Life of a Wizard

Extremely bland and boring. There is no character development, and the "characters" are all extremely shallow with next to no interactions being available. It is no exaggeration to say that the "characters" are only mannequins with names, that's it. It is also in no way, shape, or form an RPG because it forces you to focus on things that wouldn't fit the "wizard" you're going for. For example, want to feel like an evil necromancer? Too bad, as being evil has no real consequences and the game doesn't ever branch off into slightly different paths to make it feel like your choices meant anything. Honestly, it's probably one of the worst text-based games I've played.

Interactive Fiction should still be quality fiction--you can't throw some stats and choices in there and expect people to overlook terrible prose.

Its better then I expected

By Mike Walter, the author of "Life of a Mobster" and "The Lost Heir" trilogy. Three works that has a lot of point in common, quality being one of those point. Well-written, well thought, a lot of statistics taken in account and a lot of specific event tied to how you developped your character. Some negative point being : 1.despite the numerous choices, in the end the outcome might seem similar 2.I think Mike Walter is a great plot and story writing author but each time he doesn't make fleshing out his character a priority, in those stories (which are great) you barely have the time to get to know the protagonists like the romance or the main side-kicks. It's not that there is nothing about them, it's just the minimum. 3.the end always seems to come a little too fast except maybe here in life of the wizard where the end does come abruptly as usual but there's just nothing else to say actually 4.the stats system always makes you feels you have to restart and change some choices to make it less roleplay and more "optimal gameplay" For the good points Life of a Wizard does actually gives more of an impression of clear path and choices than other works from Mike Walter and the end is a lot more tailored to your choices too. That game feels a lot like you writing your own autobiography in fact. Now for the bad points compared to other games from Mike, I feel that one a litte bit more neutral. Like... the theme is magic but the tone of the narration is so neutral that you're not transported in the magic, you just happen to read about a magical World. Another thing that bothered me if the story is really neutral that's not the case of the main character who I feel a lot more unrelated to than in "Life of a Mobster" or than in "The Lost Heir". For example, I didn't succeed in reading it in one go. The first time I just stopped in the middle and though the story is believable there's no real plot to immerse you in the story and it's more like a lot of small stories gathered to make a big one and of course that is completely intentionnal because you essentially read through the adventures of a wizard and his party of adventurers but that just feels less personnal than usual. The dungeon and dragon feeling is kinda nice though. Overall Mike Walter is one of my favourite CYOA so far and once again I could see the cleverness of the writing in Life of a Wizard. I didn't read through it so easily but once I told myself I would finish it I enjoyed it quite well and changed my first impression to a positive one : Mike Walter really has a knack in designing choose your own adventure games. This time maybe more than all other times the title of the game says it all.

After they introduce the characters they don't do anything with any of them! I was excited to get to know and care about these characters, but they barely do anything at all! And after the first few quests at the beginning I could barely do anything! They wanted me to use pretty much every skill I didn't focus on. I tried to be an evil necromancer, but I found myself being a hero trying to help the kingdom instead. If you can't tell by now, yes, I'm kind of disappointed.

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 647: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆ (6/10) I always feel a little bit bad about reviewing Mike Walter's games. They are fun, wide, and surprisingly immersive! Would I call them "good," though? Ehhhhh. Maybe, maybe not. Walter has a clear [i]modus operandi[/i], where he'll whip up a banger of a stat and mechanic system, toss in some lighthearted tropes, and add multiple branches to explore. However, the big cons I am obligated to point out are (1) the short lengths of his works, (2) workmanlike prose, and (3) lack of character ... anything. You need to know what you're getting into with Walter's games—and I emphasize them as [i]games, [/i]not as books, like some of the other text-based games are. Still, despite my complaints, I can always count on Walter for an hour or two of fun. [b]Once again, big thanks to the staff for the review copy![/b] [b][h2]Pros:[/h2][/b] ✅ [b]A staggering amount of character customization.[/b] Nine schools of magic, numerous knowledge skills, multiple races, factions, equipment, companions, and countless character builds mean your wizard can feel completely different from one playthrough to the next. Few Hosted Games offer this much mechanical freedom. ✅ [b]Fantastic replay value.[/b] This is easily the game's biggest strength. You're never going to come close to seeing everything in a single playthrough. Entire questlines, endings, achievements, and major story branches are locked behind different builds, skills, and decisions. Thankfully, a complete run only takes around an hour or two (or even less once you know what you're doing), making experimentation painless. Like, what do you mean I can have a child? And raise my child to become the Royal Wizard after me, or place them on the throne? Or for myself, I could choose to be an Archdruid or Archbishop or Archmage? ✅ [b]Great power fantasy![/b] There's a constant stream of action going on. You begin life as an ordinary child in a quiet village before attending a magical academy, assembling an adventuring party, slaying monsters, exploring ancient ruins, shaping the fate of kingdoms, and eventually becoming one of the most influential people in the world. The story itself follows a fairly traditional "save the kingdom" fantasy structure, but that's not really the point. The fun comes from the countless adventures you get to go on. I also liked the end-game kingdom-building. [b][h2]Mixed:[/h2][/b] 🟨 [b]The stat system can encourage optimization over roleplaying.[/b] The game has a noticeable "rich get richer" problem. High Illusion checks often reward more Illusion. High Conjuration rewards more Conjuration. Figuring out how to min-max can be rewarding, however. Usually in RPGs, I focus on a single type of specialty, but that's not the way to go for Walter's games. [i]Life of a Wizard[/i] [i]heavily[/i] rewards diversification due to the low stat caps, easy way to build stats, and multiple stat checks. [b][h2]Cons:[/h2][/b] 🟥 [b]The characters are little more than names on a stat sheet.[/b] This is by far my biggest criticism. Friends, companions, romances—even your own family—receive so little development that it's difficult to become attached to anyone. They're functional, but rarely memorable. Your family dies when you're sixty? They get one page of mourning. RIP. But hey, at least I got 200 Gold from them! Bye bye, Mom and Dad! Gun to my head, if you asked me to differentiate between my adventuring party, I couldn't. All the characters you meet, even the love interests and villains, are flatter than a pancake. They have their one (1) defined role, and that's it. Character interactions themselves are limited. I don't think I ever conversed with my Cleric or Thief? Eh, whatever. They killed who I told them to! 🟥 [b]The pacing is relentless.[/b] Living an entire lifetime in roughly an hour means almost every event ends just as it begins. One moment you're enrolling in the academy, the next you're slaying dragons, leading kingdoms, growing grey, and watching decades pass. You journey from region to region in the blink of an eye, and the aftermath of killing a dragon is explained in just a few minutes of reading. You go through 80 years of your life in an hour, and the pacing reflects it. 🟥 [b]Walter's prose.[/b] I don't quite know how to say this politely, but his prose is a tad on the bland side. It's, ah, the literary equivalent of a well-worn pair of boots: plain, dependable, and built to get you where you're going. And that's all. The setting is your typical generic fantasy setting, and there's a lot of "telling" instead of "showing." There's a lot of "you feel sad," "you feel pleased," or even "this new king is weak and timid, so therefore he sucks!" [hr] If you enjoyed this review, please check out my curator page to find more: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45814768-Verdict-Play-or-Pass/]Verdict: Play or Pass.[/url] Also, please leave a like and visit [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Indie_Gems]IndieGems[/url] and our [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2]YouTube channel[/url] for more reviews like this one. [/hr]

Jogo excelente, me convenceu a tentar outros jogos text-based

Пожалуй, лучшая CYOA про магов. Жаль только, что короткая.

Not very long. Not very interesting