El Paso

Haha! I was right on playing El Paso on a free day. My GOD, it was awesome and quite entertaining!

(Note: This is just my second proper review in general around here, so please bare with me. If it comes off as the ramblings of a deadbeat, drunken gambler who's about to lose his money on a stupid bet, on the saloons of El Paso, then just skip it and get on with playing the game in Easy Mode first)

The game description provided is more than enough to understand what the story's all about. It's set in the lawless county of El Paso, where your life's (and your pocket's) safety is never guaranteed, so the bowie knife, revolver and shotgun, are a man's best friends. Either as a lawmen or as a lawless, your work is cut out for you, as you need not only to ensure that you stay alive in the usual situation "kill or be killed", but also when hunting: if you encounter a wild coyote or some other feline predator, remember this: "There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity".

I played through the lawful route, being a man of the law, instead of the lawless (haven't tried it yet), in hard mode, but, due to frustration, restarted mid-way to experience the game in easy mode, and boy was it worth it. So anyway...

As you just read, there are three difficulty levels from where the starting amount of money is set. Easy Mode had a starting amount of 20$. You start at the Welcome Inn (kind of a hotel which also offers brother services) in El Paso, equipped with a Bowie Knife, a piece of map for the lost treasure, and the detailed game guide for beginners.

There are main and side missions badges in your inventory, which count as items to be applied at specific locations, in order to trigger the events/missions + you'll need to "use" the map pieces at the locations, to get the full map and eventually the treasure. My personal favorite was the final Sally side mission (avoiding spoilers for this one), but the treasure hunt was REALLY anticlimactic in my opinion.

As you can read in another review, the money system has a balance issue in Easy Mode specifically. Having easy ways to earn money is all well and good, but it becomes quite the problem when you just need to go north-south, back and forth (working as a shopkeeper where you buy the shotgun and a miner) to earn more than enough money to buy over 6 bullets for the revolver and 6 shells for a shotgun. Hunting can also get quite annoying... I only got to hunt safely a dog(╥‸╥), while, after only 3 times, "gather plants" link disappears (I don't know if it was intentional or not).

As for the characters, there quite a few memorable ones, but none was more than poor Sally of the Welcome Inn, in this route. Just like that professor guide you encounter in a Pokemon game starting tutorial, she is the first guide and friend of our player. Though some wierdos with love in their brain might think of her as a potential romantic route (turning a whore into a housewife)... Just for that, I'll avoid spoiling anything about her. It'll be fun reading the comments in the future.

Final score: 17 with 9 gunfights and 6 kills (much better than my fellow dead lawmen and lawless(thank you for dying, because I got dollars out of it)). Rating 8/8. Superb story and game concept which with a few adjustments in the game mechanics, could be the best in its genre.

I have a great deal of respect for the work that went into this game, and I give it a 7/8 because I think there is some brilliant potential here. As someone who has created similar games I can understand how much effort went into deciding all these things, and the fact that I couldn't find any real bugs is even more impressive. That said, as this is a "prototype", I believe I have some advice to offer if the author attempts a similar style of game in the future.

1. Add a bit more description to the links. So rather than saying "Go South", I think it would be better to say "Go South towards the River". I know the text already describes this, but it is more immersive if you have a very short description of what you're looking at as you click it.

2. The money system. I think it's too easy to get money in this game; simply walking towards a rancher and clikcing on link to get free money is fine if you're starting out (actually I think there should be more of these easy-money quests in games when you are low level), but I really think that you should only really be able to do this once before it runs out, rather than spamming it.

3. Exploration. A really easy way I think you could improve the exploration feeling in your games is, if you start a quest out as having a really boring and simple premise, but then when you actually start it and follow the trail it becomes gradually more and more surprising. Skyrim did an excellent job at this with some of the Daedric Quests; you think you're just getting involved in a drinking quest, and it turns out to be the insane plot of a Daedric Prince, or you think you're just humouring an old beggar and it turns out that Sheogorath is leading you into the mind of a dead Emperor. Even Red Dead Redemption 1 did something like this; you think that you're just talking to a normal, formally dressed man, but as you do his quests you start to realise he is...something else.

So in this story, when you go to the silver mine, you could at first make it look like there's nothing there, but then suddenly you spot a tunnel or a passageway that leads you on an adventure that you never really saw coming.

The reason I am giving so much criticism here is not because I didn't like the game (I liked it a lot), but because I think this author and type of story game has great potential.

I love Red Dead Redemption and I love Marty Robbins' ballad "El Paso." This is the game for me.

I went the Outlaw route for this playthrough, so I can't speak of the Lawman route yet.

** GAMEPLAY **
El Paso definitely leans into the "game" in "storygame." As other reviewers said, there's three difficulties to choose from that start you with varying amounts of cash. Opposite the reviews I read, I chose the Normal difficulty in case it had any effect on combat and such, but I am not too sure that it does. As the in-game help article states, the goal of the game is to become a famed Gunfighter, wining as many gunfights as possible without dying. You take on missions that will eventually lead you to combat. Players have to manage their ammo and health, and they can acquire items like weapons, food, plants, etc. to aid their journey.

An open-world game in a text-based browser format is certainly an ambitious concept, and it is executed well. There is a clearly defined gameplay loop that encapsulates each mission, and it doesn't feel redundant or sluggish. The open-world navigation system can be a bit clunky, but it was simple to get the hang of and it works as intended.

Acquiring money in the game is not the hardest thing to do even when not playing on Easy, as if you're in a real tight spot, there are folks around the map offering for you to do some labor for a few hours in exchange for some petty cash. This is pretty simple, just accept the job and leave within a page. Obviously the real main/side missions pay out more.

The reward for piecing together the treasure map was less exciting than I was anticipating. Granted, it isn't exactly difficult to solve the treasure map, so maybe it is an appropriate reward for an easy cash grab, but I would've liked something more enticing, even if it meant stretching the treasure map quest out.

Admittedly I didn't spend much time doing the optional activities like shooting challenges or a ton of hunting, so I can't speak to those things too much.

** CHARACTERS **
There's a wide variety of characters to interact with, seeing as it is an open-world game. Sally stands out the most, being the first character you're introduced to and taking on the role of a safe place for the protagonist to lie low with in between shootouts. Her arc is also the most in-depth (from what I've seen on the Outlaw route) and I found it impactful.

The ensemble cast in the main mission all have their own flavor and vices to tell them apart, and watching their motives conflict is intriguing. The side characters are written well too, though you won't have as much depth with them.

** WRITING **
There is a very straightforward tone on each page with little to no fat prose-wise, but there is still plenty of life in El Paso. Exploration feels rewarding when each place feels unique and each character has something to add to your experience, if only an extra dollar to the money variable.

SPAG-wise, no issues that I could see. Very good command of grammar and syntax all throughout.

** RATING **
This is an extremely well-done open-world CYOA, and it honestly inspires me to attempt something similar if I have the ambition for it. It is not without its issues with balancing sometimes in regard to money, and it can occasionally feel grindy at times, but it is still a well-written game that doesn't ditch the "story" part altogether.

7/8.

It was awesome look at my scores:

This is where you can compare your Gunfights, Killed, Wounded and Score to your allies and enemies to measure how well you did as a Gunfighter:

1: Dallas Stoudenmire: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 4, Wounded: 1, Score: 8.

2: James Manning: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 2, Wounded: 0, Score: 4.

3: Bob Bollard: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 1, Wounded: 0, Score: 3.

4: Doc Cummings: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 2.

5: Cole Bollard: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 2.

6: Dave: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 2.

7: Fredericks: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 1, Wounded: 0, Score: 2.

8: Johnny Hale: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 1, Wounded: 0, Score: 2.

9: Pervey: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 1, Wounded: 0, Score: 2.

10: John Bollard: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 1.

11: George Campbell: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0 Wounded, 0, Score: 1.

12: Bill Johnson: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 1.

13: Juarique: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 1.

14: Gus Krempkau: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 1.

15: Doc Manning: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 1.

16: Thomas Moad: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 1.

17: Ochoa: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 1.

18: Sanchez: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Wounded: 0, Score: 1.

You can now End the Game and to share your score with others you can leave a comment.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
BULLETS is 4.
CARTRIDGES is 0.
DOLLARS is 11.
GUNFIGHTS is 3.
HEALTH is -32.
KILLED is 2.
SCORE is 5.
SHELLS is 0.
WOUNDED is 0.
End Game and Leave Comments

My Inventory


Bowie Knife Treasure Map Piece 1 Gunfighter Game Guide Revolver Newspaper

Why are the cougars more powerful than the people :sob:

BULLETS is 3.
CARTRIDGES is 0.
DOLLARS is 2.
GUNFIGHTS is 9.
HEALTH is 90.
KILLED is 4.
SCORE is 14.
SHELLS is 0.
WOUNDED is 1.

Great story I do think the difficulty was a bit harder than it should have been.

Feels like if organ trail were a storygame...

I fucking love organ trail! 8/8

I found this game very entertaining. While some things took a while to get, for instance, having to constantly work to get more money, I still found it very addicting. I found that it takes forever to get enough money to buy a rifle, but, it gives you a chance to win the contests with Manning and with the dude at the Hail ranch, can't remember his name at the moment.

Plott

I thought the plot was well done. What I thought was kind of cool was when you were given items to use to continue the mission. That was pretty interesting, and it was something I hadn't seen be done before.

The plot was well done as well, The atmosphere was really good, and I felt that I was right there with the characters.

Over all, a great game. This is my third or fourth time playing it so far, and, as far as I could see, there were no spelling or grammar issues.

Every plot was well done, and I definitely would share this with my friends.

Thank you.

Decent storyline and inventory system; I agree with the other commentors on how the characters and places can be fleshed out some more but all in all, a solid storygame with its own atmosphere.

A true storygame! I love the missions, the variety of locations and activities and the conflicts. The mechanics are very well thought out and I like how missions are items that are context sensitive. The gunfights are cool, and the variety of weapons and how useful they are add to the gameplay.

Side Mission C1 involving the Welcome Inn in the Lawman playthrough doesn’t seem to work for some reason. Aside from that, the rest of the missions work well. Some characters are fleshed out, like Sally, but there’s still some room for improvement with the other characters. However, that doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the game. The economy of the game should be improved though since the player can just do side jobs as many times as they want without consequence. It makes spending money inconsequential.

In summary, though it has some small flaws, I really enjoyed this wonderful storygame. This is a great fan game in the world of Red Dead!