- Ridiculous choices and funny results
- All death without punishment scenarios
- Quick playthroughs but with hours of replayability
Picture this: You're on top of a cliff that juts out of a rocky ravine below. There is a precarious plank teetering on the edge of the cliff: tempting, almost waiting. Do you decide to take one careful step at a time up the side of the cliff, or do you throw caution to the wind, jump onto the piece of wood, and sled down the cliff with a vehement “YOLO”?
These seemingly insignificant decisions are the essence of Choice of Life: Wild Islands, a new visual novel slash card game from Blazing Planet Studio. When you're marooned on a desert island, do you think you can trust your instincts and live long enough to tell the tale?
Summary:
Life Choice: The Story of Wild Islands
One moment you're cleaning the deck of a ship bound for America, and the next you're struggling to stay afloat in the great stormy sea. When a storm throws all of your teammates into the water, you, as the sole survivor, end up on the shore of a mysterious island with no one else around, or so it seems.
Choice of Life: Wild Islands wastes no time in giving you crucial decisions as soon as you start it, and each one branches into a different outcome without going back. The delightfully cartoonish art style gives it a whimsical, almost Monkey Island-esque feel, but don't let the visuals lull you into a false sense of security – one wrong move could cost you your life, and there are LOTS of ways to die in this story.
Just like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, you can easily meet your untimely demise with the choices you make. This definitely increases the replayability factor, but not to the point of frustration: you can always go back to a previous automatic or manual save, or start over from the checkpoints dotted throughout the title. This makes it enjoyable to have fun while adventuring on the island, as you won't have to start over every time you fall to your death or bite into a large fruit with a little too much enthusiasm.
Life's Choice: Wild Islands Gameplay
That said, these checkpoints can open or close depending on which fork you choose. Sometimes, choosing to go into the depths of a cave can close your path to, for example, a hidden spring; other times, you can still retrace your steps and reach all the points of interest you missed, although this time with different results.
There are also lovely unexpected events that pop up every now and then as you move from point A to point B, which once again adds a new level of replayability to the whole adventure (although a pain for completionists, I'm sure) .
One of the things I've loved about my multiple playthroughs is the fact that you can't always remain reasonable and hope to survive simply by having your wits about you. While you may think that choosing the most logical option could save your life, it could lead to a fatal surprise. Collect hearts as you go, but once your hearts drop to zero, it's game over.
I mean, you might think you'll have to work hard to till the soil and grow seeds for future food sources, but choosing instead to sit back and sing a song can unexpectedly add another Heart to your health pile – pretty sensible if you ask me.
You'll also come across supplies along the way depending on your decisions, and some of them can mean the difference between life and death when push comes to shove. If you happen to have some screws with you when you need to get down a hill, you'll make it to the ground unscathed – but if you didn't happen to pick up those screws from previous choices, you'll trip and fall and inevitably lose a heart.
Or, if you find a book about farming or cooking, you can spot edible plants in the jungle — but if you haven't found the book in a previous fork, picking wild fruit is a deadly game of Russian roulette.
What's the appeal?
This, in my opinion, makes it so damn fun: the fact that I can play it over and over again and expect a different outcome each time. Previous choices will still be marked, so you won't have to memorize past decisions just to get to where you want to be. Some decision branches are a little longer (simulating a boss fight or grand finale), and there can be many, many ways to die despite your best efforts.
There are times when you'll have to give up your common sense in favor of a simple fool, like breaking into a dance in the middle of a heated firefight or choosing to befriend an ape who's too close for comfort. Every single thing can lead to multiple endings – I've already unlocked a few and I still feel like I've only just scratched the surface of what the whole island adventure has to offer.
The humor is the best part – it can get quite meta at times and is a breath of fresh air as it never takes itself too seriously. I'm not sure if this game came at the right time for me, but I enjoyed it so much that I'm still playing it on my daily commute.
Overall, Choice of Life: Wild Islands is a refreshing new twist on choice-based narrative games with a replayability factor that's totally off the charts. It might seem a little toned down if you're looking for high-stakes missions or epic missions to save the world, but this more low-key approach to decision making that isn't too punishing or frustrating is exactly what I need right now – After all, ne I already have enough of those pressure-filled choices in real life.