Thieves' Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat

Rating: 3/5 As mentioned in the blurb, you are the world's second greatest thief, intent on stealing the most unlucky, well-portected and coveted diamond: The Black Cat. This is an honest addition to the Choice of Games catalogue following such works as the Heroes Rise Trilogy and Choice of the Deathless. I admit I didn't find this quite as compelling or engrossing as some of the others but it certainly did have its moments. Unlike other Choice Of Games' titles where you begin at the bottom and work up, Thieves' Gambit has you start off as the 'World's Second Greatest Thief', a position that's kind of hard to swallow considering the number of times your character will screw up through no fault of your own. The story is decent enough, just a bit short and lacking in substance in some parts. On my first playthrough the whole thing ended up as 149 pages of various length (in comparison Choice of the Deathless averages to about 290). Story length, however, shouldn't really matter if you just want a couple hours of interactive adventure. The writing itself is done well, emulating the standard Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style and with little to no language errors (I've not noticed any but there may be a few). As for the choices, most seem believable though there are the standard set-dressing-first-paragraphs-of-difference pages (but the same went for the other games). The final act is where, I feel, everything really picks up as you carry out the grand heist. There are many variables that affect what happens, even if it sometimes seems like you're just reacting to events rather than enacting a master plan; Depending on the character you want to be, it can make it just that bit more fun to make up your plan on the fly. The main gripe for me was the limitations to the criminal you wanted to be. You want to be a suave Neal Caffrey-esque Con Man? Well, they have one. You want to be a silent, Garrett-like thief? Good luck; You're almost scripted to go loud. You want to go chaotic, Joker-wants-shootie-shoot-people-in-style criminal? Sure, that's easy; But then you feel less 'second greatest thief' and more 'third-thug-from-the-left'. And the 'World's Greatest Thief' isn'tmuch better. But, as I said before, if you just want a casual, fun game to pass the time, this shouldn't bother you. What I think I'm saying is that this is a game worth what they're asking if you want to spend a couple more hours with a Choice Of Games' title. However, if you're just getting into the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure genre on Steam, I'd reccomend you try out their other titles first (they all have demos).

Thieves' Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat A Choose Your Own Adventure [CYOA] done by Choice of Games. Basically you're a second-best jewel theif and are stealing the unluckiest diamond. I felt it had some serious potential to branch of more then it did, but it left me feeling a bit disappointed. It was rather abrupt, random and short but overall, I enjoyed it. Outside of getting all the achievements, there is no replaying it, or going back to it. The story scenes were actually pretty good, first playthrough it took until the end to figure anything out with who was on your side and not. There were some choices of romancing the same sex, but it fell short of fleshing anything out. I recommend it based on the fact it's a cheap, short story and it was worth what I paid for.

To be entirely honest, Thieves' Gambit is significantly shorter and much less complex than most of Choice of Games' other titles. There are only two "morality stats", neither of which you get many chances to really explore or play out. Even while reading each whole page of text thoroughly, I managed to complete one run in little under an hour. Mechanically, it's nothing to write home about, with only the most basic of CYOA features. However, Thieves' Gambit succeeds spectacularly in being more enjoyable than a large majority of the other CoG games on Steam primarily due to its unique premise, and the way that it absolutely and lavishly indulges in it. In case you couldn't tell from the name and the description, Thieves' Gambit is a CYOA about being a classic "Master Thief" type character - You recruit your crew, case the joint, launch the heist, and get away from the boys in blue, your ill-begotten trophy securely in your hands. The game gleefully throws every Master Thief/Heist-genre trope at you that it can - The inspector who will stop at nothing to bring you in, following you wherever you go; The rival Master Thief who continually one-ups you at every opportunity; The ragtag heist crew from all walks of life. It throws Ocean's Eleven at you, it throws Lupin III at you, it throws The Pink Panther at you, it throws every stinking last Master Thief show or movie it can at you, and delights at it. Even if it doesn't have the same depth as other CoG games, this game is worth the $3 price tag and at least one run through, so you can enjoy the feeling of being one of the great phantom thieves of the world yourself. tl;dr: Mechanically underwhelming and lacking depth, but premise and "fun factor" makes up for it. 7.5/10 wait no you can actually utter the lines "It belongs in a museum!" when referring to an ancient and valuable artifact 10/10 GOTY all years

A decent presentation from Choice of Games. I am a fan of their products and buy anything they put up on Steam. This particular story, which I won't give away any details on, is rather short compared to some of their other offerings, and it feels somewhat singular and lacking in flexibility with little in the way of options or replayability. That all said, the writing is solid, entertaining, and flows well. It had my attention, and I finished it in one sitting. If you're curious, it certainly deserves a look, and for the price, you just can't beat it for a short but satisfying ride.

One of my absolute favorite Choice games, not super long but doesn't feel unfinished or too short, either- well-paced and fun. If you like heists, you'll like this.

This time in a Choose Your Own Adventure game by [i]Choice of Games[/i], you play as the world's second-best jewel thief planning a heist of the most dangerous diamond ever known. Travel the world while you slowly gather your team together, one by one -- old friends, old lovers, and perhaps even old enemies. Do some spywork, inflitrate the mansion in which the diamond is kept, flirt with your team members, evade your police inspector nemesis... This story contains every heist/spy trope in the book, including car chase scenes, sexy clothing, and lots and lots of charisma. And it's downright [i]fun[/i]. [h1][b]The Good[/b][/h1] + Action! Guns! Chase scenes! Riches beyond your imagination! + Scheming rival who steals all your targets away from under your nose + Option to stab your team in the back if you want to [h1][b]The Bad[/b][/h1] - At 100,000 words, it's significantly shorter than other games in the CoG lineup - Due to its large use of heist/thief genre tropes, the story is very predictable - Not a lot of depth or deep connection between the characters - Not a lot of alternative routes or endings; your choices don't have that much effect - Limited romance options - No save points Personally, I enjoyed it a lot because it was what I was looking for -- simple, clean fun, and a charming albeit short heist story. However, I would've still liked to see multiple alternative endings; the fact that your choices don't seem to affect the story much this time around is probably the biggest downside of this game for me. If the theme doesn't fit you, you're probably better off picking another interactive novel game. If not: have fun stealing stuff!

Considering the absurdly low price, this is worth getting. Don't go into it expecting a typical Steam game-- it's a short story, with a few places to make Choose-your-own-Adventure sort of choices. Except that it's a short story, so most choices are just for flavor, or to get one of the Achievements, and there is very little deviation in the alternate branches. If you like completing games, then this is for you, as I myself was able to get all Achievements in one day. Important consideration: there is no replayability after the first day; once you've gotten all the Achievements and seen all the alternate endings, then that's that. I don't mind this, since I went into it understanding that it was a short story more than a game and I enjoyed it on its own merits as a homage to "It takes a Thief!" and other 60's Heist and Caper movies. Mild spoiler: If it's not an Achievement to dance/romance them, then it's not an in-game option either. Whether this is a positive or negative for you depends on how much choice you like in a Choice game. I admit that for me it was a negative, as I really wanted to see if I could date either the Inspector or the Heiress.

I had a long rambling, review written for this game, as I did not enjoy this at all. But... I will keep this short and sweet. Thieves' Gambit is [i]longwinded[/i]. Not in a good way, either, mind you. It rambles nearly as much as I do, and barely anything happens, even as the climax is upon you. Everything feels stilted, drawn out for maximum word count, and lifeless. I figure this is more a cash grab than an actual story that the author had been wanting to write. I do not recommend this game, at all. Try something else from the COG library. Like Heroes Rise, Choice of Robots, Choice of the Deathless, etcetc.

This had great potential, but it kinda falls flat. The Good: -You have two antagonists: a rival who is better than you and a police who is always one step ahead of you. -I liked the history of the black cat diamond, made my skin crawl. The Bad: -Not enough stressful decisions. There are two that I vividly recall, but the rest are pretty meh. -Too many characters. You can recruit up to 5 members on your team and each one makes the job that much easier. However two of them have no purpose or specialization. And with such a short story I'm not really sure what my role in this was, besides assembling the team. The story and action would have benefitted greatly by limiting your team size to 3 recruitables. All this being said I do want to play again and try out some different options. The game is the right price, but there are much better ones out there.

Slept and started an affair with my archnemesis, then betrayed my whole team. Still a better love story than Twilight/10