I don't play very many of those choose-your-story adventure games on mobile. My main reason why is that they haven't interested me. It seems like way too many of them focus too much on eye-candy visuals and stories centered on the full-fledged drama in romance. It's not what I'm into.
Finally, I found something that stood out a bit. (Note: this post is not sponsored or influenced of any kind.) I was in the mood to read some good choose your own adventure type of game, but I didn't want anything over-the-top romantic. Then, I found the Delight Games app. To my delight, (haha) this app contained a whole collection of exciting stories centering all on my favorite genre of all; fantasy!
What fantasy lover wouldn't want to go on a magical journey as a wizard or rouge to save the world from troubling evils? The stories are mainly named after what you want to be as well. There's wizard choice, rogue choice, detective choice, demon choice, and even some solo books.
What I love about opening one up is getting thrown right into the action. There's no catching up on background details right at first. You are the title main character and are encouraged to think in character when you make your choices. Each story starts with some points listed at the top. They're different depending on the story you're reading, but you'll typically have some life points and money points. You may also have magic points, moral points, rage points, etc. If they're not essential like life and money, they'll affect your score at the end.
Your choices affect these points. Your choice made your character say something wrong? Decreased moral or increased rage. The haggle on that price didn't work? Pay full price and now you can't afford anything important later. Got your character into trouble one too many times? Lose all your life points and die.
If you die, you can restart from one of the several checkpoints in the story, or you can use a luck coin, which you find by filling out achievements in the app. Dying seriously decreases your ranking at the end though. If you can't settle for getting anything other than first place, you can always start right back at the beginning!
If you live all the way to the end, you get a ranking based on your points. You're then encouraged to try again with different choices or to move on to another book.
Now that you know the basics, I'll like to talk more about the style in which they're written... *Ahem,* most of them are written in second person. This is fascinating and I'll tell you why: there's a good reason why most stories aren't written in this form. Most stories are in first person and third person. The second person form is hardly ever used because it's personal. Rather than a character talking to himself or a narrator explaining the details, this is a letter written directly to you! Stories in this fashion may tell you what you think or what you want to do. It may also assume something in your past or something you experienced. Many people don't like this type of perspective because they don't like writing that assumes so much about the reader. But since you're roleplaying as the characters in these stories, this is the best time to use this perspective.
If you've read my review on The Night Circus last October, you might remember she also had a few, short sections using the second tense. You might also remember that it fascinated me. It shouldn't be used in everything, but when it's used correctly, it's so engaging! You are sucked right in the adventure, and I like that. It's very appropriate for a choose-your-own-adventure story. The only reason why it might not work here is if you don't like the character you're assigned to...
But look at me rambling on. I haven't read all the series on the app, but I've read a lot of them so far. And by far, my favorite writer is William Miller. He wrote the detective's choice series and also the solo book, Pirates Never Die. His stories were the most intriguing to me. He's excellent with action scenes and characters especially. His voice in writing is too exquisite to belong to someone with no experience in writing, and then I found that he's a proper author outside of the Delight Games app. I haven't heard of the series until now, nor have I read it, but he's the author of the Noble Man series.
You can check that one out if you wish, but I'm going to be talking more about his work that I have read; the Detective Choice series. You are Jack Jericho, a private detective for the supernatural occurrences in the 1930s. You've dealt with everything from cheating wives to hunting werewolves.
Book one centers on a dancer coming to you saying someone is out to kill her. Whatever it was, it has killed all the other dancers one by one in the club, and she believes she's next. The cops don't believe her and have ruled the other deaths as unrelated accidents. That leaves her with only one option.
Pick up the pieces as Jack tries to solve what happened to the other girls and solve the mystery yourself. Jack butts head-to-head with his old co-workers, the police, occasionally, and you may have to convince them to give up information. You may also end up in trouble yourself on this supernatural journey. Later on, the quest leads Jack into a curious, abandoned circus where time seems to stop and the unknown figures still living on the grounds may trap you there if you aren't clever. The overarching plot centering on the strange circus and Jericho's dead wife Rose continues to connect throughout the series, and it comes to a rather rewording end to reach.
But I'm not going to spoil this story for you today. I'm hoping you'll check it out yourself. It's a free download on the apple store and google play. You can buy premium if you want access to all the stories without having to unlock them, but you get plenty of content if you choose to play free.
Really, no writer on that app sounds amateur to me. Every single one I read was fun, interesting, and had amazing writers. If this sounds interesting to you, tell me on my social media what story you're reading and I'll follow along! We can see who wins more points in the end! Are you up to a little challenge?
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