Escape from the Dead

I found this sight on a whim and chose the random story option and after clicking it five times I thought I had rolled the dice enough, with my expectations slightly skewed in a dis-favourable way for the story due to playing too many TTRPGs I played this.

After playing through several times I realised that it is nearly implausible to fail.
On my third play through I deliberately made the choices that were illogical, choosing not to focus on the fundamental survival basics (food and medical supplies) and instead choosing DAKKA (lots of guns) to focus the survivors attention to. It working is what is surprising.
On my final play though I only skimmed through the choices I could make and chose on what ever the mouse landed on. I survived and made it to the island.

This being said difficulty is not everything so how was the writing?
It was dull reading like a summery of events and very little conversations (mainly quotes summarising characters thoughts on what should be done). The summery would state how your character persuaded the others to do a curtain task to create better chances for survival instead of having the conversation where the character goes about convincing others.

The presentation isn't bad, there are images to accompany most pages which is nice, the paragraphs are spaced well enough, and there are more then two choices in all of the pages which is nice (although the illusion breaks on multiple runs).

Summery.
It's below average and looks like notes for the complete product instead of the final piece of art. With most choices being meaningless.

It needs better storytelling, more unique characters, more options & to just generally be longer. One minute, I'm meeting my first companion (Officer Heigins, I think) & the next, I'm already at my destination having met at least three new people. I would like to know what happened in between & make more choices. I thought lt might be an interesting adventure to go from home to Fort Gyver, but you skipped everything. Then I'm on the road escaping Jack Manson in his stolen tank with two survivors, ramming through zombies on the streets &... all of a sudden, I'm with Doc. Not only was I excited to be my own leader, but I was also enticed by being on the run in a really cool vehicle & having the freedom now to run my own survival group. It didn't last long at all, I have no idea what happened in between & yet again, you miss a good opportunity to throw in more options. If you want a good zombie survival storygame, I recommend Choice Of Zombies on Choice Of Games. It has well-established characters, a linear plot, an actual sense of danger, clever options & lt lasts longer. I found myself wishing Brian Miller, Kayden & Michelle were in this game instead of these bland characters who seem to just be there & lf I did get to know them, they'd probably be occupational stereotypes. I certainly didn't feel like I was really there, which is an important aspect of any story or game. It seems like I hate lt, but lt's really decent at best. It shows some effort & there are some interesting ideas (like the stolen truck part) & lt does have potential lf you revamp lt.

It's not bad, just not very exciting. Besides the "pick a side" choice, there was almost nothing to show for the group interaction.

The few occupations listed per the people seemed like picking an occupation to sort of match their input. This person's a cop, that person's a teacher, but what do they have to show for it in their interaction with the player? They don't talk about their job. They don't interact in a specific way that would be understandable given the type of people who would enjoy the occupation they chose. They might as well have been Nameless Cop, Nameless Doctor, etc. since names are only given to people or things we want to become personally attached to, and I felt no connection with this Katherine, or this "Doc", or Bert. As for choosing a side, it doesn't really come up or affect the story in any way. It seems like it was just there for its own sake.

It would have been thrilling to see a clash between two or more people, in which you are offered the chance to get involved, and presented multiple ways with inserting yourself into the situation and deciding who you sided with. The lack of encounters with the undead was disappointing. The complete lack of "uh-oh, there's a zombie/zombies coming, what do you do?" seemed to be a huge fault, but from reading the description of the game, I can see why. We're not challenged to survive, but instead to pick how we reach the end. Nobody dies. You aren't presented with any harrowing choices, such as the obvious, age-old "how do I save this guy, or do I save him at all".

I don't know if you plan to write another, but thrill us! Make us panic(at least as panicky as a text-based CYOA player can get), let the people in your stories have a chance(or two) to shine and make us care about them, give them skills and let them contribute to the plot, and maybe even add some villains, or at least adversaries!

It's almost as if this story is dead. Don't get me wrong, its corpse is pretty. A story is at its best when the characters are allowed to be themselves and act/grow naturally. There was none of that. Sure, they played their parts, like advocating something during that choice I mentioned, or playing their part when they're given jobs to do(mostly offstage as it were), but otherwise it just seemed like you told them to shut up and act their part.

Pretty solid survival tester, I'm not too sure if you can die in these scenarios because I didn't really die at all but a rewrite and some length would make this an excellent tale, I'm sure!

its good and cool at same time

gooodd

It is promising, should be longer

I maaaaddde iiiittt!!! Fun story.

Fun!

I know a dude named Ron, and he's good with the same stuff the Ron character was good at. That was funny and cool.