Diabolical Reviews

Diabolical is an interesting game. The first time i played i found it very amusing. The reason i can't recomend it is because the game makes you think that your choices matter when they really don't. In all "Choice of Games" games there is a certain level of railroading, in some instances it's almost unnoticable and not to much of a problem. However in Diabolical it goes way too far. Now i will be discussing some SPOILERS from this point onwards so read at your own risk. Most main character will survive untill the final act no matter what you do, making your choice irrelevant. There's a chapter in which your character has the option to kill another character, Even if you choose to kill him, you won't since your character got a change of heart suddenly. the worst offender is the ending, now i won't go into too much spoilers but let's just say that what ending you get is dependant only on your last choice, a.k.a. no choice up untill this one matters. And there are a lot of options for the ending so you better be reay to replay the game at leadt 8 times to get them all, even though you already know how everything will turn out regardless of your choices. And i know some will point out i have a load of time but that was just replaying so i can get all achievements. All in all i can't really recomend a choose your own adventure in which your choices don't matter.

This game has the exact same problem that almost every other game of this type has. Your choices do not matter. It's funny, too. Diabolical is such a short, breezy experience that I ended up playing it twice. This is the first game of its kind to really make me realize just how little choice I actually had. The story it tells is a charming one, and I enjoyed my first playthrough a lot, but this game has no excuse for its railroading. Telltale games have their excuse, those being that they can only program so many different outcomes for the budget they have, but this game is made up of pure text. Seriously. It just comes across as almost laziness on the part of the devs, and I can't recommend supporting that.

I can't recommend this game, because of the lack of player agency especially in action scenes. Outside of action scenes the players choices have only superficial effects in the story. The player can choose what their villian looks like, what their villain drives and choose from three interchangable sidekicks, but any time a meaningful selection of choices is presented they end up like this: Choice A: The writers preferred choice Choice B: Different way of going about the same thing as Choice A. Choice C: A legitimatly different option from Choice A that will autofail if chosen. But far far worse than this is the action scenes. Every action scene is the same sequence of choices: Sequence 1 Choice A: Action Choice B: different action Choice C: Joke No matter what choice you chose in Sequence 1 the game says "Psych you were hit/fell down/etc. while trying to decide". No matter what you choose in sequence 2 you will partially succeed, leading to sequence 3 where no matter what you choose you will succeed. I can't reccomend a game where even the choices in action scenes do not matter.

If you know the other Choice games, well, you won't be surprised. This one is a lot more lighthearted than some of the other ones I played, even if you go relatively evil and kill a lot. There are some surprising twists, but the whole game has a little bit too much "deus ex machinas" for my taste. But anyway, if you want to be the villain in a cartoony way, this is definitely your game. Not regretted it.

It's not as long as other Choice of Games or has as deep a meaning but highly enjoyable letting you play a super villain getting to go with every villain cliche from millitary leader sparing no one to a more trickstery character who causes non lethal chaos. It's short, entertaining and who doesn't want the largest ball of aluminum foil?

Have you ever wanted to play a game in which you can be a cackling, all-out, theatrical villain? Or perhaps the more tech/gadget-focused, stone-cold killer villain? If so, then [i]Diabolical[/i] is definitely the interactive novel for you! Choose your minions, pick your lair, decide on what kind of weapons you want to use, and don't forget to spend some downtime with your goons at your underwater lake (bingo has always been a favourite). [i]Diabolical[/i] is a beautiful homage to the stereotypical comic book or TV cartoon villain, and now you can take on this role for yourself. You're a young and upcoming new villain, trying to steal or murder you way through the world and climb up in the ranks so you can end up with the big baddies. However, one of the big baddies turns out to be Really Freaking Evil, the biggest villain organisation ever is on your trail, and the good guys won't leave you alone either. Who will you ally with? And will you save the world, destroy it or do something ridiculously over-the-top with it? [h1][b]The Good[/b][/h1] + Hilarity! Ham acting! Buying lava for your secret volcano lair! + Also includes a few more serious moments amongst all the light fun + There's plenty of interesting villains (and heroes) around who (1) gossip about you, (2) are in your way, (3) want to kill you or (4) want you to join them + The possibility to have a threesome in space [h1][b]The Bad[/b][/h1] - At 130,000 words, it's relatively short, and you can finish it in ± 1.5 hours - The choices aren't very imaginative, and sometimes don't really have impact on the story - There is little depth to the characters, including your own - Limited romance options - No save points and no skip options If you're looking for an interactive novel that doesn't take itself seriously in which you can become the villain, then you will probably like this game. Just mind the short length of it, and the fact that some of the choices aren't as impactful as I'm used to in Choose Your Own Adventure games. You also don't get to customise your character to a great degree. In the end though, I had a lot of fun playing as a theatrical gadget-focused villain who had a threesome in space but eventually saved the world -- and I will definitely replay this game again!

Do I like Diabolical? Yes, absolutely, but it's not a game that I could ever recommend. The writing is good, entertaining, and occasionally funny, but all too often the game railroads you into different choices. You'll be given a list of options, but the response will almost always be "He isn't really listening" or "You thought I was serious?" What feel like major decisions are quickly made irrelevant by randomly changing circumstances, and you never get the chance to truly direct your villain. The character decides their own overarching goal or plan, and you pick the specifics, which seems to me to be the opposite of what one would want from a game like this. Diabolical can be fun, but it doesn't offer nearly as much choice as you would want from a text-based game.

This story doesn't take itself seriously and, if you want to enjoy it, you shouldn't either. You're in for a cartoony romp with a straightforward plot and lots and lots of deus ex machina if you play this game. I didn't enjoy as much as I thought I might but that was likely because I went in with the wrong attitude but I'm certain many people would find its silly and irreverent tone to be quite entertaining as long as they were aware of it before getting in too deep.

X-Men, Avengers, Batman and Co. suck, right? You were always rooting for the bad guys? Then here´s your chance to show them how it´s done right! Diabolical has it all, you build your own evil mastermind career, hire your henchmen, duel with do gooders as well as rival supercriminals. You can decide to be a secretly kind hearted warmonger, going by your own moral standards or become the bloodiest menace to humanity. This all written in a very cheek-in-tongue humor style. There are enough different story and character development options for at least three playthroughs, which should be enough, even though it is not necesseraliy the longest CYoA game here. Conclusio: Not only for the demented haters of mankind, Diabolical offers a fun diversion from the normal hero type of games. Rating: 8/10

As much as I love "choose your own adventure" games, I wouldn't recommend this one. Why? Because while you'd think your choices would matter like in other similar games, they really don't. Most choices you face lead to the same exact results and I don't mean it as in the long run. Let's say you have the choice between killing or not killing someone. First run through you'll go with one choice and next one pick the opposite choices figuring the story would be entirely different but no. If you choose to spare the person the game will let you but most of the time when you choose to kill the person, you'll either fail or be interrupted, effectively making the game painfully linear. You can't choose your own adventure, it's already been chosen for you.