Shape of America: Episode One

I downloaded this game for free (regional price, maybe?). I really liked the aesthetics, cool retro 80s (90s should be, really, but it felt a bit older than that. Perhaps in this American Union State the 90s were like that). The soundtrack is also good and fits with the story. The Pokemon-style verbal Throwdowns are a nice element, and I liked that you didn't know much about how they worked and had to find out by trial and error. The storyline is intriguing, as well as the theme. Politics and text-based adventure is a good combo. The most negative part is that the game ends abruptly, as it is only the first episode. Shame that it didn't continue. If I had to pay for the game, I probably wouldn't have gotten it. Nevertheless, I spent a fun couple of hours playing it, always wanting to find out more about what was about to happen. Overall, a fun little game, but beware that it is incomplete.

It's so good, please make chapter 2.
The story and game mechanics work perfectly. A unique game that really reveals how the political quid pro quo system works.
The game is short but for the price it is worth it.

Great game, entertaining. Unfortunately it ends after the first episode… so no resolution… 90s nostalgia guaranteed!

Eh, it's ok. I was able to make over a million dollars because a stock fell bellow $0, so they paid me to buy it... which was weird. Also there are tons of grammar and spelling issues, weird endless loops of possible throwdowns among other dialog issues, glitches, and strange designs that just make it feel pretty low-quality. And they canceled the future game episodes, so what they have is barely worth it because it ends right as the story gets interesting. Too bad too, it seemed like it had potential.

The game seems excessively "cute", in the sense that it's so blatantly a parody of the real world.

Played that a while ago.
Liked the narrative character.
Wish there was more of it and still think about it.
All very atmospheric.
Mature and retro.
I can enjoy that.

It's rather short, and a little rough around the edges (particularly the arbitrary precision of decimal numbers stuck out like a sore thumb), but the story is interesting and I'm looking forward to Episode 2 ... except it's been over a year since this first episode was released, and there's no sign of the developers having updated the game's website since announcing the upcoming release of episode 1, so I'm getting kind of pessimistic over here.

I'd say buy it, but not at full price. 5 Euro is a bit much for 2-3h of gameplay, even accounting for some presumable replay value thanks to multiple choices.

I won't do a full review until the whole series is out, but here are my thoughts:

It's very unique. It's an rpg, but the combat system is through debates and what I would call minigames. It's small, and IMO not worth the full price tag, but maybe when all the other episodes are out I'll change my mind. As for right now, if it's on sale and you got a pile of pennies you don't know how to spend, it's worth a shot, but I hesitate to recommend it further without more from the series.

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As of 6/28/19 I've learned the second episode has been canceled due to financial reasons,something that screams bullshit due to the (to me at least) low cost assets and length of the first one. Obviously don't buy.

I like this game. It shows in a very interesting way the rise of a former waiter through the ranks of politics, starting out as an internet lobbyist. Having it in a fictional American Union of States in the 90s allows for some nice retro feeling and havingh politics with obvious expys of real life people without having to go to close to real life politics of the current day.
I recommend this game to everybody who is interested in politics.

This is episode one only. In my opinion, a waste of time until the game is complete and there is an end to the story. I wasted more than an hour to get nowhere.
Games should either be released completed or with the possibility of buying the whole package at once.

Quite dissapointed that I wasted 1+ hours.

Seems like a nice premise, but, until is complete, do not waste your money or your time.

Good fun although I never got the hang of the Speech thing... seems a pretty odd way of doing it. Story was good and the feel of the game was very 1999 which was cool. Still waiting for Episode 2 though....!

Great start to what i hope is going to continue to be a great story. Shape of America gives a great setting and the 90's is captured perfectly. You start off as no one but given a chance to prove yourself you can reach far and wide. Buy it, it's great.

Episode 1 shows the promise of an innovative, engaging RPG. In all, this is an innovative concept that's very well executed. I was invested and my imagination was engaged. The 3-5 hours is definitely worth the 5 bucks.

In terms of gameplay the adventure aspects of the game strongly outweigh the merits of the RPG elements, but that is largely by design. Most RPGs may have white mages, thiefs, etc. etc. this game instead has the four greek humors representing different classes. The system could stand to be refined a bit... once you figure out what class an opponent is its not hard to beat them, at least in episode 1, but again that doesn't substantially take away from the emotional investment or enjoyability of the game.

I'm curious to see how designers deal with the rapid acceleration they allow for in this first part. It's not hard to gain a lot of momentum if certain choices are made. Inversely, it seems easy to miss out on some opportunities if you're not careful that could drastically alter your trajectory moving forward. This wide varience of outcomes could cause some difficulties for episode 2 design.

One of the keenest design aspects of the game is the lack of a save feature. If you lose a crucial battle or make a mistake -as mentioned above- you can't simply rewind to a new day. This safeguards raises stakes and really makes caution much more important.

Charming political text adventure game with a very promising beginning. If Episode Two contiunes along a similar vein and actually takes into account the choices in Episode One, then this was a worthy purchase. A lot of potential to be a gem hidden in the rough


Edit: Sequel never came out so its a worthless purchase.

Nice game with interesting story, lot of funny references to history and popular culture. Surprisingly deep sometime and with potential. Waiting for second part.

Interesting story with multiple plot lines. I like the art style. The game really sucks you in. Cant wait for the next episode.

Fun little game. Some bugs are present, but if you've got two hours to play a nice homage to 90s - early 2000s click stories, it's worth a go. There's a few too many bugs (occasional crashes, linear values can go negative, core fighting mechanic is a bit too easy) for me to say it's worth $5 in it's current state, but with updates / more episodes, it could be a good buy.

You are by far the luckiest waiter ever i’m through an incredibly implausible but barely believable’s series events. Are you were building a social network to get favors and make money. And because you are a tool of others but you’re using your connections to help others out you start to build your own network. It’s interesting game but it should be probably thought and the entire piece instead of episodic because I finished incredibly quickly. But it’s interesting how they use a conversation system to replace combat which I love.

This is the retro-"House of Cards"-narrative game most of us deserve.
Also: a must buy for everyone loving text-based adventures.

Surprisingly well executed and presented game. I like the retro, CRT vibe and the fact that such a small production provides choices. Although the music could've been a bit better.