Her original creations include short stories and hypertext games.

Sordwin is the sequel to Evertree, which can continue the adventure with a character from Evertree, or be played independently.

The game has a vested interest in speeding through the niceties of character generation, and dropping the player right in the middle of and then the murders began.

This is just what a good detective mystery ought to do, in my opinion, and it contributed a lot to how readily the game drew me in, even in a time when I had found myself stuck in the middle of several other otherwise excellent games.

You play a young adventurer, recently come of age and out to seek their fortune in the world.

Much of the customization revolves around preset RPG concepts of race and class, though space is given for gender and sexuality, to propel the optional romantic side plot.

The gameplay is fairly intuitive to anyone familiar with the conventions of modern fantasy, and available options are clearly telegraphed.

You might not get the exact result you hoped for, but you wont face abject failure for failing to strategize forty gameplay hours in advance.

As for the story, the whodunit aspect of the mystery is compelling enough to keep you playing without being too difficult to nail, with an appropriate number of red herrings and side mysteries.

Evertree and Sordwin are both comedies, though the humor again is very light and subtle.

Characterization is driven by backstory and secrets, as is appropriate for the mystery genre, and also worldbuilding and magic, as is appropriate for fantasy.

A surprisingly able blend of two genres that dont seem to intuitively fit together, and without even resorting to a pseudo-historical low fantasy setting.

The skills that the player character relies on are more nuanced and better able to support the elaborate sixteen () class system baked into the main characters back story.

The love stories that appear as optional side plots in Sordwin are also more nuanced.

Instead of a one-and-done that involves meeting, falling in love, and forming a lifelong bond in the course of one day, the romances initiated in Sordwin each feature their own obstacles and complexities, that prevent them from forming an immediate, tangible bond.

Without spoiling too much, the game enhances Evertree s worldbuilding with an economical polytheistic pantheon.

The symbolism behind the different cults is yet relatively simplistic, and strongly tied to the role-playing class and skill system, but it lays the groundwork for something potentially more challenging.

It is, however, slightly disappointing that, despite being given the option to be atheistic or simply irreligious, the player character takes a small but significant stat hit over this characterization choice, with no attendant benefit.

After all, social balance through subculture is a mainstay of the genre.

I quite look forward to playing their continued adventures with the already-announced third installment, Lux: City of Secrets.

I also look forward to seeing what additional complexities the third game introduces, and how it changes the way I see the first two.

All in all, I would recommend these games to anyone looking for a light read or struggling to stay engaged with longer, more convoluted works.

Its a wonderful, light-hearted popcorn game thats perfect to play on your commute or lunch break.

A fantasy and science fiction enthusiast from a young age, she reviews books, games and television.

Sordwin The Evertree Saga Apk Mod