Deathless: The City's Thirst

Deathless: City's Thirst, is well written and well-paced, and definitely a favorite of mine in the choose-your-own-adventure novels. (Max Gladstone also authored a book series based in this setting, if you enjoyed the game.) High replay value, and an interesting real-world historical nod to the St. Francis Damn (though events can play out differently, depending).

Wow...

That was...

Rather pointless.

Word of advice: stick with the 1st game - as several other reviewers have already stated, it's by FAR the superior of the two...

*Le sigh*... Honestly, times like these, I'm really forced to wonder why I keep bothering with these text adventures..?

(Sadness over lack of Fallen Hero pt2 intensifies)

2/5. The Previous game was significantly better. This one was good, until the end. Very anti-climatic. Not really worth playing or buying in my opinion, and that's saying something since I would recommend every other 'choice of games' game that I've played.

No Spoilers; Being as vague as possible.

I'd say I'm an avid fan of CoG games, and while my favourite series still remains as the original Hero's Rise trilogy, the Craftverse has been a close runner up since Choice of the Deathless.

This game does not fail in helping to familiarize the player with the universe, but does quite a bit of info dumping, and doesn't explain a lot of the phrases and sayings. It's easy to pick up on it, as long as you're paying attention and are willing to get sucked into the universe. Though, that could jsut be me, as I am a huge fan of subtle, thrown in head first, type of world building, as opposed to being coddled like a child and being told what everything means through copius amounts of text that I'd end up skipping anyway.

This does end pretty abruptly, which is a huge downside. The ending I got on my first run through seemed really, really quick, as if little-to-no thought was put into it. Especially when it seemed like the story was just getting started, about ready to go head first into some topsy turvy plot filled story of trust and betrayal. But it never came. It just. Stopped! I mean, I got the ending I wanted with the character I wanted to romance, but it still felt hollow after playing a good few hours and becoming invested. My disappointment is real.

Nonetheless, I really did enjoy all that led up to the ending. It was incredibly fun, and allowed me to create a character I was happy with, for the most part. Perhaps not as happy as I was with my CotD character, but still. I could basically sleep with everyone, and that's enough for me and my romance craving soul.

I still just wish there was more! If you're a fan of this universe, please do play this, and expand your knowledge of this wonderfully crafted universe. But if you're not, I'd first off suggest going for CHoice of the Deathless, or even going and reading one of the novels by this writer.

First off, if you're thinking of buying this game and have not watched to above trailer, do it now. It's the best explanation of what you can expect. When steam said, "Hey! Write a review for your games!" and I ran across this one, I realized there is no good way of explaining it.

The game is a lot of fun, even if it's very hard to figure out how to get all of the endings and branches (there's a murder, still don't know who did it). The setting can get a bit deep, and you should definately start with Choice of the Deathless first, it explains the background a bit better. The story, however, is pretty good. It reminds me of those old Johnny Dollar serials. It's adventure packed, but at the end of the day, you're a legal consultant for a corporation. The juxaposition is pretty good.

Lot to like about this game. Heavily influenced by Chinatown and the works of Hammett and Chandler. A few transitions in the story aren't quite clearly explained by the narration but your choices carry weight. I enjoyed it a lot and I'll be replaying it.

I really enjoyed this game. I've been a big fan of the Craft Sequence series of novels by Max Gladstone. This game tied in very well to Last First Snow and Two Serpents Rise. Having read those novels enriches this game, and this game also enriches those novels. That's a great way to use the genre. In fact, I think it ties in much better to the novels than the first game did. But the first game had a better stand alone plot.

The decisions in this game really make you weigh your choices. There are often no 'right' choices. Do you save the farmers land and let the citizen of the near by city die of thirst? Or do you save the water and let the farmers fend for themselves?

I hope Max makes more games, and I hope he keeps tying them more closely to the books.

If you enjoy the books, I highly recommend this game. If you enjoyed the first game, but haven't read the books, it may not be the sequel you were hoping for. But if you enjoyed the first game, READ THE BOOKS! They are amazing.

I really enjoyed this game with its neat craftverse story, branching storyline and well thought out characters. The decisions I made felt well thought out and consequential with the story completely changing depending on actions I took several chapters ago. The game functions as series of seven self contained scenarios featuring literarture staples like the detective story, the tough negotiation and the rescue mission, all tied together by the overarching theme of balancing the cities needs for water with that of its sorroundings. Some earlier reviews have talked about the difficulty of approaching the game without prior knowledge of the craftverse and also the somewhat overstretched nature of the storyline. These faults are not difficult to miss but I think that the game is well worth buying, especially if you enjoyed the earlier deathless games.

After playing Choice of Deathless, which takes place in the same universe as Deathless: The City's Thirst, I was really curious to see where this follow-up Choose Your Own Adventure Game would take me. Again, you're a demonic lawyer working for a somewhat morally ambigious firm -- though this time around, the stakes are much higher. You're working to arrange a water supply for your city, or rather the city your law firm is situated in, to keep it from drying out. However, this might only be done at the cost of the lives and prosperity of surrounding villages and communities. Not to mention the scorpion demons running around...

The game felt less personal and more political to me, as you suddenly have the ability to decide on the fate of a large community of people (all while either not trying to anger your bosses OR deliberately work against them). It's a big mess of groups of people with different angles and motivations working against each other, and you're caught in the middle. At times, I didn't really know which choices to pick, and which choices would land my character their preferable ending.

Deathless: The City's Thirst also expands on the world and the setting, but that didn't necessarily make it easier for me to follow. There is a lot of information and a lot of new terms, and I only realised afterward that the Deathless games are actually part of an existing universe which is part of a book series by Max Gladstone! Whoops, so that explained why I couldn't just understand everything right off the bat...

Pros

Cons

A complex and bittersweet story. I love how the story and themes are up for your interpretation but this doesn't deviate the flow, still allowing things to go full circle back to its beginning. It's well written, a bit more mature than the previous Deathless, I continue to feel like an active component in the story, and to my pleasant surprise definitely has a portal franchise sort of ending to it. I shed a single tear at the way my first runthrough ended. In the end, how did this story resonate with my beliefs and values? Truly beautiful.

Imagine a corporate sort of movie with a cast of highly respectable characters (two of which are George Clooney and Morgan Freedman) all with their own agendas trying to balance themselves and the greater good. Plus magic. People can magic. Oh, and giant coexisting bug citizens.

Bam, City's Thirst as a movie 2017.

11/10 - "Take my money" - awildkuei

This game was not in the least bit what I expected. With selling points like "Look for love in extremely wrong places!" I thought I was getting into a highly excentric and humourous tale-- instead I got a political and stressful hot mess. Don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoyed this game. But damn. I was not prepared for some of those choices. Would you rather save your city from a drought at the price of displacing a whole farming community or see prices sky-rocket causing economic destruction to defend the land-rights of a small village? Even if the choice is easy at first, characters will spend the rest of the game guilting you about whatever you chose and telling you how wrong you are. Unless you adapt a pure evil attitude, the decisions you make will not come easily. The game does well with giving situations that are not black and white, but rather have both rewards and consequences. The plot and characters are interesting; you are sometimes thrust into relationships and sometimes have them grow slowly. Your integity is constantly tested, and it seems impossible to remain humble.

Now I do have a few qualms with the game-- the story doesn't always flow easily. Certain situations feel disjointed and take you a while to understand because you didn't choose the option that gave the thourough explanation. The politics of this fictional society can be outright confusing, and the game won't always spell it out-- so occationally you make choices based on what you *think* is happening, simply because you don't quite understand. Despite this, I still enjoyed the story. The second problem I have is that the stat system seems rather pointless-- perhaps you see more benefit with it with multiple playthroughs, but otherwise it doesn't seem to do much. (Update: several playthroughs later, I still do not see the point of the stat system. I think it's just for show.)

All in all, I think it's fun. Well worth its low asking price. It took me nearly three hours to get through it. It can be very funny at points, it's quite engaging and definitely makes you think.

Another exceptional novella from Max Gladstone, laid in the unique and ever interesting Deathless world. Differing itself from its sister game The City's Thirst (TCT) is more detective noir paired with western cowboys (at least in my first play through) then the machinations of mystical lawyer life. Wonderfully told with a fabulous breadth of stories, TCT elicits many possibilities from the intriguing setting, human (and inhuman) characters, and even the personality of the player. Are you just a negotiator trying to make sure everything is square in the never ending slog of city governance? Or perhaps a war torn vet sexing, smoking, and drinking your way through day after day just trying to forget? Either way, I can see I'll have more fun to gleam from this lovely title in the future and I cant wait for my chance to do it.

An incredible CYOA, hands-down the best I've read from the Choice of Games catalogue. It helps if you've played Choice of the Deathless first however, and better still if you're familiar with the Craft series (books 1, 2 and 4 are bloody good). Diving right back in for another go!

This sequel to "Choice of the deathless" also takes place in the Craftverse designed by Max Gladstone. It's an extremely rich world building, that can be a little difficult to get into - but if you have played the first game (and even better, read the Craft Sequence book series) you will enjoy being a Craftman/Craftwoman a lot.

You work for a huge company trying to get water for a metropolis - which usually involves bankrupting farmers. You can be a good samaritan, a merciless but devoted professional, a selfish scheming bastard - and all of your decisions have an important impact that will lead to several different endings. As in all Choice of Games I've played so far, your character can have any gender and sexual preferences, and is also defined by your charm, conviction, craft mastery and cunning, which let you solve every situation by many differents ways, giving an excellent replayability.

One of the best Choice of Games I've played so far, and I strongly recommend it (as well as the first Deathless game, and the book series).

As is to be expected from Max Gladstone, this is a wonderful game, clever, well-written, complex. And, above all, set in one of the most fascinating and original fantasy settings I've had the pleasure to explore. The replayability value is also enormous - it's not just ending up with a different romantic interest or choosing the other side of the conflict, it's big damn choices that really matter. Big enough that my first character actually decided to run away from it all because of the sheer weight of the choice he was confronted with.

Also, do check out Choice of the Deathless, which was just as great!

A fun game in the Craft Sequence universe. Expect a good short story to kill time before dinner. Just lacks music and graphics. Playing Choice of Deathless is not necessary but it helps to understand this universe better.

Kinda dissappointed that there is no harem route. I was hoping to make both Jess and Verity my wives.

10/10 will play again, just to join a revolution instead of a corporation.

If you enjoyed Choice of The Deathless, I think you'll like this one.

Like Choice of The Deathless, It can be hard to get into, especially if you're not familair with the universe. But Craftverse is very interesting and unique, while it may be complex, it's still very enjoyable. You may get lost at first, but once you get how the games work, the stats, soulstuff, the system, then it's easy to play. Max gladstone's writing is great, too. If you're a fan of his you should buy this game. Also, while some of the game's system are similair to the first one, the stats here mattered more, the romance is better too in my opinion. But there are only two RO AFAIK which is a shame.

it's worth the money, especially now. I recommend you to buy it while it's on sale, if you end up not liking it it wouldn't cost you too much.

The drop in quality from the writing from Choice of the Deathless is marked. The plot tried to go a lot of places and consequently went nowhere. The reader is shown a lot of interesting characters and are only really able to get to know a very small subset. The endings I've encountered all felt abrupt.

Even though I played the previous game in the craftverse I still found myself with a bunch of information unceremoniously dumped in my lap and I found myself still consulting the little codex on the system screen halfway through the game.

Your character, despite being a whole new one who's personality is largely subject to your whims, is once again a craftswoman/man working for a morally ambiguous organization.

The atmosphere has gotten a Western touch up, whether that is a plus or minus is up to you.

Though I bought this at 25% off right when it released I'm still not happy with it.

tl;dr maybe get it if you wanna support CoG in general. If you haven't played Choice of Deathless just do that instead.

Let's cross our fingers for the next Heroes Rise.

It's not that I recommend the game, but as you can't leave neutral reviews, I didn't want it to be negative. There's no technical shortcomings to the game, and it's proficiently interactive where you can enact your will on the game quite visibly (Though it was a tad bit on the short side in terms of length.)

My problem is more in the way that the game is written in a way that's not friendly to people who are unfamiliar with the craft sequence world, of which I have not read a book of. It's intimidating and complex, and it doesn't ease you into it, or explain itself enough. If you've already played through the other game in this series, "Choice of the Deathless," without issue, then this won't be a problem either, as I can say my experience with that was very similar to what it was here.

I've liked this COG moreso than recent ones, only because not all the choices in the game were binary "good/bad" decisions. I struggled for a bit to make two particuar decisions in the game, that I did regret to some degree, regardless of the outcome. I really enjoy the Deathless lore and would like to see more stories in this universe.