The Corsham Witch Trial, by JC Blair
This choice-based story is told through somewhat indirect means. Most of the action is shown retrospectively as the protagonist inspects transcripts, emails, and other documents related to a court case that has already been decided. Even the framing narrative is shown mostly through a text conversation rather than being directly addressed to the player.
In principle, I have no opinion one way or the other about this structure, but I will say that I thought the documents were very well done and presented a convincing sense of authenticity. Take that with a grain of salt because I am not an expert on what the various example of legal/medical documents are supposed to look like; all I can really say is “could have fooled me.”
The experience mostly consists of learning the details of the court case, and being encouraged to take an opinion on it. I found the case itself quite engrossing, but the interactivity is a bit of a weak spot. None of the options are hugely committal, but even so, I felt like the game expected me to make some calls before I had enough information to really form an opinion; I would have appreciated the opportunity to select a purely noncommittal option at certain points. The options are relatively few and don’t feel like they have a lot of gravity.
Somewhat more spoilery musings for the initiated:
The case itself is complex enough to present some ethical dilemmas and call for some interpretation; a person could spend a lot of time thinking about their opinion of it, which I did. Was the defendant criminally negligent? To what extent, if any, does the prosecution’s witness bear responsibility for the terrible outcome of the child services hearing? If one agrees that the defendant should have been found not guilty, might one still approve of the decision to bring charges against him as a means of encouraging institutional change?
This is indeed an engrossing story. But the in-game dialogue options explore the issues only in terms of very general sentiments. Throughout the story, it is teased that the protagonist will have to face the boss and talk about the case, presumably taking a position on some specific issues, but the work ends before that actually happens. I think I would have preferred for such a scene to be included for the sake of offering some closure and allowing the player to structure their take on the case. Perhaps this was not done because the author felt that the case was too complex to be reduced to a choice-based analysis? But I think it could have worked and offered a more satisfying payoff.