This piece was originally published in February of 2015 for The Carmine Project. Sadly the site no longer exists.
I know you.
You’re a fan of videogames. No, not a fan. That doesn’t do it justice; you love videogames. I know this about you because you’re just like me. It’s an escape, sure but it’s so much more than that. For some people videogames are a distraction. A fun way to kill half an hour but that’s all.
And that’s fine.
Nothing wrong with that.
But for you it goes a little deeper. It’s more than just a distraction and a way to switch off for a half hour or so. It’s a reprieve from the banality of everyday life. Videogames set you free for a short time and they let your imagination run riot for a bit. For those few beautiful hours when people like you or I play videogames, we’re no longer a minimum wage bar staff, baristas or cubicle-dwelling office drones; instead we are warriors and pirates. Lovers and kings. Plumbers and blue hedgehogs.
I know this about you because you’re just like me.
And this is exactly why Choice of Robots is for you.
Choice of Robots is an interactive novel of some 300,000 words, written by Kevin Gold and available on Steam right now for a paltry £3.99.
Across the 30 year span of the story you build a robot and your choices determine everything; from the name and appearance of said robot, right up to whether or not to conquer Alaska and march your Robot army against the United States or make a stand against such aggressive use of technologies that could be better used for the improvement of humanity.
Let me just get this out of the way first; Choice of Robots is excellent. I can’t emphasise that enough. But you should keep in mind that there are entirely no graphics to be found in this game. No art design to speak of at all. Not even the odd picture like you would expect to find every few pages in those old Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone fighting fantasy books, a series to which this game owes more than just a little.
This is 300,000 words of solid block text, but it’s a beautiful, engaging and rich 300,000 words. This is storytelling and I know for a fact that for you, storytelling has always been one of the most alluring attractions of videogames.
I know for a fact that for you, good storytelling has always been more compelling that frame rates and display resolutions.
And I know that immersive narrative and likable characters have always been more of a draw than headshots and death-matches.
I know this about you because you’re just like me.
Choice of robots has these things in spades and it’s beautiful.
But lean in close and let us whisper conspiratorially for a moment because for people like you and myself the best part of this choice-driven, interactive novel is the fact that the game remembers your choices and in this handy and seemingly innocuous feature lies redemption. Because just like myself I know that years ago, whilst you were young, you used to read those old Fighting Fantasy books and you cheated.
You told yourself you wouldn’t but you couldn’t help it.
It was book three, Deathtrap Dungeon. Chapter 88 in fact and you had two choices; you could either turn to flee or you could stand your ground to face the trolls. You stood your ground as any good warrior would but it was an unwinnable fight and you died. So instead of admitting defeat and starting over you flipped back to chapter 88 and this time turned to run. You never forgave yourself.
Every subsequent victory, every piece of loot and every heroic deed from that point on was tainted. You knew it wasn’t yours, you didn’t deserve it. For the rest of your childhood Fighting Fantasy books were sullied a little. It was as though you weren’t worthy of them.
I know this about you because you’re just like me.
Playing Choice of Robots is almost like being able to make up for those past transgressions. The game remembers whether or not you made a choice earlier on. It knows. It does everything for you. The possibility to lie and cheat for the most part just isn’t there.
You’ll play Choice of Robots and you’ll feel Kevin Gold’s words washing away your sins and £3.99 is such a small price to pay for absolution, you’ll cry tears of joy.
I know this about you because you’re just like me.
I know you. You love special effects. Not just appreciate them but really love them. A film or TV show with no special effects or even worse still, bad special effects, is just not worth watching. Am I right or am I right? And that goes for video games too, right? I know you, I know that unless a game is supported by the latest 3D engine and can deliver the sleekest frame rates, what’s the point?
Unless the game has put most of its weight and budget behind developing a frantic multiplayer contingent with headshots a plenty and more death-match modes than you can shake a stick at, why bother?
I know that you’re not that fussed about story and I know you have nothing against cheating. I know that you feel as though some of the money these other developers spend on writing and atmosphere would be better spent on producing a game that’s just like last year’s only a little shinier and with this year in the title.
I know this about you because you’re nothing like me
And Choice of Robots is not for you.
Jay M F Hurst 