Revolution Diabolique Reviews

dont buy this, the "story" it offers is very poor and not entertaining. dont get fooled by the word count, on average words in a playthrough you'll only experience one tenth of the word count give or take. the only reason i have this many hours in it is cuz afk. its a waste of your money.

[b]Révolution Diabolique[/b] By Chris Conley [b]”No one at the table seems particularly enthusiastic about your plan. But lacking any serious proposals from others, it is eventually agreed upon, and the meeting moves on.[/b] [b]It’s a disaster.”[/b] I saw a derivation of the above quote so… many… times. Some titles like wearing their stat systems out on their sleeves, while some wear sleeves and ruffles and powder makeup. Révolution Diabolique is the latter. I think Marie-Antoinette once famously said, “Let them read code”. But probably in French, not English. [b]General Story:[/b] Welcome to revolutionary-era France, where you choose what sort of character you are and how you’ll affect the fledgling world of democracy. Oh, and you summon demons. While there isn’t much dialogue in the game, the majority of it takes place in sort of episodic side stories. Intermissions are actually periods where you learn a little bit about the alt-history revolution, and make decisions based on your character’s opinion. Sometimes this can actually affect where France and the surrounding nations end up. Or it might affect where your head and body end up. This works so well. Everything is well written, and until you’ve gone through the game a few times, it will feel wildly different if you choose different paths. There is so much potential in the theme and era. [b]Format and Typos:[/b] Easily readable. Little dialogue, but what is there is really easy to read. You choose a decision, and most of the time the action is explained in results afterwards (such as the intro quote). If there were any typos at all, I didn’t see a single one. [b]Game Mechanics and Stats:[/b] Oh, boy. This game is a perfect example of one thing working so well and another dragging it down. Game stats are initially portrayed like Storyteller games. Pips with no numbers. So, in my final game, I had 5 pips in Stratégie et Tactique. You can change this to a numeric value, which would be a ranking of 10. I had seen numbers up to a max of 20, but this is where I want to talk a little bit about code. I know the majority of you won’t pop open code and follow it, but I like to do it after playing through the title blind to look at styles and different commands. Basically, it is both cheating and learning. I talked about in the introduction how many times I failed. In some other games, I can learn why in the code. In this title? I did worse with the code open than closed. I’ll never post direct code, but let’s look at what I read as difficulty checks in a late game chapter. So, tough checks have a difficulty of 14 (these checks appear to become more difficult as the game progresses, so a tough check in an early chapter has a lower required score than an upper ranking). You can get 10 in a stat within the first chapter of the game, and you get multiple opportunities to raise stats throughout. But I was still consistently failing throughout the title. Best I can tell? Other hidden stats influence your ability to pass tests. Sometimes I felt like I had double or triple in a stat as to what I needed to pass, and still failed as a disaster. This is compounded by stats just not being very clear. How much influence is a lot of influence? How many favors did I earn with a government employee by saving their life before they hate me? This is a game that seems to want to punish you for trying to optimize stats, but simultaneously require that you do it meticulously to succeed. [b]Replayability:[/b] And I hate that I have such an issue with understanding how stats work, and what hidden stats are there, because the options the game provides to you are absolutely amazing. I want to explore every single path the game offers, from peasant to bourgeoisie. From selfish overt summoner, to discreet seeker of immortal life. The only issue I have with replayability is that certain NPC’s have randomized genders that you have no influence over, so if you meet a focused academic who you’d like to romance the next time you play, they may not be the same gender the next time around. And it’s going to take you 15 to 30 minutes to find that out. [b]Dislikes:[/b] - Opaque stats, hidden stats, and success requirements that require familiarity with spreadsheets and formulas means you’ll read the words, “it’s a disaster” more times than you want to. - Forced randomized gender variability for NPCs, instead of the fairly standard options in most other titles. - If you’ve noticed, I haven’t mentioned demons that much. It’s because you can very easily focus on other things in this game, like politics or government work, and have the ‘diabolique’ portion of the title be almost a footnote. [b]Likes:[/b] - The theme and era combo is amazing. The history and intrigue along with the promise of arcane happenings, magnefique! - Even if I can’t do all the things well, I want to do ALL THE THINGS. I mean, I want to do them well, but there has never been a playthrough that didn’t end with me going something like… “I wonder how a noble who supports the monarch would do if I focused on joining the military and building a demon-enhanced army would work?” after finishing playing a peasant who was just interested in rubbing my rival’s face in the dirt and maybe escaping France before the next war kicked off. So much diversity in each playthrough. - Seriously, the amount of content tucked away in this game that you may end up never seeing if you don’t replay it, is immense.

Good start, but where is Napoleon? The story focuses only on the player, not Napoleon. Too short of a game, and NO NAPOLEON.

Congratulations Chris Conley you had the French Revolution and demons and you still managed to make a bad game. Do not buy! There are like a dozen quagmires in the story that lead to unending loops, spend 8$ on anything else.

There isn't enough depth to fully develop the fantasy side of this story or the historical side, both struggle to provide compelling reasons to maintain the reader's interest. The characters are similarly two-dimensional. It feels almost as if the author of this story got bored with their own creation and after the first chapter just gave up on it.

A lot happens in the time-frame of this game, but none of it happens to you it seems. I did a whole play-through where anything of note happened "off-screen" and was summarised in what felt like a history textbook fashion. My play-through consisted of a boring series of meaningless events that were mostly just stat checks. The ending came and it felt like I had done absolutely nothing the entire time. The rival also feels super unnecessary and mainly serves as a plot point that ends up going nowhere. The romances were also incredibly lacklustre. Overall the game was really boring, repetitive and felt like it went nowhere, especially if you know the least bit of French history. I like to give COG games a chance but this was really disappointing.

Story/Plot: In Revolution: Diabolique, you take on the role of a person capable of summoning demons during the time of the French Revolution. Sounds promising? Unfortunately, it isn't. The first thing is the world building. If demons exist, and can be summoned, then this would have an impact on the world building...which doesn't happen here. For that matter, your exploration of the demon world is rather short as well; this literally begs for more than was given. As it is, the game seems to show you as the only one...which is fair enough, I guess since it would make writing easier. It doesn't help the romance options and other characters are flat; a lot of people play it for the romance stuff. Unfortunately, that is rather threadbare here. However, this game also suffers what I call the Choice of Games formula. Play enough of them, and they start to get a same feeling. Now, good writing can obscure that, but that isn't the case here. This actually counts as a big strike for me. The French Revolution is one of the most...interesting...times to explore (for a variety of reasons) and add demon summoning in any time period, it should be good. It isn't in this game. Visuals: As a text game, there are no major visuals to really speak of. Some of the NPCs have pictures, but that is enough.. Fair enough, CoGs aren't visual novels. However, you can at least change text size, background, etc. in the options menu. Gameplay: Basic gameplay is like a choose your own adventure, you make a choice, and see where it leads you. Often it just gives some flavor text, and new situations. However, there are some game mechanics like stat checks. These tend to come out in situations like combat; do you have an appropriate skill at a certain level. If yes, then you succeed. If no, you fail. One variation of this is also the opposed stat check. You often see that with the personality traits; think of the old Mass Effect Paragon/Renegade bar. If you do certain actions of one type (say a Paragon), then try to do an action opposite of it (like murdering an innocent), your own stat would cause you to fail. While a lot may happen under the hood, this is also tied into the writing...and unfortunately, it doesn't mesh well with this game. Sound/Music: As a text game, there is no music. Difficulty: While it is possible to die in this game, most Choice of Games are relatively easy to beat, especially if you make consistent decisions for personality, skill, etc. This game is no exception. Some of them actually are entertaining to fail (different writing, etc.)...this isn't one of them. Extras/Achievements: This game does have Steam achievements for those who like that sort of thing. Also, you can change up some of the text display options to make it easier to read. Recommendation: As you might guess, I can't recommend this game. I'm used to CoG's style, but what should have been an interesting game isn't. If you are so inclined, there is a free demo to try...give it a go before considering getting this.

Well If you want a "game" then this is probably one of the closest to that I've read in quiet a while. Its all choices, and in the beginning almost all of the choices are blind (ie you have no idea what they are going to do how they relate to the game at hand) As you progress through the game, you start getting updates about whats currently going on Politically (while I am assuming your choices probably affect that, Im not certian. I supported the monarchy at every chance, but they were one of the first wiped out.) And while the political story is playing out, with or without you assistance and input, you are constantly having to choose how you want to study to improve what aspects of your skill with demons. And the rub there is that it of course costs money,... which you do not have an infinetly supply of, nor did I find anyway to earn more. Also I only ever met one of the possible RO's and her gender was preset. While you can choose your background with her (how you knew her, why the two of you struck up a friendship) she has little effect on the story line after your first meet up with her. Ie you dont explore your relationship, there are no "talks" no agreeing or arguing about your political positions, etc. Actually reading the store description, IM actually thinking She is the only RO as all three possible romance options listed are possible backgrounds you can choose for her... if Im right, Thats very misleading! Finally i hate to say it, but there just is no story there. There is no emotional attachment, no reason to care. Its just choose a side in the revolution, see if you picked the right one, or are able to make a difference by supporting them, Study demons, try not to go broke, get arrested, or killed. If your looking for a "game" to play, this might interest you. If your looking for a story to read, there isnt one here.

"I don't care what happens to these people." - This is a quote from Dorothy Heydt, in reference to the failure of a work to give one a compelling reason to give a damn. This game, quite frankly, lacks a compelling reason to give a damn. Even ignoring the fact that much of the stats screen uses French words, (with the author just assuming, for some unknown and unknowable reason, that the reader will either be able to grasp their meaning via an innate knowledge of French, or via context) even ignoring the fact that the book hedges so closely to historical events that it gives itself no time to breathe, and even ignoring the fact that this stolidly mediocre game has a price tag well in excess of better games by choice of games - even ignoring all these glaring flaws, the author commits the deadly sin of failing to make the reader care much about the characters, or what happens to them. I suppose if one innately loves France, for whatever reason, one might care what happens to the French monarchy without being given any other compelling reason to care. However, the author seems to assume that the reader will be as deep into French history as they are repeatedly through the game, and seems to be under the impression that it has some innate, dramatic sway over the human psyche. It does not. tl;dr - The demon summoning feels tacked on. The characters are boring. Buy a different, better game. Maybe try Silverworld, Choice of Broadsides or Ironheart for semi-historical fiction. At least those give one a reason to care.