Silverworld Reviews

It took some time to convince myself I want to play this game. I was so sure I wouldn't like it. Savage civilizations? Surviving in some kind of Stone Age, even with timey-wimey stuff? All that didn't seem to be appealing to me. Turned out that Silverworld has [i]much[/i] more to offer. It was a long, exciting and truly unique adventure. Bizarre, too — in the best way possible. The story is great, the characters are believable and very well-written, the fighting scenes are thrilling. What a great read! One of the best CYAO games in my opinion. 10/10 would romance an insect again

Enjoyed the story, it felt like my choices really had an impact. Most characters had interesting backgrounds that you gradually explore. My only complaint is that, in some cases it was hard to guess which stat would go with which action and even harder to guess how high that stat needed to be. Yet, I managed to succeed most of the actions so I'm happy with the results.

So yeah, another one of my steam reviews, disappeared. Which in this particular case really confuses me, as I've left 2 positive reviews for this game already.... just weird right? Anyway, this story is pretty interesting, with some different from your normal play styles in the way you can go through it. Also as far as I know its the only cyoa game where you can romance an insect if thats your thing ; p For myself I found the whole village saving and upgrading part to be the most fun, and enjoyed the village and its people so much i had no desire to get back to the place I came from. Not a new game, but a good one if you havnt played it yet, well worth the money.

Time travel, prehistoric society, and steampunk. Think H.G.Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and a touch of Stephen Hunt. The first play-through took me 10 hours. And by the end I was play with the results.

Hands down one of the best games I've ever played - super well rounded, is one of those games where your choices ACTUALLY affect the game a lot. Extremely well written story, romances AND actions scenes were both equally great. Loved how you could choose your own ending and how the success of your missions really relied on your actions. Characters were all three dimensional and each had their own unique flairs, narrative was super complex and lore was epic too. Had me super hooked bro played this all in one sitting. The story leaves a lot of mystery and intrigue to kkeep you on the edge of your seat. 10/10 will replay again soon. If you're hesitating about buying it for any reason, I seriously reccomend you buy it. Hesitation is for losers. You won't regret it.

This is a hidden gem as far as the Choice of/Hosted Games series goes. Truly one of the best ones out there as far as worldbuilding, especially fantasy worldbuilding. I can't begin to say how bored I am of fantasy that bases itself on tired tropes like lazy fake-medieval Tolkien-ish-"inspired" setups. None of that can be found here in Silverworld: the setting, characters (both types and individual ones), and mood are all original and refreshing, as well as actually interesting. It feels like actually stepping into this new world the author proposes, apropos of the writing quality. It also pulls off action scenes much more engagingly than a lot of attempts in IF. Gameplay wise, there is some interesting approaches to the branching design, and stat management doesn't feel like a burden. I wish you could spend more genuine quality time with the genuinely interesting and different characters you get, but I always wish for that when I'm given cool characters in a story. One thing I'll say is that I am usually deeply hesitant of stories that involve any type of "native peoples" theme, or anything that goes close into colonizing territory unless it actually has something interesting, thoughtful and researched to say on them. I wouldn't say Silverworld is either here nor there when it comes to these, but I can say that it didn't put me off as I was afraid it might given its setting. It's fantastical enough and strays enough into letting you not let it become another "heroic" colonizing tale; at most it comes close to The One Foreign Savior trope sometimes, but the way that the characters themselves don't necessarily abide by that, again, kept it from being ruined for me. YMMV however.

Finished a first playthrough and, as with Empyrean, I was most impressed by the extensive and polished worldbuilding that the player can actually shape in significant ways. I'm already curious to play again and see what else there is to discover, especially if I choose to do the quests in a different order (something I don't think I've seen in other CoGs, but I find it a clever way to add to replayability). This game is one of the longer CoGs and it does feel long. While it doesn't have the frantic I-can't-put-it-down quality that Empyrean has, I appreciate that it took its time with the exploration and understanding of a new world. Something like a language barrier that is gradually overcome might slow down the pace, but it adds to that aspect of discovery. The stat system is very straightforward with a satisfying amount of skills and I like that the game also keeps track of a scientific journal and the resources that we have (and these all matter in certain ways). It was almost always clear what skills were being tested and even in the case of failure the consequences didn't seem dire. Nitpicky, I know, but this took a bit away from the sense of danger that the rest of the writing was creating. Ultimately, what I enjoyed most was how imaginative the writing is. The setting is a fascinating mix of wilderness, magic and tech that even turns psychedelic toward the end. And while the characters range from robots to bee women to plant people, these concepts are very much explored and progress throughout the story. It's all just delightfully weird. Honestly, the only thing that bothered me was the period that always followed the MC's name. Otherwise, I spent some wonderful hours immersed in the Silverworld.

Choice of Games' games are very hit or miss for me. By which I mean most of them are a miss, and a handfull of them are bullseye hits. This is one of the latter. For the ones that are good, there's some "hook" right off the bat that should appeal to your sense of awesome to draw you in. In this case (for my choices) it was getting to play as a Steampunk Aztec mechanic man of culture. Following that solid hook of "awesome thing you get to play as", you'll need an awesome setting. In this case, its Steampunk-age Byzantium which never fell and now takes the rough equivalent spot of The British Empire in the Victorian age. At least shortly before you're thrown into an age of pulp fiction. The genre, not the movie. This is also awesome. Along the way you're accompanied by your Bioware Bro-squad (or Persona Bro-squad, if you prefer) as you go on awesome adventures. I really do mean that as a compliment, because all of them are great and even if you have no interest in romancing them they're all surprisingly well defined for a CYOA game. Of course you can romance them as well. And if you've never wanted to romance a hive mind of robot girls or a bee woman, then I think you might be beyond help. This is easily the best Choice of Games I've played through. The setting is fun, your choices effect world building (and by god there is just so much world building), the characters are great, and replayability is high. The only downside I can think of is that the overall plot is the tiniest bit on the predictable side, but then you don't need twists in every story and the world building/characters more than make up for it. This is a fun game. I was unreasonably joyous when playing this game. I'm not the most animated player of video games. A stream of me would be boring. This game had me loudly shouting my reactions because it was so darn fun. I can only hope that this is one of those rare Choice of Games that gets a sequel because the universe has so much potential it hurts.

So I enjoyed Silverworld. The Steampunk meets Magical Stone Age theme is original and brilliant, the author makes a unique world come to life, the action sequences are engaging, and so on. But it's great as a story. As a game, it falters. You have to keep going through lengthy, massive menus of choices, and as far as I can tell, there's virtually no reason not to pick the one that's (on the surface) most concordant with your build. That's true for most Choice games, but it shouldn't always be true. Eg: in Choice of Rebels, it's actually suboptimal for a Charisma build to recruit too aggressively, or for a Combat build to raid too aggressively. I can't find challenges like that in Silverworld. I recommend purchasing Silverworld if you're a fantasy fan who wants to experience something truly original, epic, and fun. But if you're more interested in the the gameplay aspects of Choice games, I would look elsewhere.

10/10 used "Hey look over there" successfully on an eldritch god. In all seriousness, however, this is a very strong game from the author of Empyrean. The magitech aspects are back, this time against the backdrop of a primordial fantasy world. There are errors; my character's name had a period after it the entire time, but the game, as a whole, is fun as hell, and full of memorable moments. In some cases, it was unclear what skills played into what, and I never did manage to get writing established in my civilization, but the game, as a whole, was a rather splendid work of fiction; I look forward to other entries by this author.