Paranoia vs Diabolical
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Paranoia
Navigate a complex narrative where your doctor might be your greatest threat. This multiple-choice game challenges you to survive a perilous situation.
- Multiple choice gameplay
- Survival challenges
- Narrative-driven
- Interactive story
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When you think your doctor may be trying to kill you, life gets complicated. Survive this multiple choice game if you can.
Diabolical
Become the ultimate criminal mastermind in this text-based interactive novel. Make choices to build an evil empire, hire minions, and achieve world domination, or destruction. Explore different villain archetypes and romance options.
- Choose your villainous path
- Hire and manage minions
- Make impactful story choices
- Develop your evil empire
- Explore romance options
- Achieve world domination or destruction
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Start practicing your evil laugh! As the world's greatest criminal mastermind, choose a lair, hire a minion, and steal the world's largest ball of aluminum foil! (Or, destroy the world. FINE.) "Diabolical" is a 130,000-word interactive novel by Nick Aires, 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. Famous, feared, or filthy rich—why not all three? You've got the money and the motives to build an evil empire worthy of the most ruthless villain the world has ever seen. Crush the good guys and terrorize the populace! Stamp a big red "FAIL" on your enemies' foreheads! Plunder your way to world domination – or sit back and pet your kitty while your henchmen do it for you. Will you be a high-tech daredevil, a ruthless military soldier, or an apparition terrifying to behold? What calling card will you leave at the scene of your crimes? Whatever your choices, the results will be diabolical. • Play a villainous story of scheming, grandstanding, and laughing evilly. • Interview and hire the best possible (or best available) minion. • Decide when to use trickery, when to use force, and when to hide behind henchmen. • Choose the ultimate, guaranteed-to-be-infamous nickname. • Play as male or female, with straight, gay, and bisexual romance options. • Destroy the world!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Paranoia at 4.6 against Diabolical's 4.1. Diabolical's advantage is ratings volume (45 vs 9). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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
Both are free to download. Paranoia sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Diabolical sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Paranoia holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Diabolical has 45 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Paranoia's written reviews are positive against 77% of Diabolical's.
Paranoia ships an update every 16 months, Diabolical every 13 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Paranoia | Diabolical |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (9 ratings) — better | 4.1 (45 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 82.6% of reviews — better | 77.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 45 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 16 months | Every 13 months — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Hosted Games LLC | Choice of Games LLC |
Customer experience
Paranoia
Diabolical
Bugs and requests
Paranoia
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Diabolical
Reported bugs
1 issue- Bug fix???
Requested features
14 requests- Sequel needed
- More like this game
- Werewolf story
- More choices that affect story
- Choice of alien game
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- More vs hero interaction
- Longer battles
- More villain POV things
- Improved sequel
- More customization (lairs, sidekicks, stats)
- More interactive than other gamebooks
- More improvements to character development
- More content like this
- More interactive releases
In-app purchases
Paranoia
- Remove Advertising$4.99
Diabolical
- Chapters 3 through 12$4.99









