High School Life vs Linda Brown: Interactive Story
High School Life
High School Life is an interactive story game that might be a bit simplistic. Instead of having a deep and well-hashed-out story, the most you'll be doing in this game is dressing up to meet and flirt with boys, and hopefully, you'll get a date to the school dance, be it Homecoming, Sadie Hawkins, Winter Formal, Valentine’s Day or the actual Prom. You don't get to spend a lot of time in the actual high school setting though, despite being a game titled as "High School Life".The characters in the game aren't very well-designed either. The boys in the game seem to look especially flat-faced and honestly, a bit on the ugly side of things. The "texting a friend" feature is pretty interesting but it would have been nice to have some sort of interaction with your BFF at school, where again, being a high-schooler, you should be spending most of your time at.
High School Life is a pretty shallow version of an interactive story game and hence, is a poor alternative to games like Episodes or Choices, but it might still be enjoyable for some players who like something simple.
Linda Brown: Interactive Story
Linda Brown: Interactive Story is The Other Guys' forey into the interactive storytelling business after their pretty good sucess with the Sherlock-themed hidden objects game, Sherlock Holmes: Lost Detective. Similar to the latter, this game features an intriguing and immersive, romance-and-mystery-filled story where you'll be playing as Linda Brown herself. Meet a host of interesting characters (and you can even date some of them), travel to various locations as you follow the trail of clues, and make important decisions that will change the path of your narrative.However, unlike games like Episode or Choices, Linda Brown: Interactive Story has a gameplay that is a lot similar to any of the games Telltale Games produced. This means that characters in the game will remember your reactions or responses and act accordingly the next time you meet.
The only major downside in this game is that, like Episodes and Choices, there are special "premium decisions" that you can make to further deepen the storyline, but the diamonds needed to buy these special decisions can be pretty costly - $3 per premium decision. Due to this, it might be great to have the option of earning diamonds by watching video ads.
Overall though, Linda Brown: Interactive Story is still a very well-written interactive story that doesn't only have romantic elements but also an intriguing mystery that rivals most hidden objects games. If you enjoy a good mystery with a dash of romance, this is the game you should play.