YOU are Titan City's resident superhero in this interactive graphic novel! Fight crime and solve clues to discover FEAR's fiendish plot!
Mixed
106 Steam reviews
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | — | — | Y |
Um game que lembra Kick Ass. Moldamos no inicio a cor e genero e algumas formas, é pouca varidade. E dai em diante vamos usando diálogos para decidir o que é prioridade e o que não é. Vamos dividindo a vida entre ir para escola, casa e manter a vida dupla de herói.
Em partes é engraçado e em outras é monótomo.
Costuma não ser tão caro, quem gosta de ficção interativa pode gostar muito mais do que eu.
Super game. Nice and cheese. Thanks for reading.
[b]The good adaptation, a niche product[/b]
I don't get the amount of 'mixed' reviews. Yeah, guys, welcome to the world of old unforgiving classic. As adaptation of the gamebook, this project is flawless.
1)It doesn't defiliate original game with 'unnecessary' content. All additions are cosmetic, not fundamental;
2)It gives this story the appropriate, goold ol' comic style;
3)It spares you from throwing dices and 'grinding' right characteristics.
If anything, it makes the original gamebook experience so much better.
Many faults are faults of the source work. Yes, conceptually the book itself is a bit wacky. But if you think 'this is unfair', i guess you have never read gamebook. Artifical difficulty is the part of the journey, sadly. But to remove it completely is to remake original so much it wouldn't be even considered 'the digital remaster'. And experience of passing years showed us what happens when people remaster original works by 'adding innovation' to the old concept.
If you are familiar with original gamebook and want to have a good time, buy it, especially if there is a discount(even though price itself isn't so high). If you are not familiar with gamebooks or feel no vibe of such work, just pass by.
[b]To the core, more 'book' then 'game' problem[/b]
This is not a perfect book. If anything, it's very messy. The problem is the product of adaptation, not the quality of it.
Some things just don't make sense. Many occasions are randome, specific action-tied. You won't get some plot brenches if you follow different routine. This is not a detective since you don't have to solve anything: you are either get right combination by chance, either you don't.
This is not a great book. This is atmospheric, funny, but ultimately 'weak' journey since you aren't a hero or detective, you just may happen to be right.
Example. [spoiler]Energy blast route, day 1. You can either save boy from the shark(wich will hijack your 2 point heroes), either help at Airport and gain 4 points. Choice is clear, isn't it? So I though until i found out you can't visit Cowfield Dairy if you help at airport, not with the shark(clue will be different). Why, in the name of Titan-city? How does it work? How is it even comprehsible? What, did Shark somehow created this monster or what? Why can't I just chooce one of the two dangers since they must happen both since they are separate events, not outputs of one specific action?[/spoiler]
That's one of a few cases, not the only one.
[b]What could be done better for the digital version.[/b]
Skip, and I am being serious. Add the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SKIP option. VN did it long time ago for better replayability. I am tired of clicking faster then the light speed like I have gone nuts.
[b]I still recommend it[/b]
But I would still stick with my recommendation not because the product is perfect, but because it's very unique. Sure, I would be more excited to see 'game realise' of 'Moonrunner', 'Seas of Blood' or 'Creture of Havoc': they are better executed, written and overall have more unique approach. However even so this is a good remaster of the classic gamebook for a little price and I am always up to it.
💋
[h1]The one where YOU are a Superhero[/h1]
On the whole, I'm a newcomer to gamebooks. Odds are by the time I became acquainted with popular culture, the golden age of gamebooks had passed.
I got properly acquainted with them first via the mobile version of [i][b]Fighting Fantasy Classics.[/b][/i]
And this just so happens to be the first of said gamebooks I ever completed.
The setting is possibly the most shameless parody of Silver Age superhero comics ever imagined. The player takes on the role of a superhero who learns about a meeting of a group of supervillains who predictably want to take over the world. The meeting will take place after a couple of days and it's up to the resident superhero to discover the location of the meeting and stop the villains before it's too late.
[h2]Two versions[/h2]
I'm not certain, but [i]Appointment with FEAR[/i] might be the only Fighting Fantasy gamebook that has two clearly distinct versions. Here's a rough comparison:
[b]The Classic version[/b] (DLC for [i]Fighting Fantasy Classics[/i] -collection)
- The stats of the player character are randomly determined by dice rolls.
- The combat outcomes are likewise determined by dice rolls.
- Luck is part of the gameplay and necessary for checks in certain scenes and/or can be used to help during a fight.
- Using either Psi Powers or Energy Blast will cost some stamina and can lead to Game Over, if used recklessly.
- The appearance is that of a classic gamebook
[b]The Standalone version[/b] (This one)
- The stats of the player character are determined by the chosen superpower.
- In combat, the player can choose between light, medium and heavy attacks. Heavier attacks deal more damage, but are less likely to hit. The chance is determined by the skill value. Meanwhile the enemies will always deal the usual two stamina points of damage whenever they score a hit.
- Luck points serve no gameplay purpose, they're only spent for unlocking rarer FEAR cards, which are nothing more than extra collectibles.
- Psi powers or Energy Blast don't cost stamina to use. (That being said, Psi powers are still possibly the hardest superpower for the game due to giving the lowest stats).
- Instead of a traditional gamebook, the appearance is effectively that of an interactive comic book that shows dialogues (and stereotypical cheesy banter between the superhero and the various villains).
- Related to the above, this is even more comedic than the original gamebook. With randomized superhero names, all of which are laughable, some possible choices that are complete jokes, and even many of the achievements of the game are for making some of the worst possible choices.
[h3]Core gameplay[/h3]
Regardless of all of the above, the core play of the gamebook remains the same. Whichever of the four available superpowers is selected at the start will determine the location of the supervillain meeting and which villains need to be defeated to gather the clues to find the hideout and win. (And in usual gamebook fashion, a specific item is required to defeat the final boss.)
The key is that different superpowers enable different approaches to various situations and for fighting different villains. The catch? Some of the villains you can defeat with almost any superpower, but the player will receive clues only by defeating the correct villains with a specific superpower. In addition, trying to pick a fight with some of the villains with a wrong superpower will result in an instant game over.
Unlike most of the gamebooks, there is no inventory or items, the possible choices are determined by the chosen superpower and the collected clues.
In addition, some of the villains that can be fought will either yield no clues, or they will lead on the trail of those villains who are not involved with the main scheme in any way. Distractions.
As such, there are four unique routes in total. And safe to say you will fail a fair number of times before finding the correct one(s).
[h3]Verdict[/h3]
[i]Appointment with FEAR[/i] is without doubt the most comedic out of all of the [i]Fighting Fantasy[/i] gamebooks. And the standalone version is arguably the silliest gamebook of all. Even so, I imagine it will be an enjoyable for a gamebook fan exactly due to being something other than the usual fantasy or horror settings.
As I mentioned earlier, this might be the only gamebook that has two distinct versions. The other standalone gamebooks seem to be mostly just giving the book its specific, themed look with a specific music, whereas here there are certain differences.
Personally, I would recommend you to give a try both for this and the version as part of the [i]Fighting Fantasy[/i] collection. That way you will know for certain which version is your favorite.
bilidiğin çizgi roman fakat espriler vs bize komik gelecek şeyler değil çok saçma ve basitt eğlenceli bulamadım
basically saved the world on accident my second time through. nothing interesting happened in any other playthrough. maybe fun if you get it for free but lacking in content and meaningful options, not worth buying.
yep!! what fun!!
Pretty entertaining
[h1] A very fancy way to play this classic gamebook[/h1]
This standalone version seems different to the one in Fighting Fantasy Classics. If you were hoping to see dice rolls and calculate your STAMINA/SKILL/LUCK, you will be very surprised that you won't. It's all generated for you and there is a bit of cosmetic choices only at the beginning.
As you should probably know, this game is based on Steve Jackson's Gamebook where you get to play a superhero and need to foil the supervilains' plans. It is based and is definitely NOT a 1:1 reproduction of the book. While it follows more or less the flow and you have the same way to beat the game, it's presented in a very fancy way.
It has a very cartoony (to not say like a comic) approach and your choices are shown as vignettes instead of turning pages.
It has a nice flow but due to the gamebook's original difficulty, you might fail a lot and in the end, it can be a bit repetitive to go through the same vignettes showing over and over (some with very tacky dialogues) when with a book, you can just skip completely reading the paragraph.
A lot of effort was made to try to make it very flashy, the music is very good and matches the theme perfectly. Even how the menu opens and close is an homage to the superhero comic book style.
The plot with its fancy villains is the same as the gamebook and it will never win a Nobel Prize in writing but thanks to its many additional images, it's brought more than ever to life. You get to choose at the beginning between 4 different super powers and even if some parts will be the same, there will be many changes and new possibilities that open in those playthroughs.
This can be recommended only to Appointment with FEAR fans! It might be too different from its source for Gamebook fans and it might be too complicate for superhero/comic book fans.
If you loved the gameplay of the original book AND the mood around it, then this will be perfect for you!
Basically, to enjoy it, you must think of it as a way to attract more fans, to make something more exciting rather than just scanning the book's page and call it a day!
Весело, конечно, стиль старых комиксов и джеймсбондовских приключений, но крайне нелогичное повествование и прохождение в целом. Мир можно спасти, если допить чашку кофе, а не смотреть, что там срочного по работе прислали.
Иногда есть выбор из вариантов А, Б, В, где можно либо сначала исследовать А и Б, а потом без проблем выбрать В, а есть выбор, где нужно сделать только один выбор и из контекста не понятно, что на самом деле сделает герой.
В общем, логика плохих квестов с нелогичными головоломками. Но пару часов с интересом поразбирался, просто разочаровался в конце.
Bad CYOA. No overall story or narration only goal you have to meet in 3 days and then you jump from event to event hoping you picked right one, or look guide online. Also not being able to choose your own superhero name is idiotic. Only thing I can barely praise is artstyle.
I'll say that this game and its setup have potential, but I just kind of found it to be too goofy. It's got a good feel though. 7/10
It's OK. Not great. And just barely ok.
The writing is cheesy. To get the 'Good' ending, you have to either look up a guide for hints, or grind out playing through the short story (can get through in under an hour), over and over - because the path to solving the 'Mystery' is incredibly random.
For instance, you get a clue to a major super secret plot, by a league of super villains, by chasing down a random street criminal, with no obvious ties to said plot.
You can build a character, from a handful of preset models, and choose the color of their outfit.
The storyline is nor really compelling on any level - it is silly and very tongue on cheek, and does not take itself seriously, but it mostly just comes across as 'LOL Random'.
Have not played/read a Fighting Fantasy game book in many many years, but from what I remember, doing one of those would be more fun than this.
I ground out all the achievements, with the help of a guide, as soon as I twigged how RNG (for want of a better word) the whole thing was. Probably could have spent up to ten hours, if I didn't take any hints. But after you get past that, there is Zero replay value, unless you want to go through the same story again, with a different colored outfit.
The game is not TERRIBLE. It does what it means to do passably well. There is just not much to it. suppose this could be a recommend for people who are seriously into Fighting Fantasy style text based adventures, or you absolutely positively want to play every text based adventure on steam. Anyone else probably has something better to do.
Пожалуй одна из худших игр/книг серии "Выбери себе приключение", что были бы опубликованы кем-нибудь серьезным. Я не знаю, как она попала в серию Fighting Fantasy. Вроде бы пародия на супергеройские комиксы, но она ужасна в этом качестве, всего пара смешных шуток. А относиться к ней серьезней не выйдет, потому что логики в ней очень мало. Наоборот, многие события происходят против логики.
Я не знаю, какой интерес может быть перебирать варианты события, что бы увидеть больше бреда, который либо заезжен, либо вообще порождение сумасшедшего разума.
Если вам плевать на геройские комиксы - проходите мимо, там ничего интересного. Если же вы их любите, то просто бегите, эта книга/игра просто оскорбительна. Есть десяток вариантов получше.
А еще, почему-то, игра не позволяет ввести имя для героя самостоятельно, вместо этого генерирует кучу вариантов, абсолютное большинство из которых бессмысленны, а почти все оставшиеся не подходят к облику или выбранной силе героя. В общем, проходите мимо в любом случае, кроме оформления плюсов нет никаких, а интерфейс ужасен.
Если хотите видеть больше непроплаченных обзоров (а других не делаем) преимущественно малоизвестных инди-игр, то добро пожаловать к нам в группу: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Unknownindie
А также подписывайтесь на нашу кураторскую:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37645702-Unknown-indie/
The production values on this game are nothing short of amazing. What a fun and original port of this classic gamebook (which I finally have a chance to play).
You're greeted with an engaging layout full of comic panels, bright colors and moody music. You get to pick your superhero's powers, name and even their look. The animations and quips bring you back to the old Batman show and keep you laughing. The collectible cards are a great add too.
While I don't know exactly how this remake differs mechanically from the original, it looks like they've streamlined the play. I like that the game automatically handles Skill tests, etc, so you don't have to. I do wish I didn't have to click the mouse so many times, though.
And to top it all off, it's just as hard as any other FF book! I haven't even come close to beating it, just like the others. Give it a try if you love being a superhero for an afternoon!
[i]Appointment with F.E.A.R.[/i] is exactly what it sells itself as- a digital version of an older CYOA book.
It's meant to be a parody of the super hero genre, however it's not very funny or engaging, and the hoops you have to jump through to get the true ending for each 'super power' don't feel very heroic and are often completely nonsensical.
More importantly, there is no way(that I could see) to run the game in anything less than full-screen, and there are absolutely zero audio options, so the annoying music will play until you mute the game at a system level. This is particularly bizarre as I recently played [i]Forest of Doom[/i], a similar CYOA-adapted-into-agame the developers only released a few months later than this one on Steam, and it has significantly better options and a way better format.
C'est un bon jeu "dont vous êtes les héros" avec une dimension puzzle très poussée, mais aussi de l'humour, bien animé et illustré, dispo uniquement en anglais (mais les textes sont simples), mais c'est surtout un jeu mobile qui est pas correctement réadapté pour jouer au format paysage, c'est flagrant avec les menus mais il y a aussi des bugs pour scroller verticalement sur les indices.
C'est vraiment un jeu qui a pas mal de rejouabilité : succès, cartes à collectionner (et je ne parles pas de celles de Steam), 4 solutions différentes en fonction du pouvoir de départ, et surtout, c'est un one-true-path, il vous faudra de nombreux replay (ou retours en arrière) pour connaitre les scènes et ainsi arriver à bout.
Bref un bon jeu a acheter sur mobile mais qui n'a rien a faire sur Steam en l'état.
可互动的超级英雄漫画。这类游戏如果做好了，将会像电影《蜘蛛侠平行宇宙》一样成功。可惜这个游戏不论是剧情方面还是视觉效果方面做的都不行（其实根本就没什么视觉效果）,无聊到想睡觉，还不如直接去看漫画。
I still have my book.
The digital Book is Titan c.r.a.p
Fun.
Probably one of the bad representation of what a chose your own adventure book is. A good ending you can only have by searching how to achieve it on internet because it's far fetched and not logical at all with no real clues given even though you're supposed to investigate. The story goes nowhere. It is ultra short. The only positive point is the graphics that remains nice overall. Probably a loss of time and money. But hey, if you're a fan of the genre, nothing stops you from giving it a try. It still has some comic super hero taste.
"Nice cover", bad content. You can almost smell it from afar. There are a lot of better CYOA-like out there on steam nowaday.
Mouais, voila une pas si super évaluation, pour un livre dont vous êtes le (pas si super) héros.
Le picht de base d'appointement with FEAR est simple, vous êtes le super héros de titan city. Au cours de vos divagations dans la ville et de vos diverses rencontres avec les super vilains, vous avez 4 jours pour rassembler les indices indispensables qui vous permettront de connaitre la date et le lieu du rassemblement de l'organisation FEAR.
Réussissez et vous irez leur expliquer à coup de poings (ou autre), ce que vous pensez de leur quête de domination mondiale, échouez à réunir ces indices et c'est le game-over.
Commençons par le point positif (oui il n'y en a qu'un) du jeu, la forme.
Le jeu est superbement réalisé. Au lieu de se présenter comme un livre dont les pages se tournent, les textes et les cases de BD (oui des vraies cases de BD), glissent de façon dynamique les unes à la suites des autres avec des bruitages du plus bel effet. La bande son est d'ailleurs très bien réussie avec une musique de combat entraînante et des 'POW' ou 'KAPOW' qui viennent rythmer le récit de façon très 'COMICS'.
Nous sommes d'ailleurs ici plus proche des Comics du Batman des années 60 que celui des années 90. Le ton reste assez léger. Un point Bonus pour le générateur aléatoire de nom de super Héros, j'ai hésité un instant quand on m'a proposé "The red pizza".
Malheureusement cela ne suffit pas à compenser tous les autres défauts du jeu.
Premier (et pour moi le plus gros ) défaut, le chemin obligatoire
Quelque soit le pouvoir que vous choisissez au début cela n'a (quasiment) aucune incidence sur le récit. Cela va seulement changer le super vilain auprès du quel vous allez trouver les indices.
Par exemple si avec la super force vous trouvez un indice auprès du "tronçonnator", mais pas auprès de "Dame p..ssy cat", et que vous refaites une partie avec les pouvoirs Psi, et bien vous rencontrerez les mêmes vilains, mais les indices, eux, auront changés de place; ce qui est ridicule.
Et vous n'avez pas le choix. Pas d'indices = Game over. Donc avec tel pouvoir vous devez absolument rencontrer tel vilain. Moi j'appelle pas ça un livre dont vous êtes le héros, vous ne choisissez pas un chemin parmi plusieurs proposés, on vous en impose un.
Deuxième défaut vos super pouvoirs ne servent à rien (ou quasiment à rien).
Les pouvoir n'ont même pas une incidence sur les combats. Ils sont complètement aléatoires, et vous aurez autant de mal à vaincre un requin si vous êtes super forts, que si vous êtes mister gadget ou psi-man.
Troisième défaut le jeu nous charge d'items et de fonctions dont on ne connait pas le rôle, pour s'apercevoir après coup que ce sont tous des "trucs" inutiles.
A tiens j'ai gagné des points de chance et ça sert à....augmenter la chance de débloquer des cartes rares qui servent à ...rien ?
Et là les points d'héroïsme ils sont utiles pour ... le score en fin de partie ? Et cette carte de la ville elle...est jolie, mais j'en fais quoi ? Vous l'aurez compris beaucoup de remplissage pour cacher le "vide", mais complètement inintéressant, à moins que vous n'ayez la passion de la collection.
Enfin chez moi (et apparemment je ne suis pas le seul dans ce cas d'après le forum discussion) le jeu bug chez certains malchanceux. Je ne récupère pas mes points de vie à la fin de la journée. ce qui fait qu'arrivé devant le grand méchant final... ben je me suis fait défoncer.
Donc vous comprendrez pourquoi ma review de ce jeu sera négative.
Gamebooks i grew up with in game form, yes please
I cannot classify this as anything beyond "lazy and clumsy".
I too grew up with Fighting Fantasy books and I still own some 20+ titles. I practically learned how to read with The Warlock of the Firetop Mountain, Cretan Chronicles shaped my passion for ancient greek history and even the "advanced" titles found a way into my heart (Dungeoneer, Titan, Out of The Pit, etc). This means that this title should have had a lot of nostalgic valor to me, right? Well, that's what I thought.
It is difficult, however, to enjoy a game when the interface is so clumsy and amateurish. The game only opens in fullscreen (I have a 4K screen) and refuses resizing. Mouse scroll was unfeasibly insensitive. There are no volume controls and accessing the Main Menu sometimes rolls back some of the text you last read.
You don't have access to your character sheet. Dice rolls are hidden (it just tells you if you passed or not). In the original book, the clues were "Remove X from current reference when Y happens", but in this implementation, it was replaced by a "Try to Solve" button which kinda ruins the magic of you having to remember when to use the clues.
The art is inconsistent: your main hero is pretty well drawn, the images extracted from the book are nice (in high-res and colours, yahoo!) but the characters in the text bubbles are just *atrocious*. The whole thing feels like a weekend project. To be fair, as a 12yo I once ported part of the Warlock of Firetop Mountain in as an interactive slideshow and it was better than this - I'm not exaggerating.
The game ran okay on Linux, but I had the above mentioned problems with resizing. Achievements are fine and natural, though it lacks achievements for the Super Strength hero (there are lots for the Gadget, Blast and Mind Reading though).
This is not about the money. Fighting Fantasy is a CLASSIC, it is LOVED by many. Do not DARE to tarnish its reputation in such a terrible and lazy way.
A bit dissapointing. Repetitive. And not always the right sort of cheesy.
High difficulty also and low replayability.
A shame.
An on-screen production of one of Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
A radical change of direction from the usual sword&sorcery style games set in the world of Allansia, this one is a comic inspired story set in Titan City. You are a super-heroine, with a choice of one of four special powers. You must find the time and place of the next meeting of F.E.A.R., an organisation intent on world domination, and destroy it's maniac cyborg leader Vladimir Utoshski.
You have a choice of costume style and colour with the superhero cliche that your character looks almost identical in costume and in street clothes haha....
Sadly, you cannot custom name your character. You can only choose from a strange selection of predetermined names.
There are background music and sound effects, as well as 73 game artwork cards to gather and a great series of 30 achievements ranging from easy to difficult to amusing. There are also Steam trading cards for this game.
The combat system (complete with authentic "wham-blammo" type captions!) is completely different from the usual FF system, but seems rather too random.
This game does need very specific path choices (which vary depending on which superhero power you choose) to find certain info and items required to succeed.
TinManGames have produced five of the original FF games as standalone titles (more about them elsewhere) and i did not enjoy this one as much as the others. Not any fault of the developers, just the original concept was very different. I bought it on discount so it was still very good vfm. Ok for something a bit different.
Game rating
Innovation: Below average
Indulgement qualities: Average
Illustration: Poor
Creativity and writing qualities: Below average
Overall size: Massive
This game is a quirky choose your own adventure type deal. Be the superhero you always wanted to be! I'm usually not very into the superhero genre but even someone like me has fun playing through this game so there's that!
I loved this game.
AHH FEEL THE NOSTALGIA!
As a child growing up in the 80's and being a big reader it was a labour of love saving up money to buy every fighting fantasty book as they came out. Appointment With FEAR was a very differnt setting compared to most of the fighting fasntasy books. Tin Man games has done a great job of transferring this book to the computer. If you enjoyed fighting fantasy books back in the day then I highly reccommend you pick this up for your self or your children.
Adaptation interressante des livres dont vous etes le heros en jeu ludique , dans ce cas c est Rendez-vous avec la M.O.R.T. qui s y colle . L un des plus dur livre donc vous etes le heros ne deroge pas a la regle qu il n 'est pas du tout evident a faire en entier pour artriver a la vrai fin !
Sachez que l histoire se deroule d autres facons en fonctions de vos pouvoirs de base !
bref un plaisir a lire et a faire pour tout les bons nostalgiques !
De plus le peu de graphisme est tres bien utilise et le rendu est suffisant pour etre agreable a regarder .
interet : 12/20
realisation : 12/20
Has some potential to be an interesting game, but it falls flat in a few areas, and I ultimately can't say I recommend the game. The game relies way too much on luck of the draw. If you get terrible clues to begin with, it will be hard to progress, and you will probably end up losing. In fact, I haven' succeeded in a single playthrough yet, which I guess speaks to how much improvement this game needs. As I already said, the game could have been something, but sadly turned out to be a boring, ultimately unwinable game.
Encontro Marcado com o MEDO é um dos livros da série Aventuras Fantásticas publicada no Brasil pela Editora Marques Saraiva. O remake em forma de "livro jogo eletrônico" é perfeito, fiel ao extremo ao livro original, o que é bom (exatamente o que eu esperava) --- falando do jogo em si (comparativamente aos outros da série) ele só não é mais difícil que "Nave Espacial Traveler" pois tem aquele sistema de você conseguir estar na hora certa no lugar certo e com o poder certo para conseguir os dados necessário para saber o local e hora do "ataque terroristas" da associação malvada FEAR (MEDO) .. e cá entre nós, ter que jogar dezenas de vezes até ter a sorte de estar no lugar certo pode ser meio frustrante, se você nunca jogou outros da série, sugiro começar pelos outros, mas para quem já jogou todos em papel e está querendo reviver a série agora, vale a pena certamente.
no review, just rating
Tags: Adventure - Choose Your Own
Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library
TLDR: Clunky UI, mediocre to fair narrative, strict scripting, stiff mechanics, weaksauce universe and setting and scattered progression in the form of hidden easter eggs inside dialogue branches.
Its nice. You get a multiple layers of repeatable activities in which you gather clues. Once in a while you can attempt a solve, by following a clue, in the hope of stepping up to a mission to stop the big boss. Game keeps track of stats for you. There is a comic book delivery to everything. On the other hand, the writing was pretty canned, the choices were often fairly limited, either because of lack of options, or because it all depends on a diceroll/statcheck or because options are divided by character class, meaning for example if you picked the gadget guy, you will pick the gadget option in all likelyhood. The user interface is clunky all around, you cannot attempt a solve whenever you want and must wait for a prompt to show up. Following where you are in the dialogue trees, and seeing your clues as they relate to each other is all done mentally which is a bother because the game is not interesting enough to warrant you doing that. The combat is all turn based rock paper scissor RNG nonsense. None of the characters including the protagonist felt like they had any real motivations or personalities. Everyone is just a caricature of something we've seen done better in a proper superhero narrative elsewhere. Removed for declutter.
I owned the original Fighting Fantasy book "Appointment with F.E.A.R" way back when, and enjoyed it a great deal, especially as it departed from the usual sword-and-sorcery settings. I was always impressed with how cleverly it was composed, with your ability to choose from no less than 4 super-powers and having to take quite a different path through the story to succeed in each case - despite its tounge-in-cheek superhero approach it was one of the most cleverly woven together FF books.
Fast forward, and I was pleased to try out this version which runs very well on my potato of a laptop. The graphics are mostly the illustrations lifted from the original novel with a little added colour - no bad thing, as they are quality artwork. There are a few additions there too. However, the developers seem to have used the computer to have expanded the options even further - three times I played as the Flying/Super Strength hero and each time was given a different set of starter clues which completely changed the path of success through the game. And it isn't too easy - I still haven't managed to succeed in beating it yet after about 8 playthroughs.
Recommended if you fancy something a little different in the VN line or if you were a fan of the original book.
I've played a lot of these games, 80 days and the sorcery games among them, but this is not in that league. Looks nice but its just boring.
[h1]Rating: mediocre (5/10)[/h1]
[b] Introduction [/b]
Appointment with FEAR is a stylish comic adventure, where you pick the hero you want to be and choose which crimes to fight in the city. You progress in the game automatically, but you have some choice that will have impact on further progress and results in the game.
[b] Gameplay & Story: 4/10 [/b]
The story is a simple comic book one - you are the hero of the city that has to save it from the villains. At the start of the game you get to know, that you have 3 days to get enough clues about the big bad guys called FEAR and save the city. The clues you gather through investigating crimes, fighting smaller bad guys and using your super powers to get something more or less special. Some quests you encounter are not connected to the main story and are there just to keep you busy, but since you lose time to find the clues for the big thing, it means the smaller quests are still somewhat related to the main story. The dialogs are nicely written, some are funny, others are more typical for comis books but they all feel well integrated.
[b] Combat & Challenge : 3/10 [/b]
You fight the villains in this game by simply selecting which attack to use in a fight. There are always 3 choice and they have different hit chances and do different damage to your opponent. Basically, you just press on one and hope to hit, so far I was never even close to lose a fight, so it seems they are made the way you always win. The game does not feel challenging at all, its more for casual fun gameplay.
[b] Graphic & Interface : 6/10 [/b]
The graphic has a nice style and feels absolutely comic-like which is the goal of the game. Surely fans of older comic magazines will enjoy playing with this graphic. There are not many visual effects, but the existing ones fit the game nicely. The interface is simple but again fitting the game style.
[b] Progress & Mini-Games : 6/10 [/b]
The progress is rather quick, especially if you are a quick reader. Most of the game you only read what is happening in the city and rarely choose which action to pick next. There are no mini-games in Appointment with FEAR, so after few playthroughs the game feels a bit repetative since the choices remain the same and are not reandomised. Overall the progress is fine though, since the dialogs and texts are not bad and quite often you will lauph or at least smile a bit.
[b] Audio & Immersion : 7/10 [/b]
The music is pretty cool electronic and definetely serves the comic game with science plays a big role. The sound feedback in fighting and small animations was fitting the game really well and the stay in menus or the game was made enjoyable by the fine tracks playing in the background.
[b] Side-Notes [/b]
[list]
[*]This game is single player only.
[*]This game contains steam achievements.
[*]This game has steam trading cards.
[*]This game offers some replayability, since you can try out multiple hero powers and check different quests and crimes in the city.
[/list]
[b] Summary [/b]
Appointment with FEAR is a nice comic-style adventure, which will offer you some fun moments and replayability. Players enjoying being a hero with super powers in a pick your adventure games, will definetely have some fun with this title. Most other players will enjoy few hours of gameplay, but most likely will figure out how to save the city once and after that, the game is quite done.
I hope this review helps you making the decision if its worth buying this game. Rate and leave a comment if you enjoyed reading it.
~ForestWolf
the interview was good
Very tedious. A simple Choose Your Own Adventure with boring choices.
It's okay. I really like the Fighting Fantasy series and have already bought the other ones available on Steam, but the story in this one always bothered me. It's too self-consciously "wacky"...and there are far too many unforeseeable deaths that come out of nowhere. On the up-side, the presentation for this one is brilliant, focussing on a comic-strip style look and hiding the behind-the-scenes stuff like die rolls. But it crashes a lot. Just randomly freezes in the middle of a game and stops responding to clicks or buttons.
Too buggy to be enjoyable.
Notably, whenever you open the menu and go back to the story, it takes you a bunch of steps back and it can permanently remove points you just obtained. This is particularly problematic for HP ("stamina") that you gain overnight and that you'll lose (with no way to earn them back until the next night) if you open the menu in the morning.
I played a little, then clicked esc expecting menu, but game brought me back in time, and i lost my progress.
Game itself may be fun, but controls is unfriendly.
Well, first of all this is a choose yor adventure game with cartoonish graphics. You are a super hero who need to save the city. You have a few days, and a certain amount of movements/decisions per day. You can select four different heroes at the beginning. Each hero has his/her own plot. If ou want all the achievement you must play with all four heroes. However, the replayability is limited. If you are a good comic reader, you may give it a chance especially during a sale. Otherwise, it's worthless.
I really want to like this game, it has a good style and some humor to it. But there are so many randomly generated factors which I guess are included to make the game very replayable, but it really makes it feel like in a game about choices, nothing you choose to do ever really matters, because it comes down to whether or not it randomly generates positive actions in your favor.
There really isn't any method of strategy or choice to the game; and because most of its attempts at humor are really just lists of words randomly placed into scenarios/names with no connection to anything whatsoever, it tends to fall flat in that aspect as well. There are dozens of good CYOA games available on Steam, maybe not with the fun artwork and sound effects, but really just about any of those are better actual games than this.
Wow this was bad. I played this for an hour and I can't keep track of how many times i died just in regular dialogue. I died randomly twice in the stupid supermarket alone! "Hey don't take those candy bars. Also don't shoot me." jk DEAD.
K.
I liked the fact that you can rewind your choices but with so many ways ending in death or a dead end why bother?
Overall, somewhat good and interesting, I guess... well, somewhere in there.
I particularly liked the customization of the hero's appearance at the start, but found the 'clues' system somewhat weird to work with (and not always giving me an occasion to 'give in' a clue, when I really should be able to)...
Also, 1 thing in particular that I must deplore: The awful ''checkpoint system'' that ''checkpoints'' 10 times in a row, like every 2 pages almost, then nothing for 3min of clicking. It's inconsistent and create frustrations, especially when there's several big choices and the game didn't see fit to give you a checkpoint for a while.
Oh, and some very strange inconsistency, when it comes to the ''damages''. 20/20 Stamina, villain hurts you for 2 damage, 12/20 Stamina... what ?
...and I just found another rather severe problem with the game. While in the game, each time you go to the menu, for whatever reason, it RESET the ''scene'' ! Best case : You go back a few pages. Worst case : While in a fight, it will COMPLETELY reset the villain's health to full, but not yours !
After finding more and more problems with this game, and even though there's something good in there, the many-many faults are just too frustrating and create a LOT of tedium for no good reason.
This should *not* be ever bought at full price.
This is an old school Choose Your Own Adventure book. People may mistake this to a VN not but always present backstep and mutliple interlinked Story/Clue Choices are the difference between this and a Visual novel.
You are a produced super human that have 1 of the 4 power choice that's given to you. Strength/flight, Mind power, super smart or laser blasting hands. Each offer diferent plot lines and story choices. For a book it's got many different clues and crime to solve. The vast amount of villian and choices make this game very different every time you play it.
All the name and character design are very elegent and funny. (yes your civilian cloth is just adding glasses and hat to your super hero cloth.)
Graphics are fine and 1980ish type of comic graphics with very well sound effected game play. The back ground music is quite good also.
The game play it self is just pick choices and try try again. A bit luck is involved when you battle and it's alway good to takes notes and draw a story choice tree to use all the correct clue and the right places.
Very fun to play and it will take you some time to go though it all and get all achivements. The in game card collection mini game is near impossible as your card choices are random and getting uncommon is rare chance even with extra luck points given.
7/10 for a fun super hero story choice book.
PS: A walkthough guide is here http://fightingfantazine.proboards.com/thread/94/17-appointment-solution
Симулятор супергероя, почувствуй себя Суперменом и спаси мир!
A decent effort with fun writing, but winning is so dependent on locating a couple of specific clues
each playthrough that you quickly realize the rest of the gameplay is just filler to madly scroll through.
If you must, try the Sorcery! series. It's the best of these.
The game is text based adventure where you choose your own path that determines the kind of ending you'll get. The main antagonist in this game is called F.E.A.R. (the Federation of European American Rebels) led by Vladimir Utoshiki a.k.a. "Titanium Cyborg". The other leaders of the evil organization, who are set on conquering the world, are having a meeting and it is up to you to stop them. You have three (3) short days to search for clues to discover the exact place and time it's gonna happen.
You start by choosing the powers of your character. However, you are limited to four (4) powers which has an effect on the outcome of the game and also the choices made available to you. You can also pick the costume and looks of your superhero but they are rather limited. Moreover, you can also pick the name of your character from a selection of "WTF kinda name is that" (e.g.The Incomparable Romance or Indifferent Thoughtstealer). Perhaps, this is held back by copyright laws.
The graphics and art style are rather nice for a text and still picture game. The visuals are great which is a mix of digital comic books and small moving videos. I loved the soundtrack and music at the beginning but it got rather annoying the longer I played the game. I turned the music off when I started seeking 100% achievements.
The gameplay is fun coz there are lots of humurous scenarios, places to discover, several villains and criminals to fight and tons of clues to choose from. Some outcomes are hilarious and will appear depending on the path you choose.
If you love comic books the game is an excellent pick. The game has a good replay value with unlockable cards. Some paths may repeat themsleves and sometimes might go on in a loop, if you don't know what you are doing. If you dislike reading stuff then avoid this game but if you are into this stuff that I described, then I highly recommend this game to you again.
Cool digital representation of one of the Fighting Fantasy choose your own adventure books. Nice sound and visual effects.
Not only a faithful adaption of the classic gamebook adventure, but with the graphic sizzle to make it into a cool interactive adventure that adds a lot to it.
7.3/10 - It's a Bird, A Plane... Interactive Fiction Hybrid!
Don't let the mixed reviews fool you. I really liked this game. It's way overpriced at $10 though. Grab this in a bundle or heavily discounted.
This is an Interactive Fiction game that combines some fun elements such as RPG battles and choose your own ending. This is a real bonus since the game is so short. It adds a much needed replay value. I completed 1.25 adventures in an hour... So for $10... I would not be a happy boy.
This game would have been a perfect candidate for an episodic series, but it's not.
I'd pay $1.99ish
[code][h1] Accidently Reviewed[/h1]
Was this review helpful or maybe even not helpful? Either way join this group for more. Free Keys and Reviews weekly!
[url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Accidently] Steam Group: AccidentlyReviewed[/url][/code]
Good game.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Here let me lead you by the hand.
You would do better by reading a REAL COMIC BOOK.
After 15 min deleted, luckly got it in a $1.89 bundle w/ 5 other games.
It's kind of like a RPG visual novel. Yes, it's hokey, and yes it's over the top, but that's what makes it fun. You play as a generic superhero with a really crappy name and you run around the city trying to solve/prevent crimes. If you've ever seen the 1960's Batman series, you know what to expect.
I'm a fan of the old school Steve Jackson & Ian Livingston Fighting Fantasy books as well as the Allansia RPG. I have been very fond of the Tin Man Digital versions and I rather liked the Over-the-top Comic style that they did for this book/game.
The music is repetitive but really nice. Love the BIFF BAM sound effects, I was starting to hear Adam West narrate the dialogue after a while.
Overall I think it's a solid fun game. Very unforgiving and I think an easy "hint" mode would have been better than the rewind/check point system.
The name generator for your hero/heroine is hilarious yet terrible. A shame it couldn't be The Silver Crusader. I would reccomend the game but not at $10 so perhaps over the sales. But a lot of fun if you played/read the old FF series. If you didn't and like the 1950s/60s Silver Age of comics I think it's worth your time.
Just like the Gamebooks of old.. Kept me coming back for more until I'd completed the adventure!!
Was a tough one back then and still is now :)
Looking forward to many, many more FF remakes
Wow. Not really much of a game here, it's more of a "beat your head against a wall until you hit the right combination of bricks to get through" visual novel. I played it through about a dozen times and never once succeeded. Each new decision point, introduced at least 2 more, all of which I had to traipse through by trial and error. I didn't get much out of the very generic storyline I encountered in my brief time playing, so I decided to throw this one into my "Instant Regret" category.
Random Clues requiring specific actions to discover their solutions and then hope you did it just right in the right amount of time, otherwise its game over, you lose.
No thanks, I've played enough Choose-Your-Own-Adventure to know that this one is just bad.
No character investment, random clues that you NEED to solve and gimmick collectabble cards.
Avoid
This game is a joke. This is the kind of game that's not worth the price it asks for.
It's a Visual Novel that's cripplingly linear and tight that you need to play just right to get the good ending. There is essentially only 1 path to the good ending while 1 wrong option can essentially lead to every game over. That being said, this in my opinion is a deadly sin for a visual novel to do.
The character designs ugly to meh at best, name generator makes incredibly idiotic names, and essentially there's nobody to care for in the game besides your cliche of a hero, and even then there isn't much to care for. The only comedic thing is the hero dons a effective disguise by wearing a fedora and glasses. Everything else is incredibly lifeless and dull.
We throw in some public domain sound effects, maybe 1-2 songs you'll be listening to constantly...the game is just shallow and has nothing to offer.
You should instead consider buying a different indie game like Undertale or just try to find any other visual novel.
1/10
Its not funny, its seems to be written by a 5 year old.
As with most Tin Man games Fighting Fantasy book adaptations, this one is very faithful to the original gamebook. With it's tongue planted firmly in it's cheek (ala 1960's Batman) you play a hero trying to track down the evil mastermind behind F.E.A.R. while meeting people who are nothing at all like Marvel and DC characters along the way.
Good, kitchy fun.
This simple clicking cartoon game is WAY harder than it seems. Your superhero will often not fullfill his job. There are MANY paths to choose from which results in great replayability. Each time you can't defeat FEAR you just want to try it again, often resulting in another failure and so on. It's very difficult to find all the required clues in one go and you will often have only one at the eventual end (where you automatically lose). Even I haven't found ANY way to stop Fear yet (and I played it for 4 full hours (each round doesn't take that long)).
BUT don't despair. There are enough guides which can help you if you're really hopeless. And don't think you can't enjoy the game without winning. There are many funny choices (often resulting in achievements) and the combat (yes, you can fight in this game!) is very cool and it even has a very epic soundtrack.
Conclusion: It's very challenging, but you will enjoy this game, no matter if you win or lose.
7.3/10
I loved this interactive graphic novel. I'm really surprised with all the mixed reviews here. Yes, it can be quite challenging to unlock all the achievements or even successfully finish the game, but that's part of its charm. It has a nice art and a very branching story (with many, let's say "sidequests") abundant with superhero genre cliches. All in all a very fun experience.
This is a fantastic game to which i'm surprised has received mixed reviews. It's a very fun gamebook with great art and choices and we really need more games like this on Steam.
This game is really fun... if you enjoy being undermined at every turn, making random guesses based on a total lack of any real clues or information, and on top of that having to rely on dice rolls to accomplish even the most minor of tasks.
This game manages to be both frustrating and utterly boring. It is a total waste of your time. You would be far better off investing in a "Choice of" game instead; they are cheaper, better written, and far more entertaining.
I was looking for a less linear story. Different missions are given, however, only one path won't end in game over. Short and not very funny dialogue. Didn't really relate to my character (or any character), which is sad because that's what I look for when I'm customizing my own character. The art is good and so is the music, but not worth $10 or the time I spent trying to guess that perfect sequence of events that the game wanted me to follow so that I could end the game.
Neither engaging nor amusing. It's medicore as a story, and poorly thought over as a game. Not worth the money even on a good discount.
This is the PC version of an old choose-your-own-adventure book.
What might work as a book - pick one of the options at random and see what happens - is just terrible for a video game. You cannot control what happens to your character at all. You cannot go where you want to go, but only where the game currently allows you to go. Using you super powers doesn't work half of the time because - reasons?
You collect clues on your way through the adventures, which looks great at first. Until you realize that those clues are just there for looks, because you cannot use them when you need to. This is either a bug or terrible UI design.
The comic book style looks great at first, but it's just clunky and clicking through the dialog quickly becomes a chore.
On my third playthrough I used a walkthrough, but because it was intended for the physical book it asked me to use clues where I couldn't on the PC version. I won't bother to try again
Pros:
- Nice comic book look.
- The writing is ok.
Cons:
- Terrible UI
- You play the worst superhero ever.
- You cannot guess the right options unless you already know what will happen.
- Randomizing is unclear - what are my chances of succeeding in a fight? I'll never know.
Let me start by saying that not only do I love Steve Jackson's gamebooks, I also love the (majority) of the tin man adaptations. With that out of the way, I did not enjoy this game. It was fun for a while, but it is to randomly dependant on you finding certain hints. If you even try a bit of divulging from the main hints, then everything screws up, and everyone dies. Most of these are fun because of the large amounts of branching paths, and the slow crawl of progress that you make as you learn to correct your mistakes. However, this instead has you repeat the same process over and over, never making more progress, just finding out the right puzzle pieces.
It was fun for a while, but not worth the $10. Buy it while it's on sale.
One of the worst games I've ever played, the story telling tries for campy but it just ends up dull and unimaginative, the combat and skill tests are just pseudo random dice rolls with all the excitement of playing an overlong game fo monopoly.
Its almost impossible to care what happens at any point.
The only complaint I have is that I wish there were more superpowers.
I played the game actually expecting a lot less but I was very surpirsed. The game plays very cleanly and is very fun for how simple it is. I didn't get too far before I was beaten down, but tommorow...
I went into this without any experience in Game Books, but I was excited about it. I've always been a fan of choose your own adventure stories, and thought that this gameplay would add another dimension to that formula.
This ended up being something else altogether though. While the freedom to do as you wish is present, the punishment/reward system feels out of whack. My success seemed determined on my finding a specific set of clues, which would see me following a very specific direction in my story. Every other attempt I made, regardless of whether I saved the city and the civilians around me in each mini-encounter, the game would end part way through with everyone dying in a bomb blast.
I like the presentation and think the adaptation into a video game worked, just that the game book at the core that drags the experience down. I'm not sure if it's just this game book i have an issue with, or wheter it would extend to the whole platform/genre, but I'm not eager to try any others after having played this one. Whatever sense of exploration I wanted to feel was bogged down by a heavy sense of tediousness.
Appointment With FEAR - виртуальная версия настольной ролевки для одного игрока, написанной в далёком 1985 году Стивом Джексоном. Джексон и его коллеги (Иэн Ливингстоун и Деклан Консидин), чьи имена вряд ли многое значат для современных игроков, занимались весьма специфическим жанром "fighting fantasy" - придумывали настолки, по масштабу намного меньшие, чем вселенные D&D и Forgotten Realms, но по-своему увлекательные. Конкретно Appointment With FEAR представляет собой текстовый (при почти отсутствующей анимации, но с красочными иллюстрациями) файтинг о супергероях в большом городе; задача игрока - за пять дней узнать место встречи злодейской организации FEAR и сорвать планы злодеев по уничтожению мира.
Процесс создания персонажа предельно прост - выбираем пол героя, общий вид костюма и сверхсилу. Набор способностей невелик, но ощутимо влияет на прохождение, облегчая или усложняя борьбу с некоторыми боссами и поиск необходимых улик. Основная проблема AWF в том, что победить можно только "методом тыка" - на каждый день предусмотрено множество ситуаций, и редко угадаешь, куда идти и что делать. Игра заставляет чуть ли не схемы чертить в поисках лучшей комбинации; злодеев и улик десятки, а к желанной победе ведёт всего пара-тройка событий, к которым ещё нужно прийти, сделав несколько правильных выборов. Подсказки же весьма условны, всегда велик риск пропустить нужную встречу или сражение. С другой стороны, это обеспечивает AWF достойную для столь камерной игры вариативность.
Бои выстроены по принципу turn-based, но просчитать исход того или иного поединка практически невозможно; "за кадром", как в любой компьютерной настолке, высчитывается некое среднее арифметическое из "удачи" персонажа, его навыков и сверхсилы и аналогичных характеристик противника. Впрочем, проигрываешь тут редко - "энергии" (суть очков здоровья) у героя зачастую в несколько раз больше, чем у оппонента.
В общем, AWF - удовольствие на очень большого любителя. К достоинствам её можно отнести то, что игра местами неплохо (при общей наивности) написана, детективная часть (при всей неочевидности) увлекает, а большинство злодеев карикатурны и явно имеют прообразы в комиксах известных издательств. Если так совпало, что вам нравятся одновременно текстовые приключения и супергероика и вы не боитесь многочисленных рестартов - AWF может увлечь на несколько вечеров.
This Visual Novel is like olden day comics including; one liners, flashy graphics that pop out at you, terrible names for fighting moves and for your superhero, having a citizen job as a news reporter.
You get to choose an avatar to represent your character out of a few choices. When you're dressed up as a news reporter you simply put a hat and glasses over that avatar. You have a set of 4 enhanced abilities to choose from, which I assume make some difference on what you can do, and what you're more likely to be able to do in certain situations.
You pick up "clues" as your character finds things out, and with those clues your supposed to "solve" the time and meeting place for F.E.A.R. within a few days. When you do things successfully you get a F.E.A.R. card, and can choose to use Luck Points you gain for a chance at a better F.E.A.R. card.
If the combination of the things I've mentioned above sound appealing to you I'd say go ahead and buy this game, but this game was not for me.
I think the idea of the game is great, i think the graphics are great..
But it´s way to short, you have to do things absolutly right all the way through to win.
No option to help who you think needs help.. Great potential, but way to short and narrow.
Very good blast from the past!
Not what I was hoping for. I was looking for a casual, fun, somewhat engaging superhero opus, what I got was a super silly game that wouldn't even let me create the name of my character. I had to page through randomly generated hero names until I found one that wasn't nonsense and just plain stupid. I could have done better using an on-line name randomizer. Also I guessing the Steve Jackson who wrote this is not the same guy behind Steve Jackson Games, the level of quality just isn't there. The combat is ok for what it is, but what the heck is generating the hit locations of the moves? Hitting the guy in the right toe or left nostril is, again, just silly and has no effect on the game what so ever. I wasn't expecting DC on-line from a $5 game, but then again DC on-line is free to play so I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.
Its a really fun game, in fact I want to play more of the fighting fantasy, more so since the Yogscast play em for charity live streams, be nice to play some of the other ones, with different themes and so on.
Good new take on the classic old Fighting Fantasy game books.
I've just finished (and enjoyed) playing as the powerful superhero; Dark Justice...
When you begin you can choose one of four powers; super strength and flying, telepathic and kinetic powers, shooting energy blasts from your hands or technological gadgets and fisticuffs. You then get to choose a outfit look and custom the colour for your superhero outfit before choosing from the many randomly generated superhero names.
After that, the city is yours to save however you see fit...but bare in mind your ultimate goal to stop FEAR as you do so. Find clues, solve crimes and save the innocent as your strive towards your ultimate goal.
Now go, and become the superhero you know you really are!
If your one of those kind of people who dont mind creating your own superhero and basically going through a mini comic story this may be the game for you!
A visual novel with a good idea and a nice artstyle that is a bit let down by a weak story and rng combat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAwLbW0j13k
Good entertainment for a couple of hours with nothing to do. But not captivating enough for anything other than trying to get all the achievements
Di libri-game ne abbiamo visti tanti: Lupo Solitario, robe fantasy generiche, racconti horror, perfino su Topolino quando eravamo piccolini. A dire il vero fu proprio sul fumetto della Disney il mio primo approccio con le “avventure a bivi”, tanto curiose quanto uniche per un giovinastro che ancora non si era inoltrato nel mondo della letteratura classica. Eppure, di libri-game a base di supereroi non ne avevo mai visti, quindi immaginate il mio stupore nello scoprire che Steve Jackson (l’autore di Sorcery!) ne aveva pubblicato uno nel 1985, per poi essere rivisitato di recente da i ragazzi di Tin Man Games.
Di fatto, Appointment with F.E.A.R. nasce come adattamento del libro-game in veste di app mobile e, come tale, si porta dietro una serie di impostazioni di gioco che saranno la vostra gioia/bestemmia per il solito discorso del port; ma lo vedremo tra poco. In ogni caso, Appointment with F.E.A.R. offre la possibilità di affrontare il gioco scegliendo tra un supereroe (uomo o donna) con uno dei quattro superpoteri disponibili: superforza e possibilità di volare, gadget di qualsiasi tipo (ok non è un superpotere, ma è un po’ come essere Batman), lanciare raggi laser dalle mani, o sfruttare poteri mentali. In base alla scelta, saremo liberi di personalizzare l’aspetto del nostro eroe, i colori del costume, il nome — tra miliardi di combinazioni — e poi, chiaramente, la maniera di approcciarci al gioco.
Le differenze in termini di scelte non saranno strettamente relative ai poteri (mi sono capitate poche occasioni in cui questi facevano la differenza), ma piuttosto alla nostra abilità di indagare e agire nelle singole situazioni. Avremo, infatti, quattro giorni di tempo per smascherare il luogo dove avverrà l’incontro della F.E.A.R., la lega di supercattivoni pronti a farci la pelle e soggiogare l’intera razza umana. Per riuscire, dovremo scovare due indizi nascosti per le varie situazioni di gioco che affronteremo. La cosa decisamente interessante è che queste situazioni dipenderanno dalle azioni che decideremo di compiere: in pratica è come se fosse presente una storia con VERAMENTE TANTE diramazioni su come giungere al finale. Tra queste affronteremo esperimenti scientifici radioattivi (facendoli esplodere, o più semplicemente sedandoli), esploreremo un circo, o un parco di divertimenti, o forse ancora andremo a teatro. Insomma, le possibilità di gioco sono davvero tante e sta al giocatore trovarle tutte, affrontando l’avventura in maniera differente per ogni partita.
Questa bellezza di alternative, però, ha un altro lato della medaglia. È vero che, con grande ingegno, gli sviluppatori hanno ben deciso di lasciare libertà più assoluta nel poter tornare indietro di una scelta alla volta per esplorare linee narrative differenti, ma proprio questo sistema porta alla possibilità di non accettare le conseguenze delle proprie azioni. Una soluzione strana per un libro-game, ma sicuramente dettata dal fatto che la linea investigativa di Appointment with F.E.A.R. non è proprio delle più semplici, così come l’assenza di un chiaro tutorial non spieghi da subito come risolvere alcuni mini-casi in base agli indizi trovati. Facendolo, otterrete dei punti fortuna che potrete rispendere più avanti, una volta affrontato qualche nemico e sconfitto, per sbloccare delle carte interne al gioco. Un semplice bonus aggiuntivo per spingere il giocatore a riaffrontare più e più volte il titolo.
Di fatto Appointment with F.E.A.R. non è che sia proprio lunghissimo, ricordiamoci che parliamo di un port da mobile. Prendendosela molto comoda, finirete un “percorso narrativo” in un’oretta, compreso qualche rewind per saggiare qualche altra scelta. Anche sul piano grafico e sonoro, il titolo di Tin Man Games non offrirà chissà quali spunti, ma l’adattamento fumettistico dei disegni e l’intera impostazione a vignette rende quantomeno l’esperienza unica e molto ben riuscita. Di certo un gioco piuttosto peculiare, ma forse un passo indietro rispetto alSorcery! di cui abbiamo parlato, per quanto il gameplay sia piuttosto differente. In compenso, l’enorme varietà delle situazioni difficilmente vi porterà alla noia, spingendovi a riprovare più volte nel tentativo di fermare i cattivoni. Un gioco che per 6 onestissimi euro tutto sommato svolge il suo ottimo lavoro di intrattenere i più appassionati del genere, con un writing decisamente decente e situazioni che richiederanno anche un minimo di cervello per non fare la fine del primo Hulk che passa.
7
CONSIGLIATO A
Chi adora i libri-game, chi ha giocato tutti i simil libri-game usciti su PC e/o mobile, chi apprezza il cugino figo (ma anche più punitivo) Sorcery! e chi vuole provare a impersonare un supereroe che, di giorno in giorno, è costretto a fronteggiare miriadi di minacce, reali o farlocche.
SCONSIGLIATO A
Chi si aspetta un gioco lungo, o una narrativa interattiva di estrema profondità.
Peu de choix à faire, beaucoup de hasard (on ne peut pas prévoir l’effet que vont avoir nos choix à moins de l’avoir déjà fait dans une partie précédente), et très répétitif d’une partie sur l’autre (c’est la même histoire avec les mêmes évènements). Ça permet de passer quelques dizaines de minutes quand on s’ennuie et qu’on n’a rien de mieux à faire. Mais on passe la plupart du temps à cliquer cliquer cliquer et re-cliquer pour passer des textes qu’on a déjà lu sans faire aucun choix intéressant.
De plus la version PC (Linux dans mon cas) n’a pas été adaptée et conserve son interface pour mobile peu intuitive d’origine.
J’oubliais: les combats sont 100% aléatoires.
Et j’y ai joué plus que "0 heures" selon Steam, sur mon smartphone.
edited for clarity ...
I own a lot of FF books, loved them since I was a kid. As soon as I saw this on Steam, I threw money at it. Was I disappointed? Yes.
The graphics are really nice, well-done comic style that really fits the theme of the game. The name generator and much of the text is anywhere between amusing and downright hilarious. Gameplay is set over the course of several days, giving you a chance to stop (or ignore) different crimes, explore different locations, and make a lot of decisions about where to go next.
So what's the problem?
It is too faithful to the unforgiving nature of the original books - specifically, those books where you had to collect certain items ('do you have a <statue, etc>?') and / or paragraph numbers to go with them, meaning that if you took one misstep, you would end up failing. The better amongst the original gamebooks didn't use that system, and gave you more chance of being able to complete it without having to follow an absolute sequence. Yes, there is a rewind feature ... but that made it feel a bit more hopeless to me. You have to pick the exact right way through, otherwise, you get to sit through that same damnable ending of the bad guys win, city is destroyed, you fail. Along the way, you will find lots of clues that you're supposed to match to various locations; I've played through maybe 3 or 4 times, and managed to match one or two clues, total. Frustrating. I keep thinking, yeah, I want to beat this ... but every time I go back to play, I think about how frustrating it is, knowing that if I don't follow that golden path, none of my choices are going to mean anything, and I am going to see that same ending again. Also, stopping crimes / capturing bad guys nets you Hero Points (for use with the in-game collectible card system) ... if you fail the adventure, said points are generally wiped out by the loss you take for failing the main objective.
Maybe I was more flexible as a kid, and the books were harder than I remember, but I can only think of one out of the dozens I played through that gave me anything like this much trouble (Starship Traveller)
tl;dr: might be worth it for the nostalgia and the fun of the first couple of playthroughs, but can get very frustrating, and feel very shallow.
Fast playing choose your own story game
Now that visual novels are quickly becoming the next big thing on Steam it’s getting harder to find out which ones are worth the money and time, and which ones aren’t. Appointment With FEAR might not reinvent the genre but it does its best to give you a unique experience nevertheless.
I can be very short about Appointment With FEAR. It’s a challenging, but fun interactive graphic novel where you make important choices and battle enemies, graphic novel-style. In other words, you fight crime, to the best of your abilities. And while you’re doing all of this you also have to find out where the evil organization FEAR is having its next secret meeting. The thing is, you only have three days to find out. Oh dear.
The game starts with you selecting a gender and, after that, your abilities/superpowers. Then it will show you an avatar that you may use as your character. If you don’t like it you can switch between several other designs and once you’ve made your final choice you can then select a primary and secondary color for your costume and after that a totally random and wacky name (that probably doesn’t come anywhere close to what you had in mind).
Once the game begins you’re given choices about what you want to do and where you want to go. So you can go to work and on the way there stop a thief or get to a seemingly more important situation. Your CrimeWatch will also frequently give you updates about situations and villains.
Some situations will help you find clues that you can later use to try and solve other situations; getting a note from a person on the street might help you prevent an assassination on the president later on, for example. All you have to do then is select the appropriate clue from the list and the game will give you new options to work with. If you never received the note then he might be assassinated. This is just one of the many situations the game throws at you. In fact, there are so many choices that you never really know if it’s the right one until a few hours into the game, after you played a few more games. Yes, your first game might not last as long as you think. That’s partially thanks to the fact that it’s game over if you didn’t find out where the secret meeting is located within the given ‘time’ limit (there’s no timer, but obviously doing activities progresses your day).
Each of the superpowers has you finding different clues so you can’t just make the same choices each and every time you play with a different character. These superpowers also impact the fights with villains and other enemies; some might become harder, others easier. Fights are turn-based and you can select an easy, medium and hard attack, with the latter one having a bigger chance to miss (but of course it does more damage if the hit connects). If any of the stamina stats is depleted then the battle is over. So far, the battles haven’t been much of a problem and they’re usually rather easy.
Solving crimes and problems will help you earn hero points. These will show up once the game is over and if you earned more than 15 points you’ll earn a free FEAR card. If you fail to solve a problem a predefined number will be subtracted from your total score. Let’s back up for a bit. ‘FEAR cards ?’, I hear you saying. Yup, there are collectible cards to be earned just by playing. Beat an enemy or properly solve a problem and it might earn you a card. There are quite a few cards to be collected and these range from common to very rare. By finding and collecting clues you can try to increase the percentage of getting a better card. Each clue will increase this number by a few percent. It’s a time consuming activity and it will take you probably tens of hours before you have the complete set. The problem is, you’ll probably have lost interest after 5-10 hours of playing. There just isn’t enough gameplay to keep you occupied for longer than that.
The presentation of Appointment With FEAR is more than solid. It has a comic book vibe (with lots of unused space on the sides, unfortunately) with some cool animated effects, even though the use of effects is kept to a minimum. The characters and drawings are done very well, but some of the civilians’ faces could’ve used a little more work in my opinion. Some of them are just plain ugly.
Clicking the mouse will move the screen down in comic-book-style-fashion, which looks cool and is absolutely something you would expect to see in a game about being a superhero.
Unfortunately the music is quite repetitive and the sound effects are also kept to a minimum so that department could also have benefited from some extra work and polish. There’s no voice acting, by the way.
Length-wise a game will last you roughly thirty minutes max I think. But it’s fun to just fool around with the choices to see what happens. However, should you decide to try and complete the game it will probably take you at least 5 hours before you’re done with the first character. After that you can try out the other characters and even though the clues are then found in other places many of the other events will play out the exact same way as your other character. So, like I said, it will probably be fun for 5-10 hours. Others might enjoy it more, of course, and some might enjoy it less. It’s hard to say really.
Appointment With FEAR is a cool game with quite a bit of replay value. I have to say that I expected a more straightforward game here so I can say that I was, once more, pleasantly surprised. It’s a game about making choices so if you’re looking for an action packed game you will have to continue your search. But, if you liked what you just read and/or if you’re intrigued (even if it’s a little bit) then this is definitely something you have to check out. Recommended !
[quote]If you enjoyed this review please consider following me: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41144728-markdj/]curator page[/url] [/quote]
"ça passera le temps et à petit prix, c’est l’idéal. Mais n’attendez pas d’Appointment with F.E.A.R qu’il vous rende tout l’intérêt du livre de base ni même sa durée de vie et le fun qu’il procure. C’est une adaptation passionnée, mais qui oublie d’être passionnante." GameSideStory.com - http://www.gamesidestory.com/2014/09/14/gametest-appointment-with-f-e-a-r-pc/
I made a video review to show off some of the features and gameplay of this game!
http://youtu.be/IBNII8Gb3MQ
I hope you enjoy!
Martyr
you can be a hero.
Loving this game so far... still haven't managed to get the complete details of the FEAR meeting and win, but I'm not about to give up!
If you've ever loved Superheroes before they got gritty or Fighting Fantasy books, you'll be in your element.
It's tough to work out what "needs" to be done, and there's occasional mistakes, but for a trip back to Golden Heroes / Villains and Vigilantes - it's well worth it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bk-aiwtcHc
Appointment with F.E.A.R. has always been one of the best titles in the whole Fighting Fantasy series. Perhaps not THE best, but definitely in my top 5. This is the best rendition Tin Man has done of any gamebooks I've seen so far, and I'm delighted to see that they released this gem on Steam. It's superfun, graphically very pleasing and with added fun. The name generator is quite hilarious and the phrases the character utters during fights are simply memorable. A must have for anyone who grew up on gamebooks like me.
