Player Comments on 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.

Very good! I got a good ending (I'm not sure if there is more than one) on my first try! I wish it was longer, with more plot and choices, if only to get to play longer.
My ending was on an island, not sure if that's the "best", but I liked it.

it was really good

It was pretty cool, but it was mostly the same characters/story no matter where you went.

It was an okay zombie apocalypse story. One of the problems were the pace. The apocalypse litteraly starts on the third sentence. So much happends that is not explained in much detail at all. The pages start out really short at the begining, Then get longer near the end of the story. At many times I wasn't even aware that there were other survivors other than this woman that I met until half way through the story.
Also there weren't really any characters. Sure they were people, but they were really generic and didn't follow any patterns. I say this would be a good first story game. But nothing special. 4/8

It was a really good game

It was pretty fun I guess. Some spelling errors but nothing too bad. Would r8te 8/8 m8te

I survived at the island, LIKE A BOSS

Not too good, but a nice noob`s challenge. :)

The storyline is great but short. I would like to see an AAA adaption of it (but longer), it would be interesting.

It was a well written story game but I never felt at any point like I was in any real danger or indeed that my choices made any particular difference between life or death. My fellow survivors were well written but I never really felt that strongly about any of them and possibly there were too many. This is a hard story to critique, the writing is very good and all the right elements are there but it didn't have anything extra to stand out or draw my attention, a few ominous threats or even some tension would make the story truly gripping.

Ok...

It had good potential to be a great story but was to short and way too easy

cool and fun 6

8/8 also my previous comments on games before I made this account are labeled hunter

its good 8/8 make longer and add dogs combat morgan freeman pictures of explosions and other cool stuff like rpg's and giant bombs n stuff

Ehh ... it was okay.

nice job, although not as exciting

fun game!

Save for the occasional typo, this was a lovely game! I appreciate this game not being too overtly punishing, and like that you didn't skimp out on the writing. 8/8

I somehow managed to complete this and survive without glancing at the story in 5 minutes.

I liked how different choices earlier on changed the outcome later on.

It vcould certainly do with a longer and deeper storyline though.

Too short. Other than that I enjoyed it.

Excellent, very well-written; shame it wasn't longer!

I was spoiled by the top rated zombie choose your own adventure. I think a van would be able to make it through a field without getting stuck but hey, it's your game. Nice job though overall.

Not bad. May play again just to see the endings.

Fairly enjoyable, passed several minutes. I liked the indepth descriptions of your actions as many games only give a couple of words.

Pretty good, well written, and enjoyable.

was pretty darn good if i do say so. Worth every minute put in.

To easy to short otherwise ok

I chose random to and made it the island respect dude it really has a lot of potential.

i didnt read anything i just choose random options and won

good job

Good.Very Easy,but that made it easier to enjoy the plot.And as I'm not American,What are Reeses Cups?

awsome but needs more adventure more choices of stuff and better ending

Short but enjoyable!

This was on of the best adventures I've read

5/8, because it was really easy, but it was a very good game. I wish there was a sequel

Good storyline

Woot!

It was very well written and a nice story. Maybe you could have died once or twice to learn your lesson but all together 8/8

Good zombie story. Really well and good choices. 5/8

A nice, new perspective on zombie adventures!

many different positive endings which is good.

kinda scary in a good way but well done

this to me, was more of a story than a typical zombie choose your own. Where's the parts where you make a silly mistake and die? I personally wanted more character arcs,and maybe some past, but that's just me. Pretty good, I liked it, nice read.

I normally hate things with Zombies, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Quite enjoyable.

Could be better, could be worse. Writer has a lot of potential.

awsome

this was cool! good work!

It's a pretty good book

Not bad! More fun than I had expected a zombie game to be, and easy enough to not get frustrating--it might be a little too easy, but then again I only tried one path. All in all, I quite liked it.

looooved it!!!

Excellent writing, was disappointed though when I couldn't take a motorcycle though. :P

Uh, this had potential but reads like an unedited 1st draft. Also, not many choices, and some led to random deaths also.

heeh I survived! yay me cool game hehe

Nice story but a bit to easy i loved it i made it evry time

very, very good. This is actually an awesome game, I replayed it and noticed, first, your awesome laziness, and second, you can survive easily if you have common sense. If you make another, maybe make weird super-zombies as a difficulty option.

That was Awesome!
Keep making more!

Very actiony but what is up with the mechanic and teacher thing

it was nice but too easy

it had a good story...one of the best

Probably my favorite zombie story on the site - it was interesting, not annoyingly boring where every other link kills you, which is excellent. You probably worked very hard on it, so keep it up. I'm hoping for perhaps a great sequel.

Absolutely excellent. Not only is it a well-told story, but there are many options and paths to choose and many factors to consider. A rather generic zombie story, but a fantastic one at that. Way to go!

Very well written, great choices, and brilliant storygames. Usually I don't like Zombie stories, but this was written very well and might be my favourite on the site (unless you count Necromancer as zombies). Very well written, I only noticed one or two spelling mistakes throughout the whole story, the character development was well thought and you've obviously put quite some effort into this. Nicely done.

Fuckin rights this was good. Course, I expected that, considering who referred you. Anyways, great game: 1 tip. Instead of referring to it being a short game because it has "25 pages" to a successful ending, keep in mind that the length of the pages really matter :)

Excellent writing and an engaging plot where I felt like my choices mattered. I'll have to play through again with different choices. Great job, thanks!

That was pretty awesome. I especially liked all the details you put into it and I could really get the feeling that zombies were attacking, ha ha. It was great - nice job!

Wonderful! I love zombie stories and this is one of the best I have read yet. I hope the line, "You have survived the zombi-pocalypse......... for now." can only mean a sequel will be in the works. Well done, thumbs up.

I really liked this. The pages are full of description and details- and the choices make sense. I never felt like I was killed "randomly" while playing. I really appreciate the effort you put into this game. Now go write another one.

Thank you for actually writing a story here. detail and dialogue along with depth make for a great combo. so many 'stories' on here leave out the detail and depth. its not the best, and being a "Dead" story, not too original. however, good for a start. keep it up.

Excellent for a first game; nice story, enough choices so it's not too linear, but yes - it's just too short. Still, keep up the good work. 5/8

I really enjoyed this! Short, but a good read nonetheless.