Eternal

Only recently, a few weeks ago did I discover this magnificent piece of interactive fiction, through a recommendation of a friend on discord. It's difficult to find a similar game to Eternal among the COG/HG or the Twine games, I'm usually used to playing. Having 13 vastly different epilogues and massive story branching, it's the only game that truly satisfied that itch for "meaningful choices deciding and changing the course of the story". With that out of the way, let's continue with the review.

Narrative Depth and World-Building:

"Eternal" unfurls its narrative tapestry in a world where the tendrils of magic intertwine with political intrigue, forming a richly textured tableau. Within this expanse, cultures thrive, politics simmer, and characters navigate a maze of motives and desires. The narrative, a product of the author's narrative acumen, captures the essence of immersive storytelling. This world breathes, the characters, multifaceted and layered, pulse with life. As players traverse through its labyrinthine paths, the tale adapts, branches, and sprouts like an ancient oak, offering a multitude of possible endings, each a testament to the player's choices.

Gameplay Mechanics and Choices:

Navigating "Eternal" is an exercise in thoughtful engagement. The role bestowed upon the player isn't a mere observer but a puppeteer pulling the strings of a protagonist's destiny. Choices, numerous and consequential, serve as the bricks that pave the player's journey. These decisions hold power, forging alliances or breeding enmity, shaping the fate of both the player character and the realm itself. "Eternal" revels in ethical ambiguity, inviting players to grapple with dilemmas that resonate long after reaching one of the many epilogues.

Emotional Impact and Character Development:

The emotional depth within "Eternal" is borne from the author's masterful character crafting. Heroes and villains alike step onto the stage, each woven with motivations, flaws, and internal battles. These characters, intricately designed, evoke empathy, disdain, and everything in between. Emotion intertwines with the choices made, creating a tapestry of interlinked stories where the heartstrings of players are deftly pulled. The emotional engagement breathes life into the choices, imbuing them with significance that resonates profoundly.

Narrative Complexity and Replayability: "Eternal" thrives within its intricacy, offering a myriad of paths that branch and diverge. The narrative, a labyrinth of threads, weaves a complex tapestry of intertwined destinies. The promise of alternate outcomes beckons, rendering each playthrough a voyage of discovery. The allure lies not only in the destination but in the multitude of journeys that lead there. The expansive network of storylines ensures that each iteration is a new adventure, and the labyrinthine narrative beckons explorers with the allure of hidden gems.

Writing Quality and Descriptive Power:

The author's prose is a symphony of words, a brush that paints vivid landscapes within the theater of the mind. The textual descriptions are not mere vessels of information but conjurations that evoke sights, sounds, and sensations. The written words are a portal to worlds imagined, a testament to the transformative power of storytelling. The descriptive prowess adds depth to the experience, elevating it beyond mere reading to immersive participation.

Conclusion:

"Eternal" by Endmaster stands tall as an interactive fiction magnum opus, bridging the gap between player and protagonist, crafting connections through moral quandaries, and etching narratives that resonate. Its narrative symphony, character symposium, and the intricate dance of choices combine to forge an experience of enduring impact. The myriad of endings and labyrinthine paths invite players to explore with each replay, and the lingering emotional resonance testifies to its prowess as an interactive narrative.

Pros: + Complex and immersive narrative
+ Profound character development
+ Morally challenging choices
+ Exquisite writing and descriptive artistry
+ Expansive branching paths

Cons:

None worth noting; the game excels across all dimensions

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First and foremost, as with any IF work, the idea of agency should be taken into consideration. Your choices have rationale, and when you execute these choices, they make significant impacts.

In this regard, Eternal does this task well; characters may not even make themselves apparent in differing timelines, and more often than not, they succumb to the ravages of time without your involvement in their own personal stories.

So if you come to this story with the idea that you'll be making drastic changes to the world, you'll have your expectations met.

It's also important to acknowledge, however, that unlike IF works that cast your character as a blank slate, the character you play as is preset for a certain disposition. The summary description and exposition you get early on paints a fairly bleak picture, and if your torturous training is any indication, it's that your character isn't going to be much of a hero.

In the regard that your character is not much more than a physically strong person, the story conveys your limitations decently well. It doesn't mean that you won't run into a lot of unexpected deaths and outcomes (thankfully, CYS allows backtracking), but even on paths of failure your rationale is entertained. Hardly any more or less fair than a Goosebumps, really.

So you have a somewhat darker fantasy story (not quite 'grimdark'; you're not beset by an endless amount of world-ending enemies) that has you well-positioned to survive, and at some points thrive. Are there any great truths about character or morals that reveal themselves? No. Do you get to enact a lot of badass violence like one of those 80's action flicks? Yeah. Do you have entertaining dialogue and character dynamics that break expectations? If you're used to more tame works, definitely.

So with all this in mind, Eternal is above all a fun read. It's not going to revolutionize how you view and treat people, and it definitely prefers long-term attitudes you develop from the rationale of your choices; the outcomes of those behaviors you give the main character pan out in varying levels of success. It's a work meant to satisfy and entertain, and it does this well...provided that you don't take the edge too seriously.

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Edit: There are several alternative takes on this game available in the comments.

This story is one of the main games displayed on the front page of ChooseYourStory.com and has been upheld by some in the community as some of their best work.

ChooseYourStory's corpus was downloaded and used to fuel the original AI Dungeon (although the new version, I think, uses other material), and quite a few on IFDB and intfiction were very interested in AI Dungeon, so I thought it would be interesting to see the source of it.

From the outside, the CYS community is very different from the other writing communities I've been in. For instance, the SCP wiki mods, Choice of Games editors and IFComp voters are obsessed with games being free from typos and errors. So in that sense, it's more like the Wesnoth campaigns and creepypasta sites, where the focus is more on just size of writing and worldbuilding.

Edit: several comments about CYS as whole were removed.

This game is an example of all of these things. In content, it reminds me of nothing more than when I started browsing some fanfiction. The worldbuilding is very detailed, and the content is huge. Reading every branch would easily take over 10 hours.

Structure-wise, it's more like a long chapter-based novel where the next chapter is determined by your choices at the end of each section. Choices are usually binary, unless they are 'reference' choices that give you optional backstory. Out of the binary options, one is usually a death. The graph of this game's choice structure would generally be a tree.

In fact, it's almost like three games in one, since one of the earliest (maybe the very first?) choice lets you pick one of three branches that offer different perspectives on the same story.

Content-wise, this is a dark power fantasy. You are essentially like Darth Vader but in a fantasy world, in the sense that you are a ruthless murderer and assassin in the service of an emperor.

The content is labeled as 'grimdark'. There is content in it that I found offensive, especially (Spoiler - click to show)the main character's penchant for violently raping women before killing them, or the way many women want to be raped, the way that the character helps run a concentration camp to eliminate another race, the character's joy in sexually humiliating or physically defacing others, or acting like King David by sleeping with a married woman then killing her husband discreetly. Interestingly, the only thing that the player regrets is accidentally sleeping with an enemy by mistake when she was disguised as his true love, with him later realizing that it was rape and he feels upset.

I generally just stop playing games in these situations, but in this one, the game was oddly distant from the graphic situations, generally because there wasn't a lot of lead-up. I've been deeply affected by traumatic scenes in stories before, but usually because there was a previous investment in character development to make me care for the people involved and an expectation of normalcy established that made the later broken barriers seem shocking. Like Ethan Frome, for instance, which I hated. Or Vespers, the game, which led me to try actions with awful results with no one else to blame but me for typing them in. In this game, it was more like 'you walk into a room and slit someone's throat to establish dominance'. In any case, I only finished so that I could give an accurate report for my first CYS review (although I did review Briar Rose before).

The author himself seemed to eventually tire of the rape-murder fantasies, leaving much of the second half of the game devoted to political intrigue.

My grading scale is not designed for this type of game, but I'll give it a go anyway:

-Polish: There were numerous typos and other errors.
+Descriptiveness: The worldbuilding was detailed and vivid.
+Interactivity: The game had a lot of real choices, with even dead ends having thousands of words poured into them.
+Emotional impact: Not always ones I wanted, but it was there.
-Would I play again? No, and in the future I'll heed the warnings available on the site for various games.

Edit: It should be added that this game has over 8000 ratings and over 400,000 plays on their website, far outstripping any IFComp game.

EditEdit: I should also say that Champion of the Gods is a game I loved that has a fairly similar concept but without any non-consensual encounters. In that game, it was fun playing a wild barbarian, but the justification for it was much stronger. Also, I played this game with a profanity filter in the browser.

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By no exaggeration, some of the paths in this story are a novel by themselves. This is a piece of grim-dark fantasy genius. Eternal isn't a story about a King that has a strong democratic personality that lets any peasant speak to him as they like. This is the story of an Empire's last-ditch effort to stay strong by building a race of super soldiers. You can be one of those supersoldiers

There's very little bright in this world. If you make the wrong decision, you're grave meat. If you make any other decisions entire peoples will die off, kingdoms will fall at your feet, Monarchs will die at your hands. People will try to use you to their advantage.

Be warned though. Terrible things will happen to you along the way. Well-adjusted individuals don't conquer the known world in a lifetime.

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When I first read this story, I was searching for a new experience in the realm of story games. I played through quite a number of games where I did not feel much agency as a player. I had to deal with cliché tropes in stories, and the author's personal bias on certain issues. I'm glad to say this is not one of those games. Eternal brought a much needed shock to my tastes. It was simply both pleasing and a joy to read at the same time. It stirred within me various emotions like, anger, frustration, happiness, contentment, etc. For a work to be able to do this is simply astonishing. I truly felt immersed in the world of Eternal, and had control of my player's fate.

Honestly this story is a timeless classic in this medium, and it would be a shame if you did not give this story a try. Come, read and enjoy a new experience today!

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This story is a great read. Now due to it being so long there are some typos and the like that slipped through. Even with that minor gripe, I must confess that this story is nothing short of spectacular. The world building is in a class of its own. The characters are fleshed out and really seem alive. This is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it to any fan of dark fantasy.

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Where to start? Eternal is by far my favorite Interactive Fiction piece from any site or publication. EndMaster certainly has his own style of writing, disregarding most conventional methods. It draws you in, and is highly effective for the story medium.

There's no flowerful language here. There's no word count padding, even with its incredible high number. The reader is thrust into a dark political world filled with violence and memorable characters, that span an entire lifetime. There's no story quite like it, interactive or otherwise. If you like reading, you'll like Eternal.

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This game is one of the first I ever read on CYS, and it's still one of my absolute favorites to this day. The protagonist's inner struggle between the Emperor he's been conditioned to serve since birth, and the increasing amount of evidence that everything he's ever been taught is false, was engrossing to read. Indeed, the character's thoughts and feelings as his mindset slowly shifts from the person he was raised to be to who he wants to become, is so detailed and fleshed out, that you can actually immerse yourself in that pain and self-doubt. Every moment in the game feels special and unique, and the surrounding characters and their motivations are so well-written that their death, treason, suffering, ect. hits you right in the gut. Even his enemies have reasoning for what they do, and the game does a good job of showing you their perspective, until you (and, of course, the protagonist) no longer know what to do. The game isn't some glorified rape and murder fantasy, it's a genuine work of art that deserves to be a best-selling novel, and the fact that we all get to enjoy it for absolutely free is just an extension of the love and consideration that EndMaster put into this masterpiece.

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