Desert Heat

Baf's Guide

A CYOA tale of intrigue and sexual slavery--you're an Arab woman at the center of some nefarious plots and romantic entanglements. The branching usually doesn't go very deep--most of the branches rejoin the main story before long--but there's enough variety to justify several trips through the story, and the choices you make do affect the text you see later on. The sexual content is fairly explicit, though, I thought, not gratuitously so, and it does reflect the story. As with any CYOA story, there's not a lot of interactivity here, but it's still a pretty good story.

-- Duncan Stevens

SPAG

With the very first sentence, mood and setting are already firmly in place, a setting which is only enhanced (and never contradicted) by further room and event descriptions. And best yet, although the game does tell you "this is who you are, this is what you can do", it never seems to do it in a way that felt limiting (to me), though ultimately, of course, it was rather narrow in scope.
-- Tina Sikorski
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SynTax
There are dozens of endings to be found and several major branches to follow. It is well written and filled with well developed characters, including yourself.
-- Dorothy Millard
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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

In the final analysis, it was probably a combination of factors that made me say, "Nice try, but it didn't really work for me." I still think a CYOA could work in the comp, but the lesson of Desert Heat is that such a game would not only have to be well-written and very well-plotted, but also wide enough and with enough available choices to provide a feeling of freedom at least somewhat comparable with parser games.
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Average Rating: Number of Reviews: 1 Write a review

This game contains erotic themes, but you’re told you can avoid anything explicit. I found that to be true, and played to two pleasing endings without encountering anything shocking.

Papillon was a prolific author around this time, producing several excellent games before moving on to visual novels.

This game involves you, an Arabic noblewoman, experiencing violence and oppression in the city. You are required to enter a brothel in the game (although one early ending doesn’t require this), providing most of the opportunities for erotic choices (which, again, you need to choose).

The main drawback I felt was that the game felt like it could have developed more. It would have done better as a Choice of Games novel, but such tools were limited or unavailable at the turn of the millennium.

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