Unnatural

[i][u][b]Unnatural[/b][/u][/i] is a CYOA (Choose your own adventure) novel, written by [i][u][b]Sam Kabell[/b][/u][/i] and published by [i][u][b]Hosted Games. [/b][/u][/i] Just a warning, this is a bit more of a rant than a review, but I do cover important points on the structure of the game and address what exactly I feel is wrong with it and why. I would like to provide my feedback/review. Let me start with the basics here: this CYOA novel is 285,000 words according to the store page. It's a decent length BUT the game starts with a scene that sees the MCs family all killed off. This turns out to be a nightmare from past events. Now, there is nothing wrong with that, however, this nightmare is repeated in detail (and obviously always the same) several times throughout the book. That alone will cut the overall word count down by a fair percentage, unless, for some reason, the repeat isn't included in that statistic. But it doesn't end there... Throughout the novel there are sentences such as "You ignore him, reaching out and turning on the lights. and go and turn on the lights.". Now, I doubt I need to point out there is a full stop, followed by a lowercase letter and the sentence is just a repeat anyway. There is so much of this everywhere. Another example: every single time you prep for a mission, you are asked to pick a gun and ammo, there is then a long sentence about how you check your gun, make sure you have the correct ammo and slip it into your hip or arm holster (whichever you pointlessly picked earlier in the game). Subtracting this, the word count decreases again as there are at least four missions you have to do. The timeline is so messed up. MC is required to go somewhere with Lakota (a teammate) via an aeroplane. They are escorted by a team from unit alpha to the airport. While there, the MC claims to feel the presence of a person intent to do harm but says nothing until they are on the plane with Lakota. He claims to have noticed too and said he already informed unit alph about this. You see the team running back into the airport - the scene just ends there. MC is at their destination for several weeks and yet, when they finally return, they receive a mission that requests they go back to the airport as backup as unit alpha was killed there. I was very confused about whether this was the same team or not; surely it couldn't be as they would have been killed at the airport weeks ago when they and the assailant were there, no? No! It reads to be the same team murdered by the same guy with harmful intent. This was so bizarre that I couldn't even begin to make logical sense of the decision to do it like this. I had no choice but to mark it down as yet another careless mistake in planning out the story. More inconsistencies are in the stats screen, it even states "You two are dating.". How? I've barely ever spoken to the guy, no one has mentioned romance or even flirted; nothing! It just decided to tell me that my character is apparently dating someone. I can only assume this is tied to the rapport percentage I've built with them instead of any kind of plot flags as the related achievement had yet to be unlocked either. Honestly, I have never been this frustrated trying to get through a CYOA novel before. Every mission plays out basically the same: You and your partner arrive, you wander around a bit, find your target and in literally one sentence, the action is already over. What? Why? This is the perfect chance to actually add thrilling sections into the novel and it's bypassed completely! Completely!! The after-mission reports aren't any better. It's just crazy - Crazy how lacking in any content this story is! There's nothing: no details, no explanations, no time to get to know the members of your team better, no world-building, no character development. I am so flabbergasted by how empty everything is. It is drier than a stale cracker, and I'm not being overdramatic here either. The reason why it frustrates me so much is because the basic idea is interesting; yes it's nothing new and unique but I thought it would be something I could really sink my teeth into and enjoy, yet at every turn, there was only disappointment and so much of it! I was okay with the fact that the beginning of the game was short and fast; it allowed me to see my character at different ages, pick how I want to shape her early on and grow. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I thought it was interesting. What I didn't expect is that the rest of the novel would flow mostly the same. After college, you join the [i]Supernatural Response Team[/i] and get a mission that's over as quickly as it starts, you then pick what you want to do for the next week, exercise, study, etc. this is described to you in two or three sentences and it's time for the next mission again: repeat! Why wouldn't the author use this time in between to allow us to meet and spend time with our team, learn more about them, form bonds or even actually learn more about the supernaturals, how to fight them or even why they are all so hostile to begin with? There is so much missed opportunity in this entire novel! Overall, the entirety of [i]Unnatural[/i], with all its inconsistencies, repeated words, sentences and scenes felt like it was a rushed story without any thought, passion or care being put into it. I'd read something like this and assume it was a very first, basic draft of the script, not a "finished" title that I'm expected to pay for. It may not be very professional of me to say this (so it's a good thing I'm not a professional reviewer), but I'm honestly shocked the author was allowed to write and publish a second, follow-on book to this title without being told to come back and tidy this one up first. Seriously, what exactly is Hosted Games doing over there? I was under the impression they checked through the books they received and sorted them ready for publishing, e.g. proofread them; if not, then why are people even giving them their stories to publish and allowing them to take a cut of their sales? Because Hosted Games is a known CYOA publisher? Do they think they will not sell any copies if they don't throw it at a company that has been around for a while? I just don't know; I really and truly don't know anymore and honestly, I've lost some respect for this company. If anyone would care to educate me on any of the above points and try to change my mind, please do! In short, No, I'd not recommend [i][u][b]Unnatural[/b][/u][/i] to anyone for any reason! It drew me in with the promise of a good supernatural read but barely even made it off the starting line!

If you've done any of these multiple choice text adventure novels from Choice of Games and others, you'll know what you're getting into with this. Just keep in mind there isn't much apparent variation that has a significant effect. This has a story to tell and you'll be able to Bioware some choices where you get a personalized tale, not necessarily wildly different ones. At least from the options available it did not seem that way. The setting is fine. It isn't anything amazing, it isn't particularly enthralling, but it's always fun to experience a modern fantasy universe. It lacked a bit of oomph as far as the monster encyclopedia goes though. The world of magic is introduced and then everybody seems to be fine with the status quo, and monsters as a whole were just bloodthirsty creatures so it took away from most morality issues you might have had when they say certain monsters are shoot to kill. The twist and basic setting for the more interesting creatures was interesting if a bit oversimplified and close to Christian mythology. Which I guess works if the author didn't want to create his own mythos. Which is understandable for a Choose your own adventure. The characters are almost non-existent, at least in my playhrough. You have a job, you get to pick your partner for missions, and there is barely any dialogue option between your partner and yourself to get to know them. More often than not these stories should want me to care about my colleagues, particularly in dangerous missions, but it just felt like a day at the office with Bob and Linda, let's go on a work trip. The story is very bare bones, but it keeps you engaged enough where if you aren't a particularly picky reader and want a nice distraction for 4-5 hours, it's a decent enough one. Look at the end of the day, this isn't my favorite Text Adventure novel, but it's not among the worst either. Very middle of the ground. But for 2-3 bucks and 4 hours of enjoyment, I can safely say it's worth a play if you've exhausted other titles you're more interested on. Hell for 2-3 bucks, it's worth a play at any moment you're interested in a distraction.

朋友告诉我这本有体育生，我就来了！ 这部不是完整讲述一个故事的互动小说，更像是养成+战斗和碎片化剧情这样的形式，文字内容不是很多，这个时长还是我挂机了一个半小时的结果，里面分了很多很多支线任务，一直在上班，技能判定条件还挺容易导致中途暴毙的，好在是自动回档到章节开头。 不过体育生真的很萌，导入阶段浅浅bully了一下，后面完全都是黏人狗，和MC也是那种我喜欢的besties-turn-lovers。恋爱剧情当然也很少，但都给我泡正统风味体育生了我就不要求太多了，喜欢体育生可入。

I play a lot of CYOA games, but I couldn't get through this one. It started off promising, you play as a child and progress into your teens and adulthood. This lets you increase your skills, establish your character, and sets up some story events later on. But once you join the SRT it just gets too weird. There's a lot of new characters thrown at you, a bunch of stuff happens all at once, things and characters radically change, characters do not act rationally, newer characters and concepts are constantly being introduced. It felt like the more I read the fewer choices I had. There's a lot of missions to go on, usually pick between a couple options each time. There's a right way and a wrong way to complete them. Picking the right weapon, partner, and way to handle the situation will keep you alive. There's also downtime to increase your stats and progress your personal story. The monsters you're up against are your standard vampire, werewolf, golem, ghost, fairy, those sorts of things. Most characters have big secrets, that really change the story once revealed. You don't learn these secrets by skills or logic. They're just thrown at you, just takes all the fun out of playing a game. Overall: I just wish it were a more cohesive story. The author tries way too hard to surprise you with twists, rather than reward you for playing a good game.

This book is a mixed bag, to an extent, so I will break this into Pros and Cons. Pros I really enjoy the story, it is well writen and the world/lore is very detailed and consistant. As a tabletop gamer and wargaming enthusiast, this alone makes the book a worthwile read, but others may not get the same level of enjoyment out of it. Good NPCs. Every NPC that the players deal with regularly are well written and interesting. There isn't a ton of details and backstory, but that actually helps. The author gives you the right amount of info without bogging you down with anything unnessecary. Cool Powers. I like the way the author handles the players powers and his description of them. It is no only well thought out, but well exicuted in a narritively presented way. Cons Typos. So many typos. Spell checker exists, please use it, then get a proofreader. Many stats feel arbitrary, with no real consistancy with how they work. In many other areas, there is no way to figure out how they work or what they do. Others end the game at a very low number (despite raising them at every opertunity), yet are able to do what stats in their 60s do. It is simply inconsistant. Dead end decisions. It seems there are many choices that lead nowhere. No mater what, you cannot break the orb. You cannot find the secret room in S.O.S no matter how high your awareness or Shade abilities, your Soul power never goes beyond 15%, you cannot protect from being shot if you tell people about your true nature no matter how high your shade is. It feels like a lot of choices are "Gotcha" choices. Modern Politics. This is a hard one to write. I play these games to get away from the modern world, not be reminded about it constently. I get it, gay and non-bianary people exist, this is common knowledge. However, homosexuals are about 1-3 percent of the population and non-bianary people are less than a percent of a percent. We are talking less than 1 in 10000. Yet, 4 out of 7 of the romancable people are Bi or Gay. There is a non-bianary teacher in School Daze, telling people it is normal to be non-bianary, which it isn't. Worse, that teacher is shown to be completely one dimensional, their only defining characteristic is "HEY, I AM NON-BIANARY!!!". Conclusion: Buy it for the story, it's worth it. Seriously. The author will learn from the issues with this one and Season Two will be even better!

It was really fun, for being the first part of the game, and I unlocked two plus codes on my first playthrough so that was interesting. I ended up having Denise a cured lycanthrope sleep with me and rest next to me in my ending.

I really enjoyed this game. I bought it as an "urban fantasy", not realizing it had a "Horror" tag. The horror, while not kid-friendly, is pretty mild. For a CYOA game it has a surprising amount of replay value: Tactical team or CSI tech? Shadow or Azure powers? And that's not counting that you get a choice of 3 missions each time your character "deploys" as a member of the Supernatural Response Team (SRT). Plus the usual variety of romance options. Kudos to developer "Sam Kabell". My only gripe is a relatively small one: My version of the game (Mac) had a number of bugs in it. Nothing game breaking, I have completed it twice already. But it can make for some strange reading: one page said I found no survivors in a werewolf lair; next page she is resting in the hospital and will make a full recovery. Anyways, it is supposedly the start of a series but the ending is still satisfying if that sort of thing annoys you. Recommended.

It's unfortunate I cannot recommend this game, as it does have an interesting concept and a decent replayability factor. The framing of the story as a TV series is an original thought, and the game does offer a lot of choices and variation in aspects such as handling missions, the MC's development, and which characters are present or not. Sadly, all these nice things are overshadowed by the game's poor writing. It reads as if written by someone not used to writing - it's understandable, but not engaging or enjoyable. Some passages end up sounding weird or downright silly. There are also punctuation mistakes, namely missing commas, throughout the entire game. This being a text-based game, all of this becomes impossible to ignore and ruins the experience.

如果看过邪恶力量的话能丝滑接受的一部怪物猎人模拟器，可攻略对象可能因为人数太多了导致作者写得很平面，重头戏还是在猎魔上。节奏有点像电视剧的单元剧，每个案子就是一集，每次猎魔行动都可选择重新选择搭档。其中穿插主角的身世，还是挺有意思的，爱此题材的打折可入。