Basic Premise: You play a newly minted officer attempting to advance through the ranks and survive a long war campaign.
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Positives
- The plot and setting are fully developed, and a codex is provided if you wish to dig deeper.
- The secondary characters have distinct personalities, values, and voices. I keep trying different options to learn more about them.
- Your character is always fairly low-ranking in the social order. I find that more interesting than “and you are now the most awesome bad-ass that ever bad-assed and everyone on the planet is focused on you” some choose-your-story titles employ.
- Your character has be-completely-clueless options. Want to ask the bastard why the gentry seem to have a problem with his being in command? Want to ask another officer to give you basic information about the highest ranking nobleman from your own area? I love the little retorts the characters have when answering.
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Negatives
- The “and what do YOU think about a woman’s role in society and military” choice section feels kind of clunky, as though the author is attempting to deflect complaints about lack of gender choice rather than just letting the story flow. The prologue already includes an explanation as to why your character has to be a man and an aristocrat.
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Everything Else
- Your character is focused on his career and doesn’t have time for romantic entanglements. Frankly, I found it refreshing not to have to keep choosing “no” options. Some games make me wish for a frying pan to smack the “DO NOT WANT” into a pushy secondary character’s skull.
- I’m interested in playing other roles in this setting. I want to hear political intrigue as a maid in one of the duke’s houses, serve as a priest who helps others in their spiritual lives, or pick pockets in the capital city.
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Bottom Line: Recommended. I look forward to the sequel.
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Paul Wang‘s Sabres of Infinity is available on iOS, Android, and Google Chrome.
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