Down Among the Dead Men

It is hard not to compare this to other efforts by Inkle, but it is very different than Sorcery! or 80 Days. This is much more of a traditional choose-your-own-adventure; it is very light on graphics and is entirely limited to story choices. On it's own it is a well written story and a fun read. For $.99 it is worth the purchase and time to go through. My criticism is mainly that there are too few choices to make. What I've enjoyed about the Inkle games is that you are given a lot of prompts to make decisions, making their interactive fiction much more interactive. It helps you feel more in control of the story. That is missing to a degree with this. I give it a four for the bargain price and good writhing.

My only real complaint is that this has been completely miscategorized: it is *not* a game. This is a choose your own adventure book and should be listed in the books category. There is no discernible game element at work here. Unlike other Inkle creations your choices are also very limited, the vast majority of choices are between A or B. It lacks the fun, creativity, and depth of other Inkle titles, but that's also setting the bar very, very high. The graphics (few though there are) are gorgeous but for being an entirely text based offering the story/writing just isn't very engaging. It's not bad, but I'm very disappointed with it largely because it was so misrepresented. If I had known in advance that it would lack the elements that made other games so successful and fun and was solely a book I think I would be more receptive to it and might even enjoy it more.

If this was supposed to be on par with sorcery I would give it 3 stars, but it's not. The game has decent story that hints at a wider world with magic existing but neglects to explore it. The story was un dynamic depending on your gender choice except for a cheesy ending if you're female. It was fun though choosing the paths and making decisions like any game book and I couldn't put it down for a while. I'm giving it 4 stars because it's worth 99 cents and it's good to keep us a little entertained to not deter sorcery too much(They didn't pull another 80 days.)

I wouldn't say it was impressive, but it was a fun little diversion. Couple of things I noticed on one play through they might want to fix: the author strays from second person from time to time, saying "I" instead of "you." Also, when I bought an animal (I think it was a weasel?) at the shop, there was no page- it was just blank. Overall, not earth shattering but worth the buck.

Be aware this is a book -- a choose your own adventure book. You read a paragraph, then you make a decision -- for example, do you fight, hide, or run away? You then get a bit more of the story based on what you chose, then you make another decision, etc. It's well done, and a bargain at this price. If you like CYOA, or Inkle, this is a very safe purchase. I'm really glad I bought it.