Talon City: Death from Above

Talon City: Death from Above By Eric Moser “It is,” you respond. “I think you want to see if this owl and his plucky assistant can do what the Guardians have thus far failed to accomplish.” “That’s me!” Concordia warbles in delight. “I’m the plucky one!” --- As I continue this series of reviews, I am learning as much about my own opinions and what I can deal with in favor of the quality of a title. Even in the face of something I very much dislike, I have to spend a good while determining why I dislike it. Sometimes, even… I start to understand why the mechanic was put in place to begin with. General Story: In the avian justice system, the Hunters and Feeders are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: The Guardians, who maintain the Tenets and investigate crime, and the Callers, who also seem to investigate crime and represent their clients. These are their stories. You are an owl lawyer who is trying their best to win their first case and pay off your vulture debtors. You life gets ruffled when your client mysteriously disappears and it appears there is a murderer on the loose. It’s up to you to find them, and learn more about the world of Talon City and the Tenets of the Sacred Bark. Can you survive this noir thriller and make a little currency in this bird-eat-bird world? This theme and execution are almost perfect. There is a wide immersive world here that is created around you, while you still focus a little bit on your specific place within the system. This may also be one of the best examples of how to feed lore to a player in a simple way, even though there is obviously a deep complex world. There are moral quandaries of Feeders vs Hunters and what sort of responsibility someone with almost a serf-ish setup with someone they may view as not much better than a potential meal. There are multiple characters, but if you are like me you’ll find yourself attached to maybe only a few because of how little you end up interacting with some of them. But, honestly… you don’t need much more than the promises of a hummingbird. They are pretty special. Format and Typos: Readability is high. There are a few typos, but most errors seem to be coding issues with either incorrect percentage stat changes, and a few instances where the wrong stat was checked. Game Mechanics and Stats: Opposed pair personality will change up your character’s view on specific situations, but the major mechanic is the weighted randomized rolls. A d6 is rolled to check your stat by checking if you roll your skill number or lower. No matter the level of your stat, you will always have at least a 17% chance to fail as you can’t get a skill to 6. Every check will end up checking three things… One of two specific stats (out of 5), or a ‘Stroke of Genius’ which is a limited auto-success depending on difficulty, or a specific item that can be used once to bypass the check. Each success equates to an ‘experience point’ which is a bit of a misnomer, this is actually a currency to pass ‘boss fights’, the amount required depending again on difficulty. A bad run of luck could lead to situations like mine, as reticent as I was to use ‘strokes of genius’, where it took three different attempts to ever get past the first ‘boss fight’. This all culminates in a very confusing, and difficult game that both frustrated me to no end and also likely created the suspense that made a lot of the story worthwhile. Frustrations were that it really didn’t feel like my character was good at the things I wanted them to be good at because luck would determine I wasn’t. Replayability: Replayability is a little inflated by how difficult the game can end up being if you try to play on normal or higher difficulty. The epilogue does include some major flavor changes based on your personality choices up to that point. There is one romance option, but this mostly flavors the story and isn’t really the focus. Dislikes: - 0.0772% chance. That is the chance that I would roll a 5 on a d6 5 times in a row. That is what happened when I needed to roll a 4 or lower for my first two reads that ended in failure. I appreciate the attempt to do something different with mechanics, but it’s very hard not to feel a little like the mechanics are at odds with the idea of what your character is supposed to be good at. - The major twist is subtly foreshadowed with an air horn. - I believe that the Feeders opinion should have been represented with an opposed pair of Feeders/Hunters, because any stat represented by only a growing percentage makes me believe it is bad to be low. Likes: - Suspense and a very real danger lend a sense of desperation to this title that I don’t think it would work without. - The theme and execution of the story are absolutely amazing. This title moves at an exquisite pace and carries the mystery forward almost perfectly. - I want a hummingbird assistant, and I will destroy anyone who threatens them. That’s a hummingbird promise, and those are special.

Very enjoyable. Bit of a detective story, bit of a public crisis. Reminded me a lot of Zootopia, but was very original. I wish the PC got 5 attribute upgrades instead of just 3, but it was not overly limiting. Loved the hummingbird.

I've been playing a lot of interactive fiction lately and this one is the most unique experience I've had. It is hilarious to imagine an owl so into themselves that they make the turkey that is giving a statement to a crime take the notes for them because "owls don't take notes". plus the balancing was the night before and he's in need of a new assistant... You can give your owl whatever view of the world you would like, but all I can say is the current one I am building could give some of my extended family a run for their money in biased behavior. it's funny to read in the eyes of a bunch of birds though. at the moment I'm trying to survive an average play-though as my first was set on easy. I have no intention of trying the hardest mode. lol but who knows.

Nope, sorry, that's a big no-no from me I'm afraid... Disclaimer - the actual premise of the story was fairly unique; &, from what little of it I actually got to experience in the demo, I'd reckon there was some definite potential here... Alas, ultimately, none of that actually ended up meaning anything, since the game committed what I have come to consider a cardinal sin with this particular genre - WIPING MY SAVE FILE FROM THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DEMO!!! For reals, to say I am growing thoroughly SICK of this happening would be an understatement at this point... the worst part being, it occurs seemingly without rhyme or reason, leaving me baffled as to whether it's simply some random glitch, or, worse yet, the producers behind these games are deliberately forcing players to start from scratch simply to pad out their play time..?!? Either way, until this issue finally gets addressed somehow, any game that pulls this stunt is pretty much an instant downvote from me I'm afraid... Of course, perhaps it's unfair of me to judge a game purely over a -mostly - technical issue; but, let's just say, after one TOO many forced restarts, I'm afraid both my patience & my good will are starting to wear rather thin..! .....in retrospect, I suppose I should just count my lucky stars that my data on Golden Rose carried over without a hitch - having spent 3-4 hours on the demo ALONE, if I'd been forced to start that one from scratch, well, frankly... I'd have been spitting blood!!!

A good story with some really cool worldbuilding

It is written very well.

Probably my favourite recent CYOA game. Very compelling story, strong characterisation, and draws you into a world of alternate morality.

Good