The Chained God

THE CHAINED GOD: 76%

SHOULD I READ THIS?
Yes, if you like puzzle games. If you’re into more story-games, you may not enjoy this as much.
Preview: Make use of the resources availiable to you in your house to defeat the evil cultists trying to take over the world!

=SPOILERS BELOW=

RATINGS:

Plot & Characters: 4/5 (usually 10)
The story has a good, solid, plot that serves to facilitate the item-based puzzles of the game. The storyline involving the cultists was original and entertaining, and provided a good backdrop for the action going on in the story. The characters were a little underdeveloped, which isn’t surprising, given that this is a puzzle game rather than a traditional story.

Grammar: 5/5
Mastery of Language: 2/3
The language jumped out to me immediately as an odd combination of graceful and clumsy. The author has a potentially genuinely clever way of phrasing things, but I have to give this a lower score than I might, because as it currently stands, some of the phrasing choices make the story difficult to read. With a little polishing for readability, this could be a 3/3. The writing is genuinely funny, however, and enjoyable to read in most places.

Mechanics & Coding: 3.5/5
First, the positives: The coding concepts here are excellent. The puzzles and uses of the various items are really unique. This game also has the player construct items within their inventory, which is a very creative use of the editor. I thought the process of constructing the molotov cocktail was especially clever, as it required that the player draw on a number of seemingly unrelated resources and combine them in a creative way.
Now, the negatives. There’s a number of cases where ambiguous coding and bugs left the player with no options but to troubleshoot until they stumbled on the right answer.
-To start the car, you need to replace the battery twice, which should be physically impossible.
-Many items go back to their starting location after they’re used, which is distracting. I also recommend having items be dropped after they are used, to help the player focus on the items in their inventory which are still relevant to gameplay.
-The use of certain items seems random. Why does the laptop have to be used in the living room, for example? Indicating a computer desk, or charger, might help the player figure out which room to use it in.

Player Options/fair choice: 1.5/3
This is pretty good, in general. However, there are few things you just kind of have to know. You have to be familiar with how to build a molotov cocktail. You have to know a decent amount about how to handle cars. If you aren’t familiar with these, then you won’t be able to intuitively solve the puzzles they relate to, and will be restricted to troubleshooting or asking for help. I would suggest adding a place in the game where less tech-savvy players can read a short explanation. For example, providing a pamphlet in the kitchen that explains how a molotov cocktail is instructed, or including an auto-maintenance mannual in the car.

Endings:
I liked the wide variety of endings this game presented. You have the option of failing, winning, winning a little, or a number of in between endings. I also liked how the endings don’t scale directly from 1-7, rather there are various action items you can get that add up to your total score.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
I got a final score of 6/7, which I think is because I won the main storyline but didn’t save everyone’s lives. I had to use an old parlour room thread to figure out how to siphon gas from the car, but solved the other puzzles on my own.

CONCLUSION: 16/21 = 76.19%
This feels like a game that is ALMOST brilliant. The story is simple and effective, the puzzles are clever and unique, and the narration is entertaining and funny. However, ambiguous goals and coding prevent me from rating it any higher.

like men ngl

I got through it!!!

Really good game although i can't get more than 2 out of 7 i know im missing something somewhere here can someone help me i want to get 7 out of 7 thanks

This was really good! The difficulty is rather high, however, which is why most people just gave up halfway through after running around in circles and gave you a mediocre rating. Great writing style, really witty, even a reference to CYS included...

I really enjoyed this and you utilised full use of items in some rather interesting (though occasionally frustrating) ways. Great taste in music selection, too, it was nice to see similar tastes to mine included in a storygame.

The large amount of items available in the house, along with a lot of possible rooms to use them in, means that the player is clicking their way through every item for a long time until they eventually work it out. There's literally no hints about what to do next, and to be honest I'm still trying to work it out. Maybe the odd hint wouldn't go amiss, even if it's just a very subtle clue. Otherwise I thought this was a fantastic job.

Couldn't figure out what to do after those two men came in and we got rid of them

2 out of 7 oh man! Extremely well written. A nice challenge, I'm going to have to come back to this one and figure it out.

How the heck do you do anything except their mothers?

She hands you a Laptop. You put it in your pocket. LOL. You put a huge-ass laptop in your POCKET?!?! LOL that got me laughing.

Can't figure out how to continue after killing the two people, so I gave up. Good writing though.