Highlands, Deep Waters vs Heart's Choice
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Highlands, Deep Waters
Unravel a dark mystery in a Scottish town, uncovering cultists and abyssal horrors. Your choices shape the narrative of this text-based interactive novel, where you play as a detective, criminal, or scholar.
- Interactive text-based story
- Choice-driven narrative
- Deduction system for clues
- Sanity system
- Character role selection
- Hand-drawn maps and lore
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While investigating a murder in a small Scottish town, you’ll find yourself embroiled in a world of secrets, cultists, and abyssal horror. What are you willing to do to solve the case? And what will you do when you don’t like the answer? "Highlands, Deep Waters" is a 340,000 word interactive horror novel by Fernando B Neves and Lucas Zaper, where your choices control the story. It's entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. • Play as an insightful Detective, a resourceful Criminal or a mysterious Scholar. • Gather and interpret clues with the Deduction system. Will you solve the case? • Face the hidden truths that derange your mind with the Sanity system. • A carefully crafted town including hand-drawn maps, unique history and peculiar inhabitants. • Play as a male, female, gay or straight. The Abyssal Ones treat everyone just the same.
Heart's Choice
Immerse yourself in interactive romance novels where your choices shape the narrative and lead to your desired happily ever after. Explore diverse stories with fully developed characters and complex plots, catering to various preferences and orientations.
- Choose your own path
- Interactive romance novels
- Branching narratives
- Player-driven endings
- Diverse characters and orientations
- Multiple spice levels
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Become the main character of a romance novel! Choose your path to passion and find your Happily Ever After. Since 2009, the team behind Choice of Games has created high-quality interactive novels in all genres. Now, our new Heart’s Choice label puts romance at the center of the story, and you at the center of the romance. There are no graphics or sound effects, so we can focus on the story. Every game is filled with vivid, fully-developed characters and complex narratives that respond to your choices. Every path is always open to you: we never charge extra for the best options or most interesting storylines. Unlike other games where you have to work your way through "failure" endings to get to the "good endings," in Heart's Choice, you'll always be able to choose a Happily Ever After with the character (or characters) you desire. Whatever gender or orientation you want to play, there will be a Heart’s Choice game for you in our catalog! And whether you like your romance sweet or smoking hot, you’ll be able to find a story that you love. Let your heart choose!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Heart's Choice at Free against Highlands, Deep Waters's $6.99. Heart's Choice also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 13 months) and ratings volume (304 vs 28). Highlands, Deep Waters's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and review sentiment (95% vs 86%). On rating, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Heart's Choice is free to download; Highlands, Deep Waters costs $6.99 up front. Heart's Choice sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Highlands, Deep Waters asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Highlands, Deep Waters against 4.7 for Heart's Choice. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Heart's Choice has 304 ratings behind it against 28, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 95% of Highlands, Deep Waters's written reviews are positive against 86% of Heart's Choice's.
Highlands, Deep Waters ships an update every 13 months, Heart's Choice every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Highlands, Deep Waters | Heart's Choice |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (28 ratings) | 4.7 (304 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 95.5% of reviews — better | 85.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 28 | 304 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 13 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 87 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Hosted Games LLC | Hearts Choice LLC |
Customer experience
Highlands, Deep Waters
Heart's Choice
Bugs and requests
Highlands, Deep Waters
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Heart's Choice
Reported bugs
3 issues- Login screen freezes
- Incompatibility issues with older devices
- Occasional loss of progress/save data
Requested features
5 requests- Add more gender and sexuality options across all stories
- Implement a 'back' or 'undo' feature for choices
- Increase the number of free or low-cost story options
- Improve app stability and reduce crashes
- Provide character bios and story descriptions to help users choose
In-app purchases
Highlands, Deep Waters
No in-app purchases
Heart's Choice
- Jazz Age$4.99
- Belle-de-Nuit$4.99
- Brimstone Manor$4.99
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Their Majesties' Pleasure$5.99
- Vampire's Kiss$5.99
- Heart of Battle$6.99
- All-World Pro Wrestling$6.99
- Freshman Magic$6.99
- Ink and Intrigue$6.99
- Changeling Charade$7.99
Questions
Is Highlands, Deep Waters free?
Is Heart's Choice free?
Which has better reviews, Highlands, Deep Waters or Heart's Choice?
Do Highlands, Deep Waters or Heart's Choice have ads?
Which is updated more often, Highlands, Deep Waters or Heart's Choice?
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