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11. Talisman of Death - Score = 9.4 Tier = Great!
Attempts to beat: 12
What a hidden gem! I hadn't heard much about this one before reading it and it was one I missed in my youth and that's a shame as this is the second great book in a row. I sure wasn't thinking that when I read the prologue though. It sets the stage that you have been brought from Earth to rescue the land of Orb by the gods of this strange world. It begins with you sitting on a sofa atop a castle in the clouds. Ugh. That was a little too "airy" for my tastes and I wasn't expecting much after that setup. Fortunately the rest of the book is really nothing like this (the gods only make a token appearance if you die in certain spots) and it is much more in keeping with an epic high fantasy quest complete with monsters, magic, and dragons.
Much like Citadel of Chaos, this book actually gets better as you go along. The opening sections really aren't much to write home about as you travel across some forests and plains encountering warrior women along the way as you travel towards the city of Greyguilds-on-the-moor. Once inside the city though, things really kick into high gear as you must enlist the help of the local thieves guild to help you steal back the talisman that you have lost while contending with the villain of this section, the High Priestess Hawkana. This city section is truly excellent. It's not just Hawkana you have to contend with however. There are a couple of other great villains trying to stop you in Tyutchev and Cassandra. I love how these characters are set up. We get a brief story from a bartender about why Tyutchev is so feared by the locals but you get a sense his backstory is far deeper and more sinister than that and you really dont want to get on his bad side!
Once you manage to escape the city with the Talisman, you still need to trek across dangerous plains to a mountain atop a plateau. I have to say, there is an encounter with wraiths on these plains that borrows HEAVILY from Lord of the Rings. It is on the brief side though and hey, if you are going to borrow from something, might as well make it the greatest book of the 20th century!
The end section where you scale the plateau and mountain is also excellent in every sense. I wish the sequence inside the plateau with the tomb had been longer and fleshed out more but I chalk this up to the constraints of the 400 section book. I wonder what more could have been done with this section and how even better the book could have been if the authors had been allowed to make the book as long as they wished. Ah well. The final encounter with the dragon on the mountain top is also very well executed and very tense.
I have to say, the writing in this book is really fantastic and helps to increase the review score. Thomson and Smith's writing is a notch above Jackson and Livingstone's (not that theirs is bad by any means) and it's very obvious this wont be their last gamebook, even if it does prove to be the last in the Fighting Fantasy series.
Ranking: With House of Hell, back to back great books! In fact, these easily have been the best 2 so far. It's pretty close but I give House of Hell the slight edge due to the atmosphere, setting and unique design.
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12. Space Assassin - Score = 6.2 Tier = OK
Attempts to beat: 16
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12. Space Assassin - Score = 6.2 Tier = OK
Attempts to beat: 16
Noble effort! Andrew Chapman gives us his first entry in the series and it's not bad for a first book really. It's certainly an improvement over the previous sci-fi entry in the range (the lame Starship Traveller) although that isn't really saying much.
There are definitely some good ideas on offer here. The story is actually set up pretty well. You are on an assassination mission to eliminate a genocidal maniac before he can wipe out an entire planet. Well, you SHOULD be on an assassination mission being that you are supposed to be an assassin and that would be much cooler than the "capture him" mission you are actually sent on but whatever.
The first half of the book is basically a dungeon crawl in space but I don't mind that at all. I love dungeon crawls actually as I suspect most players do. The second half opens up a bit more with a strangely out of place landscape exploring section complete with forests, lakes, caverns and hills and you might be wondering if you perhaps put the book down and picked up another one by accident! This planetary landscape section actually seems pretty large so it is somewhat strange that you can bypass it entirely (and still win no less).
The best sequence in the whole book though is easily the tank battle game that occurs nearer the end of the adventure. There are a few things to keep track of as you draw out the battleground of the maze and there is even a complete set of rules for this sequence at the back of the book. A lot of work clearly went into this which makes it even more puzzling that once again this is a sequence that can be bypassed entirely and also still win through the adventure. I think Mr Chapman did himself a disservice by not having this battle game along the required victory route.
Having said all that, the book still does have some pretty big problems. First, the villain and the final battle turns out to be dull as dirt. None of the encounters leading up to him are very memorable either. In fact I had to consult my map just to remember a few! Perhaps the biggest problem though is that the prose here is just really bad. And the less said about that final victory paragraph the better. Check it out for a good laugh.
Ranking: This is solidly in the OK tier for me which might be a case of lowered expectations after the previous sci-fi entry. There are some really good ideas here but the blandness of the encounters, some strange design choices and most importantly the poor writing prevent this from being anything more than that. I enjoyed it more than the seemingly universally better liked Forest of Doom but not by much. It sure ain't no Warlock of Firetop though so in between those two it goes!
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13. Freeway Fighter - Score = 6.5 Tier = OK
Attempts to beat: 10
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13. Freeway Fighter - Score = 6.5 Tier = OK
Attempts to beat: 10
Plagiarism department calling Ian Livingstone, line 2 please! Jeesh, could this book be any more blatant in ripping off Mad Max? As if driving cross country to pick up a load of oil wasn't bad enough, Ian also has you driving an Interceptor! While I acknowledge that most works are going to borrow from others in one way or another this is especially blatant here. That being said, on to the gamebook experience itself...
Well, Ian finally ends his run of good to great gamebooks here unfortunately. It's not terrible by any means and does have some positives, but is nowhere near as good as some of his previous efforts. To begin, the setting and prologue here (usually a Livingstone strong suit) is pretty weak. The United States vs England in the soccer World Cup? Dream on! The virus plotline isn't very interesting either in my opinion. We don't really discover who the main villain of the story is until very late in the adventure and up until then it's basically a string of random encounters. To make matters worse, the encounters for the most part seemed very similar. Find an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road. Investigate. Repeat.
Easily my biggest problem with the adventure comes from a game design standpoint though and it occurs at a particular point in the book. This point is the blitz race. On the surface the first time you play, it actually seems well done and is exciting for the most part. Unfortunately, the whole adventure comes down to ONE single roll at the end of this race as you speed toward a bridge to see if you or your opponent gets there first. Fail this roll and you lose the race. Lose the race and you can't complete the adventure because you don't get the needed fuel canister for winning. Having the whole adventure hinge on a single roll is terrible gamebook design and Livingstone should know better.
Despite all the above, the book does have some positives. While the setting might not be one of my favorites, Ian still does a good job of immersing you in it. I really did feel as though I was speeding across a desolate landscape with my hair on fire so to speak. It is also pretty satisfying to have a James Bond style vehicle with all its weapons such as missiles, oil slicks and spikes at your disposal. The missiles in particular bring some added fun to the proceedings when you decide to blow the crap out of something rather than have to engage it in combat. The end encounter is rather lackluster, however you do have a couple of choices on how to engage the main baddie which was a nice touch. The section after you make it to San Anglo and have to return to New Hope also seems somewhat tacked on. As if Ian knew he was woefully short on sections (this one is shorter than the normal 400) and needed to add something to pad it out.
Ranking - Solidly in the OK tier. Unlike most books in this tier, I really don't see much that could have been done differently to elevate this. A bit better than Space Assassin as the writing here is better but not really close to Warlock of Firetop in any meaningful way so in between them it currently goes.
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14. Temple of Terror - Score = 8.8 Tier = Great!
Attempts to beat: 23
What a ripping adventure yarn! That's what I'm talking about! After two so-so books we are back in great territory again as Ian rediscovers his groove after the somewhat limp Freeway Fighter. We return to a high fantasy setting that seems like it might be picking up immediately where Forest of Doom left off (although this isn't explicitly clear).
The evil wizard threatening the world might be getting rote at this point already but that's probably because it usually makes for a thrilling story and that's no different here. The prologue once again does a great job of setting up the villain, Malbordus, as a very worthy evil adversary indeed. You and he are in a race to find 5 dragon statues hidden inside a lost desert temple with the very fate of the world at stake. If joined, these statues could be used to bring forth 5 real dragons which would serve at the command of the statue holder. How cool of a setup is that?
I must confess, the desert setting in fantasy is probably my favorite so I was already predisposed to like this adventure from the start. You don't actually begin in the desert, but in the dwarven village of Stonebridge (picking up from Forest of Doom as mentioned above), then travel to Port Blacksand, before finally travelling over the sea where you eventually begin your trek across the scorching sands to locate the "Temple of Terror" in question.
The first third of the book is solid, but nothing too special. We aren't really in one location too long to get a sense of immersion in anything as it seems to be a catalogue of Ian Livingstone's greatest hits locations with Stonebridge and Port Blacksand. Im surprised he doesn't have you visit Fang on the way but I guess the layout of Allansia wouldn't really make this doable. I really enjoyed the voyage across the sea but unfortunately this sequence contains one of those "fail one roll and you lose" checks that I hate so much. I only failed this particular roll once however (unlike the stupid blitz race in Freeway Fighter) so maybe that factored in my not despising it as much this time.
Once we hit the desert though the adventure really picks up steam. Ian does a fantastic job of making you feel the sun beating down on your back as you walk across the burning desert sands. The adventure picks up even MORE once we locate the titular temple and begin our search for the dragon statues. There is so much cool stuff going on in this temple it really is something to behold.
The Messenger of Death is a fantastic creation. Unfortunately , I feel it could have been implemented much better. Once you know where one of the death letters is, they can easily be avoided on subsequent playthroughs. Therefore, unless you are extremely unlucky and find all the letters on your first playthrough (and this book will take you many) he isn't really a threat. I think this could have worked much better if say every time in combat when you rolled a 2 (or maybe a 2 or 3) you would receive a letter. Once you reached the five letters of DEATH you would be sent to a new section where you would battle the Messenger himself, then return to the section you were on. I think this would have been an excellent way to build tension in the combats.
Exploring the temple to find the 5 statues is excellent fun, as is using trial and error to figure out which items and spells can help overcome which situations and monsters. There is a sweet spot here of finding the correct path along with just enough difficult creatures to make it interesting even when you know where all the statues are.
I have to admit, the final confrontation with Malbordus was a bit of a letdown (especially after the way he was built up) but final battles have not been Ian's strong point to say the least. In fact, I found the Priestess to be a more interesting villain once all was said and done but unfortunately the culmination of her story isn't that great either. Ian really needs to work on his endgame.
There is also a somewhat strange story oddity whereby we are told that Malbordus needs all 5 dragon statues. So if you find even 1 of them, shouldn't you win? That part didn't make much sense to me at first but maybe it's implied he takes them off your corpse should you die? Although I do believe there is a game over paragraph where you see him flying over you with the now fully animated dragons even though you may have some of the statues in your backpack!
Ranking: Really great stuff. If the Messenger of Death mechanic had been done differently and the battle with Malbordus been amped up a la the Balthus Dire battle (get used to this comparison!) this could have pushed House of Hell for #1 overall. As it stands though, I didn't quite enjoy it as much as House of Hell or Talisman of Death although I did surprisingly enjoy it more than City of Thieves (and I'm sure I'm in the minority of FF fans on that one).
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15. The Rings of Kether - Score = 3.5 Tier = Bad
Attempts to beat: 8
Ugh! Well, it took 11 books but we have our first stinker since book #4. And like #4 this is another sci-fi entry. After 3 sci-fi entries (I personally don't think Freeway Fighter is sci-fi) it's becoming apparent that this genre will be FAR more difficult to achieve success in then the usual high fantasy setting. Im sure reams could be written about why that is but I suspect it's for the most part that fantasy is inherently cool while sci-fi is inherently goofy? Not to say that I don't enjoy sci-fi (my favorite genre of movie) but when it's done bad it's REALLY bad. Fantasy on the other hand even when not done well seems to be generally passable. So far the only one of the 3 sci-fi books to date I've found generally passable was #12 Space Assassin.
The story found in Rings of Kether is an absolute borefest. After spending most of the books to date on hunter-killer missions where the stakes seem incredibly high, providing us the opportunity to become an interstellar space cop trying to break up a drug ring really leaves a lot to be desired. So some organization is smuggling drugs off the planet in violation of galactic federation rules? Who cares?!?! Honestly, this book would have done better to set it on Earth in the 80's (and maybe give you a black Ferarri and a partner named Tubbs). The outer space setting just dwarfs whats going on here.
I will give some credit to the fact that you can beat the book a couple of different ways (destroy or capture options) and the exploration of Kether, boring as it is, is done in a non-linear way. Gathering clues initially seems like it might be somewhat fun but you quickly find out that it really makes no difference what you discover. You can blunder your way to the end of the book quite easily without really knowing what the heck is going on. Oh yeah, did I mention your character says things that make him seem like an absolute moron? Well he does. A lot. Once again Andrew Chapman's writing is really bad. There is a whole lot of cringe inducing prose going on in this one.
At this point I should also note that while I have 8 attempts as my number in beating this book it really can (and should) be done in far less than that. On my very first attempt I made it to the game's big bad, Blaster Babbet. And while I lost that fight I already knew how to get right to the end very easily. I usually try to beat the books in as few attempts as possible but because I had gotten to the end very quickly from a reading standpoint I knew there were large chunks of the book I must have missed, so on my subsequent playthroughs I went out of my way to explore as much as possible to see what else the book had to offer. (I was even killed once by someone hitting me with a paperweight). I really could have finished it in half the tries or less had I taken the usual approach.
Ranking: Not too hard here. It's easily in the bad tier so the only question is, is it better than Starship Traveller? Yes it is, but that's hardly a recommendation.
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16. Seas of Blood - Score = 6.8 Tier = OK
Attempts to beat: 37 (jeesh!)
11 Talisman of Death
14 Temple of Terror
20 Sword of the Samurai
Not bad! 3 out of 10 books in this group are Hall of Famers. This group overall wasn't as strong as the first 10 in the range (and that was going to be tough to do) but this is still a pretty good ratio. This group also contains what is so far the reigning champion in Sword of the Samurai. I will also be quite happy if 30% of the books from here on out are classics. I see some big names in the next 10 books and am looking forward to giving them a proper go!
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14. Temple of Terror - Score = 8.8 Tier = Great!
Attempts to beat: 23
The evil wizard threatening the world might be getting rote at this point already but that's probably because it usually makes for a thrilling story and that's no different here. The prologue once again does a great job of setting up the villain, Malbordus, as a very worthy evil adversary indeed. You and he are in a race to find 5 dragon statues hidden inside a lost desert temple with the very fate of the world at stake. If joined, these statues could be used to bring forth 5 real dragons which would serve at the command of the statue holder. How cool of a setup is that?
I must confess, the desert setting in fantasy is probably my favorite so I was already predisposed to like this adventure from the start. You don't actually begin in the desert, but in the dwarven village of Stonebridge (picking up from Forest of Doom as mentioned above), then travel to Port Blacksand, before finally travelling over the sea where you eventually begin your trek across the scorching sands to locate the "Temple of Terror" in question.
The first third of the book is solid, but nothing too special. We aren't really in one location too long to get a sense of immersion in anything as it seems to be a catalogue of Ian Livingstone's greatest hits locations with Stonebridge and Port Blacksand. Im surprised he doesn't have you visit Fang on the way but I guess the layout of Allansia wouldn't really make this doable. I really enjoyed the voyage across the sea but unfortunately this sequence contains one of those "fail one roll and you lose" checks that I hate so much. I only failed this particular roll once however (unlike the stupid blitz race in Freeway Fighter) so maybe that factored in my not despising it as much this time.
Once we hit the desert though the adventure really picks up steam. Ian does a fantastic job of making you feel the sun beating down on your back as you walk across the burning desert sands. The adventure picks up even MORE once we locate the titular temple and begin our search for the dragon statues. There is so much cool stuff going on in this temple it really is something to behold.
The Messenger of Death is a fantastic creation. Unfortunately , I feel it could have been implemented much better. Once you know where one of the death letters is, they can easily be avoided on subsequent playthroughs. Therefore, unless you are extremely unlucky and find all the letters on your first playthrough (and this book will take you many) he isn't really a threat. I think this could have worked much better if say every time in combat when you rolled a 2 (or maybe a 2 or 3) you would receive a letter. Once you reached the five letters of DEATH you would be sent to a new section where you would battle the Messenger himself, then return to the section you were on. I think this would have been an excellent way to build tension in the combats.
Exploring the temple to find the 5 statues is excellent fun, as is using trial and error to figure out which items and spells can help overcome which situations and monsters. There is a sweet spot here of finding the correct path along with just enough difficult creatures to make it interesting even when you know where all the statues are.
I have to admit, the final confrontation with Malbordus was a bit of a letdown (especially after the way he was built up) but final battles have not been Ian's strong point to say the least. In fact, I found the Priestess to be a more interesting villain once all was said and done but unfortunately the culmination of her story isn't that great either. Ian really needs to work on his endgame.
There is also a somewhat strange story oddity whereby we are told that Malbordus needs all 5 dragon statues. So if you find even 1 of them, shouldn't you win? That part didn't make much sense to me at first but maybe it's implied he takes them off your corpse should you die? Although I do believe there is a game over paragraph where you see him flying over you with the now fully animated dragons even though you may have some of the statues in your backpack!
Ranking: Really great stuff. If the Messenger of Death mechanic had been done differently and the battle with Malbordus been amped up a la the Balthus Dire battle (get used to this comparison!) this could have pushed House of Hell for #1 overall. As it stands though, I didn't quite enjoy it as much as House of Hell or Talisman of Death although I did surprisingly enjoy it more than City of Thieves (and I'm sure I'm in the minority of FF fans on that one).
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15. The Rings of Kether - Score = 3.5 Tier = Bad
Attempts to beat: 8
The story found in Rings of Kether is an absolute borefest. After spending most of the books to date on hunter-killer missions where the stakes seem incredibly high, providing us the opportunity to become an interstellar space cop trying to break up a drug ring really leaves a lot to be desired. So some organization is smuggling drugs off the planet in violation of galactic federation rules? Who cares?!?! Honestly, this book would have done better to set it on Earth in the 80's (and maybe give you a black Ferarri and a partner named Tubbs). The outer space setting just dwarfs whats going on here.
I will give some credit to the fact that you can beat the book a couple of different ways (destroy or capture options) and the exploration of Kether, boring as it is, is done in a non-linear way. Gathering clues initially seems like it might be somewhat fun but you quickly find out that it really makes no difference what you discover. You can blunder your way to the end of the book quite easily without really knowing what the heck is going on. Oh yeah, did I mention your character says things that make him seem like an absolute moron? Well he does. A lot. Once again Andrew Chapman's writing is really bad. There is a whole lot of cringe inducing prose going on in this one.
At this point I should also note that while I have 8 attempts as my number in beating this book it really can (and should) be done in far less than that. On my very first attempt I made it to the game's big bad, Blaster Babbet. And while I lost that fight I already knew how to get right to the end very easily. I usually try to beat the books in as few attempts as possible but because I had gotten to the end very quickly from a reading standpoint I knew there were large chunks of the book I must have missed, so on my subsequent playthroughs I went out of my way to explore as much as possible to see what else the book had to offer. (I was even killed once by someone hitting me with a paperweight). I really could have finished it in half the tries or less had I taken the usual approach.
Ranking: Not too hard here. It's easily in the bad tier so the only question is, is it better than Starship Traveller? Yes it is, but that's hardly a recommendation.
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16. Seas of Blood - Score = 6.8 Tier = OK
Attempts to beat: 37 (jeesh!)
So close! Andrew Chapman once again takes some good initial design ideas then sets about to almost ruin them with frustrating moments and bad writing.
The story here isnt near as boring as his previous book but it's still not exactly what you would call a corker. You are a famous pirate and enter into a contest with another famous pirate to see which of you can accrue the most treasure over a 50 day period. Yippee. Seems like the pirate-y thing to do would have been to camp down on a tropical beach for a month and a half sipping pina coladas then show up and kill your rival and take his treasure but unfortunately that isn't one of the options you are given. So over the course of his 3 Fighting Fantasy books, Andrew Chapman has had us go from stopping a genocidal maniac, to breaking up an interstellar drug ring, to winning a bet. I can only imagine what the goal of his next book would have been. Attempting to pick up your suit from the dry cleaners?
I will give credit to the design of the adventure where you need to figure out where you can pick up gold (and slaves) and in what quantities while still keeping under the time limit. It is a pretty neat balancing act and is fun mapping out the sea trying to find the locations that have the much needed gold and most of the fun you have in the book will come from this exploring. Oh yes, did I mention this book has you acquiring and selling slaves? I found this on the distasteful side and didn't really enjoy playing this character because of it but let it go for the most part due to the fantasy setting.
Speaking of the setting, being a pirate themed adventure and all, I wonder if the book might have been better served by making it more of a "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum" type of pirate story complete with Caribbean style setting. It seems like here they decided to go more with a classical Greek/Arabian Nights theme and the artwork in particular hammers this choice home. And yes I realize they had pirates in ancient Greece as well but I'm not sure if that's what comes to mind of most people when you mention pirates.
There were some decently interesting areas of the world to visit, such as the Rivers of the Dead, the island of Enraki, and the Roc. It's too bad though that you don't spend much time in any of them. So while they might start off promisingly, you are setting sail again before you know it without having any of them really fleshed out. I didn't really find many notable encounters throughout the book either (although the Awkmute really creeped me out for some reason). Even the Hydra encounter from the cover didn't seem nearly as epic as it should have been.
Unfortunately the book isn't nearly as non-linear as it initially seems as there is only one real way I found to get the amount of gold needed to win. There is another way I came across but that depended on you getting a bit lucky with some dice rolls when it came time to determine how many slaves you captured from a certain encounter and how much you are able to sell them for (ugh).
In regard to the fight against the Cyclops near the end of the book (did Abdul have to fight this guy too?), this battle is done in a "chose your maneuver" style instead of the usual dice rolling. Each of the three choices you are given for your moves seem to either cause you damage, cause the Cyclops damage, or cause both of you damage. These choices then eventually loop back on themselves. This makes this battle way too easy and quite boring. Once you have fought him once you will have absolutely no problem with him again and even the first time you fight him if you have higher stamina (which you should due to the easy recovery of personal stamina in the book) you still shouldn't have much of a problem as 2 of the 3 options will be good for you and you will loop back to options you know the answer to before the battle is finished anyway. No tension here whatsoever.
I would be remiss if I also didn't mention how ridiculously important your crew stats are in this book. Particularly your Crew Strength score (which will be lowered quite quickly with low Crew Strike score which makes that just as important I guess now that I think about it). There is a crucial do-or-die roll near the end of the book where you roll 3 dice and compare to your Crew Strength. Don't roll under this stat and you lose. End of story. Why the heck is this here? Gahhhhh!!! Why do they keep throwing these one-roll-and you die scenarios in the books?? Do they think it increases replay value? Not even a third of the way through the series and these moments have already become incredibly tiresome. I failed this one single roll more times than I care to mention and a good part of the many attempts this book took me can be chalked up to this ridiculousness.
Ranking: This book is really quite a shame. It should have been much better but is held back by bad writing (although admittedly an improvement on his previous books) and some frustrating design decisions. I wouldn't call it good but it's solidly near the top of the OK tier due to the fun of exploring some pretty cool locations for the needed gold.
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17. Appointment With F.E.A.R. - Score = 7.8 Tier = Good
Attempts to beat: 9
Gamebook fans, ACTIVATE! If I was ranking purely on a design standpoint this book might be the best one yet. The replayability factor for this one is off the charts! You have four different superpowers to choose from and a laundry list of super-villains to battle over the course of five days (by my count). The villains hold the various clues you will need to solve the mystery of the time and location of the F.E.A.R. meeting you need to stop. The kicker is you don't know WHICH villains hold the needed info. So, you will need to use trial and error to track them all down over multiple playthroughs and discover who has what information. The genius part is, the villains that hold the required info are different depending on what superpower you chose! THAT is brilliant Mr Jackson!
Unfortunately, I feel the fantastic design here could have been put to use in a better story. I'm ok with the superhero genre but I can't help but wonder what could be done with this format in a murder mystery type setting. Even the usual sword and sorcery fantasy setting would have worked better I think (and is what fans of the series are usually playing the books for). But Steve likes to push the boundaries and try new things so kudos to him in that respect.
The story here really is kind of on the goofy side. It leans too far into parody at several places for my taste. At one point you can stop by a record store (remember those?) and buy the new "Michael Blackson" album. Good grief. You can also encounter millionaire Drew Swain and your boss Jonah Whyte. Cmon man. And in a shameless plug more in the vein of Ian Livingstone you can even buy The Warlock of Firetop Mountain as a gift for said boss. I'm sure some will say I'm taking it too seriously and they could very well be right, but if the book itself is going to treat the adventure like a joke then I will treat it as one also and all sense of tension and thrill of victory goes out the window.
However, Steve Jackson does do a really good job in creating the roster of super-villains here in my opinion. Sure, the odd one might seem a bit lame (The Tormentor for example), but it must be incredibly hard to create an original comic book character. I mean really, just about any power you can think of has been done already. Give it a try and see what you can come up with. With that said, I think more than a few are pretty interesting if similar to existing comic villains (The Scarlet Prankster = The Joker for example).
Maybe it's because I chose the super strength option as my superpower (you get to fight with a skill of 13) but I found the combats in this book to be ridiculously easy. I actually love the more puzzle oriented books such as this one and House of Hell but in this case because I so overpowered almost every enemy I faced it just seemed like a lot of pointless dice rolling where the outcome was a foregone conclusion. There were a couple of exceptions such as the high skill Creature of Carnage battle for example but they did not have any needed info so after fighting them once you never had to again on subsequent playthroughs. Im not even sure I lost a single stamina point in combat on my eventual winning run.
Ranking: Phew this has been the toughest one to rank so far. On design alone this is top-notch and easily in the great tier. However, story counts as well and the weaker elements of that side of the book and some of the cringe worthy in-jokes drop it down into the Good tier. It's neck and neck with Caverns for me but though I preferred the story in Caverns I greatly preferred the design of this one which gives this book the edge.
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18. Rebel Planet - Score = 7.2 Tier = Good
Attempts to beat: 26
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17. Appointment With F.E.A.R. - Score = 7.8 Tier = Good
Attempts to beat: 9
Gamebook fans, ACTIVATE! If I was ranking purely on a design standpoint this book might be the best one yet. The replayability factor for this one is off the charts! You have four different superpowers to choose from and a laundry list of super-villains to battle over the course of five days (by my count). The villains hold the various clues you will need to solve the mystery of the time and location of the F.E.A.R. meeting you need to stop. The kicker is you don't know WHICH villains hold the needed info. So, you will need to use trial and error to track them all down over multiple playthroughs and discover who has what information. The genius part is, the villains that hold the required info are different depending on what superpower you chose! THAT is brilliant Mr Jackson!
Unfortunately, I feel the fantastic design here could have been put to use in a better story. I'm ok with the superhero genre but I can't help but wonder what could be done with this format in a murder mystery type setting. Even the usual sword and sorcery fantasy setting would have worked better I think (and is what fans of the series are usually playing the books for). But Steve likes to push the boundaries and try new things so kudos to him in that respect.
The story here really is kind of on the goofy side. It leans too far into parody at several places for my taste. At one point you can stop by a record store (remember those?) and buy the new "Michael Blackson" album. Good grief. You can also encounter millionaire Drew Swain and your boss Jonah Whyte. Cmon man. And in a shameless plug more in the vein of Ian Livingstone you can even buy The Warlock of Firetop Mountain as a gift for said boss. I'm sure some will say I'm taking it too seriously and they could very well be right, but if the book itself is going to treat the adventure like a joke then I will treat it as one also and all sense of tension and thrill of victory goes out the window.
However, Steve Jackson does do a really good job in creating the roster of super-villains here in my opinion. Sure, the odd one might seem a bit lame (The Tormentor for example), but it must be incredibly hard to create an original comic book character. I mean really, just about any power you can think of has been done already. Give it a try and see what you can come up with. With that said, I think more than a few are pretty interesting if similar to existing comic villains (The Scarlet Prankster = The Joker for example).
Maybe it's because I chose the super strength option as my superpower (you get to fight with a skill of 13) but I found the combats in this book to be ridiculously easy. I actually love the more puzzle oriented books such as this one and House of Hell but in this case because I so overpowered almost every enemy I faced it just seemed like a lot of pointless dice rolling where the outcome was a foregone conclusion. There were a couple of exceptions such as the high skill Creature of Carnage battle for example but they did not have any needed info so after fighting them once you never had to again on subsequent playthroughs. Im not even sure I lost a single stamina point in combat on my eventual winning run.
Ranking: Phew this has been the toughest one to rank so far. On design alone this is top-notch and easily in the great tier. However, story counts as well and the weaker elements of that side of the book and some of the cringe worthy in-jokes drop it down into the Good tier. It's neck and neck with Caverns for me but though I preferred the story in Caverns I greatly preferred the design of this one which gives this book the edge.
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18. Rebel Planet - Score = 7.2 Tier = Good
Attempts to beat: 26
Finally! A good sci-fi entry! It's not really as sci-fi as you might expect though. Sure, it's set in the future and you are travelling through space, but there are no space combats, no blasters, and your weapon is a sword (cough-cough lightsaber). So you could say it's a sci-fi story pasted over a fantasy game design. Thankfully there was no "force" (or "schwartz"!) as a magic substitute.
The prologue here is really incredible. This is easily the most detailed introduction yet and does a phenomenal job of setting the atmosphere and tension for the journey to come. This adventure sees you travel across 4 planets (Tropos, Radix, Halmuris, and finally Arcadion) whereby you need to obtain a code from each of the first three planets to use on the fourth planet. Each planet is really its own mini-adventure. Pass it and you move on the next. I will give my overall thoughts on each of the planets adventures below:
Tropos- A little on the easy side, but this is fine considering it's your first stop. I was able to make it through this planet only having one combat (and an easy one at that). But the atmosphere of the planet is so well done and is the real star of this part of the book. The feeling of paranoia and "who can you trust?" vibe just permeates everywhere you go.
Radix- Moving on to the second planet, the difficulty level starts to dial up a bit but still it's not really too hard. There are a LOT more combats on this planet (I counted 6 on my way through) although the Street Fighter is the only one that should really give a moderately skilled character any problems. The Laphodorm and Scabrok battles in the arena could get on the boring side though as there doesn't seem to be much difference to them. Assuming you pass a luck test you fight these two back to back and they have the exact same stats and even the exact same purpose for being there. Still, this is another excellently fleshed out planet with great atmosphere. At this point, you are probably thinking this book is going to be a classic! Unfortunately.....
Halmuris- The third planet is where the book starts to fall apart, particularly from a design standpoint. After the wonderfully thought provoking first two planets, here we are scavenging for the code on a basically barren wasteland with a couple of outposts to travel between. This in itself is fine, but the means by which you acquire the code on this planet is so unlike the previous ones and really doesn't seem to make much logical sense. It will take you many attempts before you even begin to understand what you are supposed to do...and even then it still leaves you puzzled as to what's going on. The number of instant deaths on this planet (and continuing through to the end of the book) is really quite ridiculous. For example, travelling between this planet and Arcadion you are told you hear a rattling at your door. You can either ask who it is or just open the door. If you choose ask who it is the adventure is over. Are you kidding me? That's awful.
Arcadion - Maybe Robin Waterfield was running out of sections but the final planet seems pretty rushed to say the least. We get to see hardly any of this planet which is a shame and drops the atmosphere down to almost zero in this area. The means by which you enter the binary code to access the computer though is really well done and you definitely feel tension as you hope you did everything right! Even entering it correctly though you are still faced with a couple more guessing games before you can win. The first one being which items to take from the armory which shouldn't be too hard as you realize you will need some explosive to destroy the computer. But then you are asked where exactly to plant the explosives! Only two of the four options seemed viable to me in this decision but still, this seemed a little on the arbitrary side having gotten this far.
There really was one big missed opportunity in this book I think, and that would be the ability to explore the first 3 planets and search for the codes in any order you choose (by beginning from some sort of central hub). A simple "Which planet will you travel to first?" option etc. This way, once you find 1 or 2 of the codes, you wouldn't have to keep trudging back through the first couple of planets doing the exact same things just to get another shot at the very difficult Halmuris. You could argue that the dungeon crawl books don't provide this mechanic either as you routinely have to cover the same ground to arrive back at the unexplored area in question but that's kind of my point. The sci-fi setting here story-wise could have allowed for a plausible reason for doing the planets in any order.
Additionally, there is a section of the book (Radix) where you get one of the required codes by examining a picture on a Professors desk. The code is contained somewhere in the picture. This seems to be a slippery slope to me and while different and original Im not sure I like this mechanic. If for some reason you just couldn't figure out the picture puzzle, either from it being too obscure or you just weren't seeing what you needed to see for some reason, you would have no chance of winning the book. Fortunately I felt this particular puzzle was pretty obvious but it will be interesting to see if this kind of thing is repeated in future books.
This book also does an excellent job of mixing up the variety of the combats. Armed, unarmed (with a possible instant win mechanic), enemy modifiers if they have a tail or happen to be extra cunning, etc. Each combat situation seemed really different and exciting with the possible exception of the above mentioned arena battles on Radix.
Ranking: In the Good tier for sure. It's a shame the effort and detail from the prologue and first two planets wasn't carried over into the second half of the book or this could have been much higher. The crazy number of frustrating instant deaths also push the score down a bit. I can't put this ahead of the immortal Warlock of Firetop but it's easily better than Seas of Blood.
The prologue here is really incredible. This is easily the most detailed introduction yet and does a phenomenal job of setting the atmosphere and tension for the journey to come. This adventure sees you travel across 4 planets (Tropos, Radix, Halmuris, and finally Arcadion) whereby you need to obtain a code from each of the first three planets to use on the fourth planet. Each planet is really its own mini-adventure. Pass it and you move on the next. I will give my overall thoughts on each of the planets adventures below:
Tropos- A little on the easy side, but this is fine considering it's your first stop. I was able to make it through this planet only having one combat (and an easy one at that). But the atmosphere of the planet is so well done and is the real star of this part of the book. The feeling of paranoia and "who can you trust?" vibe just permeates everywhere you go.
Radix- Moving on to the second planet, the difficulty level starts to dial up a bit but still it's not really too hard. There are a LOT more combats on this planet (I counted 6 on my way through) although the Street Fighter is the only one that should really give a moderately skilled character any problems. The Laphodorm and Scabrok battles in the arena could get on the boring side though as there doesn't seem to be much difference to them. Assuming you pass a luck test you fight these two back to back and they have the exact same stats and even the exact same purpose for being there. Still, this is another excellently fleshed out planet with great atmosphere. At this point, you are probably thinking this book is going to be a classic! Unfortunately.....
Halmuris- The third planet is where the book starts to fall apart, particularly from a design standpoint. After the wonderfully thought provoking first two planets, here we are scavenging for the code on a basically barren wasteland with a couple of outposts to travel between. This in itself is fine, but the means by which you acquire the code on this planet is so unlike the previous ones and really doesn't seem to make much logical sense. It will take you many attempts before you even begin to understand what you are supposed to do...and even then it still leaves you puzzled as to what's going on. The number of instant deaths on this planet (and continuing through to the end of the book) is really quite ridiculous. For example, travelling between this planet and Arcadion you are told you hear a rattling at your door. You can either ask who it is or just open the door. If you choose ask who it is the adventure is over. Are you kidding me? That's awful.
Arcadion - Maybe Robin Waterfield was running out of sections but the final planet seems pretty rushed to say the least. We get to see hardly any of this planet which is a shame and drops the atmosphere down to almost zero in this area. The means by which you enter the binary code to access the computer though is really well done and you definitely feel tension as you hope you did everything right! Even entering it correctly though you are still faced with a couple more guessing games before you can win. The first one being which items to take from the armory which shouldn't be too hard as you realize you will need some explosive to destroy the computer. But then you are asked where exactly to plant the explosives! Only two of the four options seemed viable to me in this decision but still, this seemed a little on the arbitrary side having gotten this far.
There really was one big missed opportunity in this book I think, and that would be the ability to explore the first 3 planets and search for the codes in any order you choose (by beginning from some sort of central hub). A simple "Which planet will you travel to first?" option etc. This way, once you find 1 or 2 of the codes, you wouldn't have to keep trudging back through the first couple of planets doing the exact same things just to get another shot at the very difficult Halmuris. You could argue that the dungeon crawl books don't provide this mechanic either as you routinely have to cover the same ground to arrive back at the unexplored area in question but that's kind of my point. The sci-fi setting here story-wise could have allowed for a plausible reason for doing the planets in any order.
Additionally, there is a section of the book (Radix) where you get one of the required codes by examining a picture on a Professors desk. The code is contained somewhere in the picture. This seems to be a slippery slope to me and while different and original Im not sure I like this mechanic. If for some reason you just couldn't figure out the picture puzzle, either from it being too obscure or you just weren't seeing what you needed to see for some reason, you would have no chance of winning the book. Fortunately I felt this particular puzzle was pretty obvious but it will be interesting to see if this kind of thing is repeated in future books.
This book also does an excellent job of mixing up the variety of the combats. Armed, unarmed (with a possible instant win mechanic), enemy modifiers if they have a tail or happen to be extra cunning, etc. Each combat situation seemed really different and exciting with the possible exception of the above mentioned arena battles on Radix.
Ranking: In the Good tier for sure. It's a shame the effort and detail from the prologue and first two planets wasn't carried over into the second half of the book or this could have been much higher. The crazy number of frustrating instant deaths also push the score down a bit. I can't put this ahead of the immortal Warlock of Firetop but it's easily better than Seas of Blood.
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19. Demons of the Deep - Score = 6.0 Tier = OK
Attempts to beat: 3
Hall of Famers chronologically from books 11-2019. Demons of the Deep - Score = 6.0 Tier = OK
Attempts to beat: 3
To quote Darth Vader...."all too easy". With his first book being Scorpion Swamp, and his second book now this one, I'm under the impression that the US Steve Jackson was writing for a much younger audience than other authors in the range so far. I have the same problem with this book as I did with his first effort in that it is just WAY too easy. This is especially jarring after the very difficult and very adult oriented Rebel Planet. It's hard to believe the calculations regarding the binary code at the end of that book along with its themes of human nature and metaphysics was meant for the same audience as this one.
The initial setup here is actually pretty good. Being attacked and left for dead by pirates and setting up a revenge story is classic stuff. Even though it was incredibly fortuitous that they happen to dump you overboard exactly over a magical location. Still, I was looking forward to exacting my revenge on these scum and would revel in the look in their eyes as they got their comeuppance! Unfortunately, when you finally do get your revenge at the end, it kind of left me hollow. There was no final exchange with Captain Bloodaxe where he says something along the lines of "No! No! It can't be! We killed you! This is impossible!". Instead, (in the ending I got at least as there are several different ones) there was no dialogue with him at all and because everyone was wiped out by my skeleton army without me having to lift my blade he very likely was sent to his grave without even knowing it was I who was responsible!
The Cyrano-de-Bergefish encounter was very interesting and I loved this colorful character. However, with the exception of him and the Water Elemental, I found the encounters here to be a little on the boring side. You are basically moving from one type of fish to another with an odd Merman thrown in. Even the Kraken wasn't really done in an interesting way. I mean, this is one of the most feared creatures in fantasy and sure, it had some tough stats, but there didn't seem to be even the slightest feeling of dread as I encountered it. Allowing you the ability to acquire almost limitless black pearls also was probably a big mistake that can really rob the endgame of its tension and impact as it did for me.
Having said all this, there are some positives. The underwater setting is original I can say that and there is also a REALLY great idea here in the form of the sauna room. In this room you get to re-roll your initial stats. Now, on your first trip here this may be a bad thing but once you are aware of this room's location this provides an excellent opportunity for a lower level character to give himself a better chance in the adventure going forward. Unfortunately though, since the book is so easy this idea isn't needed in the slightest. In fact there are other areas in the book where you can increase your skill. It is kind of ironic that this great idea was implemented in probably the book that needed it the least! This would have been a great room to have near the end of say, Deathtrap Dungeon, where your low-skilled character could have a realistic second chance at being able to beat that books final sequence of combats. Or in a more moderately difficult book such as City of Thieves. Do you take your chances with your skill 9 or 10 character against the Moondog or do you risk trying to increase your skill? Granted, creative ways would have to be found to make this mechanic work story-wise and I'm not saying it should be used in every book, but there are definitely ones that could benefit from it.
The cover of this book is really fantastic also. It's an incredible piece of artwork. Although I have to say, I never actually encountered this creature in my playthroughs (a whopping 3 of them). Im assuming it's the Bone Demon? It is also somewhat ironic that this must be one of the easiest books in the series, and yet you can die a mere two sections into the book! (Albeit from making a somewhat silly decision on your part considering the circumstances.)
Ranking: Sigh. I really wanted to like this more. In my younger days I probably would have as it would have been nice to play one I could actually beat back then! It's certainly not bad just not what I'm really looking for in a gamebook. The ease puts it in the same neighborhood for me as Forest of Doom and while close I have to say I enjoyed that book just a bit better.
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20. Sword of the Samurai - Score = 9.7 Tier = Great!
Attempts to beat: 15
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20. Sword of the Samurai - Score = 9.7 Tier = Great!
Attempts to beat: 15
THIS....is why I play gamebooks! This book is phenomenal. I was thinking it was going to be hard for Thomson and Smith to improve upon their first entry in the series, the fantastic Talisman of Death (and thankfully this really wasnt their last in the series), but I was wrong. They have definitely upped their game here.
To start with, I absolutely love the setting in this adventure. The mystical-horror themed medieval Japan inspired Hachiman is dripping with atmosphere and possibilities. The prologue kicks off another ripping adventure as we venture deep into enemy territory to reclaim a legendary sword and stop the take-over-the-world baddie. Before you even begin, you are given a choice of 4 different skills and these are great fun to experiment with. I personally favored the archery skill as this made me feel like even more of a badass who could take you down with either sword or bow. It's kind of implied you will be able to pick up more arrows along the way but I hardly ever found this to be the case. Fortunately however, it seems you are provided just enough arrows to do what you need to. The Honor system is also described here and at first might not seem like it will be all that important. Perhaps akin to the Hero points in Appointment With FEAR. However, you find out later that having a high Honor score can help you greatly in defeating the villains at the end and you will start mapping out where you can add these very helpful points!
After a few playthroughs you start to realize that there are actually two alternate paths to take through the first two thirds of the adventure. This, combined with the choice of the 4 skills at the beginning, give this book fantastic replayability. It wont take you long to discover that the western route is the easier of the two but I think the addition of the harder eastern path is a great idea. Once you finally beat the book (probably by taking the western route as I did), it's sort of like the book is saying "Congratulations, you won. Now...how about a REAL challenge?" Basically a book version of video game hard mode. Combining this with the great encounters and atmosphere along both routes and you really do have a great incentive to beat the book again to see what great stuff you missed.
Another highlight of the adventure comes in the form of The Hub, the area whereby you assemble your allies before the final battle. Whats behind the doors in this section, both in terms of the setting and the creatures, is very well described and evocative. Each of the two routes through the early part of the book will allow you to obtain different allies from behind these doors providing you find the correct items. It is then up to you to figure out which allies you need to use to defeat the 3 creatures that are sent against you in the Battle of the Planes. This provides for a great bit of trial and error as you attempt to not only determine how to win each creature over to your side, but which of your allies matches up best with your enemies. Not only that, but failure to have a particular item and its corresponding ally, or failure to select the correct ally, does not end in instant failure as is usually the norm in the books. You get the opportunity to fight the enemies yourself, albeit they are pretty difficult. To me this is how the adventures should be designed. Not having an item should make the book harder for sure, but not impossible.
It's not just the creatures in The Hub that bear mentioning though as just about every encounter in this book is atmospheric and engaging. Some of the standouts include the Rokuru Kubi (their jaws chattering like castanets was a line that stood out to me), Ginsei the Ronin, just about everything from Lord Tsietsen's castle, the fantastic Undead Samurai from the cover, and of course the Tatsu. The Tatsu deserves special mention due the riddles it poses to you in exchange for safe passage. This is an incredible sequence, and once again you are not met with instant failure if you fail one of the riddles (just a very tough fight). For the sake of reference, I managed to get the first riddle on my very first attempt at it but the second riddle took me three tries (I tried "answer", then "mystery" before finally getting it).
The encounter with the antagonist of the book, Ikiru, is another stellar sequence. Finally we have a battle that can stand up to the classic Balthus Dire fight from the second book in the series. How hard he is to beat will depend on things you have or haven't done up to that point in the adventure and the description of Ikiru himself and his black marble lair is really top notch. He looks like he should be on the cover of a heavy metal album. In fact....I think he is!
I'm really struggling to find anything bad to say about this book. I suppose you could have been made out as more of a badass champion in the prologue. Maybe some kind of description of your prior deeds like maybe how you once stood alone to defend a helpless 90 year old villager, using your incredible skills with the bow to pick off an advancing horde of 20 odd bandits one by one just before they reached him. As it is, it's not really clear why you are the champion in the first place. And if you are such a mighty champion on a world saving quest...why are you not given a horse? I also feel that for one of the 4 skills, the fighting with two swords, the rules regarding its implementation weren't explained all that well. I read the rules for this several times but still wasn't sure I was interpreting it correctly. Again though, these are really just nitpicks and don't detract in any meaningful way from this incredible entry to the series.
Ranking: A no-brainer. I was beginning to wonder if anything would be able to top House of Hell for the #1 spot but this book does it in spades. We have a new champion! Thomson and Smith now have 2 of the top 3 in my rankings and I do believe it's safe to say that these guys really "get it" when it comes to writing great gamebooks.
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Ranking: A no-brainer. I was beginning to wonder if anything would be able to top House of Hell for the #1 spot but this book does it in spades. We have a new champion! Thomson and Smith now have 2 of the top 3 in my rankings and I do believe it's safe to say that these guys really "get it" when it comes to writing great gamebooks.
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11 Talisman of Death
14 Temple of Terror
20 Sword of the Samurai
Not bad! 3 out of 10 books in this group are Hall of Famers. This group overall wasn't as strong as the first 10 in the range (and that was going to be tough to do) but this is still a pretty good ratio. This group also contains what is so far the reigning champion in Sword of the Samurai. I will also be quite happy if 30% of the books from here on out are classics. I see some big names in the next 10 books and am looking forward to giving them a proper go!
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