Game Review: The Yawhg



I am a big fan of the works of Emily Carroll. When I heard that she helped develop a game, I told myself that I had to check it out. That is how I discovered The Yawhg, a choose-your-own-adventure game developed by Emily Carroll and Damian Sommer.


The Yawhg can be played by up to four people. Each player takes the role of a civilian going about their lives, unaware that the Yawhg will arrive in six weeks. The game has a bunch of randomized events that can help players build up their skills, screw up their lives, or both. However, once the Yawhg comes, these skills will determine whether the characters successfully rebuild their lives and hometown or do the equivalent of trying to put out a fire with gasoline.


There are quite a few story chains to discover, and the randomization of the game means that there's no guarantee you'll actually see a story chain to its very end. Nevertheless, the story chains make for very interesting reads, even if the events go badly for your characters. Whether it's developing strange spiral sores after a hospital mishap or being a tiebreaker for a vote held by rodents, this game has a lot of stories to discover and enjoy.


The gameplay gets particularly interesting if you play with multiple people. Players take turns choosing an area of the town to send their character, raising certain stats and random events in the process. However, once a location is chosen, no other player can go there until the next week starts. This means you may need to improvise if you want to raise certain stats but can't access the locations ideal for raising those stats, and that's before dealing with random events that could potentially raise or lower the stats you're cultivating.


The game itself is not very long. A single gameplay session is probably not going to take over an hour, even if you have multiple people playing. However, each session will be different enough that I feel like this game has quite a bit of replay value. As such, I would definitely recommend this as a game to check out. Whether you're playing alone or with a group of friends, The Yawhg is sure to give an interesting experience.

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