petra_ste

There is a moment about halfway through Cabernet where, as a result of a previous bargain with an evil being, you need to pick a friendly NPC for a bad fate by marking the door of his / her house as dawn fast approaches. It's a testament to the game's excellent narrative that I found myself squirming as I had to quickly decide whom to sacrifice.

This choice-and-consequences adventure game follows Liza, a young female doctor in an Eastern 19th century town, as she awakens after being turned into a vampire. While Liza adjusts to her new existence, she will have many decisions to make.

Every night, from when Liza wakes up at dusk to the moment before dawn where she needs to run back to her coffin, there is only a limited number of actions / encounters you can pick... so you need to choose which storylines / characters you want to follow as you explore the small town and its surroundings.

(I guess in successive playthroughs, once you know exactly what you need to do, you could try to juggle all quests and NPCs at once, but it's impossible the first time).

So, what do you do? Help the research of your mentor? Save a drunken writer from a dangerous duel? Pursue romance with one or multiple characters? Help the villagers follow their dreams or exploit them? Follow the rules of the vampiric society or defy them for the sake of your loved ones? Will your Liza be a compassionate saviour or a cold killer?

Narrative and characters are compelling: this is one of those "wait, let me play a little more" games. Cabernet has a skill system with different abilities to increase as you level up (Science, Art, Literature and Politics), and a few vampiric powers to use (invisibility, turn into a bat). Liza can also enchant NPCs, both to influence them and to feed on them (potentially killing them if she drinks too much blood), with significant narrative consequences.

There is also a morality system - good-hearted choices get "humanity" points, while cruel decisions increase the "nihilism" score. If you have enough humanity or nihilism, special dialogue options get unlocked.

The visual style is appealing and voice acting excellent.

My biggest complaint is the saving system, which is limited to a single location (you can only save inside your house) and has an aggressively small number of saves. This is to prevent save-scumming I guess, but - since consequences are often shown much later after a decision - it becomes just an annoyance.

Another gripe is that, while the "good" ending (with all its possible variations) gets a long and touching epilogue, the "evil" ending is ludicrously abrupt, to the point of feeling like an afterthought.

Still, this is a little gem. Recommended if narrative-heavy games and vampires are your jam.

This high-concept visual novel is a reminder, like Papers, Please or Return of the Obra Dinn, of the storytelling potential of videogames.

You start as a nameless hero in a dark forest. A somewhat pompous narrator informs you that, in a cabin nearby, there is a princess and you must slay her to save the word.

To say more and spoil the plot and the characters would be a real shame. Suffice to say, it's a fantasy story deftly juggling heart, horror and humor, with emotional moments, scares and wry black comedy.

The minimalist graphics are very effective and the voice actors do a stellar job.

It took me a couple of hours to get one of several possible endings. If you like original, narrative-driven games with choice & consequence (and don't mind gore, because in some paths there's plenty, although stylized), just play this.