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COMPLETE: Welcome to Moreytown
Apr. 23rd, 2020 10:42 pmThis one hurts.
Welcome to Moreytown by S. Andrew Swann is my first personal experience (friends have gone through other works and I've read their reviews) with Choice of Games, a publisher whose entire thing is Choose Your Own Adventure-style interactive fiction games. No graphics, no flashiness, just reading, multiple choice prompts, and some background stats that affect your chance of success when overpowering/sneaking around/persuading/etc. They also tend to be very open as far as your character's gender, gender identity, sexual orientation (including everything from "anything that moves" to "let's just keep things platonic, thanks") and more, which is nice.
This story, specifically, is about a city of anthropomorphic animals called "moreys" (cutesy reference to "Moreau," as in "Doctor," "The Island of") which is... okay, look. They're furries. I'm sorry, but they're furries and they're called "moreys" presumably in an attempt to come up with something grim and serious for this grim and serious setting, but like many of the endgame decisions (oh, I'll get to those,) I think it backfires a little. Anyway, an entire race of f... "moreys" was created for some war in the distant backstory, then given basic rights and such (sort of,) and now exist in a highly discriminated-against underclass relegated to run-down slums, low-paying retail jobs, and a very difficult relationship with the police. This game is very subtle with its metaphors, you see.
There's a gang war, a doomsday cult, a probably-doomed peace and love movement, lots of danger, and options. Your goal is to... well, that depends, I guess. You could try to foil the big terrorist attack at the end without casualties, take over leadership of at least a few of the various factions, become lovers or mortal enemies with several characters, and probably a few other things I either am forgetting or didn't see in our runs. Much like the gender and sexuality options, this openness appears to be a selling point of Choice of Games products, and on paper this is something that Welcome to Moreytown in particular does right in at least trying to include it.
This review hurts because on paper Welcome to Moreytown does a lot of things right, actually. The writing is well done and engaging. The character options only feel limiting in any way if you happen to be a furry whose fursona is not represented here. (You can get an actual type-whatever-you-want text entry box for your gender if you declare the need for one, but you're out of luck if your chosen species isn't on the predefined multiple-choice list. Which, yeah, that's probably because the game depends on those options for some stats--a bear is bigger, more powerful, but slower and worse at stealth than a rat. Fine. Stiiillllll.) Other reviews complain that this is very short, but I found that to be a good thing, as it makes it easier to replay. I was ready to declare it one of my personal GOTY candidates after the first playthrough, which was a whirlwind of adventure that ended in a near-flawless good ending almost by complete accident. It's just... there are two major, fatal flaws that become apparent upon closer examination.
One, a lot of that whirlwind turns out to be badly railroaded. Most of the plot beats will happen, whether you try to avoid them or not. There is no way to avoid being all but conscripted into one of the gangs, for example; you will be close enough to a certain incident to attract their attention, they will find you shortly afterward, you will come with them (you can agree or be kidnapped,) and you will cooperate with them (you can either lose the "initiation" fight and be at their mercy, win and accept the offer anyway, or win and be extorted into accepting when they threaten your friends/loved ones, and if you try to go to the detective or reporter contacts afterward they just want you to do exactly what the gang wants you to do anyway.)
Two, for as inevitable as the endgame is, it's also upsettingly hard to get through it in one piece. You are dealing with some incredibly twitchy suicide bombers, and while you have an impressive array of tactics to try (Tackle them? Try to talk them down? Warn the crowd? Work with any of the various factions, or confront them alone?) it breaks immersion just how blatantly the author has their finger on the "this option somehow works, that one backfires spectacularly and kills everyone" button. Choice of Games does not believe in a "save" function since it enables scumming; they say your choices should matter and you should live with the consequences of them, period. Fine, I respect that, but given how quickly and capriciously bad endings come in the last chapter, and how each one means a full restart from the beginning, let's just say it boggles my mind that anyone wanted this story to be longer.
I've seen and done about 68% of the things there are to see and do in this game, according to Achievement stats. There are even a few of them that I'm curious about. I kind of want to go back and see where some of the other roads lead, but I also kind of don't because I already know. It's strange how a game can feel so open and so on rails at the same time.
Welcome to Moreytown by S. Andrew Swann is my first personal experience (friends have gone through other works and I've read their reviews) with Choice of Games, a publisher whose entire thing is Choose Your Own Adventure-style interactive fiction games. No graphics, no flashiness, just reading, multiple choice prompts, and some background stats that affect your chance of success when overpowering/sneaking around/persuading/etc. They also tend to be very open as far as your character's gender, gender identity, sexual orientation (including everything from "anything that moves" to "let's just keep things platonic, thanks") and more, which is nice.
This story, specifically, is about a city of anthropomorphic animals called "moreys" (cutesy reference to "Moreau," as in "Doctor," "The Island of") which is... okay, look. They're furries. I'm sorry, but they're furries and they're called "moreys" presumably in an attempt to come up with something grim and serious for this grim and serious setting, but like many of the endgame decisions (oh, I'll get to those,) I think it backfires a little. Anyway, an entire race of f... "moreys" was created for some war in the distant backstory, then given basic rights and such (sort of,) and now exist in a highly discriminated-against underclass relegated to run-down slums, low-paying retail jobs, and a very difficult relationship with the police. This game is very subtle with its metaphors, you see.
There's a gang war, a doomsday cult, a probably-doomed peace and love movement, lots of danger, and options. Your goal is to... well, that depends, I guess. You could try to foil the big terrorist attack at the end without casualties, take over leadership of at least a few of the various factions, become lovers or mortal enemies with several characters, and probably a few other things I either am forgetting or didn't see in our runs. Much like the gender and sexuality options, this openness appears to be a selling point of Choice of Games products, and on paper this is something that Welcome to Moreytown in particular does right in at least trying to include it.
This review hurts because on paper Welcome to Moreytown does a lot of things right, actually. The writing is well done and engaging. The character options only feel limiting in any way if you happen to be a furry whose fursona is not represented here. (You can get an actual type-whatever-you-want text entry box for your gender if you declare the need for one, but you're out of luck if your chosen species isn't on the predefined multiple-choice list. Which, yeah, that's probably because the game depends on those options for some stats--a bear is bigger, more powerful, but slower and worse at stealth than a rat. Fine. Stiiillllll.) Other reviews complain that this is very short, but I found that to be a good thing, as it makes it easier to replay. I was ready to declare it one of my personal GOTY candidates after the first playthrough, which was a whirlwind of adventure that ended in a near-flawless good ending almost by complete accident. It's just... there are two major, fatal flaws that become apparent upon closer examination.
One, a lot of that whirlwind turns out to be badly railroaded. Most of the plot beats will happen, whether you try to avoid them or not. There is no way to avoid being all but conscripted into one of the gangs, for example; you will be close enough to a certain incident to attract their attention, they will find you shortly afterward, you will come with them (you can agree or be kidnapped,) and you will cooperate with them (you can either lose the "initiation" fight and be at their mercy, win and accept the offer anyway, or win and be extorted into accepting when they threaten your friends/loved ones, and if you try to go to the detective or reporter contacts afterward they just want you to do exactly what the gang wants you to do anyway.)
Two, for as inevitable as the endgame is, it's also upsettingly hard to get through it in one piece. You are dealing with some incredibly twitchy suicide bombers, and while you have an impressive array of tactics to try (Tackle them? Try to talk them down? Warn the crowd? Work with any of the various factions, or confront them alone?) it breaks immersion just how blatantly the author has their finger on the "this option somehow works, that one backfires spectacularly and kills everyone" button. Choice of Games does not believe in a "save" function since it enables scumming; they say your choices should matter and you should live with the consequences of them, period. Fine, I respect that, but given how quickly and capriciously bad endings come in the last chapter, and how each one means a full restart from the beginning, let's just say it boggles my mind that anyone wanted this story to be longer.
I've seen and done about 68% of the things there are to see and do in this game, according to Achievement stats. There are even a few of them that I'm curious about. I kind of want to go back and see where some of the other roads lead, but I also kind of don't because I already know. It's strange how a game can feel so open and so on rails at the same time.