Way Walkers: University Reviews

Way too short and with an abrubt ending without any kind of feeling of achievement. Apparently the game is just the first part in a long series, something that isn't clear either from the title, or from the description.

I played this game on my phone a few years ago. One of my favorites, just behind Tin Star. I'm really impressed the writer bothered to add a dlc for this game, and honestly, i can't wait for the 3rd game

I remember when this first came out way back when as a phone game, always was my favorite out of all the games of this style. Very happy to see it available on steam

This is a guarded "Yes" for me. This is another "magical school" type of game, but the world is interesting as are the classes. There's an intriguing mystery that, unfortunately, just begins to unfold when the game ends. Therein lies the problem: This is not a complete story. There is no real conclusion to anything (other than your current school term). Worse, it feels like I barely got to do anything before the game ended. I've played many, many COG and Hosted Games, and don't remember one that felt this short. I know Choice of Games recently raised their prices and can't remember if they also raised prices on Hosted Games. If so, they should not raised the price on this game because the story isn't complete. There's a part 2 and I read on Choice of Games forums a Part 3. How many "chapters' must we have before coming to a conclusion? So, yes. It was fun. I liked the story. I liked it so much that I shelled out the money for Part 2. But buyers should be aware the story does not conclude with this installment.

Not worth the money honestly. A very short game, well written I will admit but I could have finished this in an hour and a half if I wasn't distracted. Very good lore and world-building, but I can't recommend for anything more than 2 bucks.

This is one of the best create your own novel adventure games out there! J. Leigh is an incredible novelist and it is a true pleasure to dive into her world of Way Walkers! With it's own rich lore and interesting characters, you'll keep playing over and over again to see what results you can get. I have been playing this game since it first came out and I am excited and enthralled that the halloween dlc came out and am excited to find out what excitement is in store for chapter 3! If you love create your own adventure stories then this is the game for you!

A quite old game that was added pretty recently to Steam, alongside a brand new DLC. I've only discovered the game with the Steam release, and I've been able to play now. It's a very interesting spin on the "magic school" formula. You don't have your usual story set nowadays in our world, with a main character that is thought to be a normal human until they discover they're more than that. I don't have anything against that, but it's nice to see something different. It's a pretty original story with a lot of cool concept, and part of a much bigger universe (the author also writes "regular" books). This is the first part of a trilogy, and the second part is out too, but the third one will take some more time, apparently. I'm writing this review before playing the second part. If you want my updated opinions after playing book 2, please check out the review I'll write on it's page. [b]PROs - Story, world and characters:[/b] That's the basis, and it's good! Worldbuilding is great and the story is compelling, and most characters really cool. [b]- Branching:[/b] The story has a lot of branching paths depending on the choices you make and relationship status with the main characters. [b]- Stats:[/b] I genuinely enjoyed the unconventionnal stats of this game. You just have to be careful considering there are 12 of them, and not all are as important as others. But I never really felt impaired for not being able to fight, and this is a good thing. [b]- RP value:[/b] The game may seem stat focused at first, but I think of it as leaning towards RP focused, actually. Sure, stat checks are important, but most of the times, I've noticed what counts is how you choose for your character to act and think. And I will ALWAYS prefer RP oriented games. [b]- DLC:[/b] The DLC is sooo good! Not only it adds a LOT of very interesting content and may be extended upon in the future, but also, it allows you to get three good increases to stats, and considering you don't have a lot of these aside from your main chosen path, it's very nice! [b]- Ending:[/b] This is very spoilery, of course. [spoiler]The "main" good ending, no matter which exactly you get (it has variants), will have your character getting an impairment/disability. It can affect one of your stats (from a selection of like 4 or 5 of them - not all can be affected), and your character will basically get very "bad" at it. "How is this good?", you may think. But honestly, I think it's greatly implemented and really fits the story. I can't wait to play part 2 with it.[/spoiler] [b]CONs - Lenght:[/b] It's a bit on the short side, for my tastes. But this is the pay-back for the rich branching, so I can't really complain. And the DLC adds a lot of content. [b]- RNG elements:[/b] This is my main gripe with the game - things that change from playthrough to playthrough. Since we can't save in these games, it gets very tedious to have to restart every single time one makes a mistake. And when some elements are random, it adds potential mistakes. You CAN reload a page and hope for a different random element if you open and close the stats menu but... thing is... [spoiler]Well, the disability I was talking above is a random element, and you can't cheat the game with it since even if you get the one you want at opening the menu, it will change when you close it - and the text on screen doesn't give you clues about what has changed - not on the very screen the disability is implemented, and that's the only one you could use to change it. So basically, the last choice of the game results in a random thing, and you WANT to reload to get the disability you want/avoid the ones you don't want. Which means restarting and playing the entire game again and again. Again, it's the pay-back for a very good concept - having a fixed disability depending on your best stat or whatever could be game breaking and NOT fun.[/spoiler] All in all, a very cool game, as long as you're okay with the gameplay that can be a bit unusual at times.

Waywalkers University isn't a bad game in the sense that it isn't enjoyable or isn't well done. It's written well, with artistry suited for a choose-your-own-adventure, or CYOA, game. However, this is hardly a good CYOA game by modern standards of CYOA games. Imagine an old Bioware game with the option for romance: You cannot romance a character unless you agree with every single value the romantic interest holds. Your character is expected to emulate the romantic interest that you wish your character to court. The argument for this is the high cost of crafting the assets for different paths, of course, but whether that argument holds any water is irrelevant here. A text-based CYOA game's only assets are essentially code and readable text. There is little excuse for how much the authors push your MC into having a certain personality when choosing to develop certain relationships. The only excuses are a lack of creativity and a closed, narrow mind. The times my MC would impudently roll his eyes, sigh, or pout were grossly inconsistent with the personality that I was led to believe was possible to play, inferred from choices made very early on in the game. It feels too much like the game turns its nose up at you and waves dismissively at you whenever the MC speaks without your prompt; As if the game believes it knows better than you how to play your character and puts its idea of how your MC should behave over your own. Even when there is a prompt for you, the dialogue choices are so limited it feels like this game really could not have come out in the era that it did. It's a real pity. The world, though not entirely the most interesting, is still very much different than the lot you'll find out there, and in a niche genre like CYOA games, being different is desirable. The characters are classic tropes, but they interact harmoniously with each other and the setting. I can't say that I fully condemn this game, yet I can't recommend it either for how much it doesn't respect the reader's choices as a choice-based game. Perhaps, before there were good games with actual choices, Way Walker: University may have been good. As it is now, we know the huge potential a text-based, CYOA game holds, and this game refuses to acknowledge that potential. This game may not be a waste of money, but it may disappoint you if you've played modern CYOA games that give you actual choices without giving up a sense of challenge.

Interesting read, but unbalanced. Like most of these games you make certain decisions in the beginning of the game, choices in this one about what kind of Path you want to walk. I chose the one most interesting to me (social / love) and for the rest of the game, not a single choice came up where that was an option to choose. Most of the available choices seemed to revolve around persuasion, fighting (or using magic to fight) or being creative. During the game you are also asked to join a club and are told you will suffer later in your career if you dont make friends in one of them. Again unfortunately the club activities are based on attributes that didnt fit my character. Creativity, Fighting, and Magic/Knowledge (not the actual club names or activities, just the Pathes they would fall under). You end up having to go check them out even if you realize none of them are a good fit for you,... with results that made me frown when I was honest and said I wasnt really interested in them. There is no character customization to speak of, other than your gender. Your looks are predetermined, despite there being a vast array of interesting NPC types in the story's world. A Real missed opportunity there, alot of readers are going to see cool character types in the game that they are going to wish they could have played as, which only emphasizes the total lack of options for the player. Finally this is one of those games thats got multiple You Died moments, with the caveat that You can choose to go back and continue living your life, with penalties (injuries) that will make your life harder from then on. TBH I really hate that format. Instead of the writer offering us valid alternative options as to how the story plays out, they just offer a bunch of false choices, and kill you off when you dont make the choice they wanted. I feel like this would have made a great novel, following the story in an interesting world setting with plenty of background and lore to flesh it out. But it didnt make for a fun game because it doesnt truely allow for any kind of player agency. This is not so much a choose your own, as it is a figure out how to get to the good end without messing up type game. Some people like that. YMMV