Bulgarian independent game studio Prime Games (creator of Trap for Winners, Dust and Salt etc.) has announced that they are developing an official, fully fledged computer role-playing game based on the open-world Fabled Lands gamebook series created by Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson.
An epic series of interactive fiction with the scope of a massive game world. Be anyone you want: explorer, merchant, priest, scholar, thief, wizard or soldier of fortune. Buy ships, goods and townhouses, join a temple, risk desperate adventures in the wilderness, or embroil yourself in court intrigues and the sudden violence of city backstreets. Undertake missions that will earn you allies and enemies, or remain a free agent and choose your own objectives. With thousands of quests and locations to explore, the choices are all yours.
Expected for release in early 2021, Fabled Lands will almost certainly see players exploring both Sokara and Golnir, plus will include many notable gameplay features:
- Interactive world map that will become the heart and soul of the game with locations from the books.
- Branching text visualised in a modern, user-friendly fashion.
- Turn-based tactical combat system adapted for PC gamers, retaining and expanding upon the balance achieved within the books.
- Reworked classes and character progression skill trees.
- Resource management systems (inventory, blessings, hideouts, resurrection deals, skills, abilities, cargo, etc.)
- Save/load for normal mode and, of course, the lack of such for Iron Man mode.
- Visual effects and animations.
Further information about the game will be released soon, including an official trailer and the launch of the Fabled Lands Steam page. Future announcements regarding content and other features will appear here on GBN, and at the Prime Games Blog, where you can also check out their current library of interactive games for desktop and mobile devices.
Nice to see FL get another life in a new format.
On an a somewhat related note – I’m surprised that Steam Highwayman 2 was not reviewed on this site.
SH2 is waiting on my bookshelf. It’s one of the many unread gamebooks I own and am eager to play, however, ill-health, other priorities, and the time required to create regular content for this site have slowed my reading/reviewing. I’ll get to it one day!
To be honest: I find the presented artworks abhorrent (typical generic standard stuff targeting the mass-marketed audience of today – totally lacking the very special esprit of the original with its fantastic, evocative art).
And on a general perspective I ask myself: What’s even the special value of a game adapting a gamebook? For me it’s an integral part of the pleasure of gamebooks to do all the “bookkeeping” myself, to write down my notes in a “diary” I create only for this gamebook, to throw the dice anxiously and hear their fateful rattling on the table. And for people too lazy to do the physical “work” themselves: There is still the very well and faithfully done (and free!) “Java Fabled Lands”.
I personally like the art style, and believe it will have broad appeal (a must if you want decent sales in the current market).
I do agree with you regarding the ‘bookkeeping’, dice rolling and other note taking – I’m more than happy to do all of that ‘old-skool’, however, I think we may part of a shrinking minority who gain pleasure from such ‘work’.