilliant, the author makes a unique world come to life, the action sequences are engaging, and so on. But it's great as a story. As a game, it falters. You have to keep going through lengthy, massive menus of choices, and as far as I can tell, there's virtually no reason not to pick the one that's (on the surface) most concordant with your build. That's true for most Choice games, but it shouldn't always be true. Eg: in Choice of Rebels, it's actually suboptimal for a Charisma build to recruit too aggressively, or for a Combat build to raid too aggressively. I can't find challenges like that in Silverworld. I recommend purchasing Silverworld if you're a fantasy fan who wants to experience something truly original, epic, and fun. But if you're more interested in the the gameplay aspects of Choice games, I would look elsewhere.

Finished a first playthrough and, as with Empyrean, I was most impressed by the extensive and polished worldbuilding that the player can actually shape in significant ways. I'm already curious to play again and see what else there is to discover, especially if I choose to do the quests in a different order (something I don't think I've seen in other CoGs, but I find it a clever way to add to replayability). This game is one of the longer CoGs and it does feel long. While it doesn't have the frantic I-can't-put-it-down quality that Empyrean has, I appreciate that it took its time with the exploration and understanding of a new world. Something like a language barrier that is gradually overcome might slow down the pace, but it adds to that aspect of discovery. The stat system is very straightforward with a satisfying amount of skills and I like that the game also keeps track of a scientific journal and the resources that we have (and these all matter in certain ways). It was almost always clear what skills were being tested and even in the case of failure the consequences didn't seem dire. Nitpicky, I know, but this took a bit away from the sense of danger that the rest of the writing was creating. Ultimately, what I enjoyed most was how imaginative the writing is. The setting is a fascinating mix of wilderness, magic and tech that even turns psychedelic toward the end. And while the characters range from robots to bee women to plant people, these concepts are very much explored and progress throughout the story. It's all just delightfully weird. Honestly, the only thing that bothered me was the period that always followed the MC's name. Otherwise, I spent some wonderful hours immersed in the Silverworld.

Choice of Games' games are very hit or miss for me. By which I mean most of them are a miss, and a handfull of them are bullseye hits. This is one of the latter. For the ones that are good, there's some "hook" right off the bat that should appeal to your sense of awesome to draw you in. In this case (for my choices) it was getting to play as a Steampunk Aztec mechanic man of culture. Following that solid hook of "awesome thing you get to play as", you'll need an awesome setting. In this case, its Steampunk-age Byzantium which never fell and now takes the rough equivalent spot of The British Empire in the Victorian age. At least shortly before you're thrown into an age of pulp fiction. The genre, not the movie. This is also awesome. Along the way you're accompanied by your Bioware Bro-squad (or Persona Bro-squad, if you prefer) as you go on awesome adventures. I really do mean that as a compliment, because all of them are great and even if you have no interest in romancing them they're all surprisingly well defined for a CYOA game. Of course you can romance them as well. And if you've never wanted to romance a hive mind of robot girls or a bee woman, then I think you might be beyond help. This is easily the best Choice of Games I've played through. The setting is fun, your choices effect world building (and by god there is just so much world building), the characters are great, and replayability is high. The only downside I can think of is that the overall plot is the tiniest bit on the predictable side, but then you don't need twists in every story and the world building/characters more than make up for it. This is a fun game. I was unreasonably joyous when playing this game. I'm not the most animated player of video games. A stream of me would be boring. This game had me loudly shouting my reactions because it was so darn fun. I can only hope that this is one of those rare Choice of Games that gets a sequel because the universe has so much potential it hurts.

Silverworld has one of the strangest premises of any CoA game that still made sense and held my attention. The characters are bizarre but well defined, and the story is long but meaningful. Silverworld doesn't only have length, but also depth: the three middle chapters of the book can be done in any order, allowing for players to use items and skills from one chapter in another, or vice versa. The dozen different stats and the various double stat tests could be a little frustrating and confusing, but they all felt meaningful, even if they upset the perfectionist in me. Overall, Silverworld, with its myriad and complex mechanics, makes for a fun and engaging time.

It took some time to convince myself I want to play this game. I was so sure I wouldn't like it. Savage civilizations? Surviving in some kind of Stone Age, even with timey-wimey stuff? All that didn't seem to be appealing to me. Turned out that Silverworld has [i]much[/i] more to offer. It was a long, exciting and truly unique adventure. Bizarre, too — in the best way possible. The story is great, the characters are believable and very well-written, the fighting scenes are thrilling. What a great read! One of the best CYAO games in my opinion. 10/10 would romance an insect again

I've been through the game almost twice now. It's really a well-written and polished game. It has very good writing and very decent lengths of text before choices (I want a decent story, not just the choices part). Almost no errors - I think I only noticed one missing space between words in my whole initial playthrough. The game is generally forgiving of mistakes - it's not easy to have then game suddenly end early from a mistake. However if you are trying for something very particular (relationship with one character) then it can be quite strict, well strict in a sense - it's not too hard to have a good outcome, but hard to have a top level outcome. Which all seems very good design sense - catering for people who want to enjoy the different routes as well as those that really want to push for the hard-core perfect routes. It all points to a lot of preparation and a lot of polish. The first time I played the game I had a strong sense that it would feel pretty identical on the second playthrough going through main plot areas - but actually I was pleasantly surprised by how many different screens of text I came across second playthrough - how failed chocies in my first playthrough were actually panning out in my second through different character options. I also really liked how finding something special actually made special choices pop up in multiple areas after that. I also like how this game is written like a proper fantasy book and not peppered with strong swearing and unnecessary gore. The only negative is a strong doubt about the wordcount. In my second playthrough most huge blocks of text are [b]almost[/b] identical. I have a better/worse relationship with a character and so on a page of text, one sentence near then end is a bit different. It's a nice touch in a game full of nice touches - but I suspect that the whole page of text is counted as additional wordcount rather than that one sentence. I don't feel this is an honest wordcount, and real wordcount being more along the lines of <100K rather than >500K. A true wordcount should be the amount of additional original content. Overall - a great game with many hours of content, and will be enjoyable to replay multiple times.

it is good one, one of the first text game i have played and i am glad i got this one.

This is a really great choose your own adventure. Real flaws exist though. For example, sevaral times in my first playthrough there have been options which have nothing to do with what I've chosen and the path my character is on. They are sort-of spoilers, because I can see how other choices could have gotten to these outcomes, but I basically learn new (spoiler for different path) information from the possible choices I have, which is nonsense. Choosing these options (when I don't necessarily even know what they're talking about) seems to have decent outcomes as well. This also means that I'm now on a path that has nothing to do with decisions I've made previously. The thing is... I still recommend this game if you like choose your own adventure. It really has some depth, but that is betrayed by the (very few but very obvious) flaws. It really is better than most of the games of this type that I've played.

It's a good length, and there are a lot of real choices that have a legitimate impact on the outcome of the story: impact on both the ending and the different paths to getting there. There's really good replayability value. The characters are all very unique, and I had a lot of fun building up relationships and helping out the village