RANKINGS
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1. Murder at the Diogenes Club - Score = 6.2 Tier = OK
Sections: 574
Attempts to Beat Case 1: 2
Attempts to Beat Case 2: 2
The game is afoot! I have been waiting to say that for some time, as this series has been sitting on my bookshelf for quite awhile now, and I am finally ready to break out my deerstalker cap, clay pipe, and seven-per-cent solution of cocaine to give it a whirl and game some feet. Back when I was in grade 7 I went through my "Sherlock Holmes phase", devouring as many of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original works as I could get my hands on, and in the process found myself gifted a couple of very nicely bound and impressive looking books as Christmas presents, so I have a nostalgic fondness for the character and the setting. It also just now occurred to me that in grade school I went through phases of reading King Arthur, Sherlock Holmes, and Lord of the Rings (if even I didn't understand it as well as I would when I would read it again in my 20's), while now more often than not I can be found reading such things as 80's era Spider-man comics. Methinks I am doing this reading thing backwards! The Benjamin Button of literary taste I suppose. In any event, I have been looking forward to seeing how well gamebook author Gerald Lientz can handle the subject matter.
The game system for the adventure is pretty straightforward, and right away it is clear that this is a "skill check" book as opposed to those that use a combat system. We have 6 different skills (Athletics, Artifice, Observation, Intuition, Communication, and Scholarship) that can each be tested at any point during the adventure by rolling two dice and adding our "bonus" score in that particular skill, with the higher our result the better. The game comes with a pre-generated character named "James G Hurley" that you can use, with Mr Hurley being the well rounded individual who has a +1 bonus in each of the 6 attributes. You can however if you like, allocate the 6 points in any manner you wish should you want to create your own character, which should have led to a nice element of trial and error in setting the attribute scores. However, there is a bit of a problem with this. You are told that you cannot just leave a score for one of the attributes as zero, and should you not allocate any points to a particular attribute, then you must take a negative 2 for that score. Doing so would make it something of a death sentence for that attribute, and would seem to discourage experimentation with the scores, at least in your early attempts, and in my opinion this book likely won't take you all that many to complete in any case.
In addition to your attributes, you also have money to keep track of, and you are given various starting amounts of pence, shillings, guineas, and pounds, of which you will be carrying. And of course you have your item list, of which you begin with a notebook, pencil, and penknife. The most interesting part of the game system though is what comes next, as you are provided with a Clue Sheet and also a Decisions and Deductions sheet. The Clue Sheet provides 26 blank lines, labelled from A to Z, and at various points in the adventure you will be told you have uncovered a Clue along with its corresponding letter. You then check off that letter on the Clue Sheet, and then can also write down some information regarding the Clue itself in the space provided. The Decisions and Deductions sheet works almost the same way, providing 25 blank lines numbered 1-25, and at certain times in the adventure you will be told to check off one of the numbers depending upon various actions you have taken or evidence you have uncovered. These then come into play as you read along, with some options only becoming available to you should you have the required Clue, Decision, or Deduction checked off, and of course near the end of the adventure when you need to have uncovered the correct information in order to win. This is a good start then, as even though I am not a fan of the point allocation system here, the evidence gathering possibilities are a step in the right direction. At least, they should have been, but more on that later. And with all that, you are ready to head to Victorian-era London and begin solving some mysteries! And on that subject, despite the fact that my reviews generally contain spoilers, I will refrain from giving away the solutions to the cases here, as spoiler review or not, giving away the answer to a mystery which is the whole point of the gamebook just feels wrong.
Case 1 - "I Have to See a Man About a Horse"
If you don't read the back cover you might not realize it until you get to the second case, but the book is actually broken out into two separate cases, with this first one acting as an introductory case to get you started and to presumably...er, "introduce" you to the game system. It opens with your character paying a visit to your cousin, Dr. Watson, and his roommate, the well-known detective Sherlock Holmes, in their rooms at 221B Baker Street. After a quick initial conversation, you find yourself tagging along with Holmes and Watson as they head out to bet on some horses at a local racing track. This is where the mystery begins, and I gotta say, the author sure picked a boring episode to start out with. Heck, you could even argue the book is broken into three cases, as there is a very brief opening sequence here where you need to use your skills of deductive reasoning to try and figure out whether Dr. Watson is sitting at his desk writing a letter, or sitting at his desk writing a story (yes, really!). It turns out the actual case itself revolves around the outcome of one of the horse races, and if there may have been some shady business going on behind the scenes. Am I really supposed to care about who may or may not have wanted to fix a horse race among all these rich dudes? I mean c'mon, none of the horses were even hurt. Even Holmes himself doesn't seem all that bothered by it, as he has to leave because he and Watson are due to catch a train for a weekend vacation, so he turns the investigation over to you, with you being something of his protege as we are lead to believe.
The case then proceeds by having you interview various people around the track grounds, including jockeys, trainers, gamblers, and horse owners, as you attempt to solve it. Somewhat disconcertingly, how you uncover Clues and Deductions is often left to random chance, as failure of a skill check can see you denied an important Clue that you will need later. I immediately began to worry if the whole process was going to end up being entirely luck based, or if there would be an element of gameplayer deduction involved. Thankfully there was at least some of the latter, but unfortunately just a wee bit too much of the former.
The real problem became apparent when I made it to the end of the case, where I travelled back to Baker Street a couple of days later to meet up with the now returned Holmes, and was asked if I just wanted to jump right in and name who I thought was the guilty party, or if I wanted to lay my case out to Holmes first. The second option sounded far more interesting (and I will discuss the first option later), and I then went over with Holmes what I believed had taken place, using the Clues and Deductions I had uncovered to reveal that which I had learned. At that point the crucial moment comes, and I am given a list of 4 possible suspects, and must choose the one I think is responsible. Feeling pretty confident in my answer, I made my choice and was quite pleased when Holmes revealed I was correct in my naming of the culprit. Unfortunately though, that isn't enough, as not only do you need to pick the right suspect, you also need to have gathered the correct combination of Clues and/or Deductions so that you can PROVE the suspect's guilt. That makes sense in the real world of course, but it also meant that despite knowing exactly what happened and who was responsible, I still didn't win because I had failed a random roll earlier in the case, and thus failed to get the required information. At this point you are given the option of copping out and letting Holmes solve the case for you, or you can go back to the beginning and try again, which is what I decided to do.
But now comes the really strange part. Upon my second attempt at the case, already knowing who was responsible, when I reached the end I decided not to bother with laying my solution out to Holmes, and just went straight to naming the culprit. Getting it right once again, I was then wondering if I had this time gathered the necessary evidence, only to find out that upon choosing the "just get to the point and name the guilty party" option, no evidence is required, and I won the case! Huh? Why didn't I need proof this time? I'm not sure if this was an oversight on the author's part or if it was intentionally included to give the player a way to win without passing some of the earlier rolls, but it seems odd to include the whole Clue and Deduction system only to render it moot right at the end of the case. Anyway, I do admit to being glad I didn't have to run through that snooze-a-thon again, and with my first successful case in the books, it's on to the next one!
Case 2 - "I Just Drank WHAT??"
In terms of interesting cases, the book really picks up here, and I enjoyed this case quite a bit. It opens with you being summoned by Holmes to the private Diogenes Club, where a possible murder has just taken place. (And a good thing too, as by this point I was wondering just what the hell the title of the book was all about after all that horsing around). Once again Holmes needs to excuse himself, making up some fabrication about club members such as himself not being allowed to investigate other club members, so he recommends you to be the one to look into the event. It turns out that one of the club members, a former army man named Colonel Sylvester, has apparently been poisoned while drinking in the club lounge. What makes the case so interesting, is that Sylvester was incredibly disliked by just about everyone at the club, so there is no shortage of suspects, all with extremely valid motives for offing him.
The case then has you first inspect Sylvester's body, which still lies where he fell, (and apparently the Diogenes Club has so much influence they can even prevent the police from looking into the possible murder, which seems ridiculous) before you then are led to an office where you begin interviewing everyone who was present at the club that day one-by-one. I was having a lot of fun with this process at first, as each person you interview has their own tale to tell about their dealings with Sylvester. However, it does start to drag on just a bit too long with the number of people you will be interviewing. Additionally, while I found the interviews intriguing, they are all structured the same way. You get to ask the person what they saw at the club that day, and then ask them their personal opinion of Sylvester. Then repeat this for all the interviewees. The book also falls into the habit of giving you an option where you can choose to ask about something in particular as one of the options, but with the second option just being "otherwise". So for example "Do you wish to ask Mr. X how he felt about the victim, turn to 100. Otherwise, turn to 200". Just saying "otherwise" is kind of vague, as you might end up unintentionally doing something you weren't expecting, however I eventually determined that this seems to be the author's way of saying "just skip this sequence and move on". And once again, whether you obtain valuable Clues is often determined by a skill check, although I will say that I was able to make some of my own personal deductions based upon what I was reading, even though I may have failed some of the checks and was therefore not able to add the all important checkmark for that piece of information to my Clue sheet.
After you have made your way through the suspects, uncovering Clues and Deductions as you go, you are called to Holmes and Watson's residence where it is time to name the murderer. This time, there are 6 possible options, and the adventure I felt did a nice job indeed in making most of them at least viable to some degree, and I went to and fro between suspecting several of them as I played. That said, I was able to deduce the correct suspect on my first attempt again thanks to small things I had noticed earlier (which were surprisingly not attached to an official Clue), which was a good thing, because if you pick any of the other 5 suspects it's an automatic failure, no second chances here. That said, a failed roll near the end of the adventure screwed me over, as once again on my first attempt I had deduced the correct criminal and their motives, but lost the game because I was unable to pass a skill check required to catch the fleeing murderer. This is a much bigger problem with this case, because it is so much longer than the first one. In most gamebooks I would say that failure on the first attempt is a blessing in disguise, as it would allow me to go back and try some unexplored options. Here though, I had not only explored the case quite thoroughly already, but had in fact solved it, and it was a very long path through to the end, which I would then have to go through all again (or so I thought, more on this later as well) just to get another chance at the essential skill check. To be fair though, I now knew who I didn't need to talk to and could pick that "otherwise" option that crops up all over the place. Also unfortunately, because this is a mystery adventure, I now already knew everything about the case, so replayability is severely hampered here. Although this is likely to always going to be true in regards to mystery gamebooks, and as it is the nature of this particular beast, I won't necessarily hold this factor against the adventure.
So upon going back to the beginning to start the case again, preparing myself for a whole lot of page flipping in the process, something strange happened in this case too, much like it had in my second attempt at the first case. There is a moment right near the beginning when you first arrive and are examining Sylvester's body where you find a strange note located on him. Whether you can make heads or tails of the note is left to a random roll, and on my first attempt I rolled rather low and didn't succeed in making much of it. On this second attempt at the case though, I got a high roll and the best possible outcome, which led to.......a complete solving of the case right on the spot! My character immediately determined the purpose of the note, and knew who the murderer was right then and there, at which point you are jumped past a huge swath of the case, including all the interviewing along with the analysis of Sylvester's drink back at Holmes' residence, and are sent right to the final sequence which involves apprehending the guilty person. You still have to make a skill check or two at the end of the book to successfully nab them, which I thankfully did this time. (And incidentally, why should I fail the case if I don't physically catch them myself? I solved the mystery along with providing proof this time didn't I? Let the police do something here!) I could only wonder what anyone playing this case for the first time would think if they got this sent-right-to-the-end result right away. I myself would have wondered what the hell just happened and where did all the sections of the book disappear to, and it would have lead to a lower score than I am giving it. And of course, having whether or not you can make heads or tails of a puzzle come down to a random roll as opposed to letting the player try and figure it out for themselves is the crux of the matter for me here. The solution to the note in question is rather "out there", so I'm not sure if anyone solved this just by looking at it, but even if you had the ability to do so, it still wouldn't matter if the dice didn't go your way. I think this would have been far better served by giving the player an actual puzzle to work out, and then not hurtling them past 80% of the adventure should they happen to get it right.
And that was that, my first two cases solved! While I found the game design to be a bit wonky in places, what helps to save the book is the writing and immersive "Sherlockian" atmosphere. While perhaps not as great as Dave Morris' writing from the series I just finished (Blood Sword), this is still very, very good. It certainly felt like Gerald Lientz did his homework here, and while it has been quite a few years since my experiences with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original works, this adventure was written in a style that felt very reminiscent of those stories. Going in I knew that I wasn't going to be playing as Sherlock Holmes himself (and how could you really and still explain how he was bested by these criminals should you fail), but I was somewhat surprised in the roles that Holmes and Dr Watson themselves played in the adventure, as they were more involved and present than I was expecting them to be. Indeed, Watson spends the entirety of the second case right by your side. Even personal favourite Mycroft Holmes makes a brief appearance here too, along with frequent Sherlock ally Inspector Lestrade. It was also a nice change of pace to have a more investigative as opposed to action oriented gamebook, and I enjoyed the slower unfolding pace, which reminded me more what the Holmes world was like as opposed to the far more action oriented Robert Downey Jr movies of recent times (although I will say I greatly enjoyed those movies for what they were as well).
I only wish the uncovering of the Clues and Deductions had been handled a bit differently, although I don't purport to have a perfect solution to this problem myself. The "Marvel Super Heroes" series for one had a semblance of a solution here, in giving you some Karma points that could be spent to influence a dice roll once you figure out which ones must be passed (and even though in my opinion they often gave you too many of these points, at least their heart was in the right place). Here though, you have no such points to spend, and to my knowledge there are no stat boosts that can be obtained to at least increase your odds, although in the case of spending points, you oftentimes will not know which failed roll held the required Clue, unlike the failure of a skill check which immediately leads to death and game over in other books. The section numbering of the book also seemed a bit strange, as the sections run from 100-674. Well, actually the final section is labelled as 999, but it appears to be some kind of joke entry that I was never sent to where you are told to retrace your steps and try again. I thought that requiring each section to be a three digit number might play into the adventure somehow, but I don't recall coming across any place where it did. And finally, what was the point of the money you are given? Breaking out the denominations of your cash at the beginning seemed like a big deal, but as far as I can tell money was not used anywhere in the book. Ah well, maybe this is being saved for a future adventure.
Ranking: Overall I think I enjoyed this a bit more than the review might indicate, as I did have fun getting to be a part of the world of Holmes and Watson. The writing and setting here is great, and Lientz captures the spirit of the Holmes stories quite well in my opinion. The gameplay is something of a mixed bag however. Although it caps the potential of the book, I am certainly not completely averse to skill checks determining events, I am just not sure that works so well in a mystery-solving setting, as it takes away the feeling of cleverness a player might get for working things out themselves. Mercifully, there are at least some decisions to be made here that can lead to important revelations, so that you feel somewhat in control of what is going on and what you uncover, I just thought the randomness played a bit too much into it for my tastes. Not a bad start by any means though, and first books in a series are generally "footing-finders" anyway, so I will be watching out to see what tweaks will be made in the coming entries.
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2. The Black River Emerald - Score = 5.7 Tier = OK
Sections: 273
Attempts to Beat: 3
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3. Death at Appledore Towers - Score = 7.6 Tier = Good
Sections: 529
Attempts to Beat: 7
With this adventure the series returns to author Gerald Lientz, who wrote the first book in the range, and the improvement shown here over both the two previous entries was quite noticeable. We are back to playing as an adult again, with the pre-generated character this time being promising young investigator David Phillips, who also happens to be Dr Watson's cousin. Hang on a second, we also played as a similar character called James Hurley back in book 1, who also happened to be Watson's cousin. Just how many "private investigator cousins" does Watson have anyway? Why not just make this the Hurley character again? That would have brought in some nice continuity. Anyway, our character is recommended to Inspector Lestrade as someone who can assist in solving the murder of a well-to-do "agent" known as Charles Milverton. We learn very early that while Milverton may have described himself as an agent who helped various parties put together business deals, he was in fact a blackmailer who would gather any incriminating or embarrassing evidence he could get his hands on regarding his wealthy and sometimes famous associates, and then promise not to reveal such damning information should they be willing to pay him a hefty sum. Much like with Murder at the Diogenes Club then, there is no shortage of suspects who would dearly love to see Milverton dead. So we set off with Lestrade to Milverton's place of residence, the titular Appledore Towers, to begin our investigation into who killed him and why.
This is your classic murder mystery all the way, taking place in a large mansion, with Milverton being shot dead in his study late at night. Immediately after the killing there followed a short foot chase involving some of the servants of the mansion who heard the gunshots and who came close to apprehending the culprits, which they describe as two men, as they fled over the garden wall. You begin by examining the grounds of the estate for Clues, which can also include an examining of Milverton's body at the morgue, before proceeding to interview all the servants of the estate who were present that night. Searching the grounds outside the mansion along with the various rooms within it is a lot of fun, and while interviewing the servants isn't quite as much fun, I still enjoyed it. That was, at least until it started to go on and on for far too long. I had a similar issue with the interviewing stage back in Murder at the Diogenes Club, and it's even more drawn out here. Just how many servants did this one guy need anyway? You must interview a dozen or so people here, asking them the same questions, and while I understand the need to include red herrings in the mystery to make it more difficult to solve, I think Lientz could have trimmed this down considerably without losing anything in the adventure. In fact, and I think this might be the first time I have said this about a gamebook because normally for me more is better, but I actually wish this adventure had FEWER sections than it does.
After the interviewing process, it is then time to head outside the estate grounds to put what you may have learned to use, as you attempt to visit and speak with the various high-profile individuals that Milverton had been blackmailing, and try to narrow down who had both the courage and opportunity to go through with his murder. You can also perform such actions as putting ads in newspapers in hopes of finding a witness (which puts the money mechanic to use), along with visiting Holmes and Watson in their residence at Baker Street once or twice in an attempt to get their input on the case. While questioning the servants might have been the tedious part of the book, visiting with the suspects was a highlight. And while yes, it often comes down to a dice roll in determining what information you get out of them, there are times where you must make choices on how to deal with them, with a wrong move possibly offending them or arousing their suspicions so that they will shut down and not talk to you any further, perhaps locking you out of an important Clue. And on the subject of Clues, the Decisions and Deductions Sheet returns in this book, and plays a very large role in determining what you can and can't do as you make your way through the adventure based upon actions taken previously.
The real strength of the gamebook though, and the reason I enjoyed it as much as I did, was in solving the mystery itself. For the first time while playing the series I found myself arriving at the end of the adventure on my first playthrough, where it was time to name who I thought the guilty party was from a provided list of options, and I was totally stumped. ALL the provided suspects looked like they could have been just as guilty to me, and I then realized I had only yet barely uncovered what had really happened in the case. At this point, should you not name the correct suspect or have the required evidence, you are given the option of starting over, or can take advantage of a rudimentary checkpoint system, where the book allows you to start back at the beginning of the "interviewing the servants" stage as opposed to going back to the very beginning of the case. While this was appreciated, it unfortunately doesn't allow you to bypass the most tedious part of the adventure, and I think providing more possibilities as to where you would like to restart would have been a great inclusion. Although with that said, it is not really made clear if you retain any Clues you have found from prior playthroughs, either before or after the restart point. Before the restart only would make the most sense, but then you would have to remember, or have written down, at what point in the adventure you found some of your Clues.
With each of my next successive few playthroughs, I slowly uncovered more and more information, until I felt I had a good grasp on what had taken place and who the murderer was. Too bad for me that I still needed to pass the odd skill check to uncover the Clue I needed to be able to prove my assertions, which took a few more attempts just to achieve that. Because even once you have the mystery solved, you still need to be able to prove it with a couple possible different combinations of Clues and Decisions. The dice rolls required to get the needed Clues were not necessarily unfair, but boy, I can't recall the last time I felt like I was having such bad luck with my dice rolls than while playing this book. It got so bad that at one point I was convinced there was something wrong with my dice, and went and got some different ones to switch them out (ever done that?). What can I say, blaming the dice is every gamebook player's God given right!
Once I had finally gathered the Clues I needed and therefore had the required evidence, I successfully solved the case. It was at this point that the biggest twist of the book occurs, and I have to say, I didn't like it. Holmes himself seems to act out of character here (at least in how I always thought of him), and leaves you totally hung out to dry. This was really only the last section of the book where it was an issue for me, but still, the last section and how the adventure concludes is a pretty important one. A fan of this ending I was not. Back to the positive though, and this adventure is incredibly well written once again, with more of that Sherlock atmosphere oozing out of every page, including some dry and dark humour thrown about here and there (Lestrade commenting on how he hates investigating murders at large estates because of all the people he needs to interview, was both wince and chuckle inducing at the same time.) I was preparing to give author Gerald Lientz a ton of credit for coming up with this mystery and was going to put forth that he should have been a mystery novelist, when upon doing some digging I discovered that this gamebook is based on an actual short story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1904 and titled "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton". I don't recall reading this short story during my Sherlock Holmes phase in grade school. I know I didn't read all of them, and even if I had, I may have totally forgotten the particulars (it has been well over 30 years since that phase after all). This turned out to be a good thing, because after reading a plot synopsis of the short story, anyone familiar with it will likely have their experience with this gamebook much diminished, as the story here is pretty much the same, and the mystery will be spoiled.
Ranking: Overall I was impressed by this. The adventure is a very well told "classic" mystery, with several viable suspects and some twists and turns along the way to boot. The middle section where you interview all the servants drags on for far too long, and as usual you can have solved the case but still might find yourself not being able to "win" unless you can pass that roll to get the Clue you need in order to prove it, but there are far worse rolls required to beat a gamebook out there. I also didn't quite agree with how it ended after the culprit is named, but that makes up a small part of an otherwise enjoyable experience. However, how much you enjoy this gamebook might very well come down to how familiar you are with the short story it retells. As I was not so familiar, this for me is easily the best book in the series so far, trouncing the two that came before it. Now let's see if we can keep this momentum going!
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4. The Crown vs. Dr. Watson - Score = 6.0 Tier = OK
Sections: 488
Attempts to Beat: 2
Book 4 in the series is yet another outing from author Gerald Lientz, and I wonder if he was thinking the same thing that I was after playing book 3, about the possibility of injecting some continuity into the series, as this time we are playing the same pre-generated character as in that previous effort, that being Watson's cousin "David Phillips". An interesting aspect right off the top though is that this adventure takes place during the time when Sherlock Holmes is thought to be dead, having plunged over the Reichenbach Falls locked in combat with his mortal enemy, Professor Moriarty. (And speaking of Moriarty, it is a shame he has not turned up in these adventures). We as the readers likely know, unless you are unfamiliar with the lore, that Holmes is actually still alive, but the characters in this adventure do not, which has the effect of giving Watson a rather melancholy edge, and he seems somewhat "lost" without his long-time friend. (Not to mention his meal ticket, as despite being a doctor, Watson earned cash by writing about their adventures together). It impacts us as the gamebook player too, as we will not have Holmes to consult with on this particular case.
The adventure itself opens with us being contacted by Scotland Yard to assist them in a murder investigation. A member of the "Three Continents Club", Sir Terrance Milton, has been found murdered in the upstairs billiard room of the club, with all the circumstantial evidence in the case strongly pointing to Dr. Watson himself as the killer. Due to his many years of assistance to Holmes in helping the police catch various criminals, they are reluctant to arrest him for the murder. They then give you one day to investigate, hopefully to clear Watson's name and find the real killer, before they will have no choice but to charge Watson with the crime. As the reader, c'mon now, we know Watson is not guilty here (even though the book even lists Watson as one of the final suspects that you can choose from). Not only would it seem unlikely for the Conan Doyle estate to allow this series to use their characters and stories, only to then have their second most famous creation character-assassinated, it would also very likely have brought the series itself to a screeching and very strange halt. So, safely knowing before we even begin that Watson is not guilty, we then prepare to head off to the Three Continents Club, (so named because to become a member you must have visited three different continents, an interesting requirement which unfortunately does not play into the case at all), and begin our investigation.
After a brief opening where we get to ask some questions of the lead investigator in the case, we get to examine the billiard room where the murder took place. If the previous book in the series was along the lines of a classic "mansion murder mystery", then this book would be a take on the "locked-room murder mystery", as it initially appears impossible for anyone else but Watson to have committed the crime, as he was seen leaving the room mere minutes before the body was discovered by a servant in the otherwise empty room. To make matters worse for Watson, not only was it known that he lost a fair sum of money through various shady investments orchestrated by Sir Terrance, he had also been involved in a punch-up with the victim over a game of cards shortly before the killing, a fight witnessed by several in the club. Still, we already know Watson isn't the murderer, so just how did the actual killer manage to pull off the crime without being seen or heard, and then escape the room undetected? And what was their motive? This was a setup I found rather intriguing.
While searching the billiard room, it is possible to discover a coded message which can reveal rather a lot about what is going on. I was impressed that this time you are allowed to try and solve the message yourself, and then if you cannot, you can still decipher it should you be able to pass a skill check. This is a great compromise I think, as it gives the player a chance to put their own skills to use, but even should they not be able to solve it, you are still given at least a chance to learn what it says and gather important Clues. I was rather surprised though to find out on one of my playthroughs however that when I failed the required skill check, I was still able to find out what the code said anyway, albeit still possibly missing out on a lettered Clue, as the lead inspector just steps in and basically says "You couldn't crack it? No worries, I was able to figure it out. Here is what it says...". So apparently the author really wanted you to know what this message said! After finishing up our searching of the billiard room, attempting to pass skill checks that allow us to gather lettered Clues as usual, we are ready to move on to interviewing all the members of the club present on the night of the murder.
The interview process in these books has now become pretty standard by this point. The various people in the building at the time of the murder are brought into a room one at time where you ask them basically the same questions over and over, where you then get mostly the same version of events told to you from different points of view, with perhaps a slight wrinkle here and there to keep you guessing. (You will be hearing about a certain overturned end table so many times, that you will likely want to hurl the damn thing out the window by the time you are finished). The process here thankfully didn't last quite as long as in the previous book, but I am starting to find it amusing that even the author seems to think these sequences drag on for too long, as yet again we have another character in the book bemoaning how long this is all taking. (I'm with ya buddy!) Still, I was enjoying this for the most part as I attempted to piece together just how the murderer was able to get away without being seen, which to me was the best part of the case. That is, until I got to a certain suspect in particular, who seemed to make it obvious from that point onwards who the culprit was. So much so that when I got to the end of the investigation and it was time to make my choice among the suspects, I found myself doubting my selection, as it felt too easy. After then naming the correct suspect, the adventure then turns into more of an action-oriented one, as much like in book 1, not only are you expected to name the murderer and provide evidence as to their guilt , but you also need to apprehend them as well should you wish to be victorious. (And again, why is this part MY job?) There are a couple of skill checks to pass in order to do this, and you appear to get more than one crack at them, but even so, thanks to my stellar dice rolling luck I failed two of these in quick succession at my first attempt at the book, so that in spite of naming the correct suspect and gathering the necessary evidence on my first attempt, I still needed to start over and try again. Thank goodness I passed on my second attempt, or the trip through the book yet again would have been incredibly tedious, having already uncovered everything going on.
This final action sequence, though brief, felt somewhat out of place to me compared to the rest of the book, although this was likely the author trying to inject a bit of excitement into the proceedings, and is similar to the approach taken with the more recent Robert Downey Jr. "Sherlock Holmes" movies. The writing throughout the adventure is once again really good, if even though I felt the final answer to the mystery was on the disappointing side, with no real interesting twist or revelation to speak of. I will say though that for whatever reason, I found the method by which the killer was able to avoid detection quite creepy in its simplicity, especially when told from the point of view of a vendor who happened to be out in the street at the time of the murder. Although this might be an extension of a personal phobia of mine about being alone in a quiet and empty room, but then experiencing an overwhelming feeling that you are not in fact alone. Occasionally when down in the basement of the house I grew up in, I used to be convinced I was being watched by someone or something. So much so that I would find my mind screaming one word....RUN! At which point I would find myself bolting up the stairs for no obvious reason. This may just have been the runaway imagination of youth at play, even though I wasn't THAT young at the time, but I never felt this sensation anywhere else, and to this day I have never felt this again since moving out of that house oh so many years ago. Even thinking about it now gives me the willies. End of tangent and end of review!
Ranking: The definition of a 6 out of 10 for me. Enjoyable enough while playing, but it doesn't do anything to stand out, either for good or bad, and a couple of days after completing the book, it has already begun to fade from memory. The mystery itself was well written as usual from Lientz, although I felt it ended up being a bit too easy, even for this series. Although due to a lack of replayability for most of these adventures, this is probably a good thing when all is said and done. I thought the series was on the upswing after the previous book, so I hope it does not fall into a rut of using the same formula over and over that this entry might seem to indicate is happening. I have The Crown vs. Dr. Watson ranked only third out of the four books I have played so far, but with 3 books yet to play, there is still lots of time left for improvement. Onward I go!
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5. The Dynamiters - Score = 7.0 Tier = Good
Sections: 426
Attempts to Beat: 9
A new book in the series also brings with it a new author in the form of Milt Creighton, and as I don't believe I have played a gamebook by Mr. Creighton as of yet, I was interested to see how he would stack up with the other two authors of the series. And as it turns out, he actually does pretty well. In this adventure we play as Lt. S. Charles Watson, a British army officer who.......hang on a minute, Watson?? No don't tell me....not again! Yep that's right, we are once again playing as a different cousin of Dr. Watson, and this is starting to get nuts! I guess it's the way these authors justify giving a reason as to why Holmes and Watson would aid you, but still, could they not come up with something else here? Anyhow, despite what the cover of the book says, you are not playing a detective this time, but an army officer who has just had his best friend die in an apparent terrorist bombing of an underground railway station. Something doesn't quite add up though, as you knew your friend very well, and there was no reason for him to be at that railway station when the bombing occurred. Determined to look into the matter, you use the pretext of gathering up your friend's personal belongings, so that you can send them back to his family, to see if you can solve the mystery as to what he was doing there in the first place.
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6. The Honour of the Yorkshire Light Artillery - Score = 7.8 Tier = Good
Sections: 505
Attempts to Beat: 4
Book 6 swings back to series stalwart, author Gerald Lientz, and my word, he delivers his best effort yet! First off, while yes, we are once again playing a cousin of Dr. Watson, we are playing one previously used, as this adventure sees us returning to play as James G. Hurley, who was the character we played as way back in book 1. At least we are no longer adding to the family! As I began to read through the prologue, it quickly became apparent that this entry would be switching up the approach to these mysteries. While in previous adventures we were trying to gather evidence in order to solve a crime that had already happened, here we are in fact attempting to prevent one from happening. It would seem a retired army officer by the name of Colonel Dunlop holds an annual get-together for the former members of his unit, the Yorkshire Light Artillery, along with their families, which is held out on his palatial estate (Dunlop being rather rich of course). Every year, Dunlop has a magnificent gold and jewel encrusted eagle, which was a gift to his unit given for valour on the battlefield, put on display during this "party", which goes on for several days. The extremely valuable eagle is normally kept locked away in a safe, and Dunlop has it transported out just for this annual occasion. Problem is, there have been a couple of jewel thefts of late in the area where Dunlop's estate is located, and he fears the same fate might befall the eagle. Dunlop has thus come to London seeking Holmes' assistance in protecting the eagle, however as usual, Holmes finds himself looking into other matters already, so sends you in his stead to accompany Watson to Dunlop's estate and ensure the safety of the eagle.
With no mystery as of yet to solve, we then head off with Watson for an intriguing weekend in the countryside. Once we arrive at the estate, we are introduced to the other various guests of the Colonel, which include family members of his, former military officers, and even a few local businessmen who find themselves invited to the festivities as guests. There are also a couple of fair ladies present, who are romantically involved with a couple of the guests, and there are even some jealous suitors to boot. We also get to explore the beautiful grounds of the estate, compete in games of skill that have been set up as part of the weekend, and stuff our faces with the non-stop procession of tasty foods being offered (seriously, I felt for awhile like I was on a Caribbean cruise with how often you eat in this adventure!). Oh, and not to be forgotten of course, we also get to inspect the library where the eagle is currently being displayed, and try to determine how a thief might successfully pull off such a heist. The whole event itself was so immersive that unless it was being directly mentioned, I sometimes found myself forgetting why I was actually there.
We are not at the estate all that long when we learn that another event held every year is the recreation of a duel that took place 75 years ago between two members of the unit, when one of them wished to marry the sister of the other, who promptly refused to allow this. Both men survived the duel, but both would also go on to die during the Battle of Waterloo which took place soon after. To honour these men each year in a bit of theatre, two guests are chosen to recreate the duel using blanks in their duelling pistols (as depicted on the cover of the book). To add to the intrigue here though, the two guests chosen to participate in the duel this year happen to not only be descendants of the original duellists, but they also have an ongoing personal grudge between them. All of this really keeps the tension level very high throughout the adventure, as not only is there a palpable sense of fear that something deadly might happen at the duel, but there is also the suspense regarding the possible theft of the eagle as well, as you wait for the thief to make their move.
Mercifully, Lientz himself must have grown tired of those endless interrogation sequences found in some of the earlier books, as I found none here, with the closest coming when I found myself discussing some of the suspects with Watson as we sat up late at night talking over the day's events, and who among the guests might be a suspect as a possible jewel thief. Much better here, you glean your knowledge and evidence while mingling with the other guests and engaging them in seemingly innocent conversation. There is a lot to take notes on here too, and I would recommend keeping your own detailed notes, and not just rely upon the lettered Clues or numbered Deductions you are given as your sole source of information. I found myself needing to take notes on who was related to who, which guests had associations with other guests, which guests were skilled in what abilities (as you get to participate in various different games of skill over the weekend), and even which guests had the "hots" for some of the ladies, because we all know that jealousy can often play a role in a mystery. There are plenty of options to experiment with in who you wish to talk to and how you want to explore the grounds of the estate, and there are even different options to try in how you wish to protect the eagle from being stolen. (One of which can see your character tying some string to the eagle, then leading the string back to your room where a bell is attached to it, thus alerting you to anyone attempting to move the eagle. The whole visual of this I found quite amusing.) And of course, Holmes himself makes an appearance at the end to either congratulate you or admonish you, depending upon how you have fared in solving the mystery. I will say there do appear to be several different successful endings here, and I'm not sure which of them is supposed to be the "optimal' one, if there is such a thing, as to me they mostly seem to be as good as one another. Oh, and once again I found nowhere to spend any of the money I was provided with at the start of the adventure. Is there anywhere to buy something here?
Additionally, there are even items here that can be (gasp!) used to augment some of your dice rolls should you have the item in question. This is used rather sparingly I thought, but skill check books should often use some way to influence the dice rolls in my opinion. Not to make the books easier necessarily (as this series I have found to be on the easy side anyway), but rather to provide at least some level of strategy to the gameplay. The fact that Lientz chose to add this feature at all I see as a gamebook author evolving and trying new things, and I tip my hat to him for the effort. And finally, while I didn't feel this book felt as "Sherlock Holmes" as some of the others (I often forgot my companion was Dr. Watson here), that isn't an indictment on the writing itself, which is top shelf, and does a fantastic job in portraying a mostly enjoyable weekend getaway in an idyllic countryside setting. I see from his works that I only have one more book of Lientz's to read, that being one of the Narnia gamebooks, which is a shame as I have greatly enjoyed reading his prose. I shall look forward to that final one!
Ranking: Not only Lientz's best book, but the best entry in the series for me so far, period. I often mention how I like to see the authors innovate and try new things as I make my way through a series, and this certainly does that. The whole process of preventing a crime, rather than solving it after the fact, turns the series on its ear in a good way, and the inclusion of actual items that can be used to increase your odds of passing a dice roll here and there is something I didn't think I was going to see at this point in the series, but was very glad to find Lientz implementing it, however infrequent I found it to be. Even the adventure itself was outside the norm, as it involves a mostly pleasant weekend in the countryside, which helps to push the boundaries of where my gamebook adventures have taken me. I wish the adventure had been a bit more difficult, as you could find yourself winning this mostly just by making certain decisions, (and if this happens, the eagle never even gets stolen), and for me it lacked some of the great Sherlock atmosphere from some of the earlier books (perhaps because this adventure does not take place in London?), but otherwise this was a lot of fun and helped to show me that a gamebook in this type of setting could be successful. As for his final entry in the series, for the books published in English anyway, Lientz definitely goes out on a high note. Well done!
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7. The Royal Flush - Score = 6.3 Tier = OK
Sections: 406
Attempts to Beat: 10
So if I enjoyed the story as much as I appeared to, why did this entry not get a higher score from me? Well for that I now turn to some of the gameplay elements, several of which had me scratching my head as to what was the point of them. I probably should have known this was coming, when right in the opening you are told to record Clue A on your character sheet. Why bother? I was never asked if I had Clue A, and even if I had been, what would be the point, as it would be impossible not to have acquired it, so why even have me record it? After this opening, the Clues actually do become meaningful, at least in the first third or so of the adventure, because as mentioned earlier, you will need to find a certain combination of a couple different ones should you wish to pass the first consultation with Holmes without being forced to start over. Some of them are pretty well hidden too and satisfying to find, so props to the author for that. There comes a time in the adventure though where from a certain point onward you will not be required to pass any "Clue checks", but then that being the case, why am I still being awarded Clues? For example, you can pick up two different Clues right near the end of the game (just what are Clue Y and Clue Z for anyway?), but by this point you have already solved the "mystery", and are trying to apprehend the person behind it all, so just what are these Clues supposed to be solving?
That sums up much of my thoughts n this one. Good atmosphere but the dice rolls are frustrating and don't really make you feel like much of a detective. I remember quite enjoying the horse-racing mystery though!
ReplyDeleteDid you happen to find the print of the book very small? Might be the smallest I have encountered yet. I don't think my eyes will ever be the same!
DeleteIt's to get you to break out the magnifying glass for the true Sherlock Holmes experience.
DeleteThe small print may be a consequence of the combining two mysteries in one volume. While the text in these books never gets big, it is of a more readable size in the rest of the series, and even the longest of the other books has a significantly lower section count.
DeleteBook 2 is much better print wise, but I am still relieved to hear it doesn't return to the print size of Book 1. Although I guess I could have looked for myself, but I try not to look ahead as much as possible. I know he was probably joking, but I was contemplating Kieran's idea of a magnifying glass.
DeleteTalking of small print in gamebooks, a parody gamebook I'm part of the way through writing includes a bit where you get presented with a scroll detailing the terms and conditions governing use of a recently-purchased magical item. The font size of the writing on the scroll gradually reduces as you go down the page, becoming illegibly tiny less than half way through the document (though the footnotes are unaffected by this, leaving the reader aware of geographical restrictions affecting one clause while having no idea what that clause actually entails).
DeleteI sure can appreciate it a lot more if used for humourous effect! I hope I get the chance to play it once completed.
DeleteI haven't read any of these (sadly), but thought you might enjoy this as a long-time Conan Doyle fan. It's S.J. Perelman's verdict on Watson's paper-thin commitment to his calling, from a 1950 issue of the "New Yorker": 'Holmes had only to crook his finger and Watson went bowling away in a four-wheeler, leaving his patients to fend for themselves.... The mortality rate of London in the nineteen hundreds must have been appalling; the average physician seems to have spent much less time in diagnosis than in tiptoeing around Wapping Old Stairs with a dark lantern'.
ReplyDeletelol! I must confess to never having thought about it that way before. Maybe doctor's hours were like banker's hours back then?
DeleteI suppose it's probably for the best, given that when Watson does practise medicine, he ends up recommending things like 'strychnine in large doses as a sedative'. I guess that would work, after a fashion, but I'll probably just stick to milky tea myself.
DeleteThe eighth book in this series is also by Gerald Lientz. It is similar to the first one in that it begins with a relatively short sports case (this time it is a game of golf), and most of the book is taken up by the second mystery. While translated versions were made available, the English version never came out (most likely because of the financial woes the publisher was going through at the time). This is sad because Lientz tried to avoid several mistakes that had been prevalent in his previous entries.
ReplyDeleteIan Bailey of Forbidden Gateway fame also tried his hand at writing two Sherlock Holmes books. As far as I can tell, these also never came out in English but were released in French by a major publisher. I've only perused through one of them but I can say it has long text sections and the gameplay seems quite complex.
Sorry to know that I won't be able to play the eighth book, as English is my only language. I am always crestfallen when I think I have found a new gamebook to add, only to see that it was never printed in English. It's enough to make me consider trying to learn a new language! I wonder how they would fare if run through Google translate....
DeleteThere are several AI platforms which provide functional translations of pdf documents. I've seen these being used to translate mostly out of print gamebooks (though most often from English rather than into it). Leaving the legalities aside for a moment, it's not inconceivable someone may attempt a retro translation of these books into English.
DeleteThere are at least three different cousins of Watson you get to play in this series, if memory serves. Get used to it.
ReplyDeleteI was already familiar with The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton before playing Death at Appledore Towers, and knowing the truth even before I started playing did adversely affect my enjoyment of the book.
ReplyDeleteTo give credit where it's due, the reason why Holmes leaves the investigating to you rather than getting involved himself is more interesting than in most of the rest of the series, but overall I was not impressed.
I'm glad you commented as I was very interested to know how much that would impact enjoyment of the adventure. Now I wonder if any of the remaining adventures are based on actual Conan Doyle stories as well.
DeleteLikewise, you will already know key plot points about A Spy in Isengard (Middle-Earth Quest series) if you have previously read The Fellowship of the Ring. This is a downside of reading gamebooks based on well-known literary properties.
ReplyDeleteHopefully it won't affect my enjoyment of Jon Green's recent gamebooks!
DeleteI hope the basement monster isn't reading this blog, he might track you down!
ReplyDeleteI would characterize it more as "demonic presence". Probably just my imagination. Either that or the house was built over an ancient Native burial ground!
DeleteSounds like something from a Stephen King novel !
DeleteYes. The real estate developer said they had moved the bodies.....but in reality they only moved the headstones!
DeleteTidbits:
ReplyDelete1. In the fourth book it is possible to fail to get enough clues to prove Watson's innocence, in which case Lestrade informs you that he has no choice but to arrest him the next day. The book then gives you the choice of starting anew or proceeding to read Holmes' solution.
2. In the fifth book it is possible to uncover the fact that two of the masked conspirators are characters you have met earlier in the story. This only happens if you follow a certain path, and therefore it is quite possible to beat the book without having this information revealed to you. I suspect this is what happened during your read-throughs.
3. In the first book there is one ending where your character is killed by the culprit. You uncover many hidden things in gamebooks if you do not stop once you have found a specific ending.
ReplyDeleteOh no doubt. After "beating" a book, I might sometimes flick around a bit to see what I might have missed, but it was never my intention to make sure I explored every path or read every section. I am merely reporting my experiences in trying to win, after which I really have no desire to play anymore (at least not right away, there are some series like Blood Sword where I hope to come back to in the future) as the thrill of victory would now be gone. This might be why I think I would prefer a harder book as opposed to an easier one, as generally speaking you get to see more of the book the more attempts it takes, because you need to look high and low for any edge you can get. I do enjoy hearing about cool stuff I may not have seen on my playthroughs though.
DeleteAs for the sixth book, whether a crime manages to get committed depends on the player's actions. If you don't stop the crime before it happens you are tasked with solving it. In addition, a certain subplot only happens if you miss certain rolls. You may get to see all possibilities or you may not. My own view is that some gamebools are only fully appreciated when you try to exhaust all the possible paths. Not taking issue with your approach, by the way.
DeleteGamebools ? Think you meant gamebooks ! Agreed though with Guillermo about unexplored pathways that yield further riches. The SORCERY series is a perfect example of this - even if you deviate from the one true way or correct path, there is always something new to discover or experience.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that as well. I would say I end up exploring the vast majority of most gamebooks I have played, but of course there are going to be things here and there that I might miss. If I tried to make it a point to visit every section in a book though, that would start to feel more like a homework assignment to me.
DeleteMy bad. It's a combination of me being clumsy when typing on a phone and a lack of an edit function on this blog. That being said, next time I might type "gameballs" on purpose just to get a kick out of it.
ReplyDeleteBack to the topic at hand, the beauty of the gamebook form is precisely that everyone can choose how to enjoy them. One person may just read one of the paths and never go down the others, while another one will want to explore every single nook and cranny. Many people will fall in between, and that is totally fine. I'm not meaning to tell anyone how they should read or enjoy a gamebook. Basically whatever works for each person is the right way.
Very well said. The perceived quality of the books themselves can often vary wildly from person to person as well. I know I have played some I thought were terrible but other people seem to like them and vice versa.
DeleteAnd yes, I have been annoyed myself at there apparently being no way to edit a comment on here!
To quote from Tolkien, " there are other roads. other paths we might take " and the road goes ever on.
ReplyDeleteThe optimum time to explore ' every nook and cranny ' is after successful completion of the gamebook. Then its time to ' fill in the corners ' ( another Tolkien quote ) To take the roads less travelled by even if some of those roads turn into dead ends. The fun lies in the exploration.
Naturally, the more well designed and written the gamebook is, the more satisfaction one will get from these re-reads.
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ReplyDeleteNice to see someone enjoyed book 6.
ReplyDeleteBased on your reviews I believe you would really enjoy book 8, which is also by Gerald Lientz. Several books by this author (including the eighth) include subplots which are triggered by the player's actions. This is a feature you don't discuss much but which I feel makes the books more interesting.
ReplyDeleteWould love to try it! You are now seriously having me look into some translation options.
DeleteMy only real memory of The Royal Flush is that (thanks, IIRC, to persistent bad luck with the dice), it took me what seemed an excessive number of attempts at the book before I was able to get past that blasted Clue check.
ReplyDeleteI lost the game 4 or 5 times there myself. Which may have actually ended up being a good success rate by the sound of your experience with it. Just more reason for there to be some kind of mechanic to help influence a dice roll or two. Were you buying this series when the books first came out Ed? I wonder if they were tough to find.
DeleteI didn’t get any of the books in an ordinary bookshop – indeed, I’m not sure I even saw any of them on sale in such places. As I recall, during a trip to London I found copies of the first five in a place that sold remaindered books at a hefty discount. The other two turned up years later in an out-of-the-way second-hand bookshop in east Hull.
DeleteThis would also have been the case with many other gamebook series including FF. For example, i never saw any of the boxsets on sale back in the 80's ( or indeed was even aware of them ) So we can assume that most gamebooks now in the hands of collectors came from a second-hand source.
DeleteI like the fact that someone else took the time to review this entire series. I wonder what you'll be reviewing next? Almost all the remaining series are also not discussed much, so I'm intrigued.
ReplyDelete