Wayhaven Chronicles: Book Three

Wow. Where do I even start? Big thumbs-down. It's just so....boring. Like another reviewer, I also regret my decision to purchase the 3-book bundle. I powered through the 3 books because of the praise it gets and just to see what all the hype is about. What a disappointment. I do enjoy romance in my games, but I dislike the romance dynamic in Wayhaven. I constantly felt that the plot and my MC's behavior were being sacrificed to serve tropes. My MC's personality also had no effect on how affection was expressed to the chosen RO. This is not a Choose Your Own Adventure game when it's already been chosen for you. My MC didn't feel like mine. If you want to play a stoic, cold, calm, and/or competent MC, you're out of luck. Your MC will still react with shock and warmth despite having high Stoic, high Mind, high Intimidating, and despite always picking the most stoic option available. It seems the MC still gets the shocked Pikachu face upon reveals when things are so glaringly obvious it's painful. Being a detective, albeit an inexperienced one, should still give the MC some baseline level of intelligence and perceptiveness. It just seems the MC has a pre-written personality and characterization that's forced upon you. And it's not a pleasant one. It's worked into the narrative and every time it happened, which was frequently, I just had to ignore the out-of-character moments and forget that they ever happened to continue on with the story. I also dislike how much feelings, breathless melodramatic inner thoughts, and emotional vulnerability there are interwoven into the narrative, and how much of an annoying lovestruck simp push-over the MC is. I could of course pick the most cold and indifferent options when given the choice, but often times, all the options are unappealing and out-of-character for the MC I wanted to play, and I just had to pick the least offensive one. My MC also had high Science and high Deduction, but this is like one of those stories where you're TOLD the MC is knowledgeable and competent rather than being SHOWN that they are. Choosing the Science & Technology option to solve problems often means just using their phone. For example, using their phone to download some blueprints, and M and N were impressed. Really? They've lived in the modern world for a while now and are two of the best from the Agency, and yet things that children could do still impress or surprise them. I also got really annoyed at how weak and incompetent Unit Bravo and the Agency started acting, especially when the Trappers started showing up. I get that they have specialized equipment, and even have supernaturals working for them. But really? Should they be giving you this much trouble? Really? The books rely too much on mandated incompetence that feel totally out of chracter in order to move the plot along. It seems with each book, it gets progressively worse. And the more the world gets expanded upon and the more the story progresses, the more the cracks show. Even with my brain turned off in an attempt to just enjoy the game, I just couldn't get past it. There are much better IFs out there that you could play that don't force a pre-written MC upon you or railroad you into certain responses, where you actually get to CHOOSE your own adventure. One example of this is Tin Star. The narrative respects the character you've built. Another good one is Choice of Robots. A more recent one is Leas: City of the Sun.