The Ghost and the Golem

Excellent story, presented through a crisp historic lens. The commentary towards the end was very insightful as well, and got me interested in Euro Jewish history.

I highly recommend this game. It's an exceptional and gripping narrative that, in addition, gives a strong feeling of agency. It's an intense, beautiful and terrifying historical setting filled with characters with whom I strongly sympathize and whom I deeply care for. For some context, I enjoy narrative-focused games but rarely play true text-based stories (I got this game recommended to me). The writing is incredible, varying from witty and believable banter awkward domestic scenes to haunting visages of ethnic tension. I was so invested in the well-being of my family and village as the onslaught was no doubt coming, I was invested in the riled-up peasants and the indifferent soldiers, I was even thoroughly invested in the romance, in the future life I would be building. My personal check is: can I imagine these people living their lives if the inciting incident of the story never happened or blew over? And the answer is, I can't stop imagining their normal lives, I almost crave to hear more from them. I was fully immersed in the lives of these Jewish people living in Imperial Russia, and continue to think about them and their fates now that I've completed the game. As for the historical setting, it felt very grounded. I could immediately conceptualize the surroundings clearly and the magical elements strike more as "folkoric" than "(urban) fantasy". I was not taken out but instead drawn in further by its nuanced presence. It felt like I was introduced to someone's culture at a thought-provoking pace. As far as I can tell, the player agency is very strong. I felt constantly under pressure to save my family and my village, but also drawn in by the mysteries the game presented, and the factions you can connect with to try and improve the outcome. The choices felt clear enough that I could make informed decisions but also had enough mystery about them that I was unsure how much of an impact they would have - and fortunately, I found out many times that they did end up having an impact. The character creation and choices you can make feel natural and define your position society (being perceived male or female, for instance, matters a lot in a village in 1881). The world of The Ghost and the Golem is so vibrant I was constantly compelled to roleplay and become fully immersed in its potentially tragic story.

This IF is exceptionally educational and offers a fascinating window into Jewish society. The setting and story include some heavy, emotional scenes. My first playthrough took about 5.5 hours, and I know I only scratched the surface of all the branching paths. I mean just look at that list of achievements! The romance was a lovely surprise, I didn't expect it to be this sweet. Also, you can choose your own name suffix, so naturally, I went full weeb with "-chan". :D

10/10, wonderful game, made me feel things and of course it's helping me learn Yiddish too!

Good

I've already completed 2 playthroughs (one alone and one with a friend) and about to start a 3rd. I cannot recommend this enough for fans of historical light fantasy. You can probably finish one playthrough in an afternoon. The story is both grounded and fantastical and your choices actually affect the final outcome of the story. The research that has gone into depicting both the historical setting and cultures involved makes you feel like you are part of the shtetl and care about it's fate. Do you want to be the rebellious daughter fascinated with the supernatural who longs to make her mark on the world or the dutiful son who is driven by a sense of community whose goal is to protect those he loves or something in between? You can pretty much do it all. [spoiler] Also, DOVID WHY WON'T YOU MARRY ME ;_; [/spoiler]

I've noticed that Choice of Games titles can sometimes feel a little like the author doesn't feel very invested or interested in their own story, whereas Hosted Games titles are labors of love and the authors of the best ones are passionate and dedicated to the worlds they create. This is a mainline Choice of Games title where the author clearly loves their story and characters and introducing readers to a part of history that many people know little about. This is an excellent work. If I am to offer any criticism at all it's that, unlike a lot of interactive fiction titles where the choices can be ambiguous and it is not always clear what the best decision in a moment is, in this story and this setting and with these characters there is only one correct response to the bigotry exhibited by the antagonist peasants: Violence, and flight. With our great powers of hindsight, we can see without any doubt that, a Jewish person living in eastern Poland a scant fifty years prior to the beginning of the Holodomor and Holocaust should treat the gentiles around them as mortal threats and enemies. That they should embrace any and all weapons - including the supernatural - that might be employed against those enemies. They should do everything in their power to leave Europe with all of their loved ones and never return. This clarity makes a lot of the choices pretty obvious here.

Oy, there's some learning in this game.

after 2 playthroughs i can say this is a great little game, definetly my favorite text–based/multiple choice rpg. the characters and story really pulled me in and the game made me rediscover my love of saying Nu in every situation. it's also quite intense, as it warns in the beginning, so i have played enough for now. but someday I will come back to get the gay happy ending!

[i]The Ghost and the Golem[/i] is a simple text adventure but it manages to create a real sense of immersion in the time and culture of the setting. The narrator has a quirky and distinctive voice that really sets the tone (for example the first achievement says "Fine, so you delivered a dress; what do you want, a medal?") Although I have only played it through once so far, there seems to be a lot of potential avenues to explore and I definitely intend to return sometime. In my opinion the Nebula nomination was well deserved.