Player Comments on Hastings, 1066: Aftermath

A must-play game for history genre (nerds) players.

Introduction:

"Hastings, 1066: Aftermath" is a text-based interactive fiction game that belongs to the historical genre. Written by "TheWriterInTheDark", the story depicts the famous battle of Hastings and what happens afterwards, though it does take liberties in making use of real historical/legendary characters.

Story and Narrative:

One of the most remarkable aspects of the game, is how vivid and alive the battle and it's consequences feel, in spite of the writer using the "2nd person POV". I'm a sucker for the fantasy and historical genre, so it was the perfect choice for me to try next, right after playing "Rouges".

The story makes you play as Aethelwulf (some of the Vikings show fans should recognize his name), one of the nobles fighting for king Harold Godwinson and a good friend of his too. As is historically known, the English side is defeated by king William, Harold dies, and you, Aethelwulf are imprisoned along with your soldiers. When brought in the audience of king William, you have three choices: swear fealty and be humiliated, try to kill the king and die with him or show yourself as the true wolf of England and free the country from the conqueror's chains. If you are not dead, you can enjoy some slice-of-life moments with Aethelwulf's family, exploring Aethelwulf's own personality too.

It's pacing is great, though there are some grammatical errors here and there in the story, I'll have to admit. As for the endings, there are more than 52 endings. So it has a high replay value.

Gameplay Mechanics: Well, it is a branching story, which can be followed clicking the choice/links you want to, but beware of some of them: You can die sometimes. There is a go-back option for you to undo the wrong choice you clicked.

Rating: 9/10

This is, without a doubt, one of the most underrated games on the site. I was completely enthralled from beginning to end. The story was compelling, the characters felt real, and most importantly, I could feel every emotion that Lord Aethelwulf felt. Love, anger, frustration, uncertainly and loss were all brilliantly portrayed, and when people died, even when they were just unnamed countrymen, I felt genuinely sad about it. You have a real talent for capturing emotions and you convey them all beautifully.

Most of the characters were decently flushed out, but I completely fell in love with Queen Dierdre. She is one bad-ass mother-fucker. Went back and forth to get quite a few of the Irish-aided endings, and found that I actually preferred one of the bitter-sweet endings to the more traditionally “happy” ones. Will definitely have to go back and play through some of the other, non Irish-aided paths at some point, but I’ll be sad to see her go.

Not really much to say in the way of criticism. I think this game could’ve done with a couple more proof reads before it was published. There were a few spelling mistakes scattered around here and there, but definitely not enough to take away from the story at all.

I’d say that one of the games biggest strengths is that a lot of the decisions were genuinely difficult to make. I find that most of the games on CYS fall into the trap of primarily having decisions that are either “right” or “wrong”, and it’s definitely refreshing to come across a game where you had to think carefully about your choices, and were left feeling unsure of yourself even after making those decisions. (I ended up reconsidering my choices so much that I actually went back and changed my mind quite a few times.)

Also, the imagery was beautiful, the attention to detail was extremely impressive and the fight scenes were extremely engaging and genuinely exciting. I think that, of all the games I’ve read so far, this makes the top ten easily. (Probably top five.)

One of the easiest 8/8s I’ve ever given.

This is what happens when a good concept meets a competent writer.

A common error is thinking that to write something historically accurate you have to adopt the style of the time; this usually prevents the reader from understanding you and feeling involved in the story. Here instead the historical setting is interesting without feeling overbearing (apart from one or two repetitive descriptions of the Norman armor), and that's thanks to your clear and effective style that manages not to feel anachronistic.

There are minor typos here and there but the general grammar is good, and in well-written stories of this size you usually tend to overlook any errors.

The pace is balanced, usually fast but with some strategically placed descriptions to inform the reader. I usually have little patience for detailed descriptions of settings, so if I succeeded in reading through them without being bored, anyone can.

Regarding characters and plot, I got the "Irish Wolf" epilogue and I liked both Dierdre and the bits on Irish culture as a whole, while the English characters were never annoying even if conventional.
One of the only flaws for me was the whole "Your current relation with [character]: Awful/Excellent" at the end of the page that was used only twice, while the rest of the time the opinions of others probably influenced the story but weren't displayed in this way. Also, before attacking London from the South my character explains the plan to Eamon and then in the very next page proceeds to explain the exact same plan to Dierdre, resulting in the unnecessary repetition of a whole paragraph.

The story in itself feels quite linear in the sense that different branches end up the same, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

All in all a very good story with an immersive atmosphere, 7/8.

Perfect

Speechless.

I am so happy to find a story-game where I can fight back against the Normans and perhaps win! As an Englishman, the events of 1066 and what followed have always been a dismaying historical fact that could never be changed.
There were not too many typos, the reading was still enjoyable and reminded me of a series of Saxon-era historical fiction novels I've read by Matthew Harfy.
Good branching - not too many, not too few, I think.

Truly enthralling and well written

Fantastic story. It was well written, and I greatly enjoyed it. I was astonished that there were supposedly over 30 epilogues when I got my playthrough's ending, being XXXVII. Overall, the ending was quite nice!

Very enjoiable

Brilliantly historical and becomes beautiful poetry when paired with The Last Kingdom's soundtrack.

It's a very interesting and well written story but it does have a few flaws that stop it from being perfect.

noice

Pretty good story! I got the ending where you go with the Irish, give them land, save your family, ignore the witch, let your son go, and retire to York. Bittersweet end with the Irish eventually expelled, but them's the breaks. Maybe not giving them land or trying for the throne would've helped, but can't help racism regardless. Really enjoyed it!

I found this story a couple of years ago and saved the link - the only one on this website that I did so for. I still come back to it from time to time. If you ever see this, thank you, author.

Ability to leave an army at York would serve a great deal

this was very entertaining

666

Was interesting. My first experience with Choose Your Story. I'm not big into war and gore; I chose this one because it had a descent rating and low difficulty. Well written with colourful, descriptive language, but rather bloody . . . as one would expect a battle to be.

Cool

I enjoyed all the different endings. They are all interesting and some were really wonderfully fleshed out. There were some grammatical issues but for the most part it was written well.

Well written, highly recommend!

its good def recommend

it was super cool!!

I was surprised at how detailed and extensive it was. Definitely an underrated gem.

Great Storygame! I only wish I could both let my bloodline live and kill the king. I have not found a way to do it yet, and I am afraid it does not exist.

A great entertainment.

Regal Wolf...10/10

Finally got a very good ending. I was very impressed with the historical references continuously made throughout the story and the incredible detail of a war like scene. The description actually made me feel like I was in the scene, fighting and slaying the Normans whilst balancing my role as being a rightful leader. Congratulations to the creator of this story.

(SPOILERS AHEAD.) The first ending I got was the one where I died in shame for collaborating with the Normans. Not because I'm a coward, just because, as an American, I don't really see the point of fighting for one king over another. It's not like choosing Harold over William is making the world safe for democracy, after all. Why does it matter who's king when, either way, the people are still going to have to bow down to a king? Granted, I was upset when choosing collaboration just meant dying disgracefully. I thought I would still be able to influence things in my people's favor, which I thought was the best thing I could do, but no such luck.
Then I hit backspace a few times and chose the "lead a rebellion" route, and I was impressed with how incredible this story was. Not historically accurate at all, but plenty of great stories aren't. This story could be to Anglo-Saxons what "Inglorious Bastards" is to Jews and "Django Unchained" is to black folks. Get Tarantino's people on the phone!

Play

Wonderful

I rather enjoyed being able to unite England and Ireland in a personal union. This was a well written story with fun scenarios.

simply great

Nice job!

A ripping yarn indeed!

Nice job. Really well done and written.

I made it to the end on the first attempt with one of the best endings, probably not the best ending as I didn't take all my family with me from York.

Still the ending was a prosperous one.

YESSSS

This is a story I plan to replay many times to see the different outcomes.

It's written in such a way that I feel the emotions of the protagonist and genuinely care about the characters that he does.

This is then best story I have read on Choose Your Story. It is so well-written, branching is amazing, and I was hooked till then very end. There were few grammatical errors, but this did not affect the reading experience. I especially liked the Regal Wolf ending.
PS Won't Saxons staying in power lead to a different format of English, as it was then Norman who Latinized English?

Absolutely wonderful!

I lasted longer than I thought

I love historical fiction, and this is one of the best 'amateur' stories I've run into. Characters are believable and fleshed out. Very nice

Wow, just wow

really good

This is very good ! I can't be sure on what to choose as all are intriguing choices. I will play thin again once in while ! Gave it the highest rating !

This game is amazing, and as far as historical fiction goes, this is one of the best pieces I have ever played or read. I love the complexity of this game, and it deserves to be in the top five on this site, in my opinion. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing what else you put out in the future.

Loved the non-Irish story the best! An excellent bit of story telling and highly recommended to all!

Well worth playing! Well done story and the few grammatical errors are easily overlooked. Recommend it highly!

First time through I was a dog, but second time through I beat William! An excellent game even though, as noted, it is not historical. Loved the choices and the results, a very well thought out story. Kudos to the author and I heartily recommend it to all!

8/8
Enjoyed every moment of reading these flavor filled texts.

Managed to save my entire family from the Normans.

I don't know if there was a death option or if I was just lucky but I made it through my first reading without dying.

I even managed to become King of England until 1097 when I decided to abdicate.

All & all a wonderful story I would recommend reading.

Love it, just love it.

A wildly historically inaccurate romp through iron age England. Also inaccurate in regards to culture, arguably tactics, and only a little bit technologically. A good read.

It was too good!

This was a brilliant story, I got the King of all England ending!

One of the best on the site

It’s pretty incredible how much this story branches out and yet how few death choices there are. In addition, despite how many paths there are, every one of them that I have gone through thus far are quite long. I’m leaving this review now to just point out one small inconsistency in the ending I just got. In Epilogue 12, it is mentioned that Orvyn and Garyn govern York whenever my character goes to Ireland. However, just 3 pages prior, it was said that I would never see Orvyn again because he hated me for poisoning the enemy army with a witch. Anyhow, once again, this is an epic work, and the author no doubt spent countless hours writing it. 7/8

Goddamn was this good.

very good

I loved this from start to finish. It was so good, I finished it in one sitting. This was one of the first storygames I found on this site, and is a big part of why I'm still here. Thanks for writing such an amazing story, TheWriterInTheDark. I look forward to the next tale you have in store for us.

Epic. The content of the story is huge and the choices matter that can affect the future outcomes. The details of every event fascinated me to read further the story. The characters emotions and characteristics are also well written. Looking forward to your future works.

This was absolutely great! I have had to save my current spot in the story as it is a 170K Monster! (I killed myself by attacking William in order to comment on this because it is great)


Concept: This story is obviously set in the Norman invasion of England. The development is spectacular although I would have liked to see a bit of a backstory that happens before the actual invasion. I like how you give the reader a good idea about the equipment and the landscape ETC Prior to the battle. Another positive thing is that, like most other stories, when violence occurs it often does not have many concepts of which are similar to the development of the protagonists' personalities. But in your story, when the battles occur, you do a good job of representing King Harold and Lord AeuthuflWulf's love in war, and their love of fighting.

Structure: In your story, most of the time only the major events that occur are written about. Most of the time minor details could have been shown to give the reader a better understanding of what they have to do. Also, it is quite linear and regardless of the choices that the reader makes they will usually end up in a similar place in which they would be as an effect of choosing something else.

Characters: You did a great Job at expressing the characters emotions and feelings towards certain events and situations. You were able to make it evident when a protagonist was feeling down or worried, or if they dislike someone else.

Details: You did a good job at giving detail to what you wrote, and the number of words that were in each page made it quite simple to read, this enables the reader to just be able to go straight ford in the story. But a lot of the time it is actually a bit too simple if you added more detail to the certain events that would have been great!

Grammar: Out of what I read in your story, I didn't pick up any mistakes, and as another comment; the flow of your writing really suited the timeline of events and it was really effective in showing what's happening.

Conclusion: In conclusion, I think that you did a great job on your story; also, great job on being commended by Mizal! I only noticed that recently, anyway... You don't need to take this whole comment seriously as I haven't read much of your story yet.

Overall rating: 6/8

-Rattler