Welcome to Moreytown

This is a choice-of-games game; so again before you buy this you can check out the demo to see if you'd like it. The choice-of-games brand is accompanied by many reoccuring problems, such as the games being really short and many choices not mattering. The first one at least is also affecting this game; even if you take lots of time to read through everything you'll be done in like less than 2 hours and have a good overview of the games content and what the other routes might be even after one playthrough. As another warning beforehand: this is a furry game. If you are really uncomfortable with reading about an anthropomorphic wolf wearing jeans that accentuate her curves then this is not a game for you. But since this game is on steam, there are no explicit sex-scenes, so there aren't going to be any surprises if one would judge this game based on stereotypes. The game itself is written by S. Andrew Swann. Recognize that name? Unlike many other CoG-author's he is actually a writer with more than two decades of experience in that field. This game is based on his Moreau novels. I cannot really say anything about the novels since I haven't read them but they certainly seem more interesting than the material many of the other CoG games authors have been using. The basic gist of the story is that mankind created animal-people to fight their wars for them. These people are called "moreau". But since they made the mistake of making these guys sentient humanity realized that they have to treat these engineered organisms like humans. That is where the story begins and your player character is one of these engineered animal-people. You awake to a chain of unfortunate events and are left outside of your apartment with nothing but yourself. From there onwards the chain of unfortunate events continues. The beginning of the story actually left me quite amused - even anticipating what disaster that is worse than the last could strike the character now. Some have complained about a lack of direction in the story because of that. But under your fur, claws and teeth you're just a regular dude with not much else going on. I feel like this game has been written for people who have never read the novels, so there isn't really much "end-of-the-world"-stuff or other complex political/socioeconomic/social/... topics that are being talked about. In fact the game tries to tell you the differences or difficulties of humans and moreaus in other ways. The moreaus colloquially refer to humans as the "pinks" which again left me with a chuckle. The protagonist does describe things around him in a personal and sometimes offensive way but not to what I felt was too obtrusive. In fact in the story the player character even starts wondering why the moreaus are using that term to begin with since that black person they saw in that moment wasn't pink. It's moments like these that I actually came to really like this story; there are lots of details and lots of very small things that happen (i.e. the PC describes the tail wagging of another character after they're agitated or they describe the smell of a human) that remind you what the world and the player character are. Unlike many CoG games this game does not force social issues down your throat. You can but do not have to become an activist for your people. This is actually refreshing to see after having read through Zachary Sergi's works or Eternal Sea where you just could not avoid these topics, and not just that, you had to deal with these issues without really having an option to select a side. So, are there faults to this game? It's short, even too much so. When I was done I felt like that the story barely even started. The story that is being told does actually have an end, so you're not left with a cliffhanger just so you buy the sequel. Do I recommend this game? It's hard to say and I wish there was a "It depends" or other middle option here on steam. That little that is already there was pretty enjoyable and good. Is it worth it to spend $5 on this game? Perhaps but you can actually get one of his books for that price which probably has more content than this CoG game. If you are interested in just buying a CoG that isn't terrible this is a good buy. If you are just interested in the story and don't mind supporting the author with a little bit more cash then go for it. But in all fairness I have to say that $5 is too much for this while Choice of Robots sells for the same price which has a ridiculously large amount of content. With this little content this game even feels a little like an ad for the novels, but I have to admit, it did its job: Now I do want to check out the novels.

This is probably one of my least favorite of the Choice games. I don't necessarily not recommend it, but I do regret buying it for the following reasons: 1. So freaking short. Ignore my time played - I had it open and idled for over an hour. I'm a super fast reader so it took me maybe 30 minutes for my first organic playthough. 2. The story is meh. Very cliche. Not well fleshed out. I couldn't understand what motivation the main character would have had to go through with any of the choices presented. I had a hard time immersing myself in the story because it didn't really draw me in well with any well-crafted lore or environment. It just simply....was. 3. The story endings are unsatisfactory and dull. One of the only plus sides I can see is that this game flows more organically than other Choice games. As in the choices feel smooth rather than forced to put you in one direction or another. The stats didn't seem to come into play at all except for when it came to character relationships. I didn't even realize there were stats until I had almost finished. All in all, it's a very quick read and not that entertaining. Pick it up if you're super bored or a Choice fangirl/fanboy like me. Otherwise, this is one that can most definitely be skipped.

Hey, you like Choose-Your-Own-Adventure games? You a Furry? Well I think this game's for you. Okay now that we've got the obligatory Furry joke out of the way, here's the review: Welcome to Moreytown is basically if Zootopia was a darker and grittier noir story, but also had human characters along with the anthropomorphic ones. You start out the game choosing which species you'd like your character to be, each one has advantages and disadvantages, some are stronger and slower, other's are smaller and faster. The story starts with your character discovering that their apartment's on fire, upon escaping you discover your apartment fire could be leading to a much bigger threat that could shake Moreytown to its core. Well, the main selling point for a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game is its story, so how's the story? I personally really liked this game's story. I liked learning about this world of humans and "Moreys", as the Anthros in the game are called. The mystery is interesting, if not a little predictible towards the end. I also liked how the game takes advantage of the fact that you're playing as an animal, with certain heightened senses. At the beginning of the game you choose a sense you want your character to have that's more powerful than their others, and that affects how the game describes certain parts of what's going on in a scene. If your character's strongest sense is their sense of smell, then the character will describe the atmosphere at certain points in the story by what they pick up in scent. There are also several fights your character gets in in the game, and the outcomes of the fights are dependent on your character's size, strength, and agility, and the combat choices you make that are geared towards their strengths and weaknesses. The game also has romance options, as most choice-based games do, but they're optional, thankfully. Though the game has some decent replay value, I do think the story could have been a bit longer. I've played two or three other games published by Choice of Games, and both were a lot longer than this. In fact the story is so short I'm afraid talking about it too much might spoil it. But the plot is interesting enough and seeing as the game is only $5 (and even less if you get it on sale), it's hard not to recommend it to anyone who's curiousity is even a little peaked by the premise. If you think you'll like this game based on the summary on it's store page, you probably will, I definitely enjoyed seeing where the plot was taking me, and seeing what different paths you could take to complete the story. I'd give Welcome to Morey town a 7/10, it's not one of the greatest games in Choice of Game's library, but I enjoyed it too much not to recommend it, and might even look into the author's other printed works that take place in the same universe.

I paid $3 to become a rabbit, save a city from terrorism by remembering the basics of CQC, and fall in love with a cat man. Yeah it do.

Интересная игра со множеством положительных сторон. Много вариаций при создании персонажа и возможность легко отыгрывать любой желаемый характер. То есть в вопросах мироощущения главного героя как-то ограничений не чувствуется, что хорошо. Сюжет закручен вокруг самой обычной (ну, относительно обычной, учитывая особенности данной вселенной) личности и затрагивает достаточно обычные человеческие потребности и мотивы. Сюжет не движется за счёт того, что героя "толкают" к каким-то действиям из-за его Избранности или ещё чего-то столь же банального. Как уже было сказано, доступно много вариаций характеров. Так герой может ни к чему не стремиться, но оказываться не в том месте не в то время, или наоборот: желать мести и руководствоваться лишь эгоистичными мотивами (пока это пишу мне вдруг вспомнилась игра "On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness", где герой тоже спасает всех, но движим преимущественно жаждой мести). И это не все варианты. В общем, сюжет оригинальный в своей простоте и вообще интересный. Несмотря на общую линейность направления истории, она обладает немалой вариативностью, создавая различные оттенки непосредственно характеру главного героя. Так что не следует это считать минусом, если приоритизировать именно историю как таковую. Хочется отметить, что главы иногда кажутся слишком короткими. Но история в целом нормальная по продолжительности. В общем, я доволен.

S. Andrew Swann is one of the biggest influences on my own writing. And his Moreau series has had a charished place amongst my favorite books for decades. I was ecstatic to learn he had written this adventure allowing me to enter that world in a way I never could before. I cannot think of a better description than those of another reviewer: [quote=BeatleNumber9]Hey, you like Choose-Your-Own-Adventure games? You a Furry? Well I think this game's for you. Okay now that we've got the obligatory Furry joke out of the way, here's the review: Welcome to Moreytown is basically if Zootopia was a darker and grittier noir story, but also had human characters along with the anthropomorphic ones...[/quote] This a a wonderfully fun romp that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. I only wish it had been a little longer. But it has replayability that will bring me back to it several times.

This one hurts. Welcome to Moreytown by S. Andrew Swann is my first personal experience (friends have gone through other works and I've read their reviews) with Choice of Games, a publisher whose entire thing is Choose Your Own Adventure-style interactive fiction games. No graphics, no flashiness, just reading, multiple choice prompts, and some background stats that affect your chance of success when overpowering/sneaking around/persuading/etc. They also tend to be very open as far as your character's gender, gender identity, sexual orientation (including everything from "anything that moves" to "let's just keep things platonic, thanks") and more, which is nice. This story, specifically, is about a city of anthropomorphic animals called "moreys" (cutesy reference to "Moreau," as in "Doctor," "The Island of") which is... okay, look. They're furries. I'm sorry, but they're furries and they're called "moreys" presumably in an attempt to come up with something grim and serious for this grim and serious setting, but like many of the endgame decisions (oh, I'll get to those,) I think it backfires a little. Anyway, an entire race of f... "moreys" was created for some war in the distant backstory, then given basic rights and such (sort of,) and now exist in a highly discriminated-against underclass relegated to run-down slums, low-paying retail jobs, and a very difficult relationship with the police. This game is very subtle with its metaphors, you see. There's a gang war, a doomsday cult, a probably-doomed peace and love movement, lots of danger, and options. Your goal is to... well, that depends, I guess. You could try to foil the big terrorist attack at the end without casualties, take over leadership of at least a few of the various factions, become lovers or mortal enemies with several characters, and probably a few other things I either am forgetting or didn't see in our runs. Much like the gender and sexuality options, this openness appears to be a selling point of Choice of Games products, and on paper this is something that Welcome to Moreytown in particular does right in at least trying to include it. This review hurts because on paper Welcome to Moreytown does a lot of things right, actually. The writing is well done and engaging. The character options only feel limiting in any way if you happen to be a furry whose fursona is not represented here. (You can get an actual type-whatever-you-want text entry box for your gender if you declare the need for one, but you're out of luck if your chosen species isn't on the predefined multiple-choice list. Which, yeah, that's probably because the game depends on those options for some stats--a bear is bigger, more powerful, but slower and worse at stealth than a rat. Fine. Stiiillllll.) Other reviews complain that this is very short, but I found that to be a good thing, as it makes it easier to replay. I was ready to declare it one of my personal GOTY candidates after the first playthrough, which was a whirlwind of adventure that ended in a near-flawless good ending almost by complete accident. It's just... there are two major, fatal flaws that become apparent upon closer examination. One, a lot of that whirlwind turns out to be badly railroaded. Most of the plot beats will happen, whether you try to avoid them or not. There is no way to avoid being all but conscripted into one of the gangs, for example; you will be close enough to a certain incident to attract their attention, they will find you shortly afterward, you will come with them (you can agree or be kidnapped,) and you will cooperate with them (you can either lose the "initiation" fight and be at their mercy, win and accept the offer anyway, or win and be extorted into accepting when they threaten your friends/loved ones, and if you try to go to the detective or reporter contacts afterward they just want you to do exactly what the gang wants you to do anyway.) Two, for as inevitable as the endgame is, it's also upsettingly hard to get through it in one piece. You are dealing with some incredibly twitchy suicide bombers, and while you have an impressive array of tactics to try (Tackle them? Try to talk them down? Warn the crowd? Work with any of the various factions, or confront them alone?) it breaks immersion just how blatantly the author has their finger on the "this option somehow works, that one backfires spectacularly and kills everyone" button. Choice of Games does not believe in a "save" function since it enables scumming; they say your choices should matter and you should live with the consequences of them, period. Fine, I respect that, but given how quickly and capriciously bad endings come in the last chapter, and how each one means a full restart from the beginning, let's just say it boggles my mind that anyone wanted this story to be longer. I've seen and done about 68% of the things there are to see and do in this game, according to Achievement stats. There are even a few of them that I'm curious about. I kind of want to go back and see where some of the other roads lead, but I also kind of don't because I already know. It's strange how a game can feel so open and so on rails at the same time.

The game is about 30 minutes long and has a small small assortment of characters. None of which really have backstories or explain their motivation. The plot is very very linear even for a choice of game, and it seems much more like your decisions in the last 2 minutes (literally) are all that really do anything. This game feels a bit cash grabby compared to the others unfortunately. The few well written pages it has isn't really worth going through the rest of the game. Also I could be wrong, but didn't some previous choice of games have a save feature? It's pretty irritating how in the plot of this game you can just flat out die very easily in the last 2 or 3 choices and then you need to restart the entire story over. Worst of all, I think this game still suffers from the normal issues these games have had for years. When you are given choices, it's best to just focus all your choices into benefitting stats, which severely limits you trying to roleplay a character. For example, let's say there's a guy who is being held at gunpoint. I can either A. Walk away from the situation and get nothing. I can B. Try to sneak up and take the muggers by surprise. Which increases my stealth. Or C. Join the muggers and get a cut of the money. If the character I made fits more into the type A scenario, then they'll be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ for later story moments that might require skills or money. And picking option C for the money is pointless since money is a useless stat, because these games are absolutely full of useless stats. These games were fun choose your own adventure books when they first started coming out, but they just don't seem to be improving them very much.

Sometimes It can be difficult to evaluate whether mediocrity should be thought of as an offense to the pedigree of an established series or an excuse to enjoy its own moments. Welcome to Moreytown is brimming with potential to tell a story about an interesting setting/premise that feels squandered not only as a piece of fiction but also as an interactive one. Beyond the simplistic crime-fiction narrative, there is so little of an author’s voice to make it sufficient to judge the quality of his writing. The best thing I can say about the story itself is that it’s an anthropomorphic narrative that feels neither tainted nor corrupted by its intended audience, something that I cannot say about major publications nor minor projects. If there is anything strictly positive about Moreytown it is that it is enough of a teaser to want to invest into the Moreau series, which is what compelled me to purchase the Moreau Omnibus as I hope these books delve further into its merits. [h1]Life Should Be Based on the Sum of Your Choices, Not Their Destinations[/h1] It should be noted that Welcome to Moreytown was my foray into the “Choice of..” games followed by Choice of Robots. This was intentional as I wanted to have no expectations of what these games offer before playing a highly-regarded one gifted to me as my barometer. As a result of this approach, I believe this provided insight on how and why choices in “Choice of…” games are effective. While I do not want to approach this review with the “Good Game, Bad Game” attitude, this approach will make it sensible for people to understand the differences in quality as well as draw out for the developer where Moreytown can improve and to provide an example in action. (This won’t include spoilers of either game if you are concerned.) While these games may feel like comparing apples to oranges, both games tell linear narratives with different approaches to reward choices. Moreytown suffers from superfluous decisions that add nothing to the story you create such as your species, your romantic interests and your flavor text of meaningless actions. Even with some decisions being based on species’ stats and preemptive measures like preparing for a fight, the overall journey is not one shaped by the player. Conditions have little impact on future choices, stats remain stagnant beyond the romance opportunities, and the only real decisions that have payoff are the different results at the end. The greatest pitfall of Moreytown is how it is the role of these romantic side-activities and the multiple endings to satisfy the player’s curiosity as you play, which makes the decisions you accumulate all too meaningless because the plot ignores them. In contrast to Moreytown, Choice of Robots is a linear narrative that tells the accumulation of your decisions about the robot you create, providing meaning in the moment and in the future. This focus is more beneficial because the flavor-text has immediate results on the story you create, and the accumulation of ever-changing stats adds value to moments such as teaching a robot empathy by playing video-games. The overall script remains largely intact like Moreytown yet all these additional touches, including alternative scenes to chapters and multiple endings, tells a more personal story. This does not even include the romance opportunities that challenge the player to value whether to spend more time bonding with another person or their own robotic creation. Each game’s systems are virtually identical, so illustrating how Moreytown can create its own ideas, such as balancing the “pinks’ (humans’)” support’ and the moreaus (non-humans), would make all decisions tell a more dynamic narrative. The ending itself should not be the destination we sought after but the moment to reflect on what decisions we made that led up to that final moment. [h1]Sometimes the Best Stories Are Told at the Wrong Time or Wrong Place[/h1] As much as I may appear to harp on Moreytown, it’s out of passionate constructive criticism because the world it sets up is the one thing that made me invested enough to read more about it. The world around Moreytown is one inspired by The Island of Dr. Moreau after nations have invested in scientifically questionable projects to create anthropomorphic animals for war. Eventually these experiments led to a civil rights movement to establish a constitutional amendment recognizing their humanity with all the same inalienable rights, and integrating them into society is the challenge the game always teases will be the main dilemma. Except the story itself has nothing to do with this set-up. Instead, the plot is largely focused on events after all these initial problems were established, taking place in the moreau slums years later where the events that led up to the story have already been set into motion with you as a bystander borne from the past. This game’s plot is a clear example of a narrative that did not ask itself the question, “Is this the most interesting part of the story? If not, why are we not reading about that story?” What we get in its place is a simple crime drama with exposition around these more interesting events with a clear emphasis on the writing taking a backseat where a niche audience is meant to excuse its shortcomings. Perhaps the point of not setting it into the past was to intrigue new readers to check out the author’s other works, yet that shouldn’t have resulted in a creating a subpar piece of interactive fiction to entice people to go read books. [h1]If At First You Don’t Succeed, Write, Write Again[/h1] Again, I want to reiterate that the narrative itself is entertaining enough on its own to excuse this game from receiving more ire because I don’t believe it was done out of malice, more so from ignorance. This interactive fiction feels like a novel writer trying to write a game like a book, failing to see the innate differences, and the execution of its storytelling and of its choices proves there were misconceptions made about what the audience values. Unless you wish to support the developer’s game itself, it seems more preferable to read his stories instead because they are likely to be more entertaining with a writer set in his own environment where he knows his rules and limitations. Hopefully lessons learned from Welcome to Moreytown will inspire the writer to give interactive fiction another chance in the future to give the game its proper justice.

being raped by a gangleader 10/10