Last updated on February 2nd, 2026 at 04:30 pm
Showdown at Willow Creek – Books Game Review
Showdown at Willow Creek is a Books/Adventure/Roleplaying game from Choice of Games LLC, first launched in 15th November 2013.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 21+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Showdown at Willow Creek Stand Out
Saddle up and defend the town of Willow Creek from nefarious outlaws and city slickers! It all starts when a rancher's daughter goes missing, and it ends at the showdown at Willow Creek, where greed, lust, science, and Mother Nature will face off at high noon.
Showdown at Willow Creek is an interactive western mystery novel where your choices control the story. The game is entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–but powered by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
Gamble, seduce, brawl, or shoot your way through Willow Creek, where gunslingers make the laws and everybody has secrets. Will you romance the gambler or the soiled dove (or both)? Will you side with the scientists bringing electricity to the Old West, or with a tribe of Native American Utes? Will you unravel the conspiracy that threatens to tear the town apart, or will you light the fuse to blow it all sky high?
This Books game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Showdown at Willow Creek is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 8th January 2026
Recent improvements include:
You can now choose a font in the Settings menu. Switch to Helvetica for crisp sans-serif text, or try the OpenDyslexic font, designed against some common symptoms of dyslexia. If you enjoy "Showdown at Willow Creek", please leave us a written review. It really helps!
Download & Availability
Showdown at Willow Creek is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Showdown at Willow Creek on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Really felt the need to give this story a review. Ive read handful of these interactive stories over the course of the last few years, even going back to reread old stories. Just downloaded this story for the first time tonight and genuinely am so impressed with it. The writing is very clean and the interaction is perfect. A lot of the time a lot of authors really get carried away with needing to describe heavy lore/details in these inter-actives and it totally looses its appeal, this story keeps you perfectly engaged with the right amount of story to decision making that you actually feel as though you are a part of its story, not just along for the ride. The author doesnt force a predetermined character on you and gives you a good amount of options to decide who you want to be and what you stand for. We absolutely encourage its creators to continue making interactives/writing, really a fantastic job. Besides that, truly a perfect little western adventure, very fun lighthearted storyline, with interesting characters. Thanks for the read.
The game starts out with you creating the world of your character and you get a choice of a romantic interest. Except the game doesnt tell you much about them besides their profession and gender despite the great emphasis the rest of the game puts on race. Your partners are not built for you to learn about in any way only to be fluff text if you do desire there is no depth to them youre better off with just your horse and gun. The plan for the dam sounded so unrealistic that we had hoped it was true and the main plot of the story wasnt oh hey we dont understand science this looks evil. The ending only tells the reader that things will go back to the way they were before, how boring we wanted our actions to change something besides mason being in a court case. Honestly Im a bit salty the game didnt tell us what happened to Aaron, did the doctor on the train even save him? Also money doesnt matter at all spend all you want you have no end to your coffers. This was not worth the price.
The story kept us on the edge of our seat at all times. The characters are what really make the mystery work. They're written in a way that makes them come alive. The choices you make actually matter in solving the mystery; your approach can either help you in the investigation or lose valuable information. The only problem we have with it is that there's no sequel.
We were very happy with the writing and narrative of this game. We thought the story was interesting and the choices were meaningful. Standard Wild West set pieces were present and enjoyable with their own twists and surprises. We didn't experience any choice loops or weird, unexpected responses to the choices we made. Overall, a very enjoyable game.
We loved it!! It was really fun to play!! Sadly, we felt like it was too short.
But not quite enough so to open the pursestrings. Promising, though.
We honestly think it was really short, but exciting and good! We love the game and it really deserves at least four maybe five stars. We just thought it was a little shorter than most of them. But any of you reading this should still get this app! It's really good. Maybe just play it a couple times to get different endings.
Not a bad little story. We're not much for westerns but we enjoyed this story. It's a shame it has so far received poor reviews that don't seem very informative or fair. Over all this game is 3 stars but if your new to choice games and not too familiar with westerns or are into them, you will like this read more so, we rated it 4 stars. Plus 4 stars seems more fair for the quality. We're not into westerns and we thought the story was too short and very predictable/typical for its genre.
It was over within an hour. You had no real choices. And the overlying plot was meager at best.
We bought this app a while Ago and we finished the story but we never replayed it, till one day we felt like playing it again and it said to pay $1.99 to get chapters 4-8, so we thought maybe the part we finished was just chapter 3. We were wrong we played it over and it stopped at the part where your about to visit Mason, at this point we were really upset because we wasn't going to spend another $1.99 on a story that we had already finished. You guys should unlock the remaining chapters for everyone who had previously purchased this app before the update. Anyway our review on this is that it isn't the best of the interactive stories that CoG LLC offers the story is too short and is boring and the stats don't matter cause your hardly use your skills also the choices you make really have no control of the story, IF YOUR LOOKING FOR A REALLY GOOD WILD WEST INTERACTIVE STORY GET "TIN STAR".
We enjoyed this game immensely; our one complaint is its length. The amount of story is good, but the chapters seem short and slightly disjointed. Perhaps that's the result of the author's approach to a multiple choice format… Whatever the reason, we alway felt like we had missed a paragraph or two here and there. Otherwise, fun story, good plot, nice choices, and overall a great read.
It was a fantastic game but we felt there was something missing. One key component that was left out. Not sure what it was though.
Very fun game with a lot of choices that actually matter, but the story is too short. We would love a sequel.
We love the Wild West theme, good character development, we recommend it, Needs a sequel.
Another outstanding entry in the line up. These games have crossed all sorts of times and we are waiting for a time travel epic. This game however lets you experience the times with a rich narrative that holds you from the first option.
Another good installment from the company.
Not too long, but still a nice story.
It definitely wasn't the best choice of game we've played but it was still enjoyable. A little shorter then we like too.
This is not a great offering, the story is short and lacking in meaning and structure. The choices are largely pointless and the stats are hardly used, this might have been a fine short story penned by a thirteen year old. This publisher has seen a major decline in quality over the last few releases.
A very bad story with practically no character development, we bought this after playing zombie Exodus and thought that this would be just as good. We were surprised to find that not only it was not as good but it was of a very poor quality. Your choices have almost 0 impact on the game, we spent an hour selecting stupid choices and we still managed to win the game. No challenge, not interesting and poorly written.
The quality of games being offered by Choice of Games has declined a lot over the past year. This is one of the worst of the bunch. Do not buy the full version. It doesn't get any better.
Not very interesting or compelling in any way. Decisions have very little impact.
We haven't played yet, but we've played most of their other games and they never disappoint. Always a gurenteed at least an hour of an encapsulating story that's hard to back from.
Wow, we love all of the games by these people. They're so great. We didn't buy the extra $1.99 for the whole version, but we've played a few other versions by them, and they're fun. Our only request now is to make a universal game with every single one of the games they've made, all for once price. We would pay money for that.
It was a shorter game, and maybe a bit simpler than say something like Zombie Exodus or Tin Star, but it was pleasing nonetheless. We enjoyed its simplicity and cute Western story. Not a very long play through, but we still liked it. We would recommend to those who especially enjoy Old Western themes.
We really enjoyed the game and the play-before-you-buy idea was unbeatable.
While we've never disliked a CoG story, this one seemed rushed, both to publish and to play. You can choose your race and job, but they make no difference since the story demands your character be a private eye. Similarly, we can't find a way to die or fail to solve the mystery, and the lack of risk is boring. This game seems like a "quick, write a western, but make it politically correct" type of effort, and it shows. At one point you play cards, have a saloon fight, break up a riot, and sleep with your sweetheart in about five pages of text. We'd wait on this one until it's cleaned up and expanded. If you love Westerns, wait for a new game.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.2.8
- Size: 27.52 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence, Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor, Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity, Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes, Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
- Developer: Choice of Games LLC
Last updated: 8th January 2026 | Genre: Books, Adventure | Developer: Choice of Games LLC