Horsing Around

Time to break out the big guns.

To begins, there were little to no choices. For example, when you have the choice to "Bite him?" Or "Let him?", biting only makes you choose "Let him?", and that's not a choice.

Multiple spelling mistakes were scattered around the storygame, such as "realise" and "recognise" instead of "realize" and "recognize." Was your Z key broken when you wrote this or something?

The plot was interesting at best, and could have been decent if you'd fleshed it out more. Playing as a horse is a rather interesting perspective, but the choices seemed pointless, making the plot overall not very good.

You gave little to no detail of anything, and when I simply know that i'm playing as a horse, I get miffed. Why? Because I don't know, am I a white horse, a black horse, a brown horse, a young horse, an old horse? I could have been a squid horse with a built in plasma gun for all I know.

There was only one actual path, and zero branching. And i'm not exaggerating when I say you cannot make a single choice that actually effects the story in any way, (unless you die or have to return to the stable, which about 70% of the links make you.)

I feel like i'm being generous giving you a 2/8.

You know its not good for a storygame when you can easily write out the entire plot in points.

-Farmer begins to train you
-Farmer trains some more
-Farmer falls and needs medical attention
-You need to pull a cart or something
-The end.

Unlike many storygames, I don't consider this to have the correct necessities of the "game" part in "storygame". You basically make a choice: be a good horse or be a bad horse. With choices like "Do you bite him or do you let him pet you?", you know exactly which choice will lead to victory, and which won't. And the most saddest part is that even if you don't behave, you are pushed to behave. The story doesn't veer off at all, no, if you don't behave you get the The End or you are pushed to be a good horsey. What I mean by this is that you might choose to kick the farmer, being the rebel you naturally want to be, and it would say (as an example) something along the lines of "You pushed him. He didn't like it and slapped your stupid face, now you guess you should behave." And then the only choice would be to behave.

(Btw, I don't think this is much, which is why I'm putting it in parentheses. If you choose to not behave, and you don't get pushed to do the right thing, you get "put down" for being a "wild animal". I haven't grown up on a farm nor do I have experience with running a farm/raising animals, but I think, just because a horse kicks you, doesn't mean you should kill it. Maybe you could give it away to someone else who could train it better or sell it off, but killing it seems WAYYY too extreme! I've never heard of "putting down a horse" because it kicked/trampled its owner. And going along with this, wouldn't the natural instinct of an animal like a horse be to kick or trample when getting displeasured, if it isn't already trained not to? Think about that! If it didn't like how the farmer was saddling it, or riding it, then I'm sure it would kick or shove or bite OR something. I don't believe this neccasarily means it is a "wild animal".)

I believe a game is supposed to have a central goal, then certain, specific choices which control the plot and/or stem consequences. This, although did have the central goal, didn't have many choices, and the choices which it did have, DIDN'T affect the plot except for being pushed into the correct/ideal desicion or getting the The End.

The story was very short as well, which was how I was able to list it above. It doesn't veer off into any other paths, no, the above is the main central idea. So that was not very amusing for me, the reader.

The writing was at least good. The grammar had little/no mistakes as well.

This is good... for you to poop on.

2/8.

what I f**king killed the farmer what the heck

i like the horses

This story started out with a nice idea, but it fell short of its potential in many ways. It was, however, interesting enough to try to play through all the options to see where the story went.

The point of view of the horse was an interesting perspective. But the character of the horse is very one dimensional and flat. It would be nice to have this character developed more fully since it is the main character of the story.

The narrative felt very linear and seemed to push you along one preferred path. When choices were available (many pages only gave you one), there were usually only 2 and one was easily the right choice. More variation in the paths would have made this game more enjoyable.

Overall, this game is an idea that had potential, but did not live up to the potential.

Honestly, the only good thing about this was the title.

Unless you choose to be a “good horse” you die. That is boring. I would rather do exercise than play this! And I hate exercise. While it was detailed, and that was cool. I would like more options and maybe not to die every time. I think by running off, biting someone, trampling someone, bucking, etc. you could run away and be a wild horse or actually have a story line. I think this story is the only horse one on the website. It could have been so much better. Disappointing… It has almost no good comments either. It could have been so much more and so much better. It had so much potential when I saw it, but of course a horse choose your own adventure is to good to be true. ??????????????????????. Well that’s my negative review of ‘Horsing Around’. ?? ??? bye, peace out-Molly P.S. I ride horses actually so I do know what I am talking about and that game was???????

It was interesting, I enjoyed it.

needs to have a bigger story, and should let you actually be able to choose another option without being put down

I like the horses, game is boring tho.