Best of Us

This game was a bizarre mix between an interesting read and a story cut far too short. I read through it a few times and came across many interesting concepts and characters that could’ve been great to get to know, but it never amounted to much. The story is over in a flash, and you never have time to get invested in the world, nor grow all that close to anyone. Certainly not close enough to consider anyone a love interest or even a friend.

Not only that, but most of the powers or abilities never seemed to be used or checked at all, so amounted to little more than flavor text.

In short, “Best of Us” is not in any way a terrible read, but far more content would be needed to weave an enrapturing tale. Indeed, the excellent writing did a good job setting up the foundation of a great story, but instead of capturing my imagination and transporting me into a fantastical world brimming with superheroes and their adversaries, all I’m left with is a feeling of lost potential. (4/10)

Quite confusing. Ending is basically the same no matter what you do.

This was an interesting story that honestly had a lot of potential. That's the problem though... none of the potential was used. This story was over before I knew it, and I really didn't feel like my choices mattered very much. I was just finally getting into the story whenever it was over. I'm going to have to give this a 3/10.

Most of the reviews are fairly accurate.

I've played a few of these Choice of CYOA games, and for the most part, they at least leave me satisfied.

This one, however, was way too short. I've attempted multiple playthroughs, and the options are very limited, and the story more so.

The major downsides:
-ZERO character development
-Zero meaningful interactions
-Rushed plot
-Excessive grammatical errors
-Jarring transitions between "scenes" (Due to a seriously rushed plot)
-Bland story

It initially had potential, but quickly fell apart after the first couple pages. The description of the game is pretty false. It's only mildly entertaining, and I would advise only buying this if it's on sale 75% or more.

This piece of interactive fictions suffers badly from poor execution. That spark of interesting possibility is there but far too often the narration, dialogue and even scenes are just disjointed. The flow of reading is constantly being interrupted by these moments where you stop and recognize "Hey that moved way too fast" or "That doesn't make any sense, the characters were inside how did we get out on a roof?" I find it hard to enjoy a story when my immersion is being broken every few pages.

I can't recommend Best of Us. Worse than being frustrating, I'm disappointed that time and care weren't taken in editing this together.

A lot of inconsistences and failure to track important choices. Here are just a few:

-Escaped from an unknown person early on but later in the story that person spoke with me as if we knew each other.
-Had the ability to teleport but at one point only tried to physically run away from a dangerous situation and at another point was tied up without an option to teleport away.
-Avoided all fights but was scolded by someone for my murderous ways.

Could use editing and an update, but don't see that as likely to happen.

I like a lot about this game, when we get to be involved, it's fun, and creating the character was interesting, and let me to believe my choices would matter. However, it didn't see to come into play at all. Most of the game seems to be random skipping ahead, some summaries of what has been happening and such, it feels like a book that's missing half it's chapters. The story is rushed ahead, not given a chance to flow naturally. The game feels really unfinished and it ends really abruptly. It feels a bit like a short story that's been tweaked a little to fit into the game engine, but everything about the main character and choices is just brushed over.

This game was a bit disappointing to be honest. It did have a good premise t o it however there was a complete lack of interaction with character and I mean proper interaction because sometimes no matter what you chose the outcome would be the same creating the illusion of choice and this made things very linear in the story and when dealing with characters in the story. It did have however a very interesting character build format which is unique to the game, unfortunately some of these powers and abilities you choose feel underused and pointless. Overall i'd say that its an okay game but its not great either, I'd really recommend playing other choice of game and hosted games first. If you're looking for super power based stories i could recommend The Hero Project which is a triology that whilst has a more limited set of powers it has a much better story with characters.

note: this review is done based entirely on first impressions through one playthrough.

there's no shortage of superhero choice of games, from heroes rise to community college hero, and this one was one i wanted to fill space inbetween time of those new releases. /however/, it doesn't seem long enough to fill that timespan. the plot is roughly the same as marvel's civil war - are you with the government or are you against it concerning power regulation? wanting to go against the grind, i said i was with it.
apparently that was the wrong choice because after i did that the game kinda peetered on for a while before abruptly stopping. nothing of consequence happened after that because it honestly felt like the game was only halfway through when it actually ended. it was like the author just kinda...gave up after half of the game was done and said 'well, this was good enough.' and yeah, it was alright, but the other two games have a similar atmosphere and are far far longer and more detailed. i liked the idea of being in the midst of civil war, but it kinda felt like the war was just starting....and the author kicked me out before i could really make an impact. on top of that, there was exactly one line hinting at romance that i took, and much like everything else...it went nowhere. i was interested in everything, but why did it have to be so short?! get a second game out for this, make it longer, have it pick up where this left off, and i'll actually get it just to feel a bit more fufilled. but as it stands right now, this is like watching the pilot for a good superhero drama and having it get cancelled immediately after.

oh, and protip: if you get this game and want to playthrough it, get teleport. that ability was the most useful thing.

Definitley worth playing but it feels like it was cut short and in the end only the first power I picked seemed to matter the others didn't really affect much.

This reveiw contains spoilers.


A fun little romp during the early days of superhumans. While not as polished as the author's former work, Best of Us does serve to entertain albeit not for too long. While it does create the feel of emerging superhumans trying to figure out their place in the world, it divides its cast too early. You hardly get to know the Superman and Batman pastiches before they force you to choose a side. Having played both sides I have to say that the leader of the "Freedom" faction is a lot less scummy that the obviously evil politician heading the "order" faction.

The fact that the first thing the "order" faction does is incarcerate even those superhumans who willingly stood down, in effect criminalizing those superhumans who tried to stick to the straight and narrow, robs Aurora of much of her argument. The game presents her as someone who is too idealistic and as someone who blindly trusts the authorities to do the right thing. Since the superhumans are already in jail for the crime of having powers (something that should have broken the US constitution into little itty-bitty pieces) at what point exactly would she realize the forces she has aligned herself with are not even remotely benevolent? When they break out the Zyklon-B? When they hire a modern Dr Mengele? When they start digging mass graves? How about when they give her a new snazzy costume by Versace with jackboots and an iron cross?

One the flip side, the "freedom" faction's leader is friendly, flirtatious and plans a jailbreak for incarcerated superhumans. The end game of the "freedom" faction is exposing the crimes of a corrupt politician. No huge anarchic break down of social order, in fact it is shown that the more sinister actions by members of that faction were due to fanatics acting out on their own once their leader got caught. So while they do attack both Federal and private property, both were essentially surgical strikes to expose an enemy. Effectively being on the "order" side is a lot more morally shady that otherwise. The moral greyness is less two shades of grey as off-white and slate. If you were looking for a complex moral dilemma, look elsewhere.

Overall, it would give this a recommendation for its setting and the fun to be had. Its basically candy, it tastes good but its none too filling.

This is a direct quote from the Dev of Choice of Games by supporting this game you are supporting the worldview of Anita Sarkeensian.This game is an extenstion of her views. A screen shot showing the Dev saying this.

"Choice Of Games embodies the same view of Antia Sarkeensian." End quote

Antia Sarkeenian is a person who misleads even her own fans, calls games and some gamers sexist or objective to females. I was told not to buy their games unless I did agree with her world view. This is the Owner of Choice of Games saying that. The Screen Shot will confirm it.

http://postimg.org/image/ewcujnjqv/

Overview:

Update: After a few more playthroughs I'm changing this review to "Not Recommended". Best of Us has some fun moments, but it's overall a very mediocre game. Especially when compared to some of the other offerings from Choice of Games and their Hosted Games. If you're really bored and are not expecting a character driven masterpiece, you can get a fun couple hours out of this. As usual, I suggest playing through the demo several times before buying.


Pros:

Modern day/real world setting. No need to learn an entire pantheon of alien gods or to read a thousand year backstory, we already understand where the story is set.

A Minor Spoiler: While there are some unanswered questions, there are no major cliff hangers at the ending. This is a pro to me, anyway.


Other:

This game is a relatively short one, my first playthrough took me about 2 hours. More on that below.


Cons:

A fairly large cast and a shorter game length means that none of the NPCs get much character development, if any. I think the author could have improved the story a lot by removing a few of the characters entirely so as to spend more time developing the ones that are really important to the plot. Or just by making the game slightly longer to give each of them more time to develop.

Too many fluff/window dressing choices, too few meaningful ones. This game doesn't seem to be setting itself up for a sequel, given the lack of a save option at the end, so why can't I mess around more? With the level detail in the description of the superpowers I was really disappointed by the lack of any real changes they made. Ultravision gave me one extra paragraph of redundant information in one scene, and I didn't notice infravision give me any new information at all. The description of flight mentions that you won't be able to go over Mach 1 without the durability power... but you never get to do that even if you do take it anyway! Perhaps it made a few lines of difference somewhere that my eyes glazed over, but it didn't let me keep up with the speedster opponents I fought. Also, the major 'pick a side' choice later on is not presented well at all. One of the sides I don't see any logical reason to pick, making the other my default choice regardless of anything else.

I normally prefer my choose-your-own-adventures to be 'wide' -giving the player more freedom- rather than long. The longer an RPG goes on the more likely you are to notice the rails and have your illusion of choice broken I think, and if a sequel is planned then the first game has to accommodate for that. Also the more freedom the player has then the more work the author has over time. So, short and wide is my preference and what I was hoping Best of Us would be. Sadly, it's actually short and narrow.

I played the demo. It was great. I was looking forward to this but after playing full game, feel very disappointed. Excruciatingly short, only slightly longer than the demo. Almost zero character development. This character is doing that and another character doing the opposite,which one you will follow? Almost couldn't care of what is happening at all. Story progressed way too fast. Disappointed as author's previous release was extremely good and with promising demo, fell awfully short of expectation.

3/10 Best of Us? Definitely not.