Review

MINI REVIEW: The Rooms

The Rooms is something ‘other’ – a mysterious and uniquely interactive horror novelette in which you explore the strange events that occurred during the night in the apartment directly above your own: a terrific mechanical grinding, sobbing, and then a dull thud. The old man who lives in the apartment, known to you as ‘Babe’, […]

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REVIEW: The Wicked Wizard of Oz

Oz, the Great and Terrible – an enormous metallic skull with mecha-tentacles and eye-sockets containing emeralds – is a self-aware AI tasked with the protection of the people now that the Wizard has left Oz in his hot air balloon. Unfortunately, the AI has concluded that the best method to obey its programming is to

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MINI REVIEW: Secret of the Djinn

STORYLINE: Jamil, a young pearl diver from the coastal city of Jumlat, who dreams of acquiring great wealth and importance, discovers a glowing glass bottle during a deep dive in the waters of the Golden Gulf. Inside is a beautiful and powerful marid named Tala, a djinni of the seas and the queen of the

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REVIEW: Malice from the Middle Vale

Overflowing with grand ideas, gloriously vivid locations and compelling circumstances, Malice from the Middle Vale is both very familiar and excitingly different – an engrossing combination of old-school features now enhanced with new and noteworthy game mechanics that have been carefully woven into a thrilling, coming-of-age quest. Set in the author’s fantasy realm of Yarnia,

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REVIEW: Seas of Blood

Andrew Chapman’s piratical Fighting Fantasy adventure is something a little different: a contest of ‘speed and treasure’ set within a strategic puzzle format where luck is often as important as any calculated planning. The aim of this unique challenge is to locate enough gold and slaves (which can then be sold at a slave market

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REVIEW: The Port of Peril

As part of Scholastic’s relaunched Fighting Fantasy series, co-creator Ian Livingstone has written a new gamebook featuring many favourite locations and quite a few old friends and enemies appearing previously in some of the earlier adventures. The Port of Peril is a classic old-school gamebook that sees you on a journey from Chalice – a

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REVIEW: The Spy and the Labyrinth

Gods and monsters feature in myriads of ancient legends, beliefs and cultural superstitions. Powerful beings that challenge mankind’s place on earth, their appearance asks questions of our origin and purpose, and suggests that our early ancestors were once subjected to stupendous supernatural forces and creatures of unimaginable magnitude. In Lewis Manalo’s The Spy and the

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REVIEW: Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood

More than six centuries after his introduction through poems and ballads, Robin Hood – the late-medieval outlaw of Sherwood Forest – barely requires an introduction due to his ongoing renown and fascination to modern audiences. In Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood you play as the legendary Robin, but this version of the folkloric hero

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REVIEW: The Frankenstein Wars

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus tells the cautionary tale of Victor Frankenstein, a gifted man of science who develops a process built on the principle of life to imbue vitality into previously inanimate matter. His humanoid creation is a truly hideous ‘abhorred monster’ with intelligence and humanity, who pursues and punishes Dr.

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REVIEW: Heroes of Urowen

The enjoyment of a gamebook is derived from many interlinked parts, including: mechanics, story, choice, interaction, imagination and presentation. These factors then create an overall experience that is based on the quality and style of each component. Heroes of Urowen can claim success with its setting, structure and storyline, however, these positive features are unfortunately

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REVIEW: Rise of the Shadow King

As our own world increases in complexity and continuously demands more from us just to survive the unending grind of daily life, it’s often welcome to escape our modern difficulties by embarking on a relatively straightforward journey that recalls the simplicity of gamebooks of old, where your main tasks were to fight monsters and find

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REVIEW: Sete-Ka’s Dream Quest

The rich history and mythology of ancient Egypt, and the influential importance of their many deities in Egyptian society, present limitless fantastical material for gamebook adventuring. In Sete-Ka’s Dream Quest you follow the story of the young Sete-Ka, Prince of Upper and Lower Egypt. Called upon by the goddess Bast during a terrible fever, Sete-Ka

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REVIEW: The Legion of Shadow

The evident computer game influence within Michael J. Ward’s DestinyQuest: The Legion of Shadow stands boldly at the forefront of what it is that differentiates this series from many other gamebook formats. Within its pages we find individual quests (which can be undertaken in any order), no permanent death and a multitude of collectible items

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REVIEW: Saga of the North Wind

A text-based fantasy adventure using CYOA-style game mechanics, Saga of the North Wind is an enjoyably atmospheric drama, intelligently written in a style that brings to life the various situations, conflicts and characters encountered on your journey to reach the Valley of the North Wind. Your tribe (which you can name as you desire) roams

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