This is an interactive fiction game developed, designed and published by Christine Love as a sequel to her last PC game “Digital: A Love Story”. It’s a single player mode for platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux.
You can download this game for free at this website:
http://scoutshonour.com/donttakeitpersonallybabeitjustaintyourstory/
**At ease, no spoiler alerts, you’re going to have to play the game yourself if you want in on the excitement**
You’re playing a man (John Rook) who has been divorced twice and is having a midlife crisis; as a result you decide to become a teacher at a private high school. The setting starts off believable but throughout the game you get to make some choices (hence the ‘interactive’ in interactive fiction) that make it wild, interesting and anything but real. This is exactly what video games are intended to do, create a world that you can escape to during your spare time.
Now as you start your teaching career the school admins inform you that you have access to all of the public and private posts/messages on AmieConnect (a social network very much like Facebook but it’s exclusively for the students of the school), the catch? You’re not to let anyone know that you can see the student’s private messages.
This is where the fun kicks in, you not only get to see what the student’s hot gossip but you also get insight on how they feel about you and your teaching methods. (Not that you actually have a choice in what is being taught) It’s as if you’re in high school all over again but this time, you’re the teacher. Of course this doesn’t mean you get to pass on the drama, you actually have to deal with more which is where the choices you make start making an appearance in this entertaining story.
The 2 things that really stood out in this were the music and the story-line itself. You find yourself getting extremely attached to the game and some of the characters while feeling resentment for others; only for it all to come to an abrupt ending and realizing that the title of game couldn’t be any truer. The music was very relaxing and soothing probably adding to the attachment of this game, you feel so appeased that when the game ends you want to go back for the sole purpose of listening to the background music (I’m not going to lie I open this game quite a few times and leave it open while I’m painting my nails.)
Personal likes: Every now and then you’re required to read some posts from 12channel (An image board very similar to that of 4chan.org). These posts play a nice role in the story and help you get a better understanding of the students.
Personal dislikes: The length of the story. It wasn’t very long; I finished the story line within 2 days.
~This story has 3 alternative endings so you could restart it and work your way to finding the other 2 endings although I didn’t find this as much of a consolation.
I enjoyed this game but I won’t deny it’s flaws. I give it a solid…
6 out of 10
Hi I'm Ari. I Love a lot of things expanding from writing/reading poetry, listening to music, watching movies, to occasionally throwing it down on the basketball court. I could go on to write a novel but I'll save you guys the time/agony and just let you see what I'm all about on my twitter @Jacob_Pooh.
