Bright Days

As a disclaimer, I have never been invested in the DC universe so I am going in completely fresh despite this being a fanfic. I did go back and read the other three entries in the Questionable Tales series to have some more background knowledge. They are fun and concise reads, so it doesn't hurt to check those out.

Like its predecessors, Bright Days revolves around Question, a no-nonsense vigilante by night, esteemed journalist in Hub City by day. One thing I have to commend is that across four different stories, Vic/Question's voice has never been lost or turned into a caricature of himself. Yes, even during the Silent Night Christmas special.

Our adventure begins when Vic bears witness to a violent art theft in Chicago while covering the opening of the gallery for Starrstruck Magazine. He goes on a hunt to a villain dive bar for more information, where he runs into the Blue Beetle, who is also working the same case. The two partner up to prevent the Ninety-Nine Percenters from striking again.

The moral dilemma presented really takes the stage here. While Question and Blue Beetle align in their immediate goals, their methods of achieving said goal differ. Blue Beetle has a more nuanced and open-minded opinion about the morality of villainhood and criminals, while Question is significantly more justice-oriented, no matter the cost. This conflict gives a greater weight to an already interesting concept with their collaboration.

The punchy, quippy dialogue is my favorite part of the Questionable Tales series. I think that Bright Days may have the best back-and-forths of all of them, which gives this another point in my book. It pairs so well with the author's tone and his comic book-esque style of presentation. The writing is to-the-point and filled with detailed action sequences and a noir atmosphere that ties in nicely with the characters and themes.

Vic still remains my favorite character in the QT series, as is expected. The rapport between Question and Blue Beetle flows so nicely, and you can glean a lot about their differences from one another if you pick the more violent path (which Blue Beetle will frequently voice his distaste about). There are some really funny beats between them, like the Blue Beetle/Ted Kord reveal.

I am not as sold on their dynamic in the more pacifistic routes (it seems sort of... bland?), but choosing the more active playthrough tends to be more rewarding narrative wise. As others may have said, I have found that the route that correlates more with Blue Beetle's philosophy on handling crime doesn't do the central theme of the story nearly as much justice as the more violent route. You can reach the "good" ending of the story even if you chose the aggressive path earlier, so long as choose wisely in the ending sequence. I think this means of redemption for Question makes this the "true" ending, because reaching the good ending while having been aligned with Blue Beetle the entire time just feels boring, almost like the audience didn't earn it.

The good ending also being as dull as it is also left a bad taste in my mouth. It almost felt redundant to include.

As it says on the tin, the branching is fairly limited, but I do enjoy how the author makes use of variables to change the existing pages based on previous actions chosen by the reader.

I think I found one spelling error ("hear" in the place of "here") but otherwise this is a very polished story like the rest of them. I virtually have no comments about the spelling or grammar.

This was a fun story from beginning to end. I don't think it's my favorite of the Questionable Tales (Dark Nights takes that for me - I just love Helena and Vic together) but it is the most polished one and worthy of its commendation. My only real gripe with it is its unsatisfying ending, especially if you didn't pursue the aggressive route. 5/8 because *all* of the building blocks of an amazing storygame are here, but the final product is just missing that structure. Great work regardless.

DISCLAIMER: While I do enjoy superhero stories, Question and Blue Beetle are two characters with whom I have no prior experience. If I get things wrong about their characters or their lore, I apologize in advance.

Bright Days is an interesting tale about two superheroes with different approaches to vigilantism teaming up to take down a team of professional thieves. A short, yet entertaining comic book style experience.

WRITING:

First off, I have to say that I love the art. It really sets the tone for the type of story that the author is trying to tell. It was a smart choice to create what was essentially a retro style comic book cover just for the story's opening page.

The writing of the story itself was very no nonsense and action packed, again continuing with the almost comic book style pacing. It worked quite well for this story. I did notice a few redundant sentences here and there, though. Stuff like "The rest of the ride continued in silence" or "You didn't have any particularly interesting dreams tonight." Sentences like these could be taken out of the work in order to improve pacing. Thankfully, it wasn't a huge problem in this story but as a habit it could rear its ugly head when attempting a longer work. Trust me, I know from experience. ToT.

No SPAG errors that I noticed, so that's a plus.

CHARACTERS:

In my opinion, the conflict of beliefs between the Question and the Blue Beetle is a significant part of the story's experience. It's a tried and tested formula used in other media too (Punisher v Daredevil comes to mind). The core question underneath is how a society should treat its criminals. Blue Beetle believes in kindness and second chances whereas Question believes in harsh punishments to deter his enemies from ever hurting the innocent. The conflicts that occur due to this difference of opinion are what make this story interesting and I do wish that it delved more into that philosophical debate through its characters.

For this same reason, the branch in which the reader makes Question behave like a good guy makes the story feel somewhat bland due to the absence of that iconic conflict. Even though, it is what technically led to the best ending, it feels quite unsatisfying.

I also feel like some of the criminals gave up their information far too easily. The most notable example of this was Henderson. I do not see why he would admit that he helped the thieves when it would do nothing but get him in trouble. It could be argued that he was afraid of Question's violent nature in the route where you punch him in the jaw, but he folds just as easily in the pacifist route as well for seemingly no reason. When you consider that he ends up going to jail for blabbing, it does seem a bit silly. Personally, I always keep in mind what a character's goals are when I decide how I want them to act. This is something that must be done even for side characters.

STRUCTURE:

This storygame mainly seems to employ an internal morality system that determines what ending the reader will get. Being a pacifist rewards you with the Bright Days ending whereas being violent will allow you access to the remaining three endings that involve getting into a fight with Blue Beetle. I think it's a simple and neat way to use delayed consequences.

One small nitpick. In the branch where the reader let Blue Beetle go to the basement while they beat up a bunch of junkies, Blue Beetle later sort of jokes with Question saying "That guy was a tool, wasn't he?" but in this branch Question barely had any interaction with the tech guy so this seemed a little off.

Overall, Bright Days was a decently entertaining story with a few unfortunately noticeable flaws.

Important: This is a very honest and personal review, I recommend reading the story before looking at this.



=Review=



General Notes: Honestly, this is a pretty well made game, and I liked it a lot. It’s a lot shorter than the other stories I’ve read in this site, but its still good. It feels like a classic comic book issue come to life.



Compliments: I really liked the atmosphere in this one. It’s got that gritty feeling that fits "The Question" perfectly. The kinda-friendship between Vic and Blue Beetle was really fun for me—they’re such a weird pair but it works.



Constructive Criticism The branching felt a bit linear for the first half of the game. It felt like no matter what I chose, I was on the same rail until the very end. I also think if you haven't read the other 3 entries in the "Questionable Tales" series, you might be a little lost on who these guys are or why they’re in Chicago. A quick "previously on..." section might help new players. Oh, and I noticed the same thing as another +, the dialogue formatting with single quotes instead of doubles is still a bit distracting!



Specific Examples



The Interrogation: I tried to act "good" at first, but honestly, the options for getting information are hilarious. It’s like "be a nice guy" or "break every bone in his hand." I chose the latter and Blue Beetle was NOT happy with me lol. I specifically loved the part where you can chose to beat up an old man (which I STRONGLY advise kids who are reading this story not to do that in real life ).



The Ending: Not to brag, but I got Ending #4: Bright Days. It was actualy a really satisfying "good" ending. I loved the epilogue where Vic is back at his desk at the newspaper and Sam is talking about winning a Pulitzer for the heist article. It felt like a solid reward for actually catching the museum thieves instead of just letting them get away.



The Heist: The museum scene was well written. I could actually visualize the fight. It felt like a classical comic fight which made the story great.



Review for the Author Chris: this was a really fun story! This story made me want to go back and play again just to see how the endings change. Even though it was short, the pacing was great and it didn't feel like it wasted any time. Keep 'em coming!



Rating: 7/8

I haven’t read any of Chris’ other stories (which is really weird because he’s been here forever) so I’m interested in giving this one a go. The artwork is fun and the writing is as sleek as the story, which feels very a typical superhero-story. I find the writing oddly immersive and easy to get into and I feel kinship with my superhero character in that the first place he goes is a bar (I initially misread “grappling gun” as “gatling gun” and thought woah, my guy goes out prepared). Also, those bar guys are weirdly accepting about a guy in a superhero costume wandering in.

I like the superhero’s quips and the fact he doesn’t even consider bribing the bartender – it’s straight up crippling or nothing! Blue Beetle’s a bit of a scold when I take the Batman approach of getting a bit physical, also, I ain’t going down no creepy basement! Getting killed by a drug-addicted vagrant is a bit ego-denting for a superhero so I had to go back a page. I like the description “he chokes on his own spit” – he must have had a lot of spit! The fact I don’t just beat them up but I judge them as well (“Sighing, you look at the three incapacitated men and shake your head”) somehow seems to take their beat-up to a whole new level of harsh.

The conversations between me and colourful Ant Man seem a tad awkward 😊 Also, he’s not very good at concealing his true identity. I’ve decided my guy likes to take the physical approach to interrogation so whacky-whacky it is (don’t love the tell-offs from Blue Man each time). Bit weird that Blue decides to start a fight with me in the middle of us fighting the bad guys. The different endings are fun and well-done and the branching really comes to life at the end of the story.

On the whole this story is pretty good. It looks like it’s heading towards a buddy superhero thing except that the two superheroes don’t really like each other. Like you say the branching is a bit linear for most of the story but it really gets good at the end with some fun endings available. There were no SPAG errors that I saw and I think the story remained an interesting read from start to finish, if a little standard in its adherence to superhero tropes and plots. A fun read though I thought, I’ll give it 5/8.

I had an absolute blast playing this game!

I loved the gritty, pulpy atmosphere Chris creates in "Bright days". The fast pacing and the relentless action really lends itself to a Question story. This is, admittedly, my first Question storygame, not counting all the short stories I've read, but I can tell this one was really awesome!

I really enjoyed the friendship/dynamic between Blue Beetle and the Question. True to form, the Blue Beetle is a street level vigilante, fighting crime using fancy gadgets, complementing the Question's reliance on more traditional fisticuffs quite nicely.

There was a really cool mechanic involving a bit of simple scripting, but the scripting did a lot for the game. The game tracks your actions based on how violent you choose to be, and depending on it, will give you an alternate ending.

My favorite branch was the branch where you chose to go full Rorschach mode, and the quote at the end, "I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me" was the cherry on top.

The fight scenes were written really well. Chris does not shy away from depicting extreme violence, and we as the readers, are treated to all kinds of bone-snapping and crunching, aided by the excellent stylistic choice of onomatopoeia.

Even though the Rorschach ending was definetly my favorite, I did enjoy the others, particularly the cliffhanger ending where the Question beats up Blue Beetle once, then they later meet again for a rematch. I love how the story just cuts off at that point, it was perfect.

Overall, this is an action-packed fun ride that balances really good character work with unrelenting violence and even themes of friendship and betrayal thrown in. I give this a 7/8. Thanks for this awesome story, Chris!

Surprisingly a good read. The author has a nice style of writing

OK I'm NOT into this superhero stuff.

Having said this this game was fun. It is a short no-nonsense experience and branching is relatively limited. But it was good fun kicking and punching my way through the evil guys with my new friend.

The back and forth between Q and Blue Beetle worked very well, creating contrast and breaking up the action.

The writing is good and the concise descriptions make for a fast-paced game---recommended!

Overall storyline was good. Has a very "Batman and Robin" theme/vibe to it given Q and Blue Beetle's partnership. Wish more of an understanding/storyline of Q's "hero" name was presented. The name itself, "Question," raises a lot of questions, none of which are ever answered or even touched on. Would have liked to have seen more of that, as well as more of a background on how Kord came to be Blue Beetle.

This feels like poorly disguised Watchmen fan-fiction and that's my favorite part about this whole thing. Also got a chuckle from how the option to pay off Harry for information is proposed but instead you could only leave or break his fingers. Keep up the good work!

This was good, and I do love the Question. It was also incredibly short, and I couldn't help but wish it were longer. The characters were believable, the plot was nice, and I hope to read more of this story line.