Magellan 2: Fight for Beliefs

I hate to say it, but I was put off by this storygame. Nearly every sentence was a run-on, largely because of the atrocious use / lack of use of punctuation. No awareness was expressed between the difference of the word "corral" (a fence used to enclose a herd of livestock) and "coral" (an organism that lives in the ocean and forms reefs, but not terrestrial mountains to my knowledge). Whereas Part I was an interesting game but a lackluster story, this was lackluster in both categories.

Well, I should say the underlying story was interesting, but the way that story was told was more like a documentary in which the high-level actions are recounted dispassionately. As a game, though, I detected no challenge. Unlike Part I, where it was very possible to stray of course and starve, here I was merely following the queen around; when food stores got low, the fleet collectively won a battle and replenished our supplies.

Also, there were some logical inconsistencies. In particular were all the female captains, but not a single female crew member. How exactly does one become "master and commander" without rising through the ranks?

So while the premise was intriguing, the execution was mediocre.

I thought this game was a big leap up from Magellan 1, in that the choices, while still interesting in their balance of essential resources, often had more detailed stories surrounding them. When I needed food, I wasn't just gathering food, but getting involved in a diplomatic mission with the Lapau.

Lots of what I did ended up in disaster, and that's just how I like it. There's at times a bit of a sense of humor here, played very straight-faced ("it is quickly realized that neither you nor the Lapau understand one another's language") suddenly mixing with violence and horror. It's all over the map--literally--with tonal shifts from peace, to war, to desperation, to amusement. Never boring. Something weird and dangerous is going on on every page, and it's not simply a question of needing food/needing men/needing to get on with it. Sometimes it's penguin hunting.

I had more responsibility here and the challenge was commensurately greater--I'm not racing, I'm leading an attack or helping colonies.

Anne-Marie is a great character, by the way. I think she hated me. Ungrateful! I did everything I could for her! Give me a little smile! That damn Quarrel, kissing her hand. I wanted to kiss her hand. I am not smooth in this game. But manuevering around Anne-Marie, who naturally felt she was in charge--I *suppose* technically she should call the shots--was wonderful.

It was challenging to "win" but only because I had so many priorities, and so many little nooks to explore. This is a stone classic.

Writing wise, there's a few nagging things, like "it's" instead of "its" or sentences with clauses that need to be broken up with commas.

Really, my biggest microlevel suggestion is that the paragraphs might be chunked up a bit differently, as there is often important tactical information in the narrative that is a bit hard to read all as one text block.

Well after featured comments on Magellan 1 and Magellan 3, I thought I’d give M2 a whirl. Man, I was not disappointed. I must say it’s a bold move to change the main character’s name from the original story. The name change is so similar that I didn’t even catch it between reading the third and first stories. It ultimately doesn’t make much impact on the story itself, but I’m glad to know the author is WILLing to make changes in order to improve his series.

It’s very obvious that Will has mastered the art of items & variables. Most of the usage I’ve seen are half-assed or distracting to the story or just plain useless in general. It is not so in the Magellan series. This is one of the rare stories (or series) where the entire thing would be worse off not having variables or items. The item is really just a way to keep all the names in order, but the variables make a very real impact to the story. They give the idea that each choice must be weighed with great thought as choosing the wrong link would be detrimental to your crew and journey.

The branching is superb. I did not stumble into random end game links or obvious dead branches. You make each choice thinking “Man, I hope that was the right one” and you don’t find out until much, much later if it was. Some “difficult” games are easily navigated through with a simple use of the back button after running into end game links. You will not know you effed up until way later in the story, which makes it more immersive in my opinion. Often times in real life a coin toss doesn’t end with immediate death.

In summary, another great addition to the Magellan series. I’m going through them out of order, but I like how each can be a standalone storygame. Each storygame (including this one) has a lot of the same elements, the same feel, but each offers an intriguing story, fun characters, and quality writing. Great game. See you at the next one!

Bravo!

yay amazing

YEEr

realy good

I love this story! I enjoy navy combat. However, There is one spelling mistake. Unfortunately, You spelled the world spirits incorrectly. I hope this helps.

Fantastic, certainly worth spending some time on it, but I wish there was an option to actually form a relationship with either Swift or Eva.
Hope you can make another part and give us that options.
Good luck with new productions!

I didnt like this one as much because it didnt make any sense. the other ones are much nicer