To Be or Not To Be

To Be or Not To Be
N/A
Metacritic
90
Steam
73.374
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$2.49
Release date
4 February 2015
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
90 (201 votes)

Guide Hamlet, Ophelia and Hamlet Sr. to hundreds of hilarious deaths in Ryan North's chooseable-path edition of Shakespeare's Hamlet!

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To Be or Not To Be system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP SP3
  • Processor: 2 GHz dual core
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Hardware Accelerated Graphics with dedicated memory
  • Storage: 1 GB available space
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Sponzie
Sponzie

This game is just hilarious. I recommend jumping in without knowing anything about it

hentai_priest
hentai_priest

Strangely, can't really recommend this one, despite the clever writing and Monkey Island references. The game is actually one joke, and this joke is way too long for my taste.

jordan.fouts
jordan.fouts

Fastest purchase I ever made and I was not disappointed

Minzoku Bokumetsu
Minzoku Bokumetsu

I recommend this if:
+ you are a fan of Ryan North
+ you enjoy (semi-)visual novels
+ you do NOT already have the book version
+ you have the PDF version ("game" version is slightly easier to navigate w/o searching)
+ you can get it cheap

I do NOT recommend this if:
- you DO already have the book version and expect something significantly different

Positives:
+ option to skip ahead/go back
+ fitting background music
+ narration if you like that kind of thing
+ clever layout changes to accentuate the narrative ("text adventure" theme, time travel theme, etc.)

Negatives:
- checkpoints are only in specific locations that sometimes require lots of retracking to get to major story branches
- occasionally the GUI doesn't work properly
- art gallery is a bit awkward to navigate (hover left and right over several hundred pictures in one long row)
- can't skip the "ending" sequences

Diana_Shepard
Diana_Shepard

While playing this game in my head were such thoughts:

- To be, or not to be, or be, or may be not, oh...start from checkpoint!
- I wanna be Ophelia! Nope, that's kinda stunning, so what about Hamlet? oh OH that's nice, very nice, much more options and it seems like I make a progress in plot.
- oh no, I'm in a plot-trap. 15 starts from the same checkpoin and no result, cause I'm still in that fckin room!!1
- How about mmm to make out more? And more, I don't care about ghost of Hamlet Sr. I want that achievement!! Where it is??

Summary: I like this game. But not adore. So - 7 litres of blood of 10

Edrane
Edrane

Brotimes... How's it going Brotimes?
-Horatio

Everyone needs a buddy like Horatio.

"Can you play this flute?" fun.

CyberStormAlpha
CyberStormAlpha

It's Hamlet. It's Shakespeare. It's whatever you want it to be (within reason).

Some people will say it's not funny. It's the CabSauv of humour. That is to say, it's very dry. There some very, VERY sharp references. They do require you to have a few years (or, more aptly, an amount of experience in the 90s). I found myself laughing my arse off at more than a few points. YMMV

Primogenitor
Primogenitor

The "play-within-a-play" is a "choose-your-own-adventure-book-within-a-choose-your-own-adventure-book".

Boy
Boy

A fun little Hamlet choice and consequence which takes the Elizabethan classic to some very interesting places. I quite enjoyed the metatheatrical elements of this game and it was the perfect little joke to put me in the mood for studying some Hamlet and Ros and Guil are Dead for my University essay. ^_^

Salarn
Salarn

https://youtu.be/voE5OI0kMF4

I was a backer of the book this game was based on.

The story of Hamlet may be well known, but it doesn't cover all the details or more importantly all the possibilities. This choose your own adventure book has been brought to life as a visual novel with full voice from the audio book.

A few minor UI issues are annoying at times but the core experience of playing around in a classical work of literature still holds up as a good source of laughs.

Aria Theo
Aria Theo

A funny modern take on Hamlet and its anachronisms with tons of replay value.

tsupertsundere
tsupertsundere

"You look to your left, and the ghost of Franklin D. Roosevelt cocks his shotgun and says, 'Let's do this, Hamlet.'"

10/10 goty

american ninja delivery girl
american ninja…

Finally, something that calls Hamlet out on the stupid stuff he says. Seriously, "get thee to a nunnery?" Uncool.

Anyway, if you like the original Hamlet, or even if you didn't (like me), you will probably enjoy this game. To be fair, your enjoyment thereof will depend heavily on your sense of humor. If the screenshots don't look funny to you, you probably won't enjoy it. But if they do... hey, it's only five bucks. Why not?

harbinsky.m.e
harbinsky.m.e

Imagine if Hamlet gave the option to not be full of the idiots it was originally written with.

Now imagine it was written from the perspective of Ophelia, and she is more of a character than that girl Hamlet likes and then gets all mopey about after she dies.

Now Imagine it from the viewpoint of Hamlet's dead father.

Wait, what if Hamlet's dead father went and started studying the undersea lifeforms of the deep when he realized he could stay underwater indefinitely and could become a ghost of science?

Now....

What if the whole thing was written by "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl's" Ryan North (and also Dinosaur Comics, and a plethora of other things.)

Does this sound awesome to you?

No?

What does it feel like to not have a soul, you poor skin walker? What does it feel like to be dead inside?

You don't make me sad, just disappointed.

And sadly, you are one of the people that need to play this game the most; but you never will, because all joy turns to ash upon your lips.

To everyone else who wondered why Hamlet (and everyone else in the play for that matter) kept doing things that really didn't make any rational sense, this is the game for you.

Also, if any of my old English teachers are on Steam and have found this review. Yes, I will purchase your copy if you're still on the fence about it. You need only tell me the code word I left behind at the end of the semester.

asifandwhen
asifandwhen

Snap necks as terrorist-hunter Ophelia.

Game of the Year.

Millions of Bees
Millions of Bees

If you like Shakespeare or hate Shakespeare get this game. If you're not sure who Shakespeare is and you're kinda afraid you'll be made fun of if you ask, get this game. Are YOU Shakespeare? Dude you should get this game too, it's great.

BearBear
BearBear

Super funny creative and surprisingly long story, the narration really added tot he game as well. I wish the author would make a series of games for all of Shakespear's plays.

alphyna
alphyna

10/10, Rosencranz and Guildenstern are not dead anymore.

To Be or Not To Be is a hilarious text adventure that puts you into Hamlet's shoes, makes him a video game protagonist... and then Hamlet applies REASON. It's not very effective...

The game goes all out, satirizing and heckling every step Hamlet made, revelling in just how easy it would have been to avoid most of the play's tragedies. The result is often comedy gold—it made me laugh aloud several times (which is a lot in our informationally-overloaded-yet-desensitized-to-everything times). Hamlet's emo teen logic in the game is just too amusing, and somehow the whole thing also manages to have a touching moment or two.

You can also play as Ophelia and Hamlet Sr., but I'd say that their stories, as well as the bits from Hamlet's that stray from the original completely, are less compelling than the parody bits—although still fun and good interactive prose.

The whole thing is broken into easily digestible bits that allow for reasonably simple backtracking and exploring alternative branches. And if you have a favourite comic artist of international renown, chances are that an artwork of theirs is featured in the game—although I have to point out that the artworks, unlocked by reaching various endings, are not present in the game itself, but rather serve as non-useful rewards, so if you were hoping to see a ton of cool art, you're kinda out of luck. (Except for Kate Beaton's art that's present in the game and obviously instantly makes it cooler.)

Some people criticize To Be or Not To Be for the fact that the choices in the game aren't equal. True: the game blatantly ridicules you for making some. However, I don't think it's a reasonable critique. To Be or Not To Be is not a real CYOA game; it's based on a work that already has a "canon" storyline, so different options have different weight by default, some of them being "real" (i.e. Shakespeare's), while others being alternative. The goal of To Be or Not To Be is not to provide you with an array of balanced options, each of them having its own merit, it's actually quite the opposite: the game sets to make fun of the "canon" choices.

So, if you're looking to truly, honestly roleplay Hamlet, To Be or Not To Be won't suit you (you should maybe consider a career as an actor instead, people say the notion of playing Hamlet is kinda popular in theatre). However, if you're up to having some fun and are not averse to text adventures, this game is definitely one I would suggest trying.

Jalapapeno
Jalapapeno

This game has amazing humor and tons of replayability. You can choose to take the path of Shakespeare's Hamlet while the narrator berates you for making decisions that no actual human would make and expands cool parts of the story that Shakespeare glazed over, or make the characters and story completely different and wacky while still experiencing a story. Totally worth a buy.

knight_medek
knight_medek

If you guys have ever seen Adventure Time (the show) and loved it... you gotta try out this thing. Plus, if you're a big fan of Shakespeare or even if you just hated the way the story ended... it's really up to you to decide how the story goes. I'm trying not to give away anything because I don't want to ruin the story for you with this review, but I'm seriously fangirling over all of it =P.

Gamboleer
Gamboleer

My first play-through was rather short because I went straight to Claudius after I spoke with the ghost of my father, and killed him. Yay, winner! I enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek teenager style summary of Hamlet ("DUDE, it's a ghost! And he looks just like your FATHER!" etc), though why they chose an American instead of English narrator for a work by Shakespeare is beyond me. I found the narrator detracted from the experience, and turned him off during the introduction. The good news is, the game is still fun as all text.

I wouldn't spend more than $5 on what is essentially a lark, unless you REALLY need to learn Hamlet for that big test tomorrow. Yes, you could actually learn the play's story from this game, as the original choices are all marked so you can choose them if you wish. You won't get any of the clever dialogue from veering into the unknown, but at least you'll know the plot.

Bookish
Bookish

Do you like "choose your own adventure" novels? If your answer is a resounding "no," then avoid this. If you like or at least are vaguely okay with them, To Be or Not To Be might work for you, even if you're not really a fan of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Pros:
+ The humor. It's weird and occasionally surreal. There's one route where you briefly become a horse just before the sun explodes, and another one where Ophelia and Hamlet engage in a training montage and become ninjas.
+ Lots of endings, almost every one of which comes with its own piece of artwork, which you can look at again in the game's art gallery. I haven't counted how many pieces of artwork there are, but I know that I've been playing this game for almost 5 hours total and I'm still missing 40 or 50.
+ Ophelia is awesome.
+ It highlights some problems with the original play that I'd never really thought about before. I kind of wish this had been around back when I was studying this play in school.

Cons:
- The game includes "checkpoints," which are basically "save" spots you can return to in order to try out different choices without having to replay everything that came before it. Unfortunately, all you get are the "checkpoints" the game provides you with - you can't create your own. The "Skip" button is nice and all, but I've gotten really tired of skipping through the pirate scene just so I can get to the stuff right after it. The lack of ability to create your own save points is one of the reasons why I don't think I'm ever going to manage to collect all the pieces of artwork. I don't know that I have the patience for it.
- This comes from all the visual novels I've been playing lately, but I really wish there were a "skip 'read' text" option.
- The narrator doesn't appeal to me at all. Thankfully, you can play the game with narration turned on or off. I started with the narration on and turned it off before I'd even selected the character I was going to play as.

All in all, not bad. I don't know that I'll have the willpower to get all the endings and achievements, but this turned out to be way more entertaining than I expected.

jc757281
jc757281

Pretty funny but didn't keep my attention for long.

Marlhaut
Marlhaut

A "choose your own adventure" game, but exponentially improved by the writing of Ryan North. If you like over the top and or absurd humour this is a must have. It also has a great replayability due to the fact that there is no winning state per se, but loads of interesting and funny forks which lead to also interesting and funny endings.

The collection of different art pieces for every ending is a nice touch, too.

Papa Cat
Papa Cat

I used to play this game on a friends pc, and im sitll in love with it now

Kit Moonstar
Kit Moonstar

Fun twist on a classic. A great tounge in cheek choose your own adventure that will appeal to literature and theater geeks.

guardyanangel
guardyanangel

God, I love this game! I've actually previously purchased it in the app store for iOS but I much prefer this version-- Easier to see and appreciate the art! This does make for some problems as the checkpoints start to build, but as long as you don't mind a bit of scrolling (easier with a proper mouse) it's fine.

An issue I had with said checkpoints that's difficult to resolve because of said scrolling issue is that I wish sometimes there were more of them. When you're going through every decision trying to get all the endings, it can get a bit tedious to go through so many choices again. Luckily (and I can't recall if this was an option or mobile or not,) you have the back button in case things start to look too familiar.

Also, while this DEFINITELY would get unwieldy, I wish we could play as more of the characters! Horatio is a personal favorite and I'd be fascinated to see things from his and Laertes and Gertrude's POV. Perhaps a sequel? :P

Anyways, overall I would most definitely recommend. There's a very high replayability aspect and even with a few sets of decisions where you get the same endings in different ways/on a different timeline, every experience is a new one if you choose for it to be!

an owl's casket
an owl's casket

Having played through (I think) all of the permutations in the Ophelia section, I can safely say that this game is super funny, and well worth five bucks (or the equivalent in the currency of your choosing).

StrikerT
StrikerT

I loved how they took this story, took creative control and made this story funny and just overall entertaining

MadBeliever16
MadBeliever16

This game is hilarious. I love it! It is even funnier if you enable narration. 100% worth it.

Pschiu
Pschiu

For me, the writing and humour were ok, but the backtracking was a dealbreaker. Every self-respecting visual novel allows saving at will, but this game seemed to only provide a few preselected checkpoints to return to. That might not have been so bad, but there were other sources of friction: the UI transitions were slow (and exacerbated by the useless haml-o-meter and stats), sometimes buggy e.g. mouse-clicks not registering, or haml-o-meter not disappearing, and rewinding was not available once the path was completed.

I got this game on sale, and at that price, it was good for 20 or so playthroughs. I wouldn't recommend this, however, unless you are a die-hard fan, or the problems get fixed, or like me you're ok with some cheap lulzing around for an hour or so.

Dalthnock
Dalthnock

Mr. North continually sabotages his own work throughout this "game". Some of the jokes are good, but then he cuts them short to berate the player in a way that I suppose is meant to be funny, but it's so sanctimonious that it just falss flat & makes you cringe. It's painful.

It's really hard to get any enjoyment out of this, when 75% of the text is just Mr. North telling you how virtuous & respectful he is. Yeah, we get it. You're such a nice guy, whoo.

He tries so hard & virtue signals so much that I'm pretty sure some day he'll hit the news as YET ANOTHER rapey "male ally".

It probably already happened, but very few people know who he is, so I imagine he got less coverage than the NeoGAF dude.

Hopefully I can refund this. I wouldn't want to support racist rapists.

Rabbit
Rabbit

I'll begin by saying that the humor isn't for everyone. One of the other reviews said it was like humor their highschool English teacher had while they were teaching Hamlet. This I could see, and I feel like that is the best description of the game itself.
All of that aside, I loved the game. I'm a Shakespeare fan, but one that doesn't like the material taken as seriously as everyone ese does. I'm also a big fan of the choose your own adventure.
On the other side of things, if you're not interested in the story at all, it would probably take a very short amount of time to get all the achievements. Truth be told, I say you should play it through a few times before achievement hopping.
I kept the narrator on becuase most of the time I would pick something then listen to the result of my choice while doing other things on my subsequent playthroughs.
I'd pick it up on sale.

quanty27
quanty27

Such a good experience. If you loved the traditional CYOA books, you'll love this. If you love Hamlet, you'll love this. Whatever happens. You'll love this. It's so creative, so humorous, and worth the money.

Glumdrop
Glumdrop

This is honestly such a fun game. There are so many different ways the story can go and it's hilarious to watch the different endings unfold. I'm really looking forward to unlocking all of them! 10/10

Солнце ☉
Солнце ☉

Excellent game for Shakespeare nerds and fans of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series.

I have only played it through once, but I'm really excited to see which other stories my choices will lead to! I enjoyed the narration even though at some points the text on screen wouldn't be on sync, but it's still great that you can turn the narration off if that really annoys you. As a teacher, I also see a lot of potential in using this game in educational contexts (like English/Literature classes), as a companion to reading Hamlet. I highly recommend it!

holylace
holylace

Very humorous* and enjoyable game, with nice art and soundtrack. Finally, "Hamlet" is fun to read. (Note: playing this game is probably not a substitute for reading "Hamlet" for your lit class.)
*Not to be mistaken for the four humours, which were possibly mentioned in the original "Hamlet."

Bayesian
Bayesian

liked it pretty well, just not as much as the book.

Tuftling
Tuftling

I am loving this game, and central heating. I thought it would be a short experience, but by the time I got to the Monkey Islandesque pirate adventure, I realized there are quite a few different paths for you to explore. The Achievements are fun.

Swordfish
Swordfish

It's witty, it's funny, and it's well worth the full price especially if you intend to play it on a bad day. My only problem is with the checkpoint system - I'm fine with not being able to save, but there should be more checkpoints to go back to. Having to skip parts of story is just as tedious as having to make tons of saves.

SlugFart
SlugFart

I really really really wanted this game to be good. But it's got quite a bit that would need to be improved to make this an amazing game. I love Shakespeare, and choose your own adventure games, and the artists involved are some of my favorites.

The artwork is great, the sense of humor is funny, and the user interface is easy to understand.
HOWEVER, you cannot save, you can't change the narration speed, and they do not explain some of the end-game mechanics.
I would only get the game on sale. I wouldn't pay full price.

Maz
Maz

cute and funny
justice for ophelia

Mizuki Kaito
Mizuki Kaito

100% totally accurate parody of Hamlet by the 'realest' Shakespear.
10/10 Would definitely *spolier alert* be-beheaded/die/kill/be-killed/not-be-killed/blow-up/be-blown-up/be/not-be again.

Ghostdragon
Ghostdragon

One of the best narrative games in the century. 100/10

P.S: Always play this with the narrator on for best experience

Nerp
Nerp

Like/s:
•It has humour
•It has a nice narration (props to the narrator)
•Its story does not go in one direction
•It has lots of creative choices
•It adds modern references to a classic novel
•It is educational in a fun way
•Its artsyle is cute and commendable

Dislike/s:
•The narration does not sync with the text at times
•auto-clicking and manually clicking gets done simultaneously and ends up going to the next part
•The narration starts from the very beginning and does not stop if you go back to read previous texts
•Expect it to be text-oriented

Obviously, the likes overweighs the dislikes so I recommend this game.

I've also yet to see any endings to this game so this review might change.

I'm picky when it comes to buying games- mainly because I'm broke as heck and I want to waste my money on a game worth while. So I'm glad I enjoyed this game. Cheers to the development team.

Iván
Iván

· POSITIVE ASPECTS:

-Story-rich (duh)
-Humorous reinterpretation of Hamlet.
-Surprisingly "faithful" to the events ocurring in Shakespeare's plot...
-...while also allowing a few alternative storylines (which are somehow, quite ridiculous and literarily speaking, worthless).
-Very occasionally, genuinely comic scenes. (the ones involving hip-hop were outrageous)

· NEGATIVE ASPECTS:

- Primitive presentation or interface. (basically, a digitalized "choose your path" book with some extras)

- The narrator is annoyingly unnecessary. There are hundreds of dialogue boxes coming one after another and the narration does not even match the written text sometimes. So, turn it off and it will be fine.

- The set of songs in the background is far too much repetitive. (a simplistic pseude-baroque piano theme plays for most of Hamlet's run, except for two or three occasional shifts to match either a spooky atmosphere or an action-packed scene. The whole length of the soundtrack, in my experience, seemed like 8 minutes in total...for two hours of playthrough at the very least, yep...).

- Metacommentary and all...jeez, sometimes it might be funny, specially at the beginning, but when the whole story is built on the same premise, you miss a little bit of depth and effort into the actual plot (which could be greatly developed...).

Overall, if you like Shakespeare, Hamlet, or literature in general, you will enjoy it.

Even if the experience as a game does not reach its full potential and the outcome is evidently irregular, you will have fun for two to three hours while learning Hamlet's plot by heart.

Thus, I urge thou to buy.

Saph🌻
Saph🌻

Do you like strong female characters? Do you like to laugh? Do you like Shakespeare and/or literature? ...But not so much that you'll get offended at jokes about it? Then this game is for you! To Be or Not To Be might just be the funniest game I've ever played. I couldn't stop laughing and smiling like a goof pretty much the whole time. Personally, I recommend turning off the narration and just imagining the voices in your head. But then, that's what I do with visual novels too. Sometimes it even screws up my actual reading voice and I freak out... but it's so worth it! There's SO many ways this story can turn out, and pretty much all of them are hilarious. I like to play as Ophelia the best. She has some of the best story arcs, and because she's written as a strong and intelligent character, you get to witness all of the crazy Hamlet shenanigans through that lens. It just really makes the story that much better imo, of course unless you choose to play her like a bimbo to the eternal dismay of the author.

Norachu
Norachu

As a fan of both Shakespeare and Squirrel Girl, this game seemed like it would be right up my alley. It's kind of odd and kind of bizarre, but that's part of the charm. I've been a long time fan of visual novels, which is more or less what this is. I *love* how it has a dyslexic friendly font. It's a good choice if you just want a game to play and zone out with for awhile. You'll get a few chuckles.

KeepSwimming
KeepSwimming

I played three options to start with (I plan to replay so many more times, I just have to get home from work first). I can't express how much I truly love this. I loved Choose-Your-Adventure books as a kid and I have loved Shakespeare since my early teens.

The humor in this is wonderful, the choices vast and varied, and the whole experience is fantastic. I saw a thread about this game on Reddit and knew I had to buy it.

If this author does more Shakespeare games like this, I'll buy every single one. 10/10

Aperaham Smoof
Aperaham Smoof

It's just funny, sometimes ridiculous. Best kind of comedy. For three buck definitely worth it.

onyxthemun
onyxthemun

Thoroughly engaging, surprisingly funny, and with stupidly entertaining artwork. A+ nerdy game for literature enthusiasts!

owlrose33
owlrose33

It is pretty funny to play and see how things go, Very nice voice to listen to.

MjrKuffenbach
MjrKuffenbach

I don't think any other game made me laugh as much and loud as this one.

A horrible goose
A horrible goose

Delightfully silly with lots of laugh out loud moments.

kholtby
kholtby

Fun and bizarre. Definitely recommend it. Also the kind of thing you can play through quick and come back to whenever you feel like it, finding something new each time.

gym nuts 健美
gym nuts 健美

i bought this for uni i got an A in that class so thank you

demoniclycan76
demoniclycan76

This game is worth its price. Hamlet is one of my favorite plays, so I was a bit hesitant in getting this game. My hesitation was unfounded. The game had me laughing loudly at several points, and it was wonderful seeing this classic tale turned upside down.

There are a few portions that are repetitive, as they are used in several playthroughs. The checkpoint system, while helpful in getting all the achievements, would be better served if the player could choose where they want checkpoints for easier backtracking. These flaws are minor when compared to the humor and fun this game provides. I'd love to see this team's take on other classic plays and tales.

TheatreOT
TheatreOT

Man, this game is inspiring.
Say, you may have a chance of discovering a delicious recipe for stew, which I myself found it extremely useful.
Who would say no to a bowl of literally savory stew anyway.
Thanks for being a game rather than an encyclopedia, good work on that thing.

m4elstrom
m4elstrom

Tried to use this instead of SparkNotes for my English exam. Somehow got a 200/100 on it. 10/10 would recommend.

theresa!
theresa!

If you're a fan of Monster Prom's kinda quirky kinda dumb kinda annoying writing then BOY OH BOY DO I HAVE A GAME FOR YOU

Songbird
Songbird

Guess they don't teach the meaning of the word "awhile" in lit major

m.marshall
m.marshall

I laughed so many times. The great thing about this game is you don't really have to know much about Shakespeare or Hamlet to get into the storyline, but if you do it just makes it even funnier.

Grimenart
Grimenart

Marvelous story-telling, great love for the literature subject, nice jokes, exciting plot twists and stew. Oh, and voice-over!
I have wholeheartedly enjoyed this adventure book and recommend it to anyone with interest in Shakespear, comedy, literature or everything above.

mendeshumanoid
mendeshumanoid

Things I did in To Be or Not To Be

* Had Hamlet and Ophelia make out for a while and forget about the whole revenge thing, multiple times
* Rap twice, once more successfully than the other
* Die in a book and therefore die in real life
* Do a killing spree in the wrong order
* Make stew
* Invent the alcohol thermometer
* Find a sunken pirate ship
* Lie about how attracted Ophelia was to Hamlet, and receive divine retribution
* Play the entire thing canonically from start to finish, and it was somehow the funniest one because the author repeatedly called me out

10/10 would buy again

司

The texts in this game are soooooo small that after two minutes' play my eyes have decided to leave me for another owner who would not buy such an awfully designed game.

Dewguru
Dewguru

It's entertaining.
Amazingly short, even with replaying it, but with a total of 3 hours played through various endings before uninstalling it, I feel I've achieved a satisfactory chuckle to cash investment ratio.

dgtlsrcrss
dgtlsrcrss

I recommend it at sale price. If you like Ryan North's sense of humor you'll have a LOT of fun for an hour or two. And then if you're like me, you'll tediously click through it for another hour trying to collect all the ending images / achievements, while not having fun. There's two problems: 1) the game layout is strange with lots of animations (clicking animations, scrolling animations, etc) that can be nauseating 2) You can't save manually, you collect key story checkpoints as you go through the game, but they can be spaced far apart. Luckily you can skip forwards and backwards easily...up until you commit to an ending (which you have to do to collect the unique image for the ending)...at which point you have to wait a while to be kicked back to the menu and then have to reload at the closest checkpoint. And there are a lot of endings, mostly abrupt joke endings. I just looked through the art gallery and there must be around 100 endings.

professor crane
professor crane

This game is really funny and charming. It has good art and good writing. It kind of makes me want to reread Hamlet, to be honest.

Kaiser Vex
Kaiser Vex

An actual clusterfuck of a game/10

MathCzyk
MathCzyk

I enjoyed this immensely! It's a fun little game that really makes me laugh, and doesn't require a lot of time or intense effort. It's a delightful way to spend an hour or two relaxing.
I recommend this game if you're looking for a casual, relaxing, upbeat game.

Loel Lyons
Loel Lyons

VERY silly, great game for kids (like 10+ probably, some sex/murder jokes), no-pressure gameplay with lots of reading!

BruisedPomegranate
BruisedPomegranate

Basically the same as the book written by Ryan North, with an option for music and voiced narration (that has a few odd quirks but is otherwise pretty good), fixed checkpoints (rather than being able to bookmark a page and go back to it whenever you want), and achievements. That being said, the writing is hilarious and if you want to read a choose-your-own-adventure pastiche of a Shakespeare play, then you will be hard pressed to find a better read.

okasion1
okasion1

Best game of Tin Man studios IMO; please don't pass this game, it's cheap and it's incredible funny and full of different endings.

Old Man Mammoth
Old Man Mammoth

Became the Ghost King of Denmark and fixed my marriage
10/10

polina
polina

It is a nice game but I feel like its' very short and it's not very interesting to replay it. After all, how many times do you want to reread Hamlet, even if it's written from three different points of view? I personally liked the humour and I purchased it on sale for like 2 eur and I feel that it's a more appropriate price for it. I got 1h of play and a chuckle out of it.

OokamiJustice
OokamiJustice

Recommended for any Shakespeare-buff! High-level nerdy stuff, so slight warning for those who aren't patient with a literature weeb making his own fan-fiction based off of a Shakespeare classic. Brilliant writing, lots of branching choices and a hilarious style - To Be or Not to Be can keep you engaged for hours.

Dead
Dead

I know that in almost all English-speaking countries people spend a lot of time at school learning Shakespeare's work. So this probably mean much more to them than me who read some of his writings mostly in translation. Some who adored his work might get upset because of the interpretation that the game makes but even as a non-native English speaker with no particular memories of Shakespeare, I didn't like this game.
It's like listening to a class clown who talks too much; he knows how to humor in a way but so incessant. There are a lot of endings but it feels like improvisation because it's too abrupt. It gives a bitter laugh that every time i reach the ending it says i reached better ending than actual hamlet; no, i don't believe so. The choice that i make is a bit radical many times because there aren't lot of "sane" options to choose and gets to the unexpected ending which is not that even funny.
There are many adventure-book style games out there and they are fun because they live up to the player's expectation. Upon choosing direction when you go astray, while normal game would give three options like go left, go right, stay where i am, this game would give three options like sniffing your own crotch, killing yourself, dancing around. I know this is an absurd example but that's how I felt about this game. The choices and endings are all like that. There is a certain weird direction and taste that the developer wants to pursue and i don't want to follow.
Adventure games are to make the players engage in the story but this is just a painstaking buffoonery that is hard to follow. Just write a book or something if you want to lead the story the way people never expect. Don't make strange choices to choose and say it has multiple endings. I did not approve to get there.

Qwerty
Qwerty

Short, funny, choose-your-own-adventure game that's worth the price.

Prof K
Prof K

I have 28 hours logged at the time of this review because I use this game to lecture about Hamlet.

Ryan North's writing is sharp and funny, and he clearly has a strong understanding of the source material. Where he takes artistic license, it is to the reader's benefit. For example, if you choose to play as King Hamlet, the action begins with Old Hamlet's slaying of Old Fortinbras, the King of Norway, even though the text of the play places that action 30 years in the past. The license allows North to convey the essence of the character in an accessible way.

If for some reason you aren't using this game to teach, I'll just say that it's a very fun and very approachable interactive text. Key decisions are bookmarked for the reader to return to in future sessions, and the real fun is in exploring the possibilities of the text, rather than winning or losing.

Sivan_yi
Sivan_yi

fun and adorable. the creator sounds like he has a great personality.
just something refreshing and nice to have.

Reromachine
Reromachine

This is a cyoa game where it does it's best to prevent players from exploring other choices. The voice and text are out of sync, there isn't a way to create your own checkpoints and everything takes too long with them. There isn't even a proper flowchart.
The writing was bad too but the game engine was so bad I can't even begin to talk about the content.

NOT Recommended by: Experiences Worth Experiencing
puponautas
puponautas

Classic story with fun modern twists. Choices can keep you exploring for hours and hours.

hmaon
hmaon

Shit's funny as hell. You might have to click through some choices again to explore a different narrative branch but it's not a deal breaker for me.

Lujo
Lujo

It was hilarous, but then I am the target audience for this sort of thing, and I'm also a fan of the author's other material. If you're a literature nerd famliar with the source material and the general fare of these guys, you'll love it.

ltg
ltg

How cute, the game thinks it's woke. About a 400-year-old piece of literature. It also manages to be condescending both to Shakespeare and to the player because you clearly buy games to be talked down to. Semi-competent writing, boring stretches, desperate attempts at humor and you can hardly hear the narrator through the sound of the author gratifying himself. Hack job.

invertingbunny
invertingbunny

Wish there were more checkpoints but overall a really fun book (at least if you know the story of Hamlet)

onitake
onitake

Don't read Shakespeare, read SHAKESPEARE-CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-ADVENTURE!

the_laibararian
the_laibararian

The checkpoints you can use to restart your story don't make any sense. There's very few of them and they're in random places of the story. The content itself is fine and can be fun, but the whole checkpoints thing is really bad for a "choose your own adventure" story. I would suggest buying a physical copy of the book, cuz the artwork is also somewhat sparse (one for every unique ending) and not worth the inconvenience imo.

notjames116
notjames116

So much fun, and so, so much more fun than reading the actual story of Hamlet. There are pirates!!

kyle.geddes
kyle.geddes

Okay, let me sum it up for you...

It's just one repeating joke about how "un-woke" Shakespearean times were.

And it stops being funny almost immediately.

Sad. 1/10

Honest
Honest

really funny and hysterical. it is worth in sale.

Brave Sir Knight
Brave Sir Knight

fun little game. Buy on discount.

A Weary Traveler
A Weary Traveler

I've only had this game for an hour but if anything happened to it I'd kill everyone in Denmark and then myself. I don't know how else to describe it besides 'relentlessly funny', cannot recommend enough!

Tearahnee
Tearahnee

If you enjoy reading, choose your own adventure books, Shakespeare and comedy then this is the game for you. I loved everything about this game. It kept me laughing the whole time and wanting to replay it over and over. As of right now I have 2 hours into this game, but i'm expecting to put in many more. huge thumbs up!